(no subject)
I have a rather annoying and largely useless gift when it comes to the minutia of pop culture. For some reason, I can unconsciously absorb useless information without even trying. I have never seen an episode of Lost, but I can summarize the entire series in a short paragraph. I can't go into all of the secret shit or comment on subtle themes, but I can definitely explain it well enough for someone who hasn't seen it. Though I can't tell you if it's any good or not.
This ability, sadly, does not translate to useful information that will help me succeed in life, which is why I can't tell you who my congressman is, but I can explain why Hannah Montana is relevant to a twenty-four year old male.
I am interested in pop culture to a certain extent, but the amount of information I can glean from my limited interaction is surprising to even myself. As someone with a general fascination with "what the kids are into" I took it upon myself to watch the MTV Video Music Awards. I watched it mainly to see if there would be any more "Kanye moments" or something similar. However, I taped it and fast forwarded through several parts to the point where it took me about fifteen minutes to watch the whole thing.
While watching, I inadvertently realized why Lady Gaga is so important.
By far the biggest winner of the night, Gaga walked away with a shit load of awards. Everyone knows that the "moon men" are totally irrelevant at this point and the VMAs seems to be the only time MTV actually plays music videos anymore, but the fact that she won so many awards is only important because it was an opportunity to display her costume changes. Notice I said "costume" rather than "wardrobe" because that's what they are: costumes.
There is an inherent difference between sincere art and everything else. When a painter slams a paintbrush into a canvas five times and then tells you it represents strife, that person is not an artist - he's an attention seeking ass. If you have ever found yourself bored during a class or meeting and started doodling on a piece of paper you have made more authentic art than pretty much everything in the MoMA.
Nobody really knows what art is anymore. There are a million ways to define it and a million different things that can be labeled 'art.' As a rule of thumb, I choose to think that art is an attempt to make the intangible tangible. Meaning, I have an idea that I feel compelled to make real. It's also the transference of emotion or feeling. The doodles in your notebook are a manifestation of your boredom. You don't think they're special and you probably don't show them to anybody, but you don't give a shit because the job is done.
Generally, a true artist gains satisfaction when the art is completed and then usually move on to something else. To me, a true artist does not care what anyone says about their art because it doesn't have any real value. Some might say that each piece of art helps them develop their technique, but that's not the artist inside of them speaking. Art is not about technique - marketing art is about technique.
Right now, I am typing a bunch of words that probably won't be read by more than five people at best, but I continue to do so because I am compelled to. The best artists are usually vain and narcissistic people; their creation is made for themselves specifically and if other people react to it, good for them. This is why supposed "shock art" (or whatever you want to call it) upsets me. It's clear that the perpetrator is intentionally seeking a specific response, not trying to fulfill a compulsion to express an idea. This is why Lady Gaga pisses me off, but it's also why she represents my generation.
During the two awards I saw her receive, Lady Gaga was wearing dresses with trains so long she needed three other people to hold them. In the first ensemble, she was wearing shoes that would put Baby Spice to shame. It's very easy to point to her strange outfits and colorful wigs and say they are art, but they are not. Here's why.
If you ask any truly artistic person why they do what they do, the proper response you should get is a lot of "ummm"s, a bunch of "I don't really know"s topped off with a "because I like to." Van Gogh painted picture upon picture without receiving any recognition and ultimately died a miserable person. Lady Gaga would not be able to handle such rejection because she is not compelled to act the way she does. She is contrived. If you ask Lady Gaga why she dresses the way she does, I bet you will get a calculated, vaguely political response about being yourself. If she were truly authentic it would seem strange to her that you were even asking the question, then ultimately answer that "it's fun" or something.
For some reason, I know that Lady Gaga was born Stefani Germanotta and that when she was singing at talent shows when she was younger she played soulful piano ballads. To her friends at the time, there was absolutely no indication she was the type of person who would wear this weird shit. Also, the videos for Just Dance and Paparazzi show her wearing outfits that, while revealing, are pretty much what you would expect a pop singer to wear. At some point. Stefani realized to make the impact she wanted to in the music business, the music had to be the last thing anyone talked about. For fuck's sake, she wore a dress made of raw meat. And she did it so that everyone would be talking about it the next day.
Lady Gaga is a mask; it's a show. Everyone knows it's fake, but we accept it. Essentially, Lady Gaga is Stefani Germanotta's Facebook page.
Everyone who has a Facebook or Myspace or whatever has a dual identity. It's entirely accepted and ignored that who you are on the internet is not who you are in real life. Your profile page is a show: you untag pictures of yourself you find unappealing; if you are single and looking for love, you post things that put you in a positive light; if you want to be perceived as cool you post shit to make you look cool. Our internet selves are completely within our control. We can sculpt ourselves whichever way we want and because it's assumed everyone else is doing the same thing, it's accepted that this page is a representation of who you are, even though it's just a representation of what you want people to think you are.
This is why Lady Gaga matters. She is a reflection of our own situations. I suppose what I hate about Lady Gaga I also hate about myself. We are all guilty of inauthenticity. How many of us truly express ourselves in the way we actually are, all the time? (If you answered that you do you are either a liar or insane.) My Facebook user picture is not a picture of myself - it's a picture of a pancreas. In a lot of ways, that's the same thing as wearing a dress made out of meat.
