Acclaimed Flop: Credited as having one of the strongest, loudest, biggest voices of her generation and being extremely original in her attitude to her work. Regardless, Bionic and Lotus weren't that successful.
Banned in China: The video for "Dirrty" was banned on Thai television, due to Thai-language posters that read "Thailand's Sex Tourism" and "Young Underage Girls".
Breakaway Pop Hit: Her career was launched by "Reflection", which was recorded for the Mulan movie. The musical style is so different from the film, it's unlikely newer fans will make the connection.
Career Resurrection: "Stripped" and "Back To Basics" were both peaks in her interest and adoration worldwide.
Contractual Purity: Christina was particularly annoyed at being portrayed as a squeaky-clean pop princess for her first album (or three, if you count the Spanish and Christmas records). Stripped was an attempt to combat this trope. While not to the extent of Britney Spears she still caught some flack for teenage girls imitating her. Mind you the image change was still successful, probably on account of her earlier material already being quite suggestive (Radio Disney initially banned "Genie In A Bottle" and "Come On Over Baby").
"I really just wanted to squirm away from that, because I really thought it was really fake and superficial and untrue of what I was about."
"Bionic" has all but been forgotten, a half-assed second single, tour cancelled, her claiming she'd done all the work recording the album and didn't regret not touring for it. Doubts are for any song on it making to her next era.
Lotus received even more backlash from Christina than Bionic. Almost the entire promotion for the entire album consisted of a video for "Your Body", three performances on The Voice and a few interviews (which mainly focused on The Voice). "Your Body" was very well received but she never performed it live and "Just a Fool" was announced and released as the second single with almost no promotion. The final nail in the Lotus era was that while at first she claimed to have taken a break from The Voice to tour those plans were either scrapped or Blatant Lies. Some fans believe this was the result of Executive Meddling while others believe this is simply the result of the album flopping.
Creator Breakdown: "I'm OK" and "Oh Mother" are about the abuse she witnessed as a very young child. She has also admitted to suffering depression partially due to this experience. This shows in the songs "Understand", "Mercy On Me", "The Right Man" and the greater Stripped album.
Development Hell: Invoked by Christina herself in choosing to take a couple of years off (at least three) between each album, starting from 2002 to 2010.
Dye Hard: A natural blonde, she dyed her hair black for the latter half of the Stripped period.
Happened to Bionic, backed up by her collaborators as far as song choices are concerned.
Some fans believe this is what happened to Lotus. Christina was supposedly forced to release before she was done working on it to capitalize on the popularity she got from The Voice and because of this she abandoned the album.
Follow the Leader: "Dirrty" got compared a lot to Britney Spears's "I'm A Slave 4 U".
Aguilera has credited Madonna (and Janet Jackson) for inspiring her image. She worked with Madonna multiple times, including the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards.
Aguilera has repeatedly cited Etta James as an inspiration for her voice, and Aguilera was one of James' favourite singers. Aguilera was picked to sing at James' funeral.
Referenced by...: Maria is one of the characters in the video game Silent Hill 2. Her character model is clearly based on Aguilera's outfit at the Teen Choice Awards in 1999. Picture here.
Throw It In!: According to collaborator Linda Perry, the “Don’t look at me” intro to "Beautiful" was something Christina told to a friend when recording began for the song, which was kept in because it fit the song’s theme.
Trope Codifier: The video for "Dirrty" codified the 'slutdrop' dance move.
"Genie In A Bottle" was originally titled "If You Wanna Be With Me" and they considered giving the video an "Arabian Nights" Days theme.
"Come On Over Baby" was re-recorded so that the single release was different from the album. The newer version was made more sexual, and a rap was added.
"Beautiful" was written by Linda Perry for herself, as she wanted to pursue a solo career. After Christina sang it at her house to "break the ice", she was so impressed that she let her use it on the Stripped album. Christina wanted to rerecord some of the vocals, but Linda refused, as it that would ruin the song's message about imperfection.
Bionic was going to have songs written by Goldfrapp, but none of their songs were completed.
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