Oops, I Did It Again: Britney Spears and the Thompson connection

Ron Counte

In 1999 Playboy magazine approached well-known recording artists and asked them to name the 10 greatest songs of the Millennium. One of the musicians approached was former Fairport Convention frontman Richard Thompson. Playboy clearly intended it to be a popularity poll of recent hits, but Richard being Richard decided to take them literally. He produced a list of his favourite songs from the preceding 1,000 years, starting from around 1068. Unsurprisingly they chose not to print his list, but it gave him an idea for a show and an accompanying DVD entitled 1,000 Years of Popular Music.

Thompson assembled a trio comprising himself on guitar and vocals, Judith Owen on keyboards and vocals and the remarkable Debra Dobkin on all manner of percussion instruments, and headed out on tour.

The set list was an eclectic mix of 13th-century sacred themes, 15th-century ballads, 16th-century madrigals, 17th-century carols, 19th-century folk songs, 20th-century jazz standards, and late 20th-century pop songs.

He performed most of the songs with panache and due reverence but one number, the Britney Spears hit Oops, I Did It Again, was treated rather less well. He had some faint praise for the song, but was rather dismissive of Britney herself. On the 2006 DVD he introduces the track as follows, tongue as ever in cheek:

‘This song is by what might be considered a rather crass pop artist. Just my type of person. It’s a classic pop song and if we take it out of its original hands and give it a different interpretation it might reveal its splendour. If it has any.’

With an intro like that one wonders why he included it in the first place. As we shall see later, having a man singing the song misses the point. Britney’s original version contains a comic interlude which Thompson cleverly replaces with a 16th-century instrumental passage (‘to show how things come round again’), and it works well. But the performance is essentially a mickey-take, albeit one enthusiastically received by the audience.

Britney Spears found stardom at a very early age and was in the public eye before she was 10 years old. Like many child stars she went on to have a troubled personal life including failed marriages, mental health issues and substance abuse, all of which has been well documented. At one point her father was granted legal conservatorship over her financial affairs, supposedly for her own protection, and it was not until 2021 that it was lifted following the Free Britney movement.

She was a soft, vulnerable target but there is no doubting her success as an artist. To date she has sold more than 150 million albums. She was the youngest female artist to have five albums debut at No1 in the charts. She was only the second artist in history to have two consecutive singles debut at No1. She has been nominated for 776 industry awards, winning 411 of them. Like everyone else in the industry she has to some extent been eclipsed by the Taylor Swift juggernaut recently, but is still one of the best-selling artists. You would have thought this might garner more respect, even from crusty old Seventies folk rockers.

Released in March 2000, the song was written by Max Martin and Rami Yacoub and completely flips gender stereotypical attitudes to sexual relationships on their head. Here the woman chooses to enjoy casual sex on her own terms, without any messy emotional strings. It’s the soppy, love-addled male who wants to read more into it.

The song is beautifully produced and starts with an array of staccato musical and vocal stabs. Pretty soon we are into the verse and Britney explains her position:

I think I did it again


I made you believe we’re more than just friends

Oh baby


It might seem like a crush


But it doesn’t mean that I’m serious

She takes some responsibility for the situation:

’Cause to lose all my senses

That is just so typically me

Oh baby, baby

Oops, I did it again

I played with your heart, got lost in the game

But she is annoyed that her naive lover wants to place her on some sort of angelic pedestal. She tries to put him straight on the matter:

Oops, you think I’m in love

That I’m sent from above

I’m not that innocent

There is some debate as to whether she is leading her lover on, cruelly toying with his emotions. I don’t buy that. She tries to explain herself:

You see my problem is this

I’m dreaming away

Wishing that heroes, they truly exist

I cry, watching the days

Can’t you see I’m a fool in so many ways

Thus reinforcing the notion that the situation is unintentional, that the protagonist is herself ‘lost in the game’ rather than being deliberately manipulative.

The accompanying video is set on the surface of Mars for some reason. The comedy interlude references a scene from the movie Titanic. The love-sick puppy presents Britney with an item of priceless jewellery that he has secured for her, risking his life by diving to the bottom of the ocean to retrieve it. She dismisses this unsolicited effort with the words ‘Aw, you shouldn’t have’ and immediately turns and walks away, making her thoughts on the matter clear, and leaving him staring disconsolately at the ground.

For most of the song she is wearing a skin-tight red body suit, but for the Titanic segment she is dressed conservatively in white, no doubt reflecting her unfortunate companion’s dreams of purity. The message is that it’s not uncommon for men to find beautiful women captivating, but that does not mean their feelings will be reciprocated or welcome.

Oops, I Did it Again is a classic pop song, excellently performed by the 19-year-old Britney. It was a refreshingly modern take on sexual dynamics, male fantasy and female empowerment. It was also great fun.

I am a fan of Richard Thompson. I was lucky enough to meet him on the 1,000 Years tour and can wholeheartedly recommend the DVD to you. But I do think he was a tad harsh on Britney. He may have got lost in the game.

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