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Stripped (Christina Aguilera album)

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Stripped is the fourth studio album by American pop recording artist Christina Aguilera. It was released on October 26, 2002. It reached the top two of the album charts in both the United States and United Kingdom and features two UK number-one hits: "Dirrty" which gained criticism and controversy for its explicit content and accompanying music video, and "Beautiful", which went onto become one of Aguilera's most successful and memorable tracks peaking at number 2 in the US. The music video for "Beautiful" directed by Jonas Åkerlund garnered much attention, as it touched on the subjects of anorexia nervosa, homosexuality, bullying, self-esteem and transgender issues.[1] Simon Cowell noted that it is "one of the best pop songs ever written."[2]

Aguilera supported the album with the Justified/Stripped Tour alongside singer Justin Timberlake and Stripped World Tour in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. With this album, Aguilera took creative control over a project for the first time, being influenced by many different subjects and music styles, including rhythm and blues, gospel, soul, pop rock, Latin and hip hop. She co-wrote fourteen of the songs and was involved in the production of the record, alongside Scott Storch and Linda Perry.[3] During the promotion of the album, Aguilera's public appearance was criticized heavily in the US, due to her sexual videos and revealing outfits. Despite containing several expletives and sexual content, the album was not released with a Parental Advisory warning.

The album debuted at number two on the US Billboard 200 chart, selling 330,000 copies in its first week, and eventually earned a 4x Platinum certification from the RIAA, with sales over 4 millions copies. It became an international commercial success and produced five singles that attained moderate chart success, including "Beautiful", which became the most listened song of 2002/2003 in America and most listened song of 2000s. Despite some criticism towards Aguilera' songwriting, Stripped received mixed reviews from most music critics and earned Aguilera several accolades, including one Grammy Awards. It has sold over 12 million copies worldwide.[4] It is number 77 in the best-selling albums chart of the 2000s in the United States. Stripped is the 73rd best selling album of all time in the UK.

Writing and development

When you are bold and open, artistically speaking, in music and in video, a whole bunch of people automatically feel threatened by you, especially in Middle America…OK, I may have been the naked-ass girl in the video, but if you look at it carefully, I'm also at the forefront. I'm not just some lame chick in a rap video; I'm in the power position, in complete command of everything and everybody around me. To be totally balls-out like that is, for me, the measure of a true artist.

Aguilera talks about her change in style and artistry.[5]

It was confirmed that Aguilera would be working with writing and production stars; Alicia Keys, Scott Storch, Glen Ballard and Linda Perry.[6] Singer Alicia Keys worked on the track ‘’Impossible’’ with Aguilera, the two spent three days recording in New York City in the ‘’Electric Lady’’ studios.[7] Linda Perry worked alongside Aguilera on the album and she wrote the ballad ‘’Beautiful’’ for which she said “I never in a million years expected her to gravitate towards that, And when she did, it was hard for me to let go of that song, because it's really special for me. So the deal was, 'I need to hear how you sing it.' And when I heard her, I said, 'okay.'" ‘’Stripped’’ is composed of 20 tracks which were produced by other producers such as Dr. Dre and Scott Storch and throughout has a mix of themes and genres.[8]

Aguilera discussed the concept behind the album several times saying “The whole vision for the record was to be really raw and real” she added “Just really baring who I really am”. During the production of the album Aguilera was travelling through different parts of the world. Aguilera stated that the songwriter Linda Perry had an influence on her work saying “I really, really loved the Linda Perry songs”.[8] Aguilera told MTV that Perry helped her unload a lot of frustration and she also learned to relieve stress by screaming and to accept mistakes. She added; "She taught me that imperfections are good and should be kept because it comes from the heart. It makes things more believable and it's brave to share them with the world."[9] Aguilera said on the name of the album:[6]

"Coming off of the height of being a part of such a big pop-craze phenomenon, that imagery of that cookie-cutter sweetheart, without it being me, I just had to take it all down and get it away from me. And that is why I actually named the album Stripped, because it is about being emotionally stripped down and pretty bare to open my soul and heart."

Composition

Aguilera performing "Beautiful" on the Back to Basics Tour.

