Christina Aguilera - Stripped

Christina Aguilera spent her debut album being marketed as a teen pop star. Stripped, released in 2002, was the sound of her taking the wheel. She co-wrote nearly all of it, shed the bubblegum entirely, and made a sprawling, defiant record about sex, self-worth, and refusing to be packaged.

The singles tell the story. "Dirrty" arrived first and scandalized daytime television, "Beautiful" answered it with one of the great self-acceptance ballads of the decade and won a Grammy, and "Can't Hold Us Down," with Lil' Kim, went straight at the double standard. Linda Perry, Scott Storch, and Alicia Keys all contribute, and the album swings from hip-hop soul to Latin balladry to raw blues belting across twenty tracks.

It sold in the tens of millions worldwide and remains the record that turned Aguilera into an artist rather than a product.

Spread across two LPs. A cornerstone of early 2000s pop.