Lady Gaga is amazing, and an astonishly talented woman. She is less beautiful than Madonna, but a deeper thinker, and just as good a dancer and singer. Her idols are my idols: Freddie Mercury, David Bowie.
Remember when Brian May suggested that he was a bit uncomfortable at the lavish praise that entertainment industry reporters and reviewers always heaped on Freddie for his “showmanship”? Brian objected to that, because he felt that it glossed over Mercury’s achievements as a musician. (I don’t know whether May includes Freddie’s freaky-great voice in that, but I certainly do. And I can’t find that interview on YouTube, but it’s on this DVD.)
Lady Gaga courts the same danger, inasmuch as people continually confuse the sizzle with the steak when it comes to her, and this is an even greater danger for a female glam-rocker than a male. (I can justify this if you people need me to, but I suspect that you understand it right off the bat.)
Ace discusses the video, and Lady G’s artistic merit:
Some commenters asked who she was. Well, she’s either a talented or semi-talented (I go back and forth on that) pop tart. The weird thing is that she emulates not just Madonna but Alice Cooper….
Is that [the video] good? I sort of think it is. But even if it’s not… Okay, I’ve seen lesbian kiss shock moments, I’ve seen gay kiss shock moments, I’ve seen see-through dress/no bra shock moments, I’ve seen wardrobe malfunction shock moments, I’ve seen… more lesbian kiss shock moments…
All the four or five shock moments I’m supposed to be stunned by even seeing them for the six bazillionth time.
But I’ve never seen that. And I wasn’t expecting anything like that.
So… I dunno. I was surprised. I think, for once, I actually was, in fact, shocked.
That’s something.
Well, the blood capsules have been used among musical youts on stage for some time; they were certainly in play when I went to see Dir en Grey. Shock value =/= art. But doing something old in a new way very often is the gateway to real art.
“Pop tart.” Geez. Ace is no sexist, but he can be, if you’ll excuse the expression, a bit of a literal-minded-male-who-doesn’t-get-symbolism. (If one tries to talk on that level, he pretends to go all Goldsteinian, and appeals to “authorial intent,” as if most songwriters or screenwriters provided a Rosetta stone that explained all the levels they are working on at any given moment, and one oughtn’t to color outside the lines they’ve provided. And yet any artist who provides such a Rosetta stone is probably a hack: the good ones encode, and let us decode. To do otherwise saps the energy out of the process. Art ain’t exposition.)
What Lady Gaga is saying in the video is not a lot different from what Elton John was saying in “Candle in the Wind,” but Elton didn’t bring the Phantom of the Opera into it. And the truth Lady G is pointing to is quite real: some artists—actors, singers, and dancers—use their bodies as part of their art. And they forfeit their privacy more often than not, sacrificing it to their art. Yes: many of these people are paid extraordinarily well to do this, but the fact is that no amount of money can compensate for giving up the fundamental right to be left alone. It is a kind of suicide.
Those who live lives of celebrity are sometimes the victims of a kind of psychic cannibalism. And I understand that most of them volunteer for this, but when I see it I tend to go semi-vegetarian all the same.
In other news, um . . . Sarah Jessica Parker is turning into a bit of a dog, doncha think?
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the fact is that no amount of money can compensate for giving up the fundamental right to be left alone
There’s a simple solution to that: move from Hollywierd to fly-over country, get a regular job and be a regular guy (or gal). And live a mostly invisible life like the rest of us.
Yes, that means not being invited to the best parties, or walking on the red carpet, or jetting to Cannes in the spring. There are choices to be made, and not all choices are equal.
You forgot the part about probably being unemployed, since most artists are purely awful at holding down straight jobs.
Come on, now.
She is less beautiful than Madonna
She’ll do.
In the mean time, who was it that said that writing was easy, you just sit down at the typewriter and open a vein?
Attila, I cannot sympathise. I simply cannot. Plenty of artists hold regular jobs. And because they don’t make a splash, you don’t think of them as ‘artists’.
Don’t believe me? Think about all the music shop owners and workers, those who run art galleries and museums, recording studios. Or all the folks performing in perfectly respectable clubs. I won’t mention academics, because there can be reasonable doubt as to whether that’s a regular job or not. Think they’re all uncreative, unimaginative Joes who just run the business without the calling and the passion?
I won’t even go into those who do sculpture or wood-carving or whatever, and those who are in the bazaars and flea markets.
Now, wait: IRA is talking about one things, and Gregory is talking about something else. IRA is saying one only need move to Peoria, and live in obscurity in order to get one’s privacy back, and I’m saying that is difficult for many–leaving family and friends behind, and acquiring a new (and probably somewhat separate) skill set. In this case, the person’s privacy has already been permanently breached, and he or she starts an entirely new career, in a whole new world.
Gregory is, on the other hand, talking about the phenomenon of people who achieve some success at a young age, and go on to develop careers in fields that are linked to that success–the one-hit-wonder turned studio musician, etc. In this scenario, the privacy breach is probably not severe, since this person was only “hot” for a few years, and he or she needn’t relocate.
I’m not saying that people shouldn’t develop as many of their talents as possible, but I am saying that it’s more complicated than one might suppose. Should John Travolta, for instance, have changed his name and started working at Starbucks when it looked like it was all over for him? Or should he have done what he did–kept reading the scripts his agent sent him, until the right one (Pulp Fiction) came along?
If I sound anxious, it’s because I was the world’s worst waitress. Really. And it’s hard to get any better when you always get fired after two months on the job.
But blast it all, Attila, that’s what a number of people end up doing anyway! There are stories out there about phenomenally successful Hollywood-types who severed all ties with their glamourous past and ‘went native’, so to speak.
Yes, in some cases, by taking up something completely different. Yes, in other cases, by going for something close to their heart. They make *movies* out of this very theme (Sweet Home Alabama, sort of).
And most of the regular working actors (not the big names) do, after all, work as busboys and whatnot in between gigs.
I mean, look at Reagan. B-grade movie actor, gives it up and goes into civil service. And he held a steady job for what? 8 years or so?
/tongue-in-cheek
Anyway, the “meaning” of that piece for an award show is different than the one she presented in her official video for “Paparazzi.” (There she had reached the top and was declining in popularity until her boyfriend threw her off the balcony. After successful rehab (referenced by that wheelchair in your clip), she gets back to Page 1 by simply poisoning that same boyfriend (I guess he assumed all was forgiven, if not forgotten.)
She seems to put a lot of additional effort in her “throwaway” performances on awards shows and elsewhere–something I have never seen before. I guess she feels that there are no throwaway performances–and that’s kind of refreshing. A case in point, see her appearance at the last American Music Awards
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5Wpm8svP8w
(Better hurry because links keep disappearing when Dick Clark pulls out his iron fist.)
Notice that it is different from her “Bad Romance” vid and required tons of additional effort. Notice how different that is from the other performers on the show who essentially phoned it in. If anything, she will make everyone else raise the bar when it comes to entertaining audiences–even for free.
Lots of video are starting to appear of the brunette Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta in jeans or Kmart dresses sitting at her piano, singing her original songs, trying to get noticed at talent shows and small bars/clubs. And trying to fill her tip glass. I guess it really does takes years to become an overnight success.
I do like this Lady Gaga Cover…