This ability, sadly, does not translate to useful information that will help me succeed in life, which is why I can't tell you who my congressman is, but I can explain why Hannah Montana is relevant to a twenty-four year old male.
I am interested in pop culture to a certain extent, but the amount of information I can glean from my limited interaction is surprising to even myself. As someone with a general fascination with "what the kids are into" I took it upon myself to watch the MTV Video Music Awards. I watched it mainly to see if there would be any more "Kanye moments" or something similar. However, I taped it and fast forwarded through several parts to the point where it took me about fifteen minutes to watch the whole thing.
While watching, I inadvertently realized why Lady Gaga is so important.
By far the biggest winner of the night, Gaga walked away with a shit load of awards. Everyone knows that the "moon men" are totally irrelevant at this point and the VMAs seems to be the only time MTV actually plays music videos anymore, but the fact that she won so many awards is only important because it was an opportunity to display her costume changes. Notice I said "costume" rather than "wardrobe" because that's what they are: costumes.
There is an inherent difference between sincere art and everything else. When a painter slams a paintbrush into a canvas five times and then tells you it represents strife, that person is not an artist - he's an attention seeking ass. If you have ever found yourself bored during a class or meeting and started doodling on a piece of paper you have made more authentic art than pretty much everything in the MoMA.
Nobody really knows what art is anymore. There are a million ways to define it and a million different things that can be labeled 'art.' As a rule of thumb, I choose to think that art is an attempt to make the intangible tangible. Meaning, I have an idea that I feel compelled to make real. It's also the transference of emotion or feeling. The doodles in your notebook are a manifestation of your boredom. You don't think they're special and you probably don't show them to anybody, but you don't give a shit because the job is done.
Generally, a true artist gains satisfaction when the art is completed and then usually move on to something else. To me, a true artist does not care what anyone says about their art because it doesn't have any real value. Some might say that each piece of art helps them develop their technique, but that's not the artist inside of them speaking. Art is not about technique - marketing art is about technique.
Right now, I am typing a bunch of words that probably won't be read by more than five people at best, but I continue to do so because I am compelled to. The best artists are usually vain and narcissistic people; their creation is made for themselves specifically and if other people react to it, good for them. This is why supposed "shock art" (or whatever you want to call it) upsets me. It's clear that the perpetrator is intentionally seeking a specific response, not trying to fulfill a compulsion to express an idea. This is why Lady Gaga pisses me off, but it's also why she represents my generation.
During the two awards I saw her receive, Lady Gaga was wearing dresses with trains so long she needed three other people to hold them. In the first ensemble, she was wearing shoes that would put Baby Spice to shame. It's very easy to point to her strange outfits and colorful wigs and say they are art, but they are not. Here's why.
If you ask any truly artistic person why they do what they do, the proper response you should get is a lot of "ummm"s, a bunch of "I don't really know"s topped off with a "because I like to." Van Gogh painted picture upon picture without receiving any recognition and ultimately died a miserable person. Lady Gaga would not be able to handle such rejection because she is not compelled to act the way she does. She is contrived. If you ask Lady Gaga why she dresses the way she does, I bet you will get a calculated, vaguely political response about being yourself. If she were truly authentic it would seem strange to her that you were even asking the question, then ultimately answer that "it's fun" or something.
For some reason, I know that Lady Gaga was born Stefani Germanotta and that when she was singing at talent shows when she was younger she played soulful piano ballads. To her friends at the time, there was absolutely no indication she was the type of person who would wear this weird shit. Also, the videos for Just Dance and Paparazzi show her wearing outfits that, while revealing, are pretty much what you would expect a pop singer to wear. At some point. Stefani realized to make the impact she wanted to in the music business, the music had to be the last thing anyone talked about. For fuck's sake, she wore a dress made of raw meat. And she did it so that everyone would be talking about it the next day.
Lady Gaga is a mask; it's a show. Everyone knows it's fake, but we accept it. Essentially, Lady Gaga is Stefani Germanotta's Facebook page.
Everyone who has a Facebook or Myspace or whatever has a dual identity. It's entirely accepted and ignored that who you are on the internet is not who you are in real life. Your profile page is a show: you untag pictures of yourself you find unappealing; if you are single and looking for love, you post things that put you in a positive light; if you want to be perceived as cool you post shit to make you look cool. Our internet selves are completely within our control. We can sculpt ourselves whichever way we want and because it's assumed everyone else is doing the same thing, it's accepted that this page is a representation of who you are, even though it's just a representation of what you want people to think you are.
This is why Lady Gaga matters. She is a reflection of our own situations. I suppose what I hate about Lady Gaga I also hate about myself. We are all guilty of inauthenticity. How many of us truly express ourselves in the way we actually are, all the time? (If you answered that you do you are either a liar or insane.) My Facebook user picture is not a picture of myself - it's a picture of a pancreas. In a lot of ways, that's the same thing as wearing a dress made out of meat.