Maybe it's just because I don't know much about her beyond the videos on TV and the endless parade of pictures in the newspapers but it seems overly dismissive to me in that I've never seen any claims by her that she's breaking down walls. If this is what she's doing then maybe it's a valid point.
I always just assumed that she was out to entertain and bring a bit of showbiz "glamour" back to the charts. Comparing any top forty pop act with either Peaches or Grace Jones is kind of missing the point really.
She's hardly dismissing all pop music; she's just saying that Lady Gaga's image belies her music, which is glow sticks. And that she doesn't rate Madonna.
And wasn't Grace Jones a top forty pop act in her day (before my time).
the perceptive part is that gaga is being passed off as "high concept" when at most you could only really say that about her appearance and even then as newsome points out that image is heavily dependant on a crass display of sexuality.
lazy journalists and critics have equated her supposedly avant-garde image and persona with her actual music, whereas the later is anything but.
its just an opinion and nothing to get heated about in the least. too bad about soulhawk being so sensitive and volatile. its sort of bizarre that he got so upset about a discussion about lady gaga.
Yeah no heat here, just a friendly chat. I personally found Newsom's comments came across more as snobbish dismissal from an alt folk singer than particularly perceptive but just it's my opinion.
I agree with her about the media reading into things but then she's, I'd expect anyway, one of the biggest selling artists in the world at the moment so of course they're going to do lots of pieces on her to sell papers etc. I've just never seen anything where GaGa is claiming she's doing anything more than making a show for the media but, like I said, I haven't read interviews with her so it's quite possible there's more pretension there than I'm aware of.
B/w Neil, yep, Grace was top forty but Grace is Grace ya know? Proper one off.
I agree with her about the media reading into things but then she's, I'd expect anyway, one of the biggest selling artists in the world at the moment so of course they're going to do lots of pieces on her to sell papers etc. I've just never seen anything where GaGa is claiming she's doing anything more than making a show for the media but, like I said, I haven't read interviews with her so it's quite possible there's more pretension there than I'm aware of.
i don;t know enough about her to say one way or another what she thinks of herself and i doubt that even matters. she's making money and whatever it is she is doing is working.
it is the way the uncritical, mass media has decided to present her that i find fault with. she has been puffed up and bestowed with a type of artistic authenticity which i am not sure is warranted. i guess i find something slightly insidious about pablum being passed off as a picasso.
It's not THAT easy to sit down and write a song that get's stuck in millions of people's heads at once. Gaga isn't the greatest artist of the decade, far from it. It's called pop music, and it's different than art-folk or whatever it is that Newsome does. Unless it comes to light that gaga's credentials are on some milli-vanilli level bullshit, the fact is I'm not totally against a pop star who writes their own songs and plays an instrument, as opposed to say, Madonna.
If gaga was a little bit uglier, she's be on the sidelines writing pop hits for some model with a half-decent voice, and we'd all be saying "well, Stefani Germanotta is the real brains behind this girl. she wrote all the hooks!" Instead gaga is decent looking enough to be out front, and skilled enough at marketing herself and her image to actually sell records in 2010. And so of course, she's getting all the soulstrut hate. Shocking.
I don't really ride for gaga, but I recognize well-crafted pop music when I hear it, and if I'm drunk enough, there's a chance I will sing along to Bad Romance. If I was going to waste energy hating on vapid pop music, there are other targets I'd go at first, like Ke$ha.
Frankly, all of this tranny/gay/calling each other "bra" talk has me pretty confused. To be clear ? gay does not equal transvestite, and transvestites wear bras ? they are not actually themselves bras.
Frankly, all of this tranny/gay/calling each other "bra" talk has me pretty confused. To be clear ? gay does not equal transvestite, and transvestites wear bras ? they are not actually themselves bras.
I agree with her about the media reading into things but then she's, I'd expect anyway, one of the biggest selling artists in the world at the moment so of course they're going to do lots of pieces on her to sell papers etc. I've just never seen anything where GaGa is claiming she's doing anything more than making a show for the media but, like I said, I haven't read interviews with her so it's quite possible there's more pretension there than I'm aware of.
i don;t know enough about her to say one way or another what she thinks of herself and i doubt that even matters. she's making money and whatever it is she is doing is working.
it is the way the uncritical, mass media has decided to present her that i find fault with. she has been puffed up and bestowed with a type of artistic authenticity which i am not sure is warranted. i guess i find something slightly insidious about pablum being passed off as a picasso.
Fair enough, maybe I don't read enough/any of these kinds of publications but not really seen anything that isn't just a recognition of the fact that she's churning out hit after hit and tied that in with a recognisable and attention grabbing stage persona. I expect people are also just a bit excited to have someone who's presenting themselves as a bit different even if it's more around their personality than the music and Newsom sounds a bit sore about it.
I mean, really, I like Newsom's music but:
The title track is about a 19th-century courtesan called Lola Montez, a mistress to the King of Bavaria, who was famous for allegedly inventing a dance in which she revealed she was wearing no underwear.
This is as much aimed at a certain market as GaGa's "let's party" "i love you, you break my heart" style stuff.
Every generation needs its Madonna, far more than any generation needs a Joanna fucking Newsom. She's of course allowed her opinion, but her argument is moronic.
