4 Pop Icons Who Produced Surprisingly Good Rock Songs

Plenty of pop stars out there have given rock music a shot through the years. While many pop icons didn’t exactly dive into straight-up rock-and-roll territory, many of them produced fairly good pop-leaning rock songs. Let’s look at just four examples, shall we?

1. “Fighter” by Christina Aguilera

The early 2000s were an interesting time for rock music. The grunge days had come and gone, and Evanescence emerged in 2003 to make rock music appealing to the pop charts yet again. With them, a few different pop stars decided to try their hand at heavier pieces of work.

Christina Aguilera’s contribution to the genre was “Fighter” in 2002. Surprisingly, Aguilera’s voice is very well-suited to pop-rock. Though, she has rarely put out tracks as heavy (if you can call “Fighter” heavy) as that one in recent years.

2. “La La” by Ashlee Simpson

This is probably the most well-known example of pop icons who produced rock songs. For a hot minute in the 2000s, Ashlee Simpson was the pop-rock it-girl. 

Determined to shine outside of her sister’s blonde bombshell shadow, Ashlee Simpson’s whole image was very much a reflection of teenagers at the time. The swooping bangs, the Converse shoes, the studded belts. Her music was as far away from punk rock and emo as it gets, but she did put out a few addicting pop-rock tracks during her heyday.

3. “Trouble” by Pink

Pink has always been a little bit punk rock. Though, her music has evolved from R&B to true pop mainstream fodder through the years. “Trouble” was a more rock-leaning pop song from the rebellious pop star, and it’s honestly still a bop years later. 

The whole of Try This was very much at the cusp of rock music, and that’s unfortunately why it didn’t do so well in 2003. The album was produced by Rancid’s Tim Armstrong and could have been groundbreaking if Pink had just let go of the pop world entirely.

4. “Don’t Hurt Yourself” by Beyoncé

Out of all the pop icons who produced rock songs on this list, Beyoncé’s “Don’t Hurt Yourself” was a very surprising piece of work. And it’s still one of the best tracks to come out of Lemonade. 

“Don’t Hurt Yourself” was produced by Jack White of The White Stripes, so we’re not exactly shocked that it ended up being a killer hard rock song.

Photo by JMEnternational/Getty Images

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