The first time I ever heard Christina Aguilera sing, it was the summer of 1999 and I was 16 years old. They premiered her song on Kiss 108 and after the first minute of "Genie In A Bottle", I hit 'record' on my huge tape player. I sat on the living room floor that night and rewound that tape over and over again. I don't think the purpose of this song was to showcase her voice so much as it was to be a huge pop hit to get her foot in the music door, but I could tell, under all the synthesizers, her voice had real texture and this girl could saaannnnnggg.
So, here we are, eleven years later and look at that, Christina Aguilera is a pop phenomenon, a Grammy winner, and one of my favorite singers (and I'll have you know my favorite female singers group is super exclusive and extremely impossible to get into. Too many girls think they can sing and you can't). When the little girls of 2010 grow up and become famous singers, they'll say they were influenced by Miss Aguilera.
Besides the obvious greatness that is her voice, there are so many reasons I love being a Christina fan. It's always something new and you can bet your bottom dollar that you'll never see her do the same thing twice. We started with a little bubblegum pop singer and a self titled album containing songs mostly about thinking about boys in her room. Then we broke free from the record label restrictions and got to write our own material which materialized into Stripped. No more teeny boppin' for X-Tina anymore. Time to get naked, dye our hair black and be "Dirrty". Next up, a double disc release, Back To Basics. Christina softened up for on this one, (after-all, she was in love now) but at the same time never let us forget that she was "Still Dirrty." Hew newest album, Bionic, is set for release on June 8th but I was too excited so I had her send me a copy early. On this album, she's not a pop princess, she's not dirrty, she's not throwing us back to the 20, 30's and 40's music wise, in fact, she's hurling us into the future.
I was extremely nervous about listening to this album. I was certain I was going to hate it being that I'm not a huge fan of disjointed beats and electronic music but since it was Christina, I'd allow it. After listening to it for two days, I can confidently say, my hesitation about this album was unnecessary. I can trust Christina not to disappoint. This album is again, showing us a completely new side of her both vocally and artistically. What Christina did beautifully on Bionic is balance the fun, playful, electronic songs with the raw, vulnerable ballads. She also worked with some really cool people on many of the songs featured including, Sia Fuller, M.I.A. and Nicki Minaj.
Overall, I really like that this album fits in with Christina's theme of having heavily themed albums. This one is fun, not taking itself too seriously and simultaneously, letting you know Christina is back and that she will be here for a long, long time, so let's stop with the Gaga comparisons. (Gaga, you ain't progressive. Wear all the crazy outfits you want but Madonna already did that sh*t. I'll give it to you though, your songs get in my head like woah.)
Here are two songs that I really like from Bionic. They are like black and white. The first is a melodic ballad with amazing lyrics and cool vocal arrangements. The first time I heard it, I cried. I'm a sucker. The second is a collaboration she did with Nicki Minaj. It's about going down on girls so, make sure you don't sing it at work or around your parents.
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