CHRISTINA AGUILERA

In the album ‘Stripped’, Christina Aguilera, is wearing no top so her chest is covered up by her hair, this could suggest that she is stripped of her emotions in the songs on the album, as it links to the name of it. This is done without being deemed inappropriate for the age that the album has been created for. Moreover, the background is completely white so her image stands out more, and makes the audience focus on it, but as it is so simple, it intrigues us more to the album. It is also black and white, which only makes it stand out more against other albums when on shelves. Additionally, the serif font style is quite unique but once again simple and gives the album cover a nice view overall without being over crowded, having too much colour or too much emphasis on the image of Christina. The album cover therefore links well with the posters as two of them are the same image as the album cover anyway, but the other poster (shown on the bottom left) has a similar serif font style and again, there is a white background and Christina Aguilera isn’t wearing normal clothes, so again she could be described as ‘stripped’. In the contrary to the white clothing and angelic feel to the image with the white background too, it has been clear from past news that Christina isn’t a complete angel and has been some trouble in the past. This could show through the style of her hair on both the posters and album cover with the colouring of it. In these images it is almost white on top and then black underneath which could show she has two personalities.

In the music video, ‘Dirrty’, she appears quite troublesome and a fighter, but if you compare that to the song ‘Fighter’, you see a more emotional side to her as you do on a number of other songs on the album.

‘Can’t Hold Us Down’, is another song of the album (that’s similar to ‘Fighter’) where you can see her as confident and not anywhere near as emotional. This is shown through her outfit on the video, where her clothing and the setting portray her as a tomboy, whereas the other emotional songs, e.g. ‘The Voice Within’, makes her appear more elegant and more ‘womanly’ (in the sense that she is sharing her emotions calmly and is wearing a dress of some sort). These other, gentler songs, are a definite contrast to ‘Fighter’ as straight away she is wearing dark depressing dresses, trapped in glass, with pins (that you are likely to see in voodoo dolls) in her back, giving the appearance of no matter how much pain is caused to her, it’s made her stronger as she gets back up again. The pins in her back could also be to signify that she could have been ‘stabbed in the back’ by a loved one.

‘Dirrty’, though, shows her fighting once again, but physically rather than emotionally now, and is in a dark environment (which can be seen in most of her videos on the album ‘Stripped’. This could show that no matter how she expresses herself, it doesn’t make her feel any better). The lyrics from this song could be read in two ways, and due to her having a young audience you would expect it to be very respectful; but you can tell from how much more lively it is, that she is angry and after a fight which could be to help her forget her problems, maybe an ex-boyfriend that ended quite badly. Additionally, though, if you look at the lyrics from a different angle, it is quite promiscuous, which could appeal to the audience more so as they are at a stage where they are exploring relationships so it could be something they may understand more so than if it was innocent. This could then be seen in her posters and album cover if we were to look at it like that seen as there is a lack of clothing. This then supports my idea of her having two personalities.

‘The Voice Within’

‘Fighter’

‘Dirrty’