In the past couple of years Lady Gaga has become one of mass hysteria. With the media every two weeks featuring images of the character flaunting the latest 'outragous' garment or controversial music videos, one has
to question whether this amount of attention is called for. In my experience, people are all too willing to praise her and label her as revolutionary.
This is where my problem is.
To me, there are many people who came before Lady Gaga, who both represented all that she stood for. So therefore Lady gaga is not revolutionary, or original. Her 'original' ideas have been done before, as most themes in popular culture.
I do however admire the power she has managed to harness over the media. By targeting the 'outsiders' of society, she has been able to create a market that not only welcomed 'strange' ideas but made people who felt undermined by popular culture feel included.. because well, no one had ever liked weirdos before Lady Gaga obviously.
My issue with Lady Gaga also is because a lot of her 'out-there' fashion or musical ideas had been done before, and she isn't even referencing them or giving any previous musicians credit! For god sakes! If you're going to steal, at least do it POLITELY!!!!
for once I would like to hear her in an interview talk about how much she admired these musicians and promoted them if anything. It frustrates me the attention that she has been getting over these artists listed below. However, I do understand part of her popularity lies within the fact that the music she makes is a direct representation of popular music these days. But not only does she get attention from making music with repetitive 4/4 beats and beeps, but she is just as known for her music as she is for her 'outrageous fashion style'
In this post I hope to reference the people who came before Lady Gaga and were able to do exactly what she does.. just better (in my opinion)
ROLL THE CLIP!
People who are better than Lady Gaga
Bjork
Nina Hagen
Club Kids
It strikes me as transparently obvious that you somehow overlooked the wonderful Miss Grace Jones in this `people who are better than Gaga' thing-y I just perused! I distinctly remember in quite early-on interviews with both Madonna and Gwen Stefani, when asked about their stylistic influences, both great women proudly cited Nina Hagen as a most significant influence and inspiration upon their appearance-bending virtuosity and sense of no-holds-barred outrageous-ness. This fact alone says a great deal regarding contemporary civilization and how and why modern `civility', `openly paying homage' and `artistic humility' have effectively vanished from our collective consciousness amidst the bullshit hustle and bustle of today's world of I phones, the internet and the Starbucks clutch! .
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