Welcome back Jays to another fabulous installment of Put Your Records On. For new readers, I usually talk about the music I love and think you might like: why would I waste your time with anything substandard? Today, however, we will be taking a different focus as I ask you to think critically about the music industry machine, and what it’s been cranking out lately. There is no better time to question your society than when you are in college: you are in a community of learners who are in some capacity examining and rearranging their understanding of their worldview every day. Before I have to hand out a syllabus with this article, I’ll just cut to the chase. Today’s topic: Lady Gaga.
I began listening to Lady Gaga in 2008. Her album, The Fame, had just dropped and it was the genesis of the pop-addicted, shock-inducing, platinum-selling years that would follow the avant-garde singer from New York City. I was hooked. “Just Dance,” “Paparazzi,” “Pokerface”—the whole album was my favorite. The songs were catchy, the lyrics were absurd, Lady Gaga herself was an enigma and whatever she produced I wanted it. The Fame Monster debuted the following year, and the height of Gaga craze was upon us. “Bad Romance” was remixed by every a capella group ever, “Alejandro” was played on every radio station and part of “Telephone” was recorded onto my cell phone voice mail message. As an aside, the only things I was “kind of busy” with in 2009 were playing soccer and taking the SAT’s, but I digress.
If I was so obsessed, what could have happened to lose me as a fan? Gaga reminded me that the music industry is a machine and she is a conductor, who feeds music sales revenue from “outcast” fans into the engine that drives pop culture. Yes, that’s a bit dramatic, but stick with me. “Born This Way” came out in 2011. I was disenchanted with Gaga at this time, still shaking my head over the “meat dress” incident of 2010, but I thought “wow, what a beautiful message. Self-acceptance, yes I can get behind that.” What broke me was that her fans paid for this album with the price of their dignity. Gaga took their need for pop-saturated self-acceptance all the way to the bank.
We see this with television a lot: shows create characters that are underrepresented in popular media. When people who identify with those groups tune in, there’s a spike in the ratings, regardless of the quality of the narrative. Gaga is smart and she knows this. While I know she has created the Born This Way Foundation for anti-bullying and has done much to bring awareness to the plight of the LGBTQ community, she hasn’t done much else to truly make things better for this. She doesn’t empower her audience to take a stand for themselves or others, she simply asks them to keep being themselves. This is a valid message, but ultimately one that keeps her audiences in a suspended-motion self-love pop
her shape-shifting identity to enshroud her next target audience with the embrace of her “art” in order to climb ever higher. This is arguably the goal of all pop music sensations if they want to stay visible. What I think Gaga has lost sight of is the reality of life for her fas. Flash forward to 2013: enter Gaga’s “Art Pop.” Art Pop, which is set to drop in November, is billed to be Gaga’s exploration of music with her friends as pop-superstars. As part of this “exploration,” Gaga portrays the character of a Muslim woman, and dons a burqa, as mentioned in the track “Burqa/Aura.”
In “Burqa/Aura,” Gaga propositions men to look behind the veil or “aura” of her burqa in what can only be construed as an attempt to sexualize the religious garment for her own purposes. Again, Gaga has no connection to this community, nor does she explore the existing narratives of Muslim women. In this way, she is again exploiting an audience. This time she is misappropriating elements of a group’s religious identity as her own fashion statement or link to her sexual identity in order to garner attention. By sexualizing the burqa, Gaga attempts to translate the garb into an acceptable form for masses of people who do not even understand the significance behind the burqa, continuing to make ignorance acceptable.
I ask you to question the art you will face this year and in those to come. Is it the role of celebrities to defend the rights of their followers? Will we continue to allow people of a higher socioeconomic status to be above social reproach? I find that the most incredible art moves me, but the source of that power comes from what it moves me to do. That does not always mean I am following the prescribed intent of the artist. Perhaps, I am lacking in credit for Gaga: my reaction to her music produced this article. Yet I am rare: most will continue to passively consume her misguided pop.
