Stripped (2002 album)

Stripped
Missing image Christina_Aguilera_-_Stripped.jpg Album cover
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
Christina Aguilera Chronology
My Kind of Christmas (2000)	Stripped (2002)	—

Stripped is the fifth 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.

Contents

1 "Dirrty" and sex

2 "Beautiful" – self-acceptance

7.1 Album
7.2 Singles

8 Awards

8.1 2003
8.2 2004

9 External links

"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.

In late August, 2002, "Dirrty" the first single from Christina's upcoming album was leaked on the Internet, then later played on radio stations. The song was a hip-hop influenced track, based on rapper Redman's song "Let's Get Dirty". Incidentally, Redman was included on "Dirrty", rapping for one verse of the song.

On September 30, The music video for "Dirrty" premered on MTV in the United States. The video takes place in a filthy underground nightclub with a boxing ring. The video featured a scantily clad Christina, lecherously dancing with members of both sexes including a female-only shower scene. There's also a scene where she participates in a boxing match. Although European MTV channels shown the video unedited, the Untied States and some Asian MTV channels show an edited version of the video with some of the raciest footage omitted. However, the "Dirrty" video was banned in Thailand, because of graffiti advertising sex tourism. The producers and director of the video claimed to be ignorant of the meaning of the posters, and sent public apologies.

Due to the mature nature of the video, it was heavily criticized by other musicians, as well as the media. In response, Aguilera pointed out the video is more about power and control; "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."

During the first few months of promoting Stripped, Aguilera had changed her fresh, youthful image into that of a highly sexualized woman with hip-hop and porn-star influences. She has taken part in photo shoots for the magazines Maxim, Rolling Stone, and Cosmo Girl. Many of the photographs featured her nude or semi-nude. She denied the image change was a matter of publicity, claiming that it 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."

"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. It is quadruple platinum in Australia despite only reaching a peak of number 7—again a reflection of its consistency between late 2002 and 2004. In the U.S., the album was certified four times platinum by Billboard in January 2005. [1]

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

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

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)

Year	Chart	Position
2002	The Billboard 200	2
2002	Top Canadian Albums	3
2002	Top Internet Albums	2

Singles