Stripped is definitely Xtina’s peak and inspires a lot of Pop girls. But how huge it actually was back in 2002-2004? 

there was an entire talk show episode dedicated to the Stripped era

 

 

 

Edited July 4, 20224 yr by Josh

It was the 10th best seller of Europe and the USA in 2003 and still had longevity in 2004. 

 

The era lasted almost 2 years and was one of the biggest albums of the UK (peaked at #2, charted for over 2 years and ended up selling 2M pure alone there which is equivalent to 7x platinum) 

 

Dirty and Beautiful were #1 hits in the UK while the other 3 singles hit top 10

She was THAT ***** during that era. It was glorious

6 minutes ago, naval23 said:

It was the 10th best seller of Europe and the USA in 2003 and still had longevity in 2004. 

 

The era lasted almost 2 years and was one of the biggest albums of the UK (peaked at #2, charted for over 2 years and ended up selling 2M pure alone there which is equivalent to 7x platinum) 

 

Dirty and Beautiful were #1 hits in the UK while the other 3 singles hit top 10

This. 

 

It came off of debut's AND Lady Marmalade's massive success. 

 

It smashed in Europe, especially the UK, and the US where she was Billboard 2003's Female Artist of the Year iirc? 

 

Plus there were always lots of promotion during the era, esp. the 2003 VMAs with Britney, Madonna and Missy. 

Well…

 

“Stripped” was the 10th biggest selling album in Europe in 2003 and the 11th biggest selling album in the U.S in 2003. 
 

As per the IFPI, “Stripped” was the 16th biggest selling album of 2003.

 

She would’ve ranked higher on the aforementioned 2003 lists had the album not stolen sales from October-December 2002. 
 

Based on the albums chart run as well as the singles’ Hot 100 run, which started in December 2002, she was ranked ‘Billboard’s Female Artist of 2003’ just ahead of Beyoncé.
 

The album/era did incredibly well, especially WW, and it’s longevity at the time was clear proof. In all honesty, given the controversy surrounding “Dirrrty” at the time, it’s amazing the era picked itself up the way it did thereafter; “Beautiful” saved it as did “Fighter”. From a cultural perspective, she was easily the most talked about tabloid celebrity (overall) of the 2002-2004 period alongside Britney Spears. 
 

6 minutes ago, sugarysunflower said:

This. 

 

It came off of debut's AND Lady Marmalade's massive success. 

 

It smashed in Europe, especially the UK, and the US where she was Billboard 2003's Female Artist of the Year iirc? 

 

Plus there were always lots of promotion during the era, esp. the 2003 VMAs with Britney, Madonna and Missy. 

I mean I know about the stats but like, how viral was it and how often people talk about it maybe compared to Miley’s Bangerz era when everyone was talking about her. I supposed Stripped was even more talked about right?

5 minutes ago, tonyle1911 said:

I mean I know about the stats but like, how viral was it and how often people talk about it maybe compared to Miley’s Bangerz era when everyone was talking about her. I supposed Stripped was even more talked about right?

I mean the main difference between Bangerz and “Stripped” is that while the album was looked at as being strange and overtly sexual due to the image, the quality of the music spoke for itself.

8 minutes ago, tonyle1911 said:

I mean I know about the stats but like, how viral was it and how often people talk about it maybe compared to Miley’s Bangerz era when everyone was talking about her. I supposed Stripped was even more talked about right?

“Bangerz” was “Stripped” with a much lesser quality of music, an even more hyper-sexual image and without the clear accolades and acclaim. 
 

They can’t be compared. 
 

Also, the controversy Cyrus sparked on the internet and social media is what Aguilera did but with newspapers, magazines and gossip columns/programmes. 

It was the Hit maker, Dirrty, Fighter etc. 

It was huge. People always undermine Xtina's impact but Stripped was a huge phenomenon. Dirrty was a shock for everyone, Beautiful became an anthem, Fighter was still big in many countries; her looks were iconic, so was her attitude. She made headlines every week for something different: her feud with Eminem, her VMA looks, Stripped breaking records in the UK, etc.

 

It felt like such a complete era: success, quality music, looks, promo everywhere for YEARS, a big tour and incredible events (Olympic Games, VMAs with Brit and Madonna) and still an incredible impact on the new generation

I was a kid at the time and remember hearing quite a bit about Christina. I remember hearing "Fighter" quite alot, which is why I was shocked to see it wasn't even a Top 10 hit, same goes for Dirrty which I heard frequently as well.

