Star Project : Christina Aguilera

I have chosen to base my ‘Star Project’ on Christina Aguilera. Christina Aguilera has had a variety of images and styles throughout her singing career which started in 1999. She previously starred in ‘The Mickey Mouse Club’ alongside Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears in 1993-1995.

When Christina Aguilera first entered into the singing world her first image (stylish at the time) portrayed a teenager wearing colourful clothes and crop tops with various colours in her hair, a typical look for a pop star in the 1990’s. Her star image seemed to help her as her first self-titled album became number 1 in both America and Canada. Aguilera also gained 3 number ones including ‘Genie In The Bottle’ and ‘What A Girl Wants’, furthermore this album managed to add a Grammy to her name for ‘Best New Artist’.

                                                                                                       
  Throughout the coming years Aguilera quickly gained attention and popularity for her unusually powerful voice including 80’s American soul singer saying “That little girl can sing her face off, she’s phenomenal”. Her voice and success also gained her a huge fan base, with thousands attending her sold out tours.

To maintain her fan base, Christina Aguilera has been very diverse with her image. After the release of the first album, Christina then did a cover of ‘Lady Marmalade’ alongside Pink, Lil Kim and Mya. The video to this cover grabbed some attention and showed a very different side to the ‘Pop princess’.
Walking around in a corset and suspenders with huge hair seemed to work however as the song became top of the U.S. charts for 5 weeks running and gave Christina yet another Grammy.

The Lady Marmalade success was then followed by Christina’s new album ‘Stripped’. Aguilera seemed desperate to get rid of her ‘pop princess’ image and successfully managed to do it through the first single released from the album ‘Dirrty’. The raunchy music video which included Aguilera wearing leather chaps and dancing provocatively in a boxing ring initially had a negative reaction, however despite that the single was a hit reaching number one in the UK and Ireland and was a hit worldwide. Through this album an alter ego was created for Christina..Xtina. This included Christina dying her hair black, getting a tattoo of ‘Xtina’ on her neck, and several piercings.  

                                                                                               
Christina Aguilera’s second release from the album ‘beautiful’ is possibly her most famous song. It gained another Grammy for ‘Best female pop vocal performance’ and the song itself reached number one in several countries and number two in the US. The video itself showed a much less raunchy and more vulnerable side to Christina and gained her a more positive reaction. The following 3 singles including  ‘Fighter’ maintained the albums success’ by staying on the charts for the next two years, a four time platinum album in the US, over ten million copies sold worldwide, and Aguilera being named the ‘Best female artist of 2003’.

In 2004 it appeared that Christina Aguilera was moving away from the ‘Dirrty’ image that she had previously portrayed. Aguilera had dyed her hair platinum blonde and cut it short to show a Marilyn Monroe-like image. Christina continued to show this image throughout her album ‘Back to Basics’ which was released in 2006. Product endorsement by Aguilera included many interviews with her commenting on how the album was "a throwback to the 20s, 30s, and 40s-style jazz, blues, and feel-good music, but with a modern twist." Aguilera successfully did this through the release of her first single ‘Ain’t no other man’ (which reached number two in the world chart ).
‘Back to Basics’ debuted at Number one in the UK, US and eleven other countries, and sold 4.5 million worldwide.  Through 2006 to 2009 Christina maintained the Marilyn Monroe, old Hollywood image at various red carpet events and her following music videos. One of these being ‘Candyman’ which showed her create a World War II theme, which included swing dancing and a pin up girl costume.
Richard Dyer created a theory on Marilyn Monroe saying “Monroe's combination of sexuality and innocence is part of that process”. Suggesting that maybe Monroe created that image for the motive of success, and so Christina followed.

A few years later Christina returned to the music industry with again a very different image. Aguilera seemed to now be going towards an electro-pop, futuristic genre and image. Her following
album named ‘Bionic’ which was released in 2012 helped confirm this star image, however was not as successful as her previous albums. Christina Aguilera’s first release from this album was ‘Not Myself Tonight’. Both the song and video gained some controversy, as many critics commented on the fact that she was returning to her ‘Dirrty days’ just when Christina seemed to mature out of them, having just been married and had her first child.
Many critics said how she was trying too much to be like Lady Gaga. Due to the fact of Gaga’s success at the time, and with a large scale fan base many people moved on from Christina Aguilera, and commented on how ‘Christina begged to be like Lady Gaga’.
Commenting on the albums lack of success, Christina Aguilera said "I was really proud of that record. I think there was a lot of promotion issues. Nothing is ever a setback. If anything, it just motivates you for what’s next “.
A lot of the critics commented on how the album was a flop so due to this many people started calling her ‘Floptina’.

                                                

Since then Christina has embarked on an acting career, playing the lead role in ‘Burlesque’ and released another album named ‘Lotus’. Through 2011 to 2013 Christina was continuously slated in the media on her weight. It was clear that Aguilera had gained weight, however the media started portraying more of a negative view on her. The media manipulated Christina, constantly showing her on the front of magazines and various sites online, commenting on her weight and how her life was a ‘wreck’.

                           

                       

There were many articles on how Christina Aguilera had to fight her record company to gain weight.

Since the constant criticism, Christina has now drastically lost weight, possible due to the media manipulation she has been gaining and now says she feels ‘sexier’ than ever, and admitting that the criticism on her weight was difficult. Aguilera is apparently hoping to return to the music industry with a successful album, and get rid of the ‘floptina’ image.

                                                           

To sum up, Christina Aguilera’s image has been extremely diverse over the years, from raunchy leather chaps to Marilyn Monroe-like. Some of the star’s images have been controversial and negatively criticised, however Christina has had great success over the years, even if it is dimming down now.

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