Composition
"...Baby One More Time" is a teen pop and dance-pop song that lasts for three minutes and thirty seconds. The song is composed in the key of C harmonic minor and is set in the time signature of 4/4 common time with a moderate tempo of 96 beats per minute. Spears's vocal range spans over two octaves from Eb to G. The song begins with a three-note motif in the bass range of the piano, opening that has been compared to many other songs, such as "We Will Rock You" (1977), "Start Me Up" (1981) and the theme song of the film Jaws due to the fact the track "makes its presence known in exactly one second". According to magazine Blender, "...Baby One More Time" is composed by "wah-wah guitar lines and EKG-machine bass-slaps".
Claudia Mitchell and Jacqueline Reid-Walsh, authors of Girl Culture: Studying girl culture : a readers' guide (2008), noted the lyrics of the song "gesture toward longing for the return of an ex-boyfriend." Spears said "...Baby One More Time" is a song "every girl can relate to. She regrets it. She wants him back." The lyrics, however, caused controversy in the United States, because the line "Hit me baby one more time" supposedly has sadomasochistic connotations. As a response, the singer said the line "doesn't mean physically hit me. It means just give me a sign, basically. I think it's kind of funny that people would actually think that's what it meant." Contemporary author Ben Shapiro deemed the song's lyrics as suggestive, mostly "Oh baby, baby / The reason I breathe is you / Boy, you got me blinded / Oh pretty baby / There's nothing that I wouldn't do" and "When I'm not with you I lose my mind / Give me a sign / Hit me baby one more time".
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