10 Years Later: "Genie in a Bottle"

Another hit-making machine to start her pop era off the heel of the Mickey Mouse Club (holla at Brit-Brit and JT!), Christina Aguilera is the next PYT to takeover MTV and excite teen hormones in 1999. She had already gained some attention with her song “Reflection,” featured in Disney’s Mulan, which highlighted her vocal talents that makes her stand out from the rest pop wannabes.

With her second single, “Genie in a Bottle,” our songbird plays it safe for mainstream audiences and instead showcases a whole lot of stomach and choreographed dance routines in this summertime hit. Though the music video is nothing exciting—her tassled outfits and baggy orange pants are the beginnings of Aguilera's many fashion faus pas—the song is playing off the same appeal as Britney Spears’ “…Baby One More Time" by being suggestive without seeming overtly sexual. Lyrics such as “I’m a genie in a bottle/You gotta rub me the right way” creates an effective double entendre that teases listeners and leaves the rest to the imagination.

In a time when sport fans celebrated the U.S. women’s soccer team win of the FIFA Women’s World Cup and book nerds rejoiced over the second installation of the Harry Potter series, perhaps Aguilera worked some of her magic as a genie (and someone had indeed rubbed her the right way).