So we come to the end of the decade which has seen the music industry grow ever nearer to extinction. But what have we achieved musically as a race within the so called ‘charts’? What is ‘pop music’ and what can we actually observe about it that is worth merit? As a student of Popular Musicology I have often faced the cold stare of the conservative force of the so-called Art Music Scholars who demean a form of music which has more connection with people on a versatile platform. Popular Music has more in common with the population on Earth operating within non-esoteric parameters accepting any ears irrespective of class, which unfortunately is the determining factor when the scholars delegated the types of music.
One analysis of Popular Music I always hold onto with two hands is within the wonderful writings of Popular Musicologist (amongst many things) Anahid Kassabian. She determined that Popular Music consists of two modular strands one being artistic popular music and the other being a source of commodification. This can finally help people separate from what I and my musical heroes do from the world of the reality star and intertextual hapless pretty boys and girls. But some of the pop musicians on our side have been toying with the ‘dark-side’ to produce postmodern ironic masterpieces worthy of our ears while reaching out to the passive world and challenging their own conventionally sensibilities. The main provocateur of such meddling I have come across is the formidable anti-pop construct, Lady Gaga. This artist has jumped ship to cause trouble that has laid a foundation to protect the artistic community.
Lady Gaga had had such a profound affect the media struggle so hard to deal with her they keep throwing swords and not a single one can pierce her thick skin. As they try to bring her down they simply fuel her imagination. Lady Gaga heads off pre-conceived notions of pop stars by creating a character that lusts fame a ‘fame monster’ as the release of the extended edition of her album is titled. Interestingly this new title implies that as her fame has grown her character is being consumed by a monstrous desire for all things celebrity. Steffani Germanato, Lady Gaga’s real name, has cast aside her own identity leaving herself as a blank canvas to create post-modern art on. Originally Germanato was a renowned member of the New York Underground Art scene producing strange plays and cabarets of bizarre conceptual art that no one in the mainstream would dare understand. I think Germanato had achieved all this but wanted to make a reactionary stand against the mainstream and work within it to bring it down, a mole of artistic descent.
Her music is synth-pop gems which copy the contempary fashions of almost anyone who has worked with the capitalist breeder Timbaland or anything of the monstrosities that are called reality music shows. In fact Lady Gaga has started to influence and shape a new synth-pop sound these types are grasping on to, look at the latest Cheryl Cole release, although it is nothing short than a rip-off of the Kelis song ‘Little Star’ , it follows onto a sound heard within songs like ‘Poker Face’ and ‘Just Dance’ that Lady Gaga wrote. This amuses me as traditionally these sapping types wait for the art contingency to create something new and exciting in music and they suck onto the coattails and photocopy the image and replicate it with less and less vigour each time burring all the artistic sentiment. Look what happened with Britpop. Albarn, Cocker et al started music that made witty commentaries of British life as we left behind the destructive Tory government with hope of a new governmental force under labour. As they rubbished the remains of Thatcherism bands started to pop up copying the less regulated sentiments taking over Oasis’ comment of ‘Havin’ it Large’ and morphing them into a new culture made exclusively of what the movement was rubbishing. Only pop saps could have done this. Suddenly regional accents were trophies and tracksuit bound idiots were strumming guitars and talking about a destructive force that they fully endorsed. Lady Gaga may have managed to send a poison into their bloodstream with her music. Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying her music is rubbish, but as she makes such abstract statements that are intended to mock and destroy commodified pop stars they will try sing about these things revealing an unbearable arrogance and unveil the extent of their gigantic egos. Lady Gaga is channelling the spirit of Freddie Mercury in her performances as she creates delusions of grandeur and lets them manifest on stage. She exaggerates points within the industry through connotational acts. Fire coming out of her specially designed bra comments on the way female pop stars are over-sexualised to feed male fantasy, this is also shown through PVC costumery, she has props that are gigantic like the piano at the royal varieties commenting on ego. It is believed that she is constantly bankrupt from spending too much money on these stage props.
Lady Gaga’s recent performance at the MTV Video awards is the epitome of what she represents. She chooses to perform the track ‘Paparazzi’ and during the song she was seen on a crutch and a backing dancer was in a wheelchair showing she has been drawn by the hungry-media to be broken. As the song progresses more shocking things occur, at one point she falls to the floor and stands up bleeding, the audience response is an amazingly audible display of shock. Lady Gaga is bleeding from the attack of the press and desperation for fame. We are lead to a pinnacle where she is suspended in the air in a way that suggests she has been hung on the gallows of fame. Soulless and all reputation killed for the media to move onto its next victim. This is such an amazing piece of theatrics and is rich full of artistic messages that I applaud. This piece of theatre in four or five minutes has encapsulated a social commentary on a frankly shocking society. Her war against the media is taken to its own house of mirrors and forced to look at all the angles in such a way that we cannot deny.
