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I'm not sure if anyone has seen this website before but i though it was amazing with a capital 'A'!! Most of the posts are about the relationship between race and pop culture and the media. So if anyone was thinking of doing their final project with relations to race and pop culture then this is definitely a site to browse through.

Following the recent spate of controversy over the sexualisation of artists in today's pop culture. Singer Annie Lennox has criticized not the artists but how musics ''market forces don't give a toss about the notion of boundaries''. However Lennox agrees with freedom of speech and expression, but it is effectively depressing to see and all the sexualised performances as just a glorified and monetized form of self harm.

I thought this was an interesting article in relation to pop culture and how authentic things have become, especially with the introduction of new technologies such as auto-tune and music sampling and editing. The article goes deeper into these. Thus those who want to make a imprint on the industry as the article states is going to be increasingly difficult because ''even the most sincere expressions of self will have to be multiple and complicated''.

This can relate to the class discussion on Lady Gaga's 'Telephone' music video and how there is this reversal of the black/white dynamic. This article continues to discuss how Gaga isn't oblivious to her own normativity and how she deliberately plays with her 'whiteness' but in actuality she is then oblivious to to white privilege. Thus the protagonist and in this case Gaga gets the attention while women of colour (beyonce) that are contributing to the redefinition of music and gender performances are marginalised.

Camille Paglia argues that the problem with Cyrus's performance wasn't that it was "disgusting," but rather that it was unsexy ("atrocious"), and that subversion and sexual liberation need limits and can't rely just on shock.

I might add that I think Paglia is largely right, but then again, wrong: Isn't she mis-identifying Cyrus? Cyrus was out for shock, not sexual liberation (in my reading). She's not trying to be the next Madonna. (If you read other Paglia arguments, a recurring theme is: "This new artist isn't Madonna.")

Camille Pagila is at it again! Although our class discussion is currently focused on Lady Gaga, I found this article Pagila wrote about Miley Cyrus interesting. Pagila does mention the focus on sex in the music industry and credits Madonna as the executive of such an image, in the most positive way possible. Pagila described Gaga as the striking end of sex and gender. Here, Pagila claims that pop music/culture itself is on the exponential decline. Don't forget to read the comments, they're quite amusing, actually!

An argument that Miley Cryus's VMA performance was (though unintentionally) a minstrel show that echoes the minstrelsy of the 19th century, especially performances of "Uncle Tom's Cabin." This is a heritage that we carry with us from theatre, and plays out in hollywood, such as "Orange Is the New Black" character Crazy Eyes.

A satirical critique on the news coverage of Miley Cyrus's performance.  It's more about using pop culture as revenue than the actual performance.

This long - over an hour - but Dr. Dines discusses rape and porn culture and it's affect on society and the impact it has on women. I particularly thought her discussion of the Paris Hilton sex tape was relevant to our discussion about Miley Cyrus. She encourages people to "think about the trauma of being nineteen years old and that is circulating everywhere. Just for a moment what it must have felt like, and then, like most women who are traumatized," she had "two choices" to either "hide" or "decided...to embrace that trauma and 'own' it as your own....if you're going to call (Paris Hilton) a slut, then...(she'll) be the best slut you've ever met in your life". This all or nothing attitude that women in our "image based" culture must have to survive. Granted, this talk is about the porn industry, but I think a lot of it can also be used in discussions of women and pop music. Be warned, though, it does include some pretty graphic language. EDIT: Around 45 minutes in she talks about Miley Cyrus's photoshoot for Vanity Fair and the hypersexualization of young girls. It takes place before the VMAs, but she still talks about the transition from Hannah Montana to Miley Cyrus.

This is a short article I found about how Elton John has expressed concerned about the two aforementioned stars. I thought it was very interesting because he compares Miley's recent stunts to Lindsey Lohan, claiming that she is a "meltdown waiting to happen." (There's also an expanded version of the article available.) Thoughts?

I think this article shows Elton John as a supreme authority on female pop artists and enforces the idea of them as "meltdowns" and people in a mess. He uses his masculine power to downgrade female artistis. At the end of this article, I thought it was interesting that he discussed privacy of celebrities in the media. He considers this a detriment to celebrities and neglects to acknowledge how fan connection and participatory culture can be meaningful.

I found this article interesting not only because we have been discussing Lady Gaga as a class but this article was literally posted yesterday stating how Lady Gaga's new song isn't something to brag about and as a culture we will move on once the next shiny object appears... (Perhaps Miley???)

This website is called "Stuff white people like" it's a site that sarcastically lists things white people like and kind of plays with that idea. I read this a while back and thought it went well with our lesson on Thursday. This article talks about how a lot of music that is associated with "black" culture, such as jazz and rock have been adopted and owned by "white" people that when you think of those, you don't think of the black culture that started it. They also talk about how this is happening to pop music such as hiphop that is largely listened to a "whiter" audience, but they are actually listening to "commercial hiphop." I thought it was interesting how race plays a lot with music and which race has the ability to freely flow throughout any genre.

Over the past few years, Electronic Dance Music a.k.a EDM has slowly crossover to the realm of pop culture. This article shows Lady Gaga music has been influenced by the EDM culture.

This may be relevant to your link. http://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/nov/07/lady-gaga-artpop-review

Though perhaps this video will never exceed the others viewed in this class in overall complexity, I figured I had to introduce you all to this as it is on its ways to becoming a pop culture phenomenon much like Psy's Gangnam Style. That and it's also legit and sounds awesome. Enjoy!

I saw this circulating on Facebook earlier this week. So strange!

Saw this video yesterday for the first time. I have to say it is very catchy and I agree how it is like Gangnam Style and becoming suddenly popular! Thank you for posting this!

A retelling of CInderella using only Beyoncé songs. Entertaining!

I love this! I think its a brilliant piece of convergence of classic storytelling and modern music. It's entertaining, clever and a really interesting way of interpreting a fairytale and making it relevant to pop culture and music.

A 2009 interview and cover shoot with Elle, which reflects on Gaga's art, her sexuality, and her relationship with her father.

This is an interesting article that relates feminism with fashion. I think this article will help us explore and understand the relation between pop culture and the use of fashion.