ARTICLE: Why Christina Aguilera's Comeback Fell Flat...

ARTICLE: Why Christina Aguilera's Comeback Fell Flat...

With sales of less than 500,000 worlwide after more than two months of release, it's safe to say that Christina Aguilera's 'comeback' album, Bionic, is a certified flop. That and the fact that the second and third singles, Woohoo and You Lost Me, both tanked on the Billboard Hot 100 have lead to RCA and Christina, herself, apparently abandoning this era completely - with the songstress now concentrating on promo for her upcoming film, Burlesque.

There are numerous theories as to why Bionic has essentially bombed, and, in the following paragraphs, we intend to explore and expand on some of them and draw our own conclusions.

To start off, it is important to remember just what a huge star Christina is. Her debut album, released 24th August 1999, sold over 8 million copies in the US alone by the end of that year. Three of its singles, Genie In A Bottle, What A Girl Wants and Come On Over Baby (All I Want Is You) were all #1 hits and she beat Britney Spears to win the Grammy for Best New Artist.

Her controversial follow-up LP, Stripped, saw Christina return with a whole new image - the dirrty popstar who wasn't afraid to speak her mind. After the release of its second single, Beautiful (which also went on to win Chris another Grammy, this time for Best Pop Vocal Performance), the album became a huge commercial success, selling over 12 million copies, and spawned both a US tour with Justin Timberlake (which made about $45 million) and a sold out world tour which grossed over $75 million.

Christina's success didn't end there. After a three year break, she came back in 2006 with the '20's-inspired Back To Basics which went on to sell over 6 million copies worldwide and spawned two hit singles, Ain't No Other Man and the incredible Hurt. The album's world tour subsequently grossed over $90 million.

In comparison, Bionic - which was referred to as her comeback album by critics and fans alike - was her lowest charting and selling record on the Billboard 200. It sold less than 200,000 copies first week, and, as we mentioned earlier, has sold fewer than 500,000 copies worldwide in the two months since its release. In addition, all three of its singles - Not Myself Tonight, Woohoo and You Lost Me, have bombed on the charts.

So what could possibly have caused such a stark loss of fortune for Ms Aguilera? Why has her best album since Stripped completely failed to take off?

Well, first, it's possible to argue that Christina has simply lost her core audience. It is apparent that it was primarily teenage and twenty-something females that purchased her records and that, in the four year gap since her last record, they have simply moved on to someone else. Indeed we ourselves think that Christina's break was just too long. She clearly thought that she could be absent for almost half a decade and return without any loss in popularity. And it is likely that - had it not been for extinuating circumstances - this would have been the case. Christina has always been known as 'the white girl who can sing' and this put her in a lane all of her own. She she was marketed as a different artist to the other successful female artists of the day - Britney, Beyonce and Jennifer Lopez - and, hence, didn't compete with them.  

However, just under two years ago, a young woman by the name of Stefani Germanotta - better known as Lady Gaga - came along who could both sing and dance. Now, while it is irrefutable that Christina is a better singer than Lady Gaga, the latter is good enough to be a replacement. And by looking at the huge popularity that Gaga is currently experiencing and the dramatic decrease in fortune Christina has had, it can be assumed that the former has taken the latter's core audience.

Hence, Theory I: Christina's four year break was not only unwise, but lead to her being usurped by newer artist, Lady Gaga.

Next, back in 2002 when Christina debuted her new 'dirrty' image, there was no other mainstream pop artist doing the same thing. We saw photos of her falling, drunk, out of nightclubs, heard stories of her kissing Paris Hilton backstage at the EMAs, making controversial videos like Dirrty and Beautiful; it was shocking and new to us then, especially to those who were too young to remember Madonna's own 'bad girl' phase. It made Christina stand out from her fellow pop stars, it made her 'edgy' and 'different'.

In 2010, it's a completely different story. For one thing, we have Rihanna, one of the world's biggest pop stars, who has taken that 'Good Girl Gone Bad' image and run with it. She is reknowned for saying shocking things interviews, singing such contraversial lyrics as 'come here Rude Boy, Boy, can you get it up' and wearing little-to-nothing in videos such as Hard and Rude Boy. She is the one now known as being 'edgy' and 'different' in addition to the aforementioned Lady Gaga.

