Designed much like our ‘Retro Rewind’ and ‘From the Vault’ segments, ‘Replay’ is That Grape Juice‘s retrospective segment – a written quest, if you will, to re-spin the gems and jams of yesterday.
Unlike its ‘Rewind’ and ‘Vault’ predecessors, ‘Replay’ looks to dust off and showcase entire albums (and eras) from a library of Pop and Urban Pop music hits.
In celebration of the 10th anniversary of Christina Aguilera‘s criminally underrated quaternary album, ‘Bionic,’ join us inside as we revisit the epic set.
Christina Aguilera’s third album, ‘Back to Basics,’ may have scored the diva the highest first week sales of her career (click here to read our ‘Replay’ to this project), but the effort was a critical polarizer for sure. Understandable considering how much of a homerun its predecessor ‘Stripped’ was (read our ‘Replay’ to this project here), but many critics branded ‘Basics’ a ‘try hard’ and ‘gimmicky’ endeavor because of how heavily stylized its odes to music’s Golden age were. Some even slammed it as inauthentic given Aguilera’s Pop past.
Undeterred, the GRAMMY winner followed up with another concept album – this time reversing the theme of ‘Basics’ to line the new set with futuristic sounds. Signaled by the greatest hits packaged tune ‘Keeps Gettin’ Better,’ the LP – later christened ‘Bionic’ – was birthed from an all-star writing and production ensemble including Ester Dean, Samuel Dixon, Claude Kelly, Polow Da Don, Tricky Stewart, and recurring contributor Linda Perry (responsible for her previous hits ‘Hurt,’ ‘Candyman,’ ‘Beautiful,’ and more).
‘Bionic’ brought four singles: ‘Not Myself Tonight,’ ‘WooHoo,’ ‘You Lost Me,’ and ‘I Hate Boys.’
Hot 100 Peak: #23
RIAA certification: N/A
Hot 100 Peak: #79
RIAA certification: N/A
Hot 100 Peak: N/A
RIAA certification: N/A
Hot 100 Peak: N/A
RIAA certification: N/A
As evidenced by its racy music video for kickoff single ‘Not Myself Tonight,’ ‘Bionic’ served as reminder that Aguilera was ‘still dirty’ (despite having alluded to a cleaner act in the years that followed the harsh criticism of the song ‘Dirrty’ and its accompanying era). This time, however, the blow back was multi-fold as the industry-at-large had shifted in the 8 years since ‘Dirrty’s unveiling.
Although Aguilera announced intent for her ‘Basics’ follow-up to be ‘futuristic’ well ahead of its arrival (as evidenced by ‘Better’), electronic dance music becoming the dominating force in popular music – a charge led by then-newcomer Lady Gaga – made ‘Bionic’ unfairly look like the product of trend-hopping. Paired with the negative response for its visual content, the commercial nonperformance of ‘Tonight’ foreshadowed the fate of its parent album.
Released June 8, 2010, ‘Bionic’ debuted at #3 on the Billboard 200 thanks to first week sales of 110,000 (the lowest of her career to that date). With its commercial run marred by poorly performing singles as Aguilera quickly shifted her attention to the promotion of her first starring film, ‘Burlesque,’ ‘Bionic’ was left to struggle to attain Gold certification from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
On this side of history, ‘Bionic’ deserves its own chapter in the book of music industry injustices. Few projects of its magnitude can boast the level of undue disregard and mistreatment it was given that most of the disdain for the effort was due to persuasion from popular sources instead of dislike for the content itself. What’s worse, to great degree Aguilera’s brand has not fully rebounded from the impact of that strategized dismantling.
Alas, as we press play on our jam, ‘Sex for Breakfast,’ look below and tell us: