Star Image and Development

As one of our preps we looked at Star Image and Development. The task was to pick a particular 'Star' and look at their development over time. The star at which I looked was Christina Aguileira. I do not want to make my music video in her style but I thought that she would be a good one to look at for these purposes.

In 1999 when she recorded 'What A Girl Wants' she was still more of a youthful girl, appealing to teenagers rather than adults. In terms of her star image she was quite similar to Britney Spears at the time, who was also attractive to older men in her childishness, and otherwise just to people her own age. She constructed quite a sexualized image in a youthful way which changed a lot as she grew older.

When she recorded 'Beautiful' in 2002 she still seemed very young and youthful, but not quite as childlike anymore. Her image was still sexualized but in a more mature way now and she now seems more female, adressing a slightly older audience, attracting people her own age and slightly older people. She is now also focusing the listener a bit more on her talent rather than just her looks combined with the ability to hold the tones.

In 2006 when she brought out her album 'Back to Basics' she established herself as a grown and mature woman, mainly focusing on her ability to sing. Although she did playful and sexualized songs like 'Candyman' she also did mature songs like 'Hurt' which still showed her as a sexual figure but in a grown up way. Now she is attracting people her own age and possibly even ones a bit younger than her as she definitely can't be seen as a child anymore.

In 2010 when she brought out 'Bionic' she had established herself as a fully grown woman. Style wise she was now going more along the lines of Lady Gaga and Gwen Stefani. Her image is still very sexualized but now she is also attracting a mature audience of people valuing her talent rather than just her looks. Her image is very manufactured by now to fit the expectations of a mainstream audience but this is done in a very stylized and almost odd way.

So overall Christina Aguileira had a very strong development in her star image since she had started to work in the business, moving from a teenager to a mature and grown up woman.