The first track on the album is the ‘’Stripped Part 1’’ composition which features the introductory line “Sorry you can't define me/ Sorry I break the mold/ Sorry that I speak my mind/ Sorry don't do what I'm told” in reference to her new musical change. The album features several explicit themes which criticism of her ‘’Dirtty’’ composition and video release. The album features musical themes of ‘’Surf Rock’’ and ‘’Neo Soul’’ and many other musical styles. The songs ‘’Dirrty’ and ‘’Get Mine, Get Yours’’ lyrically talk about sexual exploration whereas the track ‘’Cant Hold Us Down’’ featuring rapper Lil’ Kim is a hip hop record and lyrically it speaks of feminism, female standards and sexual hypocrisy. Aguilera discussed her ex-boyfriend ‘’Jorge Santos’’ in the tracks ‘’Infatuation’’ and ‘’Underappreciated’’ and the song ‘’Infatuation’’ lyrically speaks of falling in love opposed to ‘’Underappreciated’’ which talks of falling out of love.[6] Aguilera said:

"I feel like it is a new beginning [...] a re-introduction of myself as a new artist in a way, because for the first time people are really seeing and getting to know how I really am.[6] "

The album features the track ‘’I’m OK’’ which lyrically talks about her troubling past with her fathers domestic abuse. Aguilera talked on the subject saying “"I definitely wrote that song not to badmouth him at all, but one, for a healing process for myself, and two, to give people hope or a voice to relate to. To know that you can get through it and that it will be OK". The song, "I'm OK", is a personal account of her emotionally distressing childhood. She speaks about her father and her painful memories from her early life. She explained that she recorded this song for a healing process and to give people in the same situation a voice to relate to.[10] Aguilera stated that she is set on breaking away from ‘’Teen Pop’’ and she wanted to explore new musical territory and as ‘’MTV’’ state “a highly personal proclamation of independence and adulthood” [6] The track ‘’Impossible’’ which Aguilera worked with ‘’Alicia Keys’’ says lyrically “How can I, how can I give you all my love, baby/ If you're always, always putting up your guaaarrrd/ This is not a circus, don'tcha play me for a clown”. The ballad ‘’Beautiful’’ penned by Linda Perry has been noted for it’s John Lennon inspired themes which features a string arrangement and a piano part and themes of R&B.[7]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic[11]
Entertainment Weekly(C+)[12]
The Guardian[13]
NME(6/10)[14]
Rolling Stone[15]
Slant Magazine[16]
Stylus Magazine(F)[17]
Spin(6/10)[18]
The Village Voice(unfavorable)[19]
Aguilera performing "Infatuation" during her Stripped World Tour.

Stripped received mixed reviews from most music critics.[20] At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 55, based on 14 reviews, which indicates "mixed or average reviews" reviews.[20] Entertainment Weekly called the album an "overlong, 20-track workshop", writing that "Stripped dabbles in vampy soul, quasi-metal, piano-bar intimacy, quiet-storm R&B, bounce-bounce hip-hop, and semi-exotic rock, all of it dutifully accomplished”.[21] Spin gave it a six out of 10 rating and stated "As an artistic statement, Stripped is all over the place--it's a move toward hip-hop, it's a move toward rock, it's ghetto, it's Disney".[20] Q gave the album two out of five stars and commented that "bra-burning rhetoric and gospel warbling make poor substitutes for addictive songs, and nothing here rivals her previous best, 'Genie In A Bottle'.[20]

Rolling Stone called it as an album for grown-ups and despite giving the album 3 stars out of 5, it said "Aguilera's voice continues to grow richer and on belters such as "Cruz" she can out-Whitney Whitney".[22] BBC Music gave the album a mixed review saying “From start to finish Stripped is as full-on bold and over the top as most of Christina's outfits [...] much of this seems to be an exercise in stretching the vocal chords to weak backing tracks".[23] The Village Voice panned its lyrical content and described it as "nü-Mariah on mood stabilizers, extended with pseudo-pastiches of semi-popular songs".[20] Stylus Magazine commented that “This record feels like a failure of self-censorship. Aguilera, in her quest to be up front and real, is far more stripped than anyone wants to see her. She would be well advised to rein in her artistic freedom and heed the advice of record executives who actually do sometimes know best”.[24] Slant Magazine gave the album three out of five stars saying “Stripped is more an event than an album [...] so overproduced and overwrought that it could easily pass for a Janet album".[25]