When Christina brought out the Not Myself Tonight video, therefore, rather than putting her on a par with Rihanna and Lady Gaga, it served to make her look desperate. As if she were trying to prove that she was still as relevant now as ever. This, in turn, was something that critics picked up on, with Entertainment Weekly saying 'The worst part about Xtina’s video, beyond the rather unabashed unoriginality of it, is the sad stink of I’ve-been-gone-forever-had-a-baby-and-now-want-to-be-relevant-again desperation' and MTV going so far as to list all the videos NMT had used as 'inspiration'.

Ironic as it may be, it seemed that Xtina was the last thing people wanted to see from Ms Aguilera. After the more mature Back To Basics Christina, we had all acknowledged that the tequila-shots, girl-on-girl kissing, bad girl was gone and the 'Baby Jane' Christina here to stay. And everyone seemed to appreciate the change. We were all prepared for a more 'fun' video, something along the lines of Mariah Carey's Touch My Body. Instead we had Ms Aguilera return with a Stripped part II look, and the trashiest video since N*E*R*D's Lapdance; something that left almost everyone with a bad taste in their mouths. 

So, Theory II: Christina's return to Xtina was the worst decision she ever made.

We've explored what consequence Christina's extensive break and bad decision-making had on her latest era, now let's look at another, less material, idea; the realisation of the bad karma Ms Aguilera has had building up for years. It is generally known that Christina has one of the worst attitudes in the industry. Indeed she has either insulted or talked badly about numerous artists, including Mariah Carey, Kelly Osbourne, Britney Spears, Lady Gaga and Beyonce, and various people have discussed their bad experiences with her. We won't go into what was actually said on both sides (but you can view the list here), but there are very few radio DJs, photographers, producers, video directors, record executives, A&R and fellow celebrities that have had something good to say about her general attitude.

We will explore her latest indiscretion, though. In one of her most recent interviews, Christina was quoted as saying about Lady Gaga “Oh the newcomer? I think she is really fun to look at.”. After the inevitable backlash, however, Christina was quick to rescind the statement and wrote a letter to her fans discussing her love for Gaga. This was after her spokesperson's claim that Christina's comments were 'taken out of context' which lead many to question just what context they were originally intended in. It is the same poor excuse Ms Aguilera has used on the numerous occasions when she has been called out for 'shading' other celebrities and it no longer sits well with just about anybody. One could  ask why it is only Christina's comments that are 'taken' out of context and never people like Rihanna, Beyonce, Britney or Lady Gaga, who never have a bad word to say about anybody. Indeed one could justifiably say that this is the reason for their continued success and Christina's current downfall.

Christina's rumoured poor treatment of reporters, radio djs and people in the media, may be why she has been reportedly blacklisted by them. All three of Bionic's singles have flopped on radio and she hasn't received a lot of support from go-to magazines like Glamour and EW - who usually do cover stories on artists' comeback records - and, her MTV Movie Awards performance notwithstanding, music related corporations like MTV.

Hence, Theory III - Christina's mistreatment of other celebrities and the media has lead to karma hitting her hard.

Now, for the most important question of all: Can Christina make a comeback? Our stance on such downfalls in fortune has always been that talent never goes anywhere, and we still stand by this. Christina is still one of the best vocalists and lyricists in the business, and a flop album won't change that. In our opinion, what she does need to change is her image and attitude. In addition to eating some humble pie, she needs to accept that the days of her being 'the edgiest pop star out' are over and that the public want her to continue with the Baby Jane image she had going in her Back To Basics era. Forgetting about Bionic and concentrating on the upcoming release of her film Burlesque (which also stars the iconic and much loved Cher) is the best idea. She can pretend that that was her intention all along, salvage what little is left of her pride, and, as soon as the dust is settled, head back into the studio and make a brand new record.

In a few months, and especially if Burlesque is successful, people will have forgotten all about this tragic mess of an era and will be anticipating her next work. She has the potential to return bigger and better than ever, but only if she plays her cards right and returns with a better attitude and an incredible, critically acclaimed, album that will go down in history as one of the biggest comebacks of all time.


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