PatrickvD wrote:Lady Gaga is NOTHING NEW
I would go through a lot of trouble trying to articulate why I dislike her, but sociologist Camille Paglia pretty much summed up brilliantly in the Sunday Times exactly how I feel about Gaga:
"Despite showing acres of pallid flesh in the fetish-bondage garb of urban prostitution, Gaga isn’t sexy at all – she’s like a gangly marionette or plasticised android. How could a figure so calculated and artificial, so clinical and strangely antiseptic, so stripped of genuine eroticism have become the icon of her generation? Can it be that Gaga represents the exhausted end of the sexual revolution? In Gaga’s manic miming of persona after persona, over-conceptualised and claustrophobic, we may have reached the limit of an era…
... Gaga seems comet-like, a stimulating burst of novelty, even though she is a ruthless recycler of other people’s work. She is the diva of déjà vu."
And that's all I see when I look at her: recycling. From Elton John and Britney Spears to Cher and David Bowie... and well, everything in-between.
Lady Gaga does not exist and I find there's nothing interesting about her. Just my opinion of course.
That is a perfect reply, THANK YOU. Absolutely fascinating insight from Camille (though I don't agree with her on Basic Instinct, so I sure wouldn't say she always gets-it). And, I mean to say, it's very accurate about somebody. But not about Lady Gaga. And this is another one of the things that attracts me to her. She forces everyone to admit they hate the superficiality in our culture. Also making hypocrites out of so many people it's not even funny. But if anything, she's not a creator of it - she's a reaction to it.
Sexual revolution? Now, this is where her argument completely crumbles and falls apart. Lady Gaga is not trying to be sexy. She never thought of herself, personally, as being sexy. She has said this several times in interviews. Didn't Camille ever try this thing called: research? For years before "Just Dance" exploded in January '09, she was a writer for other artists. She would not have gotten a career as a singer and performer without the years on the other side of the music business. She's not some dumb girl who thought she could sing that the record industry picked up at the last minute and made her into something because they thought she was trendy or sexy: she is a self-made act. They knew she could write and perform her own material and so they just gave her a contract. Lady Gaga is just expressing whatever sex she is and what she feels. She encourages others to say whatever they are and feel too. But she also does it in a way that isn't obvious- just accept it. Even when I've thought her videos meant nothing, they've been studied and dissected by highly intelligent people who say they all mean somethng underneath the hype, etc. I've had to accept it myself to get to where I am now on her Fanship Scale. You can't just judge her at Face Value.
Goliath wrote:But you seem to be on a crusade to convince everybody that Lady Gaga is the best artist since the invention of music.
Incorrect. I wrote this very clearly in my last post:
Lazario wrote:I just don't see anyone who is currently a better pop / dance artist in America. And people judge the idea of a public persona over quality of actual final product way too much here, as well. I'm really tired of all the nitwits who just say she's too "out there" and think that opinion even relates to her talent.
Now, enlighten
me: how does that in your book equal: "trying to convince everybody Lady Gaga is the best artist since the invention of music"??? I already told Margos she's an easy artist to dislike and takes a long time to get used to. Several times. Many months ago. People can dislike her all they want to. But,
and this is the way I am with everything - when people feel entitled to speak their minds about something and I think they're not being smart about the way they're doing it: I tell them so. That's my only crusade. One I've been on for the entire 5+ years I've been here. It sure isn't fueled by Lady Gaga. She wasn't on the map in '05.
When I hear a good actual criticism of her (and not merely some personal hang-up or head-trip someone's on that has almost nothing to do with who she really is which they feel compelled to indulge in publically and blame someone else for), I will applaud it.
(
THIS NEXT semi-paragraph is left over from part of a response I partially deleted):
I won't say: why do I bother with you? I know why I do. But some discussions- you don't try at all. You let someone else do your work for you and quote them with a clap or a picture or something. Here, it seems to be Patrick. In the past, it's been Super Aurora.
Goliath wrote:And you can't leave it alone when someone disagrees. You have to personally insult and bash that person.
