(Martin, Gottwald, Jomphe, McKee)
Album: Hold It Against Me – Single / Femme Fatale
Spears went big with the lead single to her seventh studio album Femme Fatale. The relentless industrial dance beat hit bigger than most tracks on pop radio at the time. The throbbing bass line is so aggressive, it’s a little funny that the chorus of the song is a corny pick-up line. It was a tone-setter for the Femme Fatale era which was chock full of electro-dance ear candy. The vocals on the verses sound a bit stunted and monotonous, but the swelling chorus more than makes up for it. But this song is all about the production. Having given the US mainstream music consumers a taste of dubstep on Blackout’s “Freakshow,” Britney doubled down on “Hold It Against Me” with a dubstep breakdown, contributing to one of her best middle eights of any of her singles. The song was Spears’s second straight to rocket to a number 1 debut on the Billboard Hot 100, though ultimately the song would not have the staying power of its excellent follow-up single. Still, the world was hungry for Britney and ready to pounce on any new material she is willing to offer. The video is one of the more interesting moments in her videography, rife with both product placement and symbolism. A meteorite strike, a Britney vs. Britney fight, an explosion of paint colors over TVs showing her old music videos, and a glimpse Joker-esque smile disturbingly painted across Spears’s face… it’s a lot to unpack, perhaps even acknowledged within the video itself which ends with a question mark in the middle of the screen. The excellently produced dance track yielded Spears her fourth number 1 single, though as future generations continue to discover and celebrate her work, some of her other classics are likely to prove more enduring.
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