I mean, Lady Gaga's not really for me, but I'm happy that she's there for the young youth. She's like System Of A Down: I mostly can't fuck with it, but that fact that relatively bugged shit like that can be widely popular is this day and age, can be an active current in mass culture, is heartening. The problem with folks like Newsom is that they act like the choice that mainstream consumers have is between Real and Fake (Real Rock/Rap/Gay/Whatever vs. Fake Rock/Rap/Gay/Whatever), when in fact most often what they have is the choice between Fake and None. Is it better for mall kids to get, for example, watered-down drag, or to get none, to get a steady diet of straight shit? Gaga may be boring in Williamsburg or wherever, but there are huge chunks of elsewhere where she's blowing minds in ways that are far more likely to end up being important than whatever it is Peaches is up to these days.
but the point i think that is trying to be made is that when it all boils down to it, shes not that bugged. she dresses funny and sings about love and sex.
but the point i think that is trying to be made is that when it all boils down to it, shes not that bugged. she dresses funny and sings about love and sex.
Maybe, but Lady Gaga is at least as much about presentation as she's about whatever anything "boils down to." To suggest otherwise by taking some , like, essentialist stance on her whole shit doesn't make much sense.
Comments
Joanna Newsome sucks worse than Gaga
she should take a tip from Gaga & learn to write a song with actual hooks & stuff - a song that's not 12 minutes of pseudo clever hipster warblings
who cares who is "better" or "worse" (i don;t even know newsome so i could really care less); her observations are extremely perceptive.
awwwww, did i hurt your feelings somehow?
The bit about pop music being disposable?
The fact that GaGa is influenced by Madonna?
The Cindi Lauper dig?
The fact that a multi million selling pop writer/performer is not as raw and in your face as Peaches?
I'll give her the bit about people writing streams of shit about it in the press but then that's what they're hired to do.
the bit that i excerpted.
She's hardly dismissing all pop music; she's just saying that Lady Gaga's image belies her music, which is glow sticks. And that she doesn't rate Madonna.
And wasn't Grace Jones a top forty pop act in her day (before my time).
the perceptive part is that gaga is being passed off as "high concept" when at most you could only really say that about her appearance and even then as newsome points out that image is heavily dependant on a crass display of sexuality.
lazy journalists and critics have equated her supposedly avant-garde image and persona with her actual music, whereas the later is anything but.
its just an opinion and nothing to get heated about in the least. too bad about soulhawk being so sensitive and volatile. its sort of bizarre that he got so upset about a discussion about lady gaga.
I agree with her about the media reading into things but then she's, I'd expect anyway, one of the biggest selling artists in the world at the moment so of course they're going to do lots of pieces on her to sell papers etc. I've just never seen anything where GaGa is claiming she's doing anything more than making a show for the media but, like I said, I haven't read interviews with her so it's quite possible there's more pretension there than I'm aware of.
B/w Neil, yep, Grace was top forty but Grace is Grace ya know? Proper one off.
don't ask me how I know this
i don;t know enough about her to say one way or another what she thinks of herself and i doubt that even matters. she's making money and whatever it is she is doing is working.
it is the way the uncritical, mass media has decided to present her that i find fault with. she has been puffed up and bestowed with a type of artistic authenticity which i am not sure is warranted. i guess i find something slightly insidious about pablum being passed off as a picasso.
If gaga was a little bit uglier, she's be on the sidelines writing pop hits for some model with a half-decent voice, and we'd all be saying "well, Stefani Germanotta is the real brains behind this girl. she wrote all the hooks!" Instead gaga is decent looking enough to be out front, and skilled enough at marketing herself and her image to actually sell records in 2010. And so of course, she's getting all the soulstrut hate. Shocking.
I don't really ride for gaga, but I recognize well-crafted pop music when I hear it, and if I'm drunk enough, there's a chance I will sing along to Bad Romance. If I was going to waste energy hating on vapid pop music, there are other targets I'd go at first, like Ke$ha.
just admit you like lady gaga. own that shit. oh, and why not come out of the closet while you're at it...
work on your sense of humour brah
that shit is gay
ummm, i think lady gaga has a wide range of fans, not just gay folks.
all i said to him is be proud of who you are and what you like and don;t make excuses for your tastes be they musical or other.
Carry on.
This should help clear things up....
Fair enough, maybe I don't read enough/any of these kinds of publications but not really seen anything that isn't just a recognition of the fact that she's churning out hit after hit and tied that in with a recognisable and attention grabbing stage persona. I expect people are also just a bit excited to have someone who's presenting themselves as a bit different even if it's more around their personality than the music and Newsom sounds a bit sore about it.
I mean, really, I like Newsom's music but:
This is as much aimed at a certain market as GaGa's "let's party" "i love you, you break my heart" style stuff.
I mean, Lady Gaga's not really for me, but I'm happy that she's there for the young youth. She's like System Of A Down: I mostly can't fuck with it, but that fact that relatively bugged shit like that can be widely popular is this day and age, can be an active current in mass culture, is heartening. The problem with folks like Newsom is that they act like the choice that mainstream consumers have is between Real and Fake (Real Rock/Rap/Gay/Whatever vs. Fake Rock/Rap/Gay/Whatever), when in fact most often what they have is the choice between Fake and None. Is it better for mall kids to get, for example, watered-down drag, or to get none, to get a steady diet of straight shit? Gaga may be boring in Williamsburg or wherever, but there are huge chunks of elsewhere where she's blowing minds in ways that are far more likely to end up being important than whatever it is Peaches is up to these days.
but the point i think that is trying to be made is that when it all boils down to it, shes not that bugged. she dresses funny and sings about love and sex.