Thursday, April 01, 2010
Lady's Night
So the phenomenon of Lady Gaga interests me. I have to say I find it hard to believe that the same America that voted for George W. Bush and watches Two and a Half Men has made a pop singer who strongly resembles a European drag queen a star. I mean, this is a woman who doesn't really seem to mind that the most prevalent rumor about her is that she has a penis. She dresses in clothing made out of popular children's television characters. And yet people actually buy her music in an age when even Madonna seems to have given up on being anything other than a weird old lady who turns up on Jerry Seinfeld's horrible reality show. I mean weird, right?
The Telephone video has been particularly bizarre, and not just because she wears a hat made out of old rotary phones while dancing around and making a sandwich. When I first saw it I thought it was sort of hilarious but if anything a bit boring. And then I heard that MTV had banned it, as though MTV has even shown any kind of music video in the past five years, and then I heard that MTV had unbanned it, thus freeing it up to play over the credits to Jersey Shore, I guess. And then I saw some wild-eyed Christian lady on FOX News talking about how it depicts Lady Gaga having her penis cut off. And then I was sorry that I had apparently missed that part.
Don't get me wrong, it's not like I own her album or anything, but I'm totally studying this as a cultural phenomenon. I'm like the Jane Goodall of contemporary pop.
So the phenomenon of Lady Gaga interests me. I have to say I find it hard to believe that the same America that voted for George W. Bush and watches Two and a Half Men has made a pop singer who strongly resembles a European drag queen a star. I mean, this is a woman who doesn't really seem to mind that the most prevalent rumor about her is that she has a penis. She dresses in clothing made out of popular children's television characters. And yet people actually buy her music in an age when even Madonna seems to have given up on being anything other than a weird old lady who turns up on Jerry Seinfeld's horrible reality show. I mean weird, right?
The Telephone video has been particularly bizarre, and not just because she wears a hat made out of old rotary phones while dancing around and making a sandwich. When I first saw it I thought it was sort of hilarious but if anything a bit boring. And then I heard that MTV had banned it, as though MTV has even shown any kind of music video in the past five years, and then I heard that MTV had unbanned it, thus freeing it up to play over the credits to Jersey Shore, I guess. And then I saw some wild-eyed Christian lady on FOX News talking about how it depicts Lady Gaga having her penis cut off. And then I was sorry that I had apparently missed that part.
Don't get me wrong, it's not like I own her album or anything, but I'm totally studying this as a cultural phenomenon. I'm like the Jane Goodall of contemporary pop.
