Essay

What message does one of the most successful artists of the last decade try to pass on to us ? Christina Aguilera has recorded seven albums, including Back to Basics, released in 2006, and Keeps Getting Better, released in 2008. I find both records very strong, expressive and catchy by their themes, their lyrics and their popularity.
Even though the same artist is singing, the themes have slight differences. The name of the album concretely shows what the singer was thinking when recording : Back to Basics which means back to the old, previous way. It is explicitely demonstrated in her clips for example, where the background is completely different and changed with elements from the oldies. The album is a sort of flashback in the 20s, 30s and 40s with a modern twist while it still remaining vintage. 2008 was a significant year for Christina which explains the change of topics found in the last album, Keep Getting Better: the decade of hits. The singer tried to insert a futuristic connotation to her music which didn’t suit her as well as her own style. I think Back to Basics is the more impressive one because the artist succeeded and showed her audience another face of music, by reintegrating the previous decennies’ technics and sounds.
These lyrics from Christina’s songs are not coming from nothing. Christina Aguilera’s songs are most of the time stories, sometimes from her own past and experiences. That makes her music sound more authentic. In Back to Basics, she sings about personal feelings and concerns such as family, love and relationships. For example, in ‘’ Hurt ‘’, she talks about her childhood and the regret she felt later towards her dad what she had said but didn’t mean. Whereas in Keeps Getting Better, she rerecorded some of her old songs such as ‘’ Genie in a bottle’’ and ‘’ Beautiful ‘’ by inserting new different ways of expressing herself to try a new style that doesn’t necessarily put in value the tone of her voice. I find the second album more commercial than the first one which was more true.
An artist doesn’t necessarily have an only proper style. The fact that the previous record was more of the old style didn’t affect the success it had. For example, in Back to Basics, ‘’ Ain’t no other man ‘’ reached the number 2 on the World Chart, ‘’ Hurt ‘’ did pretty well in Europe and ‘’ Candyman ‘’ was more famous in the Pacific area. In Keeps Getting Better, the single premiered at the MTV Awards. I think all this success is due to the depth and sense of the lyrics that carry meaningful messages that the audience can relate to.

In conclusion, both albums pass on messages but one shows it better than the other. So Back to Basics is more interesting and better done in all points of views then Keeps Getting Better which is more of a playful or futuristic album.