The album was nominated for the Best Pop Vocal Album and the lead single "Dirrty" was nominated for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals in 2003, while "Can't Hold Us Down" got the same nomination a year later. The second single "Beautiful" received a Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.[26] The Jonas Åkerlund-directed music video for "Beautiful" garnered much attention, as it touched on the subjects of anorexia nervosa, homosexuality, bullying, self-esteem and transgender issues.[1] Simon Cowell noted that it is "one of the best pop songs ever written."[2]

Chart performance

A blond female, holding a microphone wearing a shirt with an undone bow-tie.
Aguilera performing Beautiful on the Back to Basics Tour

Stripped debuted at number two in the U.S. selling over 330,000 copies.[27] The first single, "Dirrty" was an international success, but failed to reach the top forty in the U.S., and Aguilera's record label quickly released "Beautiful" as a follow-up single. "Beautiful" and as well as the proceeding singles "Fighter", "Can't Hold Us Down" and "The Voice Within" helped Stripped become one of the steadiest selling albums in 2003, coming in at No. 10 on the Billboard year-end list of the top selling albums of the year. To date, the album has sold over 4 million copies in the US.[28] It is number 77 in the best-selling albums chart of the 2000s in the United States.

The staying power of Stripped was also shown in the U.K. Even though it debuted at a disappointing No. 19,[29] it consistently stayed in the top twenty during 2003 and early 2004. It was certified 5× Platinum,[30] became the 3rd best-selling album of 2003,[31] and eventually sold 1,850,852 copies ranking it at number seventy-three on the list of The UK's 100 best-selling albums of all time.[32] In December 2004, Stripped was certified 3× Platinum by the IFPI[33] for shipments of more than 3 million copies inside Europe and is also 4× Platinum in Australia[34] despite only reaching a peak of number seven.[35] It is 2× Platinum in Canada.[36] In March 2008, the track "Walk Away" entered at number 35 on the official Danish Singles Chart.[37] In Germany, it remains her best-selling album of her career with 500,000 copies sold, reaching platinum there. Due to the success of the album's five singles, it remained in the German Albums Chart for 77 weeks, making it the longest-staying album in that chart of her career.[38][39] As of now, the album has sold over 12 million copies worldwide.[4]

Singles

The first single from the album was entitled ‘’Dirrty’’ featuring rapper Redman. The single received mixed reception from critics and most notably the accompanying music video received a lot of criticism for its explicit content,[40] however the video was nominated for several MTV Video Music Awards for; ‘’Best Female Video’’, ‘’Best Dance Video’’, ‘’Best Pop Video’’ and ‘’Best Choreography’’ however it failed to win all three[citation needed] The single was also nominated for a Grammy Award for ‘’Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals’’ at the 45th Grammy Awards.[citation needed] The song charted well in Mainland Europe however it failed to make an impact in the United States peaking at number 48.[41][41] The track "Beautiful" was announced to be the second single, penned by Linda Perry the song was released to a great response from critics.[42] The song was released to a great chart performance topping the charts in the UK becoming her second consecutive number one and the single peaked at number 2 in the United States which was her highest single entry from the album.[41][43] The track was nominated for several awards including a nomination from the MTV Europe Music Awards for "Best Song", it was also nominated in the same category at the 2004 Grammy Awards where it was also nominated for "Best Remixed Recording" and winning a Grammy for "Best Female Pop Vocal Performance".[citation needed]

The third single was confirmed to be the track ‘’Fighter’’, the single was released to a good commercial reception. The video was nominated for several awards including Video of the Year for the Juno Awards and the MVPA Awards. The Scott Storch penned peaked at number 20 in the United States however it fared much better elsewhere peaking at number 3 in Canada and number 3 in the UK.[41][44][45] The fourth single ‘’Can’t Hold Us Down’’ featuring rapper Lil’ Kim was released to a good reception from critics gaining a ‘’Grammy Award’’ nomination for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals which it failed to win.[citation needed] The single fared well commercially peaking at number 12 in the United States and going to number 5 in Australia becoming one of the most commercially successful of the album.[41][46] The final single was confirmed to be "The Voice Within" which received a great reception from critics and also a good commercial reception outside of the US where it peaked at number 33.[41] In the UK the single peaked at number 9[47] and in Canada the single peaked at number 10.[45] The video was nominated for three MTV Video Music Awards for "Best Female Video", "Viewers Choice" and "Best Cinematography".[citation needed] The track has gained a legacy with several notable cover versions and a large impact on the Ballad scene.[48][failed verification]

