Christina Aguilera hasn’t forgotten the “Dirrty” critics who boxed in her talent
On the latest episode of Call Her Daddy, Christina Aguilera recalls shouldering a "bad girl" rap in the wake of her enduring single's release
Aux News Christina Aguilera
From the moment Christina Aguilera first stepped onstage at age nine, she knew she had found a higher calling. A self-described big dreamer, a music career was always a part of Christina Aguilera’s plan—but that doesn’t mean the industry never threw her for a loop.
In a new interview with Call Her Daddy—which marks Aguilera’s first podcast interview ever—the artist recalls being “surprised” by the backlash her 2002 single “Dirrty” (and its enduring music video) faced. One of the world’s predominant cultural texts featuring assless chaps, Aguilera has previously called the “Dirrty” music video—directed by David LaChapelle—a personal favorite of her catalog. Needless to say, she didn’t expect it to draw the kind of legendary pearl-clutching ire it did from critics at Entertainment Weekly, Saturday Night Live, and more.
After feeling completely steamrolled by outside voices when it came to the creative direction of her first hit “Genie In A Bottle,” Aguilera says she felt “in the zone” making “Dirrty,” and excited about the opportunity to “make every facet of it speak of myself as a woman.” Aguilera cites the different yet equally important themes she took on in Stripped singles “Beautiful” and “Fighter” as a part of a larger vision she had for expressing herself in a new way on the album.
“I didn’t want to fit a box of like, ‘I’m sweet and vulnerable and demure and I’m going to do the programmed pop format… I’m not any particular one thing or one brand,’” she recalls. “That’s what I did not like about the business, is the fact that they immediately try to box you and label it so that it’s easier for them to understand.”
She continues: “It was hard, you know, being a kid, like: ‘Oh my god, I’m just trying to live my life! I’m 21, I’m having fun!’ These were my college years. This was my moment, except everyone could see it.”
Although over time, “Dirrty” has seen a renewed cultural appreciation, Aguilera has been proud of the track since day one and says today that the track exemplified her early dedication to bringing the full expanse of her personality to her pop-star persona.
“I was going to play by my own rules,” Aguilera says, “and represent the kind of woman that I wanted to be.”
27 Comments
I liked that one time she hosted SNL.
“That’s what I did not like about the business, is the fact that they immediately try to box you and label it so that it’s easier for them to understand.” Not “understand”, but to sell, obviously.Also hilarious that she considers being 21 a “kid”.
I don’t remember this song, but it doesn’t exactly seem like an enduring cultural touchstone.
“My anecdotal evidence makes me believe that what society as a whole experienced was wrong”
-the chud named Mike Bonds
It’s definitely not an enduring cultural touchstone, though.
“Dirrty” was Aguilera’s first single to fail to enter the top 20 of the US Billboard, peaking at number 48 on October 5, 2002.[27] It debuted at number 67 on September 21, 2002, and rose to number 49 the following week.[28] “Dirrty” additionally charted at number 14 on Top 40 Mainstream, number 20 on Rhythmic Top 40, and number 22 on Top 40 Tracks.[3] On October 14, 2022, it was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for shipments of 1,000,000 copies.[29]Outside of the United States, “Dirrty” debuted at number seven on the Canadian Singles Chart in Canada on November 30, 2002,[30] and later peaked at number five on February 15, 2003.[31]In the United Kingdom, the single debuted at the top of the UK Singles Chart on November 17, 2002—for the week ending date November 23, 2002—becoming Aguilera’s third number one and remaining on the top spot for two weeks,[32] and was certified platinum by the British Phonographic Industry.[33]The song reached the top 10 of the charts in many other European countries including Ireland (number one),[34] Netherlands (number two),[35] Norway,[36] Spain,[37] and Switzerland (number three),[38] Belgian Flanders,[39] Denmark,[40] and Germany (number four),[41] and Austria[42] and Hungary (number five).[43] Overall, the song peaked at number three on the European Hot 100 Singles chart on December 7, 2002.[44]“Dirrty” also peaked at number four on the ARIA Singles Charts in Australia and was certified platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association.[45][46]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DirrtyLol yeah dude maybe not as important as Genie in a Bottle but literally listened to and remembered by a conservative estimate of like a billion people?
