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Originally written September 16, 2005. Oops I Did It Again was the battle song for the second major campaign of Britney’s career and as such it was a massive success. It has become a huge part of her public persona, with phrases like the famous title and “I’m not that innocent” regularly being attached to almost everything she does, and it has remained in her repertoire ever since. I’ve described before how many of the elements in Britney’s career seem to work in synergy and here is a classic case. Where “Baby One More Time” contributed to the magical and intriguing Britney persona mainly through the video, “Oops” did it mainly through the words.
That’s not to say the Oops video was bad, but it didn’t contribute anything to Britney’s Lolita storyline. Director Nigel Dick wrote and copyrighted the entire treatment and it ran to several pages of detail. And in practice, so much happens in the video, and there are so many minute transient details, that the viewer can scarcely take it all in – even after repeated viewings.
It could be argued that a lot of the minutiae are wasted, but there are some images that really stick in the mind. The red planet. The spaceman. Britney on the white 8-pointed platform with dancers at each point. Britney cartwheeling through the air to meet the spaceman, and his telescopic neck (a bit like Missy Elliott’s in “Get Ur Freak On”). I’m not a big fan of Britney’s red catsuit. It makes her look juvenile and doll-like and curiously asexual. But maybe that was intentional? I only ask because her hair and make up also seem contrived to make her look particularly young.
Maybe there was a deliberate attempt by Britney Incorporated to reaffirm their girl’s appeal to the young teen age group. Or maybe it’s just something to do with the timeline? You could certainly argue that “Oops” is simply BOMT Part 2, and very much a product of unreconstructed BOMT-era Britney.
“Oops” was written by Max Martin and Rami, and recorded at Cheiron Studios, Stockholm. Max and Rami did the programming and played keyboards as usual, but the fact that there were additional live musicians and very little electronic by-play suggests a track with an older history than, say, “Stronger”. Esbjorn Ohrwall and Johan Carlsberg contribute some subdued guitar plucks and strums and not much more, but bass player Thomas Lindberg provides a proper bass track which becomes quite animated at 1.28. The percussion track is fairly limited, using only synth snare and bass drum, and where you might anticipate a decent cymbal crash you get a kind of muted synth-cymbal splash instead.
Backing vocals are provided by Britney, Max, Nana Hedin and a 5-girl “fanchoir” who do some very good work throughout (while never really coming into any particular spatial focus), and supply an interesting delayed-action counterpoint towards the end. Everything takes place on a relatively narrow stereo soundstage, with only the “Titanic sequence” special effects using the spatial extremes. Britney’s vocal sounds very much like BOMT Part 2 – all her classic croaking mannerisms (described by a BBC reviewer as “her unique vocal signature”) are to the fore, but this time she does them even better.
Britney has used “Oops” in novel ways in her tour performances. In DWAD it was the opening sequence, and received a lot of additional energy from guitarist Skip Dorsey’s solo work while Britney worked her spell on the crowd. Descending from a high-tech metal frame and striding the stage in a long black cape she looked about seven feet tall and completely dominated the show from that moment till the end.
Her performance on the OHT could not have been more different. This was a kind of supper-club version, where the power of the song was dissipated, most of the interest lay in the chair-stepping sequence, and the audience was left to draw its own conclusions about possible links between Britney’s tarty attire and the words she was singing.
Some critics argued that the jazz-lite renderings of BOMT and Oops were an insult to Britney’s audience, taking two of her best songs and trashing them. However, I think it may be best to see them as another sign of Britney in transition, recognising and acknowledging her past, saying a slow and quite gracious goodbye to it, but determined to move on.
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