Why are music critics and pop culture experts always puzzled about the origins of a pop star? Where did she come from? Who is she? Is she fake? Was she created by the record industry?
Lana Del Rey is as real as Justin Beiber is. She is bringing back the old school vibes of a 60's star with the infection and vacantness of Lady Gaga. Pop music lately has been drawing from the past hence many old school diva voices: Adele and Florence and the Machine. The focus is on their powerful voices. Yes, Lana does not have a powerful voice, but she is coming from the same realm and style of music. Yes, her SNL performance was shotty but that was due to lack of preparation. The old school aesthetic is sometimes hard to translate on TV.
What Lana lacks is the ability to project that she is genuine and I think this is where all the hate stems from. She comes off as a fake, throwback singer who had a lobotomy. If she can somehow show her personality, which is somewhere deep down there, she could be a star.
Her career at this moment, seems like it is dead in the water. But it can be revived. They say any publicity is good publicity. Lana has the people talking, the haters hating, so she must be on the right track.
Read more here: "Deconstructing Lana Del Rey"- Spin Magazine
I am secretly (not so secretly now) in love with this track "Judas", especially the video.
I'm taking it in the stylistic metaphorical sense. Not the blasphemous, Jesus hatin' sense.
It looks like Gaga was watching a lot of Sons of Anarchy lately. This video is a cross between that fabulous show and a poorly made life of Jesus film.
I am really digging the chola eyebrows, haijuku nails, and gangster attitude. Leather looks great on Gaga.
The Judas character is hot as fuck and I especially enjoy when he pours beer on Gaga's ass in the bathtub. The Latino Jesus is a great pick. He looks like an ineffectual angel with that crown of thorns.
And don't even get me started on that lipstick gun. My friend said it looked just like a dog penis and I tend to agree.
So kudos to you Gaga for making something equally as sexy as Bad Romance. I'm not down with all your work but it's great to hear a solid pop song every once and a while.
Artists create works of art full of symbols and signals.
I often wonder where the ideas come from?
Why did they create this certain persona, etc.
Someone sent me this article about Lady Gaga and the Illuminati (http://vigilantcitizen.com/?p=1676) and after reading several other articles by the author, I am trying to grab some insight on it.
The author writes about Metropolis, the 1927 Fritz Lang film. I'm highly interested in German expressionist films and I did my term paper on this particular film. The author of this article claims that the film is about mind control and using robots to maintain control etc.
In the film, the scientist makes a robot in the likeness of Maria, the people's advocate. Maria did not consent and conspire with the scientist to make a robot of herself like the author says. Maria was captured by the scientist and he performed experiments on her to transform the robot into her likeness. If Lady Gaga is a willing participant in this mind control by the music industry like the author says, she cannot be compared to the character Maria in the film.
Metropolis is yes, about robot mind control, but it is also about war, fascism, the plight of the working class toiling away in the factory. It relates more to socialism than it does government mind control. In the end of the film, the true Maria tries to stop the robot from controlling the workers. She tries to save the people from the destruction, and she does succeed in ending the turmoil.
Although, what the author writes about Beyonce and Rihanna seems somewhat accurate. Rihanna was a "good girl", just singing about music and dancing. Until her "Good Girl Gone Bad" album. She seemed to have changed her image over night. Everyone was talking about her "new look" etc. And she just kept getting darker and darker. Like she sold her soul to the devil? As soon as she went darker, her album sales jumped.
Before I read the analysis of "Run This Town" by Jay-Z, I kind of wondered what it was about? I still do. The lyrics didn't seem to be telling at all. It wasn't talking about sex or money so it must be talking about fame?or something else.
This also made me think of how Beyonce and Gaga recently joined up for two songs, which just struck me as, a extremely odd collaboration. Not their style at all. I still wonder why they chose to do so.
So the author, from most articles I have checked out, is really saying that the music industry is using superstars like Gaga to control the population for evil purposes. This theory is not revolutionary, but it may be far fetched, maybe not.
A while ago, I read this book published in the 80's about how rock bands worshiped the devil and were brainwashing teens to become satanists and fornicate all the time. I thought the book was silly, but not completely crazy.
So in 2010 terms, rock music is a dying breed. So maybe the satanists needed some other type of stars to control the minds of people. So they took in control over the pop music industry. They have the right medium and can do it subliminally. Right?
It all reminds me of the song "the Devil Went Down to Georgia", and how the man sells his soul to the devil in order to play like a fiddle god. Fame comes with a price after all.
Think about the demise of Britney Spears. She was and innocent girl (Think "Hit Me baby One More Time" video), the music machine got a hold of her, made her into a star(think "I'm a Slave for You" era), and then a monster. I don't think she will ever recover. And think about how fucked up she was a year ago. She probably still is.
One thing that does not sit well into this theory yet, is someone like Taylor Swift. Where does she fit in? How is she being controlled by the music industry?
Or the Disney owned Jonas Brothers and Miley Cyrus. They have received immense fame and there is no evidence of symbols or whatever. The author has a theory. And that's all it is, just a theory.
Maybe we are just reading too much into it. But then again those who do not question, must then be accepting it.
Those who do not question anything in life, follow along like sheep to the slaughter.
All I am really saying is, watch what you are feeding your mind. Question the images you see, wonder where the ideas come from. Think of the message behind it. Don't just eat up the music/images like it's porridge to your soul.
to be remixed and repaid in double for product placement.
Honorable mention
Use Somebody- Kings of Leon
Rapper of the year
Lil Wayne
Wayne is still on top, dropping in on tons of the years hottest songs and mentoring new comer Drake . We should just overlook that image comprimising song with Shakira.
Honorable mention
Kid Cudi
Entertainer of the year
Lady Gaga
Gaga entertains us with her fashion sense and weird hand gestures.
Honorable mention
Taylor Swift
Shitiest Movie of the Year
Transformers 2
Shitiest Artist(If you can call them that) of the Year
Flo-rida
Shitiest song of the year
Tik Tok- Ke$ha
Copying Uffie and looking like a dirty piece sure is original.
Finally, a designer that understands what Gaga wants. McQueen's newest collection is more than bizarre; it's Lady Gaga worthy. In the video for "Bad Romance", Gaga wears McQueen's ulta-post modern shoes. I think it's a show stopper. So is McQueen's collection in its entirety.
Hotel LaChapelle, is a book jammed full of surreal works by famed photographer David LaChapelle. His portraits of celebrities give off a dream like atmopshere and they have been featured in Rolling Stone, Vogue and Vanity Fair.
LaChapelle has photographed many celebrities varying from Pamela Anderson to Gene Simmons. His most recently published work is of Lady GaGa which was Rolling Stones June 11th cover.
LaChapelle was also given his first professional assignment by Andy Warhol for Interview Magazine.
Check out some of LaChapelles fabulous works here:
Madonna has this to say about Gaga in a recent Rolling Stone interview (RS 1090). I think it solidifies Gaga's career as a pop star:
Madonna: "I think Lady Gaga is great. When we saw her, I actually felt a kind of recognition. I thought, 'she's got something.' There's something quirky about her... But I can see myself in Lady Gaga. In the early part of my career, for sure. When I saw her, she didn't have a lot of money for her production, she's got holes in her fishnets, and there's mistakes everywhere. It was kind of a mess, but I can see that she's got that It factor. It's nice to see that at a raw stage."
This pants-less lady, this trick that isn't for kids, is on the cover of the RollingStone? I just can't wait for this issue to arrive in my mailbox so I can vomit onto the cover, or at least rip off the cover and throw darts at it. This is the most epic thing I have seen all week and it's only half way through...
