Posted February 24, 200718 yr http://news.softpedia.com/images/news2/Christina-Aguilera-039-Back-to-Basics-039-2.jpg A mature Aguilera gets "Back to Basics" Christina Aguilera brings her "Back to Basics" tour to the Pepsi Center Monday. The pop star has avoided the tabloid lifestyle some of her contemporaries have embraced. (Getty Images / AFP / Gabriel Bouys)Funny. It wasn't long ago we thought Christina Aguilera was a controversial individual. But the past few years have been relatively quiet for Aguilera. She wed in late 2005, and she released the throwback double-CD "Back to Basics" in mid-2006. Aguilera hasn't been in the tabloids much, but she kicked off her Back to Basics tour earlier this week, and it stops in Denver on Monday. "You know, (my peers) kept putting out things so quickly, and I never wanted to rush through something because going into this business, I knew that I wanted to be here for a long time," Aguilera said in a recent teleconference. "I didn't want to burn out right away, not making any comparison with anyone else, but just saying, you know, for me, myself, growing up where you do see the Debbie Gibsons burn out and you see people just, well, come and go so often." Mind you, Aguilera's not making any comparisons with anyone else. Unless that person is Britney Spears, the now-bald pop star who remains the point of comparison for Aguilera and their class of late-'90s pop tarts. And what a comparison it is. In the past three years alone, Spears has been married and divorced twice. She has had two sons, partied regularly with Paris Hilton, starred in a lackluster MTV reality show and been photographed sans panties. Spears was also photographed driving with her infant son unrestrained on her lap and, most recently, the singer shaved her head, got a couple of tattoos and allegedly ditched rehab more than once. Bad news for Britney. But it's ideal timing for Aguilera and her tour, because no matter the controversy in her past - the over-sexualized second record "Stripped" or her public mini-spats with Eminem or Mariah Carey - it's all mere icicles when compared to the icebergs dominating gossip columns as of late. "I did want to make a conscious effort and choice early on to make sure that it was about the quality and not the quantity," Aguilera said. "And that was a term that I'd always said to myself from the minute that I came out because people were spitting out records so quickly around me, especially in the pop world where you are pushed by the label as well, so it's not completely the artist's fault." Just a little catch-up: Spears released her fourth record, "In the Zone," in 2003. Aguilera released her third English language non-Christmas album in 2006. Whereas Spears' career has taken a turn toward the weird, Aguilera remains near to the pulse of mainstream America - and the world. "Back to Basics," the '40s-minded record that pays homage to Etta James, Salt-N-Pepa and Justin Timberlake alike, has kept Aguilera touring arenas and on top of the charts. The record debuted at No. 1 in America and 15 other countries on the strength of the big band-aping single "Ain't No Other Man." "What I did was I compiled a two-disc CD of my own before I went in to making the record," she said. "I called it my 'producer packet' at the time. And I sent it out to all the potential producers that I thought could possibly get this idea and give me my own sound for it. "But I put together a two-disc CD of all the old music, classic songs that I absolutely love, from Otis Redding to James Brown to Billie Holiday to Nina Simone to Screaming Jay Hawkins to all these people that truly have been an inspiration and completely paved the way as I do say in my song you know, 'Back in the Day."' While many have called "Back to Basics" Aguilera's most mature outing, it's important to realize that all we have to compare it to is the superfluous pop of "Genie in a Bottle," the empty dance music of "Dirrty" and the obnoxiously cloying balladry of "Beautiful."
February 24, 200718 yr Author Christina Aguilera POP|Pepsi Center; 7 p.m. Monday with Pussycat Dolls and Danity Kane opening| $49.50-$85|ticketmaster.com, 303-830-8497 ---------------------------------------- Evolution of a pop star It's been an interesting progression for Christina Aguilera, who in three albums has gone from the innocent teen tease to the road-worn sex object to the classy throwback artist. From her mouth, it sounds a little different. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/9b/Christina_Aguilera_-_Christina_Aguilera.jpg "Christina Aguilera," released Aug. 24, 1999: "For me," Aguilera said, "with my first album, it was the first album. I kind of had to play by the rules and go accordingly or (do) what my label kind of wanted me to do. I came out during the huge sort of pop explosion, and that was kind of what I had to do to kind of earn some credit and some respect for myself." http://funkysouls.com/img/Christina_Aguilera_-_Stripped.jpg "Stripped," released Oct. 29, 2002: "A few million records sold later, I was able to do what I wanted to do with 'Stripped,' which was kind of my own interpretation of my coming-of-age record. You know, kind of feeling sort (of) oppressed from previous management that I'd been locked down with on my first record and kind of having to play by those rules. It was the first time that I felt that I could really be myself and write my own material and express myself as the woman that I'd grown into at that point." http://www.metrolyrics.com/images/albums/1580947301ChristinaAguilera_BackToBasics.jpg "Back to Basics," released Aug. 15, 2006: "I started really diving deeper into this place of inspiration from myself, where blues, soul and jazz music was always an inspiration for me and I really felt that it was time next to dive into that world, getting to know it better. And also during that time ... I did fall in love, and I'd been in a relationship with my now-husband, just discovering a new side of myself. "It took me to this kind of feel-good place and to me there's nothing that feels better than old music of the '20s and '30s and '40s and on. You know, just soul music in general, just feels so good to me and it's so passionate and so I just felt that it all made sense to go along with that whole style and feel and even visually, trying to accompany kind of the look of those eras."
February 25, 200718 yr That's an excellent article, it's nice to get Christina's views on her earlier material in comparison to what she's doing now. ^_^
March 2, 200718 yr ^ Yeah I think it is, although she didnt wear it in the UK tour but her outfits have changed in the US.
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