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Last Teen Queen Standing
Jul 27, 5:27 PM EST
In Defense of Christina Aguilera

By Kurt B. Reighley
Special to MSN Music

Christina Aguilera is a bona fide musician.

OK. Take a deep breath. That probably wasn't an easy sentence to read. It hurt to type it. But it's true. Her days as a "teen pop sensation" are long over. She turns 26 this year. She has built a credible pop catalog, one that has shown growth and a willingness to take risks. She has not dallied with TV shows, or children's books or pug rescue charities. Who among her contemporaries can say the same?

Britney Spears? No. Britney's last two albums were a padded Greatest Hits and the desperate stopgap measure "B in the Mix: The Remixes." Musically, she hasn't made a ripple since "Toxic" in 2004. Learning to juggle babies, figuring out which flavor of Moon Pie tastes best deep-fried and making sure your husband doesn't blow your entire fortune on his own questionable recording career are all worthy pastimes, but Britney would have to mount a one-woman production of Wagner's Ring Cycle to accrue anything close to credibility at this point.

Jessica Simpson? Let's see. In between her reality TV show -- which, one might note, resuscitated her waning public image, slight as it was -- her fragrance, her line of knock-off designer shoes, the Pizza Hut commercials and fine films such as "The Dukes of Hazzard" -- she makes records. Usually of other people's songs: Robbie Williams ("Angels"), Berlin ("Take My Breath Away"), Nancy Sinatra ("These Boots Are Made for Walkin'"). Just wait until you hear her forthcoming cover of Dead or Alive's "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)." That's not a joke.

Jessica's new single, the title track from her Aug. 29 release "A Public Affair," continues this desperate recycling. Technically, "A Public Affair" is an original song ... written by eight people, two of whom are R&B vets Nicholas Ashford and Valerie Simpson. And what does it sound like? Madonna's "Holiday." It took eight people and the bridge from "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" to knock out a cheap imitation of a Madonna classic? Sheesh.

Plus, the flimsy lyrics continue the embarrassing trend of pop stars airing their personal grievances publicly (see also: Lindsay Lohan's "Rumors," Nick Lachey's "What's Left of Me"). Boring. To quote Detroit critic Jimmy Draper, "I'm tired of feeling like I have to subscribe to US Weekly just to understand what these people are singing about."

And then there's Christina. When she emerged in the late '90s, Aguilera seemed like just another Mouseketeer made good. She had to bite and scratch to carve out her own place in a market glutted with pretty teenagers who could carry a tune ... or at least lip-sync well. Besides Jessica, Britney and Mandy Moore, we got imports from Sweden (Robyn), England (Billie Piper) and Ireland (Samantha Mumba). Hell, even Don Ho's daughter, Hoku, got into the game. (Her sole hit, "Another Dumb Blonde," was better than 90 percent of the challengers; bless you, Radio Disney.) As one fell away -- or went off to a state college -- another would rise in her place, like some beast from Greek mythology. Goodbye Willa Ford, hello Hilary Duff.

Like her or hate her, Aguilera has just gone from strength to strength. In the world of entertainment, there's good and there's dull, and Christina is rarely dull. She quickly graduated from "What a Girl Wants" to talking about her genital piercing. Even when she seemed to spiral out of control, there were signs of life, and -- oh this is hard -- integrity. Patti LaBelle is an unstoppable force of nature, yet an entire generation of listeners will never associate "Lady Marmalade" with LaBelle because of Aguilera and company's overhaul of that classic for "Moulin Rouge." She cut a whole album aimed at the Latin market. She recorded a very credible duet with jazz great Herbie Hancock -- who does not have to work with people below his métier. Hell, she even won the Grammy for Best New Artist and survived. Somewhere, the Starland Vocal Band is very jealous.

Admittedly, Christina isn't the only teen pop queen to forge ahead. Pink has done well for herself, roping in the Indigo Girls to play on her recent album, shooting the hilarious "Stupid Girls" video and verbally berating President Bush at every opportunity. But while the current role model for young women seems to skew closer to the tough, Avril Lavigne-type, don't overlook that Kelly Clarkson's big emancipation number, "Since U Been Gone," was produced by Max Martin, the same Swedish mastermind responsible for key hits by Spears, *NSync and Backstreet Boys.

After years of paying lip service to Etta James, Aguilera truly flexes her R&B chops on her recent hit, "Ain't No Other Man" (listen to the single). Yes, she still does that ridiculous, operatic wail of melisma that most post-Whitney/Mariah disciples do to mark their territory, but the song is solid; it integrates a pair of esoteric funk samples, but it doesn't bite anyone else's style. Frankly, it's not hard to image James -- or a '60s soul sister such as Laura Lee ("Women's Love Rights") -- singing these exact same sentiments, about how bad-ass her lover-man is, and how she'll fight to keep competitors at bay.

Christina's new album, "Back to Basics," is a double-CD, one disc featuring hip-hop producers (specifically DJ Premier of Gang Starr), the other with all live instrumentation. She has said in interviews the set taps heavily into her love of sounds and images from the 1920s, '30s and '40s. While making the record, she papered her walls with pictures of Louis Armstrong, John Coltrane, Billie Holiday and Pearl Bailey. Will Jessica or Britney ever be able to whip up anything comparable? Doubtful. Hell, between the pair, if you asked them to identify Pearl Bailey, they'd probably guess it was a type of tapioca pudding. Which makes sense. Those girls know all about being round, creamy, sweet and bland. But Christina? Now there's a W-O-M-A-N with flavor.

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it's surprising because i used to think of christina as...dirty, frankly.  but this article sure does have a point...