Caution: This column includes one of my more radical statements ever put down to paper. I have attacked God, the South and our nation's drug war, but yet here I stand articulating a viewpoint perhaps shared by only the slimmest of minorities.
Christina Aguilera is a positive influence on today's youth.
I'll repeat that. No, actually I will expand my statement: Christina Aguilera is not only a positive influence on today's youth, her artistic statements reveal popular music's most redeeming values.
I'm not high. This is actually a serious column, I swear. There is a point to me praising the work of 21-year old pop star whom the majority of Duke students, particularly women, most often refer to as a slut, skank or ho.
If you give me a shot, I guarantee you will come away surprised and maybe even find yourself agreeing with me. You could stop here, of course, and simply ask yourself: What the hell do I care about some pop music bimbo? There is a point to this exercise, however, and that is to illustrate some of the strengths of today's music scene - even within the work of an artist many view as vastly untalented and an example of how low popular music has sunk.
What I'm not doing, by the way, is trying to explain or defend Christina Aguilera as a person or as a musical talent. You can read the Rolling Stone cover story or buy her new album and see if you like this girl or not. Frankly, I don't care.
I'm certainly not the biggest of fans myself, but after seeing her album favorably reviewed for its honesty and then downloading a couple of its songs, I feel that there are really a great many positives to her stuff.
It is hard, mind you, to get over Aguilera's reputation and previous body of work. She broke through with "Genie In a Bottle," the music video for which is basically one long shot of Aguilera rolling around in the sand and showing off some uninventive dance moves.
Her first single off Stripped, her newest CD's title that clearly plays off Aguilera's sexual reputation, was "Dirrty." That's right, with two r's, perhaps because the dance beat will inspire those to bump and grind with reckless abandon. There is more to Aguilera than simply sex and more sex, though.
Her second single off Stripped is "Beautiful." Now, the refrain isn't very deep: "I am beautiful no matter what they say/ Words can't bring me down/ I am beautiful in every single way/ Yes, words can't bring me down/ So don't you bring me down today."
Either charming or bland depending on your point of view, the lyrics offer nothing original. But take a look at the music video. As Aguilera sings within the solitude of some random beat-up apartment, the video follows several different storylines.
One features a severely anorexic-looking girl standing in front of a mirror in just a bra and panties, plucking the skin off her protruding ribs. Another follows an attractive pair of gay men kissing on a park bench in front of passers-by.
Whether you like the song or not, the video montage is touching. We talk about public demonstrations and awareness campaigns, but a pop star's impact can be far, far greater.
With teenagers being the superficial, insecure people they are, a warm melody supporting those that too much of society considers amoral can be quite comforting.
Can you imagine such a video even a decade ago? That a pop star, even one mocked as often as Aguilera, can achieve commercial success through a video like "Beautiful" is impressive.
"I'm Okay," another song off Stripped, offers a poignant message on physical abuse. Aguilera attacks the personal demons of being beaten by her father and seeing her father beat her mother. (Say what you will about Aguilera's musical ability or lack thereof. Her childhood experiences, by their very nature, reveal depth and grit).
The song's opening verse: "Once upon a time there was a girl /In her early years she had to learn/How to grow up living in a war that she called home/Never know just where to turn for shelter from the storm /Hurt me to see the pain across my mother's face/Everytime my father's fist would put her in her place/Hearing all the yelling I would cry up in my room/ Hoping it would be over soon."
Say what you want about Aguilera or other frequently reviled pop stars - and I chose to write about Aguilera precisely because of her decidedly poor reputation among young adults my age - there is an irrefutable reality that even with all the cheesy bubblegum pop and Hollywood veneer playing 24/7 on MTV, there is also a wealth of material offering outlets for those affected by divorce, physical abuse and social ostracization.
With so many millions of American youth struggling with these problems, I think it's important to acknowledge the cultural and musical evolutions of the last decade or two.
For so long, problems like parental abuse and angst over sexual orientation were subjects almost entirely untouched within best-selling music; artists always spoke in metaphor.
Today's artists are graphic and open with songs and videos that even legends like the Beatles never produced. I think that's worth being acknowledged.
Nick Christie is a Trinity senior and associate sports editor for The Chronicle.
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