~~~LADY GAGA~~~
I thought this was a bit of an interesting discovery. Very rarely do I watch Oprah, but I do watch YouTube...a lot! And when YouTube features Oprah...well, I do what I am told...sometimes. Recently, Lady Gaga was on the Oprah show, and any time I see Lady Gaga, she is usually dressed in some outrageous costume with an equally outrageous hairstyle, and so, I can't help but watch...how's that for advertising?
Anyways, before yesterday I never really gave Gaga (as she prefers to be called) any thought besides "Hmmm, she's interesting and maybe a bit attention starved" but since hearing her talk about some of the motivations behind her performances, she got me thinking about her in a whole new way.
Gaga's family is what some would consider the upper side of upper-middle class. She went to school with Paris Hilton, had many opportunities throughout her upbringing including music lessons and private education. Basically she was born into privilege in more ways than one. However, let's look at, for a moment, how her and Paris Hilton are both similar, but more importantly for the point I am trying to make, different. Both women "had/have it all" and to some degree are influenced by the same sorts of things.
I guess, at this point watching the Oprah interview would be beneficial to see where I am coming from...so here it is.
Basically, this is the developing feeling that I am getting from Gaga... I think that she is in her own way a culture jammer. She is jamming the music industry ( a huge form of popular culture) as well as celebrities and their lifestyles. By not conforming to the social policing that takes place within the industry, Gaga has created a space for herself to be very eccentric and watched. In a way, fighting the "normal" and boring stereotypes of celebrity life, she has in turn become a celebrity...and a very famous and influential one at that. The message that she is selling, though not always clear, is one that she has control over. So maybe bleeding to death on stage, or dressing pretty unconventional in the public sphere is not ideal, but whatever she does, she owns. She herself says that her fans are her biggest connection, and that she does not have many celebrity friends.
Again, this is kind of a new developing thought process for me regarding Gaga, but I think it is still very interesting. Although her methods are a bit "out there" and the meaning of her performances may get a bit lost in her abstract representation of her message....she is still quite the performer, and I will definitely be watching with a bit of a broader perspective these days. To me she seems to be a bit of an unexpected culture jammer...with sweet sunglasses!
.....Looie......
testing testing
ReplyDeletethe Doctor
Hi Looie,
ReplyDeleteReally thought-provoking post: a friend of mine describes Gaga as a drag artist, which I find fascinating if one thinks about drag as a process which accentuates particular ways of 'doing' or 'performing' gender.
I think you might be on to something, too. Although Gaga does jam effectively, she does it in a way that plays into pop culture (and pop music) tropes completely. One of the things I found most interesting about her Fame Monster album(s) was how each song was almost a caricature of another style/artist (there was Ace of Bass which morphed into Abba; Gwen Stefani; others I can't recall off the top of my head as I type this). And good to point out that she owns what she produces. It's impressive to check jacket notes and see that not only does she do most of the writing / collaborative writing for her songs, she also owns the company that produces her albums...convenient. Perhaps I could start a company that would produce my karaoke covers...there's no way that those won't sell well.
The Doctor
That is interesting about Gaga being a Drag artist of sorts. She is taking an industry that puts so much pressure on the performer to be perfect, and attractive and very clearly gendered, and completely turned it on its end. She has made "non status quo" (for lack of better phrasing) very famous and mainstream.
ReplyDeleteI see this as a glimmer of hope for those of us/you who don't want to fit nicely in between those lines...I think her actions speak volumes for stepping out and just being "you"...but on purpose.
***Looie***
I completely agree with what you've said here. Lady Gaga is interesting in that she is trying to battle much of the main streams ideas of women, and people in general, but does it by means of pop culture. Her flashy outfits and stage performances catch our attention, in turn she gets her messages across (or at least tries to, as sometimes it is hard to know what she really means).
ReplyDeleteI think she is a really great artist and sends the right messages with her interviews.
-BritFan