 

Britney still felt like the #1 pop girl to me though and I started paying tons of attention to Beyoncé at the time but I'd say all three of them, along with Alicia Keys, were the IT girls in the USA.

she was everywhere. I remember clear as the day how her TV Airplay was massive through Dirrty to The Voice Within, the latter was such a surprise it got such rotation even though its sound. Sad that Can't Hold Us Down didn't hit hard as the others singles where I live due to the massive success of the others singles.

Stripped looking back reminds me of the era in my life when my music taste really began to look "different" in comparison with my brothers and the other boys in the neighborhood.

 

To them it was all about 50 Cent, Eminem, Nelly, Ludacris and bands like Linkin Park and 3 Doors Down and I explicitly remember how weird they thought it was that I was obsessed with female pop stars, they'd listen to a song and act like they didn't like it just because it was a woman 

 

And of course I'd pretend I was obsessed with the videos because I thought they were "hot", when in reality I was in my room getting that choreo DOWNE hunny

 

 

16 minutes ago, tonyle1911 said:

I mean I know about the stats but like, how viral was it and how often people talk about it maybe compared to Miley’s Bangerz era when everyone was talking about her. I supposed Stripped was even more talked about right?

I don't think "viral" was a concept back then  

11 minutes ago, Lazuli said:

I don't think "viral" was a concept back then  

I really can find a word to describe what I meant lol. I didn’t follow English music until 2006, I just knew Christina Aguilera was a big name, but my first listen to her was Aint no other man. So I just wonder what it was like living in the Stripped Era lol

19 minutes ago, Planet Mars said:

I was a kid at the time and remember hearing quite a bit about Christina. I remember hearing "Fighter" quite alot, which is why I was shocked to see it wasn't even a Top 10 hit, same goes for Dirrty which I heard frequently as well.

 

Britney still felt like the #1 pop girl to me though and I started paying tons of attention to Beyoncé at the time but I'd say all three of them, along with Alicia Keys, were the IT girls in the USA.

True. I was shocked when I found that Dirrty peaked at 40 something. I thought it was like her number 1 hit as how iconic it was. It hit number 1 in UK though. But Stripped only peaked 13 there. I think media just hated her so much that people didn’t think the album was so good. It should have snagged the PopVocalAlbum not JT though. 

In Poland she was as big as Britney at that time and considered a much better vocalist on top of that. Her name recognition was huge. All 5 singles from Stripped were all over TV music channels.

18 minutes ago, tonyle1911 said:

I really can find a word to describe what I meant lol. I didn’t follow English music until 2006, I just knew Christina Aguilera was a big name, but my first listen to her was Aint no other man. So I just wonder what it was like living in the Stripped Era lol

Well, the Stripped era was definitely very different from the Back To Basics era. Not that Back to Basics wasn’t successful, but Stripped was on a whole different level of success, impact, and controversy.

 

Christina’s transition from Christina Aguilera to Stripped was probably the most abrupt sexual evolution of any pop girl so the controversy was intense. Other pop girls evolved sexually over a more prolonged period. Even Miley Cyrus had another album before Bangerz where she got a bit more sexual, so that transition wasn’t as abrupt.

 

But yeah, the way Christina was able to turn the era’s sexual backlash around from Dirrty with an impactful song and video like Beautiful instantly made the era quite unique and iconic even then. 

It was big, and bigger than the "Britney" era for sure. Lol I'm not saying this to troll, I'm literally a Britney stan.

Britney was the number one chick, during the Stripped era Xtina managed to have to same media coverage, controversy, but with more content, Dirty was overplayed on MTV, and Beautiful became an anthem, it was a loooooooong era.

26 minutes ago, tshwark said:

Britney was the number one chick, during the Stripped era Xtina managed to have to same media coverage, controversy, but with more content, Dirty was overplayed on MTV, and Beautiful became an anthem, it was a loooooooong era.

True ?? I think she even did performances in 2004 and planned for another tour in 2004 or 2005 as well

33 minutes ago, Nightglitch said:

It was big, and bigger than the "Britney" era for sure. Lol I'm not saying this to troll, I'm literally a Britney stan.

Britney was huge era in my country. I’m not a girl was overplayed here lol. I think Dirrty was not played anywhere here but I remember they played Fighter and Can’t hold us down a lot as part of back-to-back videos on Channel V when she was back with B2B

31 minutes ago, tshwark said:

Britney was the number one chick, during the Stripped era Xtina managed to have to same media coverage, controversy, but with more content, Dirty was overplayed on MTV, and Beautiful became an anthem, it was a loooooooong era.

Britney definitely wasn’t #1 during Stripped. Christina was on top of the world 

I remember that era as a kid, mind you I was 5-6 but I still remember how much they played Dirrty, Beautiful, Can't Hold Us Down and Fighter on Much Music (here in Canada). She definitely was everywhere, similar to Bey during Dangerously in Love. I miss those days.