Icon : Deborah Harry

[anna_summour]

At the moment, everybody is talking about Lady Gaga, and quite a few are calling her the new Madonna, and some argue that Madonna was the first one to reinvent herself constantly to stay ahead of musical tendancies.

Well, before either of them (and in the line of other progressive ladies), there was Debbie Harry, lead singer of the band Blondie.

Comments

[shinybaum]

I think the difference between Debbie Harry and Madonna is that DH liked music and could sing. Madonna took the attitude and stripped the soul right out of it, even admitted the music wasn't an important part of it. Gaga, much as I dislike her for her earnest self regard, is at least also earnest about the music. Or was, now she seems to be more earnest about style and art. But at least there's something there that isn't completely soul free.

Attitude and style are necessary but there has to be a bit of heart in it for me, DH has that in spades. Still does, she's still gorgeous and rocks. Madonna turned out to be only of her time. Remains to be seen what Gaga does.

Anyway! yes, Debbie Harry - thanks for that, I must break out some itunes for her :D and Grace Jones

[anna_summour]

Madonna is a business woman where Debbie Harry is a musician, basically, yes.
Though I have to give Madonna credit for doing her job (including researching new trends of music etc) very well.

Gaga, it's hard to say at the moment, she learned music very early so obviously she has to be in it for the music, for a big part... The fame monster may have become too big for her, though ^^

[shinybaum]

Beyonce does the same with dance, she's never original but she's usually the first to bring a style to a wider audience. It's a definite skill for her to spot a fresh (old) style but she gets ripped for it more than any other singer.

I think Gaga could be very interesting if she ever comes down from her substance haze. Otherwise she could just cover Blondie songs.

[anna_summour]

I'm so beyond with dance that I didn't notice that about Beyonce. She seems likeable and hard working, and some of songs make even *me* want to dance.

It also looks to me like Gaga got her self-absorbed in her good influence on youth and supporting them against bullying, in support of gay rights etc. While I don't mind that people voice their opinion, it's not exactly what I ask pop artists either... And speaking about it too much makes her look like a self-appointed martyr / speaker.