The Evolution of a Star - Christina Aguilera

Born: December 18 1980, Staten Island, New York

American recording artist and actress
Record Label: RCA
Genres: Soul, Pop, R&B, Dance

This is Christina Aguilera's first album Christina Aguilera which was released in 1999. The album consisted of her breakthrough hit single Genie in a Bottle which remained number one for five weeks becoming one of the most successful airplay only singles in history. The music video features Christina singing and dancing to the song. A little bit of narrative is involved in the video. The artist is dressed in short, tight fitting clothing, with her midriff exposed in some scenes. This created a little controversy with the press as they felt she was too young to wear such clothing. The other two hit singles in the album were What a girl wants and Come On Over Baby(All I Want Is You).  

On the left is a shot from her music video What a Girl Wants. We see she has short layered hair.






 To the right is Christina in her video for Come On Over Baby(All I Want Is You). Here we see a her in clothing that exposes her body more. Her hair has grown longer and has red tips. She appears to be more confident than in her previous two videos.


  

On the right is Christina's second album Mi Reflejo, which included five of her singles from her debut album Christina Aguilera, which are sung in Spanish. The album topped the 'Top Latin Album'.

 
Stripped is Christina Aguilera's fourth album, which was released in 2002. It featured two UK hit singles Beautiful and Dirrty. Always compared to Britney Spears, Aguilera changed her style to her hair as dredlocks with streaks of black and wearing clothes that were very revealing. She transformed to 'dirtier' looks, which was also reflected in her music.

Beautiful is a classic gentle and sombre ballad conveying a message that other people's opinions should not influence or disturb one's mind. It is Christina Aguilera's most successful and strongest tracks and hit number one is several countries when it came out. The video is narrative-based focusing on issues such as homosexuality, bullying and anorexia. It features actors and actresses playing these roles out, with cross-cuts of Christina singing. The mood is reflected in the lighting and locations, with low lighting being used. Many close-ups have been used of the artist to create a connection between her and the viewer, as though she is talking directly to them. In the video Aguilera wears dark clothing enhancing the darkened mood.

In contrast, her video for Dirrty created controversy for its explicit content. In both the videos we see her with long dredlocks and her new piercings. In Dirrty she appears to be wearing very short, revealing clothing, which was also her new public image. There are many close-ups of her body such as her lips and bottom. Her dance moves are more sexual and she dances with both genders, which also created a lot of controversy.

Aguilera's style constantly changed, with her hair changing from blonde to jet black. At first we see how she had braids and curles with highlights of pink. She then tried out black streaks in her hair. During 2004/2005 she decided to dye her long hair completely black, transforming into a more gothic fashion. This is reflected in her single Fighter in which she bears elements of rock.



She changed her look once again for her new album Back to Basics which was released in 2006.  It had elements of jazz, blues, soul and R&B. Now engaged to Jordan Bratman she decided to change to having classic short, curly, blonde hair with red lips. Her clothing at this stage wasn't as revealing as it was during her album Stripped.

Her most recent album Bionic is her sixth album and was released in 2010. In this album she returns to the genre of pop and R&B. Christina experiments, explores and mix's different styles and genres in ways she has never done before. This is also represented in her life as she is now a mother and also recently became an actress featuring in the movie Burlesque.This mood has slightly been reflected on her album cover,