To use one of your favorite words: bullshit. You've pulled this routine before and it's a familiar pattern (last time, it was the Godfather thing). I didn't bash a single person on UD, I - like many here - bashed the Yahoo! losers. And, sure, suggested that what you were saying was no better than they've got. But if anything, I'm saying to you: don't be like that. You're better than that. That's the way I always am. I look at very few people as a lost cause. If I ever seem to be doing that- it's just because I am tired to dealing with your lesser routines. I'd like to be treated better than this and I think it's the topic of discussion that's dictating how you're deciding to treat me.
Goliath wrote:I didn't say I don't care about discussing Lady Gaga. I said I don't give a damn about what you think my 'credentials' are. I don't need your seal of approval before entering a discussion on pop music.
I work with what you give me. You had nothing to say to start out. I was sick of the drivel that I hear every day with no bite in it (again, what the others say; people I have no interest in hearing their verbal diarrhea parroted), so I let you know that. Maybe I poisoned the discussion we might have had by giving you the same thing you were giving this discussion but you don't change very often. You're quite the bull, you know. I've simply decided to stop waving the red flag in front of you.
Goliath wrote:Awwww, come on, Lazario. Please enlighten me: why do you think *anybody* who doesn't like Lady Gaga is a conservative nitwit?
Has your opinion of me completely changed in the last few days? Have you learned nothing about me whatsoever in the dozen or so arguments we've had over the past 2 years?
I'm stubborn,
not stupid. A stupid person thinks "*anybody* who doesn't like Lady Gaga is conservative." And you should know by now I don't make points literally. That gets attention. From *anybody*. What I meant was: the points people have been making here are from Conservative-Minded Thinking. The Points People Here Have Been Making. I also indicated this in my post, which you replied to. Allow me to show you where:
Lazario wrote:You don't gain points in my book for just nodding along with the Conservative-America bobbleheads in this thread who are bitching pretty much just because she dresses strangely.
Therefore, I say the charges Stitchie and Estefan have made were thoughtless snapshot judgments based on the conservative viewpoint of: what right does any woman have to be aggressive and try to be provocative and sexual at the same time, etc. You probably didn't stop to think about how your words and actions would look to someone like me.
You know I'm like this, G. I don't know why you haven't learned to: Ask Questions with me instead of: Immediately Jump to Accusations. I'm not someone here for your enjoyment or persecution. I only even bother replying to you because you usually understand that I have a damn point. I can't always make it by being literal. If something I've said looks shocking - ask me about it. You should know me better by now. Even when it comes to Lady Gaga, I'm not stupid.
Goliath wrote:Lazario wrote:I can take good natured ribbing. But there's also a line where you know I consider this your way of making a fool out of me.
You're the one who's making a fool out of yourself, not me. I merely stated my opinion on Lady Gaga. I didn't ask you to go into a rant and attack me. You're doing it yourself.
No, this is a case of: You know I take this seriously. You're not taking this subject seriously. You're trying to manipulate me into the person you're talking about so you have a chance to go after someone you say is bashing people, insulting people, etc. Which I haven't done here.
Goliath wrote:Lazario wrote:You are fueling the very thing you're criticizing. Why? Just so you can pretend to be extreme or tough and piss people off.
A lot of people in this thread have been very negative about Lady Gaga. Why are you singling me out? Could it be this is something personal from your side?
I really don't think so. I've said many times - people should know what the hell they're talking about before they open their mouths. That's why I'm not cool with the Lady Gaga bashing. I haven't found any substance in it that's actually about her and not them - their own prejudgments of young, white women (whatever factors about her make bashing her interesting to them). They're not original. It's a Stupid Bandwagon everyone jumps on because they don't know one other pop figure they can trash for being different from the rest. Why is that such an appealing aspect of a person to attack or make pathetic jokes about? Oh, I hear you say: she's got no talent. But
YO, do you remember anything I've said about music and what it is and what it means to people? Have you been ignoring me this whole time or did you honestly forget?!