Her unique vision and the way she makes fun of, and simultaneously
wallows in the star mentality of today's Pop Culture is something I can
promise you is a genuine artistic masterpiece of which she is the
unequivocal author.
Yes what she does is contrived - as the dictionary states:
contrive |kənˈtrīv|
verb [ trans. ]
create or bring about (an object or a situation) by deliberate use of
skill and artifice.
Yes, there is a sheen of Pre-Packaging to what she does, but here it
is fucking brilliant, because it is her, packaging herself as media
edible bits and pieces that make her easy for the music industry and
Programmed kids to swallow. All while giving her audience to perform
her art, and slipping her musicality and performance art into the mix.
Yes what she does is artificial, but she Glories in its fakeness, (is
that even a word?). That is the point. In a world were the Britney
Spears and their ilk can't even carry a tune and are manufactured to be
"Real"; Or Rap artists from the suburbs pretend to be affiliated or to
have a criminal past to create "street cred"; or when bands like
NickelBack are considered real rock stars; finding someone who stands up
and says listen to my fluff and hear my roar (and has the chops to back
it up), is as momentous in today's barren musical landscape as when
those flop top Lads from England first brought their music to the world.
Ok maybe that is going to far, but at least as important as when the
punk movement killed off Disco. Maybe I am jumping the gun on that one
too, but one can only hope. But in today's musical landscape I would
even settle for this being the start of something half as epic.
In LAGA (as I call her) we have an artist who, frustrated in her
earlier work being met by record labels telling her they can't market
her music because it doesn't fit in any of their predefined categories,
decides to embrace the perceived Glories of Fame, Fashion, and Banality,
slips her mastery of music into the confines of Pop Packagable music,
creates an alter ego bigger than life it self, and by taking their mold
to the extreme blows apart the industry from the inside out.
Maybe the Gestalt on which she has laid the foundation of her work is
one that musically you don't feel a natural attraction to. So what.
You should like her anyway. Why? Because she is the grim reaper come
to destroy the stale stagnant music industry. Already I see the ripples
flowing through the industry. For the first time in the 10+ years I
have been doing videos I see cracks in the formula as artists begin
dabbling in actual expression(gasp). People are actually now trying
to break out of the molds strongly cast by the Music industry. It is
only a start but one can only hope.
And besides she is a masterful performer, whose sense of drama,
Spectacle, and Fun is something that on the most superficial of levels
is satisfying to the core.
So maybe even if you aren't infatuated with her, appreciate her for
what she is.
Or maybe I am full of shit and I just like her...
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Subject: lady gaga 
Tue Jun 01, 2010 2:52 am