Stripped (2002 album) - Definition

Stripped
Album by Christina Aguilera
Released	October 29, 2002
Recorded	???
Genre	Pop
Length	77 min 36 sec
Record label	RCA
Producers	Christina Aguilera, Glen Ballard, Jasper Cameron, E. Dawk, Rob Hoffman, Heather Holley, Steve Morales, Balewa Muhammad, Linda Perry, Rockwilder, Scott Storch
Professional reviews
AMG	2/5	link (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE47D1ED847A47E20E0B11A40DEB561F61A8F1AACD83E284541D1B43844C30E79EC40A6D8B1E8B800E203E3FE2FBB5806CCC8EE56F8906537398EE4A761285E36&uid=MIDMR0411291543&sql=10:blb8b594zsqh~T1)
Christina Aguilera Chronology
My Kind of Christmas (2000)	Stripped (2002)	—

Stripped is the fourth album by American pop singer Christina Aguilera, released in 2002 (see 2002 in music). It reached the top 5 of the album charts in both the US and UK and features two UK number one hits in "Dirrty" and "Beautiful." While the raunchy themes of the album attracted the most publicity—not all positive—the theme of self-acceptance is arguably the more important theme of the album.

"Dirrty" and sex

The move towards a raunchier image for Aguilera was shown in her appearance in the video for "Lady Marmalade" which showed her, Lil Kim, Pink and Mya dressed in lingerie. The track was produced by Timbaland and Missy Elliott and appeared on the Moulin Rouge! soundtrack for the Baz Luhrmann film. The song, a remake of the 1975 hit by LaBelle, went to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and won a Grammy Award for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals. The song also topped in Australia with the Moulin Rouge! soundtrack being the best selling album of 2001 in that country.

For Stripped, Aguilera had changed her fresh, youthful image into that of a highly sexualized woman with hip-hop and porn-star influences. After the release of that album, she has taken part in photo shoots for the magazines Maxim, Rolling Stone, and Cosmo Girl. Many of these photographs featured her nude or semi-nude. At the same time, Aguilera began to cultivate a more sexually provocative image. She denied that this change was a matter of publicity, claiming that the erotic emphasis better reflected her true personality than did the image she cultivated in 1999. She told German paper Netzeitung, "I like having sex. It's fun....I love experimenting with my sexuality. I want to try out as much as possible. It would be wrong of me to hide this side of my personality. I have fun being sexy and tough at the same time."

The video for her 2002 single "Dirrty" featured her writhing with members of both sexes including a female-only shower scene in which she was wearing only a G-string and a bra. As she puts it, "I like the way I am. This is how I bring out my sexuality."

The "Dirrty" video also made the news when the government of Thailand banned the video from national television, because a pair of posters that appear in the background of the boxing ring advertise, in the Thai language, the sex tourism and sex with underage girls of Thailand. The producers and director of the video claimed to be ignorant of the meaning of the posters. She is currently banned from entering Thailand as it is considered to have offended the Thai people.

Musical peers such as Shakira, Jessica Simpson, and Kelly Osbourne criticized the video, but Aguilera responded by pointing out, "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 around me. To be totally balls-out like that is, for me, the measure of a true artist."

Christina Aguilera was involved in a lesbian kiss with Madonna at the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards ceremony on 28 August 2003 in the opening performance of Madonna's songs "Like a Virgin" and "Hollywood"—this was overshadowed by the kiss between Madonna and Britney Spears at the same ceremony. The raunchiness of Stripped seems to have been a trigger to increase the sexual element of pop singers in the subsequent year including the kissing at the MTV Music Video Awards and the "wardrobe malfunction" in the Super Bowl XXXVIII Halftime controversy featuring Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake.

"Can't Hold Us Down", another vocal collaboration with Lil' Kim is an attack on the double standard on society's views on sexually active men and women.

"Beautiful" – self-acceptance

The predominant theme of the album, as compared to the publicity associated with it, deals with self-acceptance. The songs that have that as a theme include "Beautiful", "Fighter", "The Voice Within", "Loving Me 4 Me" and "I'm OK".

"Beautiful" earned Christina Aguilera the Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance at the Grammy Awards of 2004. The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) presented a special award for inclusion to her in February 2003 for the positive images of gay and transgender people. In accepting the award in February 2003, Aguilera said "The song 'Beautiful' is about being or feeling unaccepted for merely being yourself, yet knowing through any hardships, we are all beautiful despite the differences or insecurities. My video captures the reality that gay and transgender people are beautiful, even though prejudice and discrimination against them still exists."

Chart success

Ironically, the new raunchy image seems to have negatively affected the sales of the album at least in the US when released in late 2002. While the album debuted at number 2 on the UK album charts and number 3 in Canada, it made a low entry given the success of her debut album. However, the success of subsequent singles off the album meant that Stripped reached a peak of number 2 on the Billboard 200 in 2004. The staying power of the album was also shown in the UK when the album was consistently in the top 20 of the album charts between late 2002 and mid 2004. The album is quadruple platinum in Australia despite only reaching a peak of number 7—again a reflection of its consistency between late 2002 and 2004.

