Lengthy earlier than skunk stripes, dip-dyed ends, and two-toned neon turned viral TikTok hair tendencies, Christina Aguilera broke magnificence floor together with her legendary tackle dual-coloured, black-on-blonde hair.
It was an particularly daring look, even for the infamously experimental early aughts. Although it is solely now, 20 years later, that I realise the true that means of Aguilera’s assertion hair and the way it symbolised a lot greater than anybody acknowledged on the time.
Hear me out. It’s August 29, 2002, the 18th MTV Video Music Awards (or VMAs). It was a wild evening for everybody: Jennifer Lopez was cosplaying as an attractive prime-time lawyer, and Donald Trump inexplicably and aimlessly roamed the crimson carpet. However Christina Aguilera? Her eclectic ensemble really made excellent sense.
To set the trendy scene: Aguilera was on high of the music world. In 2000 she received a Grammy Award for the perfect new artist after the monumental success of her spectacular self-titled debut album and its chart-topping singles “Genie in a Bottle,” “What a Lady Desires,” and “Come On Over Child (All I Need Is You).” Ahh, the great ol’ instances!
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On the 2002 VMAs, nevertheless, Aguilera was on the cusp of releasing her anticipated subsequent main studio album, Stripped, the primary over which she’d had full artistic management.
Like a real boss, Aguilera personally oversaw the music, type, and lyrics, looking for to free herself from her “contrived” pop princess persona. And Aguilera knew it might be controversial. Her exterior shift from butter-blonde good lady subsequent door to a two-toned provocateur with a topless album cowl was supposed to be a real reflection of her inside and musical transformation. However some audiences have been appalled.
The Stripped observe listing – which included hits “Lovely,” “Fighter,” and “Can’t Maintain Us Down” -addressed themes of sexuality, empowerment, and feminism all through, daring to take action at a time when girls have been notoriously assigned one among two labels: good or dangerous.