I mean, I still have the version with Redman on regular rotation at my house. It’s easily one of her best songs.
I remember a lot of songs, they’re not all cultural touchstones. This one, this is not a cultural touchstone. Hell, I was in college when this song came out, it’s not one of the ones that everyone listened to at all parties or anything.Not a cultural touchstone.
not a cultural cornerstone, but definitely a touchstone. Nobody in college parties blasted teenybopper pop lol idc where you were. It was either hiphop for dancing or country for like southern schools
please present your evidence that “society as a whole” considers this song an enduring cultural institution
Don’t be so hard on chuds, dude
Total banger and popular for several years back in the 00’s (with and without the Redman verse). It also got a lot of wide-eyed confusion.Backstory: in the 90’s there was a collection of twee blonde girls/young women who all basically had the same gimmick — be adorable and innocent-looking and sing catchy pop songs. Two of them, Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, were co-stars on the Mickey Mouse Club.Britney Spears is quickly hyper-sexualized and skyrockets into pop-culture focus. The others remain in their successful niche. Of this group, Christina Aguilera is both the smallest (and therefore most youthful-looking) but also far and away the superior singer.And she’s Ecuadoran. But more on that in a bit.Anyway, her first album wins her a Grammy, everyone knows how good she is, but at the same time she’s being treated as a perpetual child. Part of this also involves a lot of policing of her body and marketing her as an eternally youthful blonde white naif suburban fantasy despite her, as she put it bluntly, being a fully grown adult Latina from Staten Island who likes food — and sex.Now, her first album came out when she was 19 and by her fourth album she’s older than most college grads. She’s got the same PR folks keeping her dieting to maintain a marketable small frame and acting twee and youthful. But she’s tired of it and her producers, so she puts out an album where she declares that she’s a grown-up and she likes to f***.Everyone proceeds to lose their minds. This is followed with her weight increasing and her body type changing until she looks like a fully grown woman who likes food and sex. People proceed to attack her for several years for being a fully grown woman who likes food and sex.Anyway, again, the song is an absolute banger. The video very much confused people who had no context as to what she was going through, though.
Does she like bagpipes?
…so she puts out an album where she declares that she’s a grown-up and she likes to f***.You were more plugged in that me, because I thought that was part of the marketing gimmick for her from the start. Same with Spears.
ah yes, the innocent girl who sang “gotta rub me the right way” on her debut single, yes, very innocent, not into sex at all
I just didn’t remember this one song, rather than this entire time period.
It was a big deal at the time because she was one of the first (maybe the first) of the Mandy Moore/Britney/Aguilera/Jessica Simpson group to break out of the fabricated sweet girl image. Obviously as with anything it was still packaged to within an inch of its life, but it was different from what the others were doing.
People thought she was copying Britney. Britney’s first reveal was her in a schoolgirl outfit singing about accidentally making everyone horny. Dirrty came out after Britney writhed around on the floor naked in sequins.(But Mandy Moore’s sweet girl image was just Mandy Moore being Mandy Moore.)
It’s not (Beautiful was the single from that album that performed well and actually stuck around), but it is rife for looking back and re-evaluating how we treated X female celebrity, which is a fine and fair thing.
“assless chaps”All chaps are assless.
Beat me to it
I love this song and video.Christina had a great voice, a quiet private life and pretty much stayed out of the tabloids. She was the anti-Britney, though I love them both.
assless chapsChaps, by definition, are assless. Assful/assed chaps would be pants. I could never figure out where this tautology got started.
It probably got started on Easter Sunday.
It’s a fairly generic pop song, what is the story here? Some people didn’t like it 20 years ago?
it’s always been a classic.