There have been a number of hit singles from Stripped including:

• "Dirrty", the first single featuring rapper Redman, went to number one in the UK, Ireland and was a top ten hit in the Netherlands, Spain and Australia—it only reached number 48 on the Billboard Hot 100, reflecting the early sales backlash;

• "Beautiful" went to number 1 in the UK, Ireland, Australia and Canada as well as the US top 40 and adult contemporary charts—it reached number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100;

• "Fighter" went to the top 20 in the US and reached top 5 on world airplay charts, performing well in countries such as Canada, Australia and Argentina;

• "Can't Hold Us Down", another collaboration with Lil Kim, was another top 5 hit on world airplay charts and reached number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100; and

• "The Voice Within" was another strong track on worldwide radio, becoming the second most played track on European radio in early 2004, and it reached number 33 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Track listing

1. "Stripped (Intro)"- 1:39
2. "Can't Hold Us Down" [featuring Lil' Kim] (Aguilera, Matthews Morris, Scott Storch) - 4:15
3. "Walk Away" (Aguilera, Morris, Storch) - 5:47
4. "Fighter" (Aguilera, Storch) - 4:05
5. "Primer Amor (Interlude)" - 0:53
6. "Infatuation" (Aguilera, Morris, Storch) - 4:17
7. "Loves Embrace (Interlude)" - 0:46
8. "Loving Me 4 Me" (Aguilera, Morris, Storch) - 4:36
9. "Impossible" (Alicia Keys) - 4:14
10. "Underappreciated" (Aguilera, Morris, Storch) - 4:00
11. "Beautiful" (Linda Perry) - 3:58
12. "Make Over" (Aguilera, Perry) - 4:12
13. "Cruz" (Aguilera, Perry) - 3:49
14. "Soar" (Aguilera, Rob Hoffman, Heather Holley) - 4:45
15. "Get Mine, Get Yours" (Aguilera, Steve Morales, Balewa Muhammad, David Siegel) - 3:44
16. "Dirrty" [featuring Redman] (Aguilera, Morales, Muhammad, Siegel) - 4:58
17. "Stripped, Pt. 2" - 0:46
18. "The Voice Within" (Aguilera, Glen Ballard) - 5:04
19. "I'm OK" (Aguilera, Perry) - 5:19
20. "Keep on Singin' My Song" (Aguilera, Perry) - 6:29

Personnel

• Christina Aguilera - vocals, background vocals
• Alex Al - bass
• Maxi Anderson - background vocals, choir, chorus
• Glen Ballard - guitar
• Alexandra Brown - background vocals
• Matt Chamberlain - drums
• Darryl Dixon - horn
• Richard Dodd - cello
• Crystal Drummer - background vocals
• Uriah Duffy - bass
• Mike Elizondo - bass
• Aaron Fishbein - guitar, electric guitar
• Damon Fox - keyboard
• Larry Gold - conductor
• John Goux - guitar
• Gary Grant - horn
• Lili Haydn - violin, viola
• Jerry Hey - horn
• Dan Higgins - horn
• Charles Hines - background vocals
• Rob Hoffman - guitar, Fender Rhodes
• Russell Jackson - bass
• Paul Alexandre John - drums
• Randy Kerber - keyboard
• Alicia Keys - piano, background vocals
• Eric King - background vocals
• Michael Landau - guitar
• Brian MacLeod - drums
• Tarus Mateen - bass
• Brian Frazier Moore - drums
• Dave Navarro - guitar
• Linda Perry - bass, guitar, piano, strings
• Greg Phillinganes - piano, Hammond organ
• Shanti Randall - viola
• Bill Reichenbach Jr. - horn
• David Siegel - keyboard
• Alfie Silas - background vocals
• Ramon Stagnaro - acoustic guitar
• Mike Stinson - drums
• Ahmir Khalib Thompson - drums
• David Warner - electric tenor guitar
• David Watson - horn
• Arthur White - guitar
• Maxine Willard Waters - background vocals

Production

• Producers: Christina Aguilera, Glen Ballard, Jasper Cameron, E. Dawk, Rob Hoffman, Heather Holley, Steve Morales, Balewa Muhammad, Linda Perry, Rockwilder, Scott Storch
• Executive producers: Christina Aguilera, Ron Fair
• Engineers: Scott Campbell, David Guerrero, Rob Hoffman, Linda Perry, Oscar Ramirez, Shane Stoner, Wassim Zreik
• Assistant engineers: Brian Douglas, Alex Gibson, Jay Goin, Anthony Kilhoffer, Aaron Lepley, Rafael Serrano, Kevin Szymanski, Davy Vain, Scott Whiting, Ethan Willoughby
• Mixing: Tony Maserati, Peter Mokran, Dave Pensado
• Mixing assistants: Rich Balmer, Tony Flores, David Guerrero, Jaime Sickora, Ethan Willoughby
• Mastering: Brian Gardner
• A&R: Ron Fair
• Instrumentation: Alicia Keys, Linda Perry
• Production coordination: Jolie Levine-Aller
• Orchestra production: Rob Hoffman
• Music contractor: JoAnn Tominaga
• Chart: Orion Crawford
• Pro-tools: Davy Vain
• Programming: Rob Hoffman
• Drum programming: Steve Morales, Linda Perry
• Arrangers: Christina Aguilera, Glen Ballard, Jasper Cameron, E. Dawk, Steve Morales, Balewa Muhammad
• Choir arrangement: Anson Dawkins, Eric Dawkins
• Orchestral arrangements: Bill Ross
• String arrangements: Ron Fair, Larry Gold, Linda Perry
• Art direction: Jeri Heiden, Glen Nakasako
• Design: Jeri Heiden, Glen Nakasako
• Photography: Miranda Penn Turin

Charts

Album - Billboard (North America)

Singles - Billboard (North America)

Awards

Grammy Awards

External links

• All Music Guide Christina Aguilera article (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&uid=UIDMISS70311071654390588&sql=Aisjv7i24g78r/)
• GLAAD media release (http://www.glaad.org/media/release_detail.php?id=3283/)
• MTV News article on kissing controversy (http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1477729/08282003/spears_britney.jhtml?headlines=true/)