Christina Aguilera Covers Paper Magazine, Defends ‘Bionic’ Era

Christina Aguilera is back with a vengence, as the pop legend covers the September issue of Paper magazine.

In addition to the magazine article and high fashion spread, the "Genie in a Bottle" singer, 43, reflected on the 25th anniversary of her self-titled debut album. She also set the record straight on her cult classic album Bionic.

Here's what the "Not Myself Tonight" singer had to say about her Bionic era:

“‘Bionic’ was not a huge song, but I can’t tell you how much love I get for that specific album. You listen to that song now and it holds up. At the end of the day, you look at the actual body of work. Whenever I’m not around anymore, for generations to come, they can enjoy different aspects of what I did and the music lives on. This is about the bigger picture.”

Continuing, she stood ten toes down on past remarks about it being ahead of its time:

“Bionic was an adventurous album. I was very inspired at the time by electronica music, by M.I.A. and Ladytron, Switch and John Hill, who are incredible producers. They knew how to piece together these intricate electronic sounds, and these are newer to the ear. At the end of the day, sometimes things happen in pop culture that people aren’t ready for. But it’s not for me to really know and dissect, because I put something out there that I truly loved and still love to this day. “Bionic” and “Vanity,” these records that are so fun to perform live and get the audience hype and stand the test of time.”

While reviews were mixed at the time of Bionic's release, Xtina continued to defend the album:

“I make that decision before I release it. It’s almost like you’re protective of your child: If I send this out into the world, it’s not mine anymore. You want to protect it and love it, and you don’t want people to be mean to it, like a child. But at the same time, I’m not going to shy away from a challenge. If you’re a real artist, you’re gonna put yourself out there. You get it to a place where it’s like, No matter what somebody can say about it, I love it. It can’t be broken because it’s a part of me, it’s real. That’s why I don’t hold weight in numbers or in other people’s opinions, because it’s so easy to critique and cast judgment. But it comes with the territory, I get it. You have to be able to stay authentic, or else you’ll lose your own sense of self and creativity.”

On how she approaches making music:

“I never was interested in making the same record over and over again, that’s my worst idea of music. It’s part of our jobs as musicians to see where music is moving and see what’s happening socially. It really is about connecting and trying to bring people together.

“I’m not a machine, I’m not a number. I’m a human who wants to connect on a very human level. To a lot of people, it is about numbers because numbers generate dollars and that’s when it becomes business and stale and, to me, the ugly beast of the creative business. Success is great, it brings people together. It generates conversation. But I will never be a part of the creative world in a way that jeopardizes my own integrity.”

Bionic was definitely ahead of it's time, and besides Back To Basics, it's one of the Xtina albums that I visit often.

You can read the full article here.