Saturday, May 30, 2009

Work it girl! Or Lady Gaga's recipe for success


She's all the rage. I have heard Poker Face, but don't hear anything particularly unique. For all the hype, Lady Gaga sounds like generic dance pop.

But to see Gaga is anything but generic. While critics say she's simply stealing David Bowie's style, she is a unique sight to behold. And I have to admit that I am jealous of the no pants thing... in my dreams, I am a pop star who rocks leotards and freak'em dresses as a quotidian. It is refreshing to see a female artist subverting traditional images of feminine sexiness. (Although I would be interested to read a feminist take on her... it could be argued she is simply playing into those images.)

In the new RS, she says

"I operate from a place of delusion... I used to walk down the street like a fucking star... I want ppl to walk around delusional about how great they can be - and then to fight so hard for it every day that the lie becomes the truth."
On one level, it's super exciting to subscribe to this - to strut around the streets like you own them (I confess :) and perhaps play into the illusion of one day becoming rich and famous. But this idea is uniquely American, isn't it? To believe that the key to success is placed soley on the shoulders of the individual, that by working or fighting hard enough, wealth and fame will come.

But we know that fame and wealth are matters of chance, of being in the right place at the right time and knowing the right people. There are also powerful social forces, especially poverty, in play that would prevent the majority of would be divas from stardom. (Yes, believe it or not, America, there are social classes in the United States.) Simply believing you'll be wealthy (delusion) will not make you wealthy, no matter how many times Oprah or Lady Gaga tells you otherwise. I can keep strutting my little ass around the streets of Columbus, but I am not gonna be picked up by a modeling agency and catapulted into success, now am I?

Any thoughts, my precious (few) readers?

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