#TBT: Paying Respects to Christina Aguilera's "Your Body" 5 Years Later

On September 28, 2012, Christina Aguilera dropped the video for "Your Body," the lead single from her seventh studio album, Lotus. The song would (sadly) go on to peak at number 24 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart. However, it would peak at the top spot on my iPod for several weeks during the fall of 2012, receiving heavy rotation at one particular Halloween party I DJed in Santa Monica (naturally).

The music video, however, should have given it a boost in sales. Why? May I present to you...Serial Killer Xtina!

Beautifully directed by Melina Matsoukas ("We Found Love," Insecure, "Pretty Hurts") the singer seduces three chiseled victims (one of them played by General Hospital beefcake Ryan Paevey), leading the final one to a pink motel in the desert, which looks a lot like the place where those lady wrestlers resided in Netflix's Glow. (Someone hired the same location manager!)


"Your Body" had the makings of a hit. Uberproducer Max Martin was the mastermind behind the irresistibly synthy, pulse-pounding track. The visual treatment played out like a dirty-sexy short film about a femme fatale with some killer...pipes. And even an explicit version of the song existed to make it even dirtier (just replace "love" with another four-letter word). But alas, not much love was given. File this one under "Underrated Pop Gems of the 2010s."

@TheFirstEcho