She approached hip hop producer Rockwilder and suggested using Redman's 2001 song "Let's Get Dirty (I Can't Get in da Club)" as a guide.

The final result, "Dirrty", is an R&B and hip hop song that also features rapping verses from Redman and describes sexual activities.

Depicting sexual fetishes such as mud wrestling and muscle worshipping, the controversial video eliminated her previous image as a bubblegum pop singer.

Despite rising to prominence with the commercial success of her 1999 self-titled debut album,[3][4][5] Aguilera was displeased with being marketed as her then-manager Steve Kurtz desired, and felt unable to control her image.

[6] She explained to The Sydney Morning Herald her dissatisfaction with being a part of the late 1990s teen pop trend, "The label [RCA Records] wanted to push the cookie-cutter, [...] almost virginal kind of imagery that wasn't me.

[16] Jon Pareles noted that Aguilera was determined to shed her teen pop image that she achieved with her early works, and decided to show her sexuality and aggression in the "self-explanatory" "Dirrty".

[25] "Dirrty" was also released as a CD single in Germany on October 14, and in the United Kingdom on November 11 by RCA and Sony Music Entertainment.

[46] "Dirrty" also peaked at number four on the ARIA Singles Charts in Australia and was certified platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association.

[49] Todd Burns from Stylus Magazine labeled it "one of the most interesting songs of the year" and compared its styles to Britney Spears' "image transformation" on "I'm a Slave 4 U".

"[51] Dotmusic editor Ian Watson praised the song's production, noting that it is "interesting chiefly for the pneumatic rhythm and guttural cabaret".

[52] Reviewing Aguilera's 2008 compilation album Keeps Gettin' Better: A Decade of Hits, Nick Levine from Digital Spy called "Dirrty" the "sluttiest, sweatiest club banger in recent memory.

[54] Likewise, Stephen Thomas Erlewine from AllMusic was disappointed towards the track's being released as the lead single and found Aguilera's vocal range in the song too narrow.

[55] Michael Paoletta from Billboard called the song "horribly derivative",[56] while NME's Jim Wirth said that "Dirrty" was "probably the pick of an inconsistent crop.

"[57] Entertainment Weekly critic Seymour Craig gave it a D−, calling Aguilera's voice "desperate and shrill," and found it to be an unsuccessful attempt to gain street cred.

[59][60] In 2022, Billboard ranked "Dirrty" at number twenty-two on its list of the hundred greatest 2002 songs, calling it "a blueprint to reinvention in the pop game".

[66] Billboard placed "Dirrty" at number twenty six on its 2018 list of the greatest music videos of the 21st century, saying it contained "one of the most explosive image resets in history".

Following Stripped, artists like Britney Spears and Beyoncé became more comfortable expressing sexuality and no longer felt the need to sell the notion of innocence.

[76] LA Weekly selected it as the fourth greatest music video on TRL, writing: "Ass-less chaps: An underutilized pop star accessory.

"[87] Entertainment Weekly described Aguilera's image in the video as "the world's skeeziest reptile woman,"[16] and The Village Voice captioned her as a xenomorph from the Alien series.

[89]In 2017, Amy Roberts of Bustle noticed that Aguilera received a sexist, misogynistic backlash because of "Dirrty's" music video, while also remarked that it "wasn't made to specifically fulfill heterosexual male fantasies".

She further praised the video as "raw", "visceral" and "ahead of time", and believed "it was exactly what the music industry needed to happen in the early '00s" because of its inappropriateness.

[93][94] Aguilera's first televised performance of "Dirrty" was for a program called TRL Presents: Christina Stripped in New York City in October 2002.

[100][101] The performance at the Wembley Arena in London was recorded for the 2004 video release Stripped Live in the U.K..[102] "Dirrty" was also included on the setlist of Aguilera's 2006–2008 Back to Basics Tour, as part of the circus segment.

The performance incorporated elements of "Cell Block Tango" from the Broadway musical Chicago, and "Entrance of the Gladiators" by Julius Fučík, and featured a carousel horse.

[110][111] Aguilera also sang excerpts from the song during the 47th People's Choice Awards,[112][113] and selected it as a show opener for her Expo 2020 concert in Dubai.

[118][119] Slant ranked "Dirrty" at number sixty-two on its list of the best singles of the 2000s — Sal Cinquemani called it "more of a statement than an actual song".

[122] "Dirrty" was featured the sixth season of RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars, performed by Kylie Sonique Love and Manila Luzon.

[123] In the How I Met Your Father episode titled "Dirrty Thirty" a Christina Aguilera-themed birthday party is planned, focusing on the song and its music video.

[124][125] In 2020, the British magazine i-D ranked the song at number four on a list of the Best Pop Comebacks of the 21st Century, calling the choice to release it as a single "immaculate".

[132] The music video for Tate McRae's 2023 single "exes" also drew comparisons to "Dirrty" for having similar scenes, outfits, and choreography.