Promotion

Main articles: Justified and Stripped Tour and Stripped World Tour

Aguilera started promotion of Stripped on August 29, 2002, when played a piece of album's lead single "Dirrty" and new dirrty look for Christina at the 2002 MTV Video Music Awards in New York City. Aguilera supported the album with two different tours. The Justified and Stripped Tour with singer Justin Timberlake took place in North America, while the Stripped World Tour took place in Europe, Japan and Australia. The concert tour consisted in 85 shows.[49] In late 2004 the concert DVD called Stripped Live in the U.K. was released. In the UK on December 8, 2008 the Stripped album was re-released featuring the Stripped Live in the UK DVD.[50]

Track listing

No.TitleWriter(s)Producer(s)Length
1."Stripped Intro"  1:39
2."Can't Hold Us Down" (featuring Lil' Kim)Christina Aguilera, Scott Storch, Matt Morris, Kimberly JonesStorch4:15
3."Walk Away"Aguilera, Storch, MorrisStorch5:47
4."Fighter"Aguilera, StorchStorch4:05
5."Primer Amor Interlude"  0:53
6."Infatuation"Aguilera, Storch, MorrisStorch4:17
7."Loves Embrace Interlude"  0:46
8."Loving Me 4 Me"Aguilera, Storch, MorrisStorch4:36
9."Impossible"Alicia KeysKeys4:14
10."Underappreciated"Aguilera, Storch, MorrisStorch4:00
11."Beautiful"Linda PerryPerry3:58
12."Make Over"Aguilera, Perry, Jonathan Lipsey, Felix Howard, Cameron McVey, Paul Simm, Siobhán Donaghy, Mutya Buena, Keisha BuchananPerry4:12
13."Cruz"Perry, AguileraPerry3:49
14."Soar"Aguilera, Rob Hoffman, Heather HolleyHoffman, Holley4:45
15."Get Mine, Get Yours"Aguilera, Steve Morales, Balewa Muhammad, David SiegelMorales3:44
16."Dirrty" (featuring Redman)Aguilera, Dana Stinson, Muhammad, Reginald Noble, Jasper CameronRockwilder, Aguilera4:58
17."Stripped Pt. 2"  0:45
18."The Voice Within"Aguilera, Glen BallardBallard5:04
19."I'm OK"Aguilera, PerryPerry5:18
20."Keep on Singin' My Song"Aguilera, StorchStorch6:29
Total length:77:34
Limited Edition Bonus DVD (New Zealand Import)[51][52]
No.TitleDirectorLength
1."Genie In A Bottle"Diane Martel4:25
2."What A Girl Wants"Diane Martel4:06
3."Come On Over Baby (All I Want Is You)"Paul Hunter3:51
4."I Turn To You"Joseph Kahn4:04
5."Dirrty"David LaChapelle4:43
6."Beautiful"Jonas Åkerlund3:59
7."Fighter"Floria Sigismondi4:06
8."Can't Hold Us Down"David LaChapelle4:32
9."The Voice Within"David LaChapelle4:36
Limited Edition Bonus DVD (U.S. Import)[53][54]
No.TitleLength
1."MTV Diary of Christina Aguilera" 
2."MTV Stripped In The City" 
3."MTV Making The Video: Dirrty" 
4."Dirty" (featuring RedMan)(Video)4:43
Notes
  • The Latin American edition of Stripped (except Brazil) does not contain "Get Mine, Get Yours" but instead its Spanish-language version, "Dame Lo Que Yo Te Doy" ("Give Me What I Give You"). It also appears as a B-side to the "Beautiful" CD single.
  • In select Latín American editions the tracks 1 (Stripped Intro), 5 (Primer Amor Interlude), 7 (Loves Embrace Interlude) and 17 (Stripped Pt. 2) are excluded, and a bonus CD contains Remixes of the song Dirrty, Beautiful and Fighter.
  • Also, the Chinese edition excluded "Get Mine, Get Yours, due to strict Chinese censorship laws, but instead, it had a different artwork and all lyrics were printed in both English and Chinese.[55]

Charts and certifications

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