AANR vs Gaga? WTF!

[NickUMA10]

Most of today’s artists are products designed to appeal to the least common denominator and to conform to a pretty specific aesthetic.  As long as the individual is thin, under thirty and attractive by mainstream standards, the rest can be mixed, dubbed, and pieced together in a studio.  If nothing else, I think Lady Gaga inspires a little creativity.  Personally, I’m not a big fan of her music, but if her wearing a meat dress and arriving at an awards show in a giant egg encourages more kids to question their own adherence to the generic “norm,” then I’m all for it.  Weirdness demonstrates the possibilities of the imagination, something we need more of.

It seems to me that musicians of the 60’s, 70’s and even 80’s really impacted the culture and shaped the social, artistic and political ideas of the times.  Today’s assembly-line, American Idol clones don’t seem to make much of an impact, outside of fashion trends.  The fact that her intelligent characterization of nudity drew a response from AANR demonstrates that she is moving certain pop culture discussions, even if just a little.  Can anyone imagine Ke$ha or Bieber describing nudity as a “timeless” look? 

This is not a new phenomenon.  At all.

Agreed--ever heard of the Brill Building? Even the Beatles and Stones were marketed as commodities-professional entertainment is always about the money first. What we can hope is that every now and then someone uses that fame for constructive purposes as well.