Group items tagged

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''.

Here is a youtube clip talking about a scientific study on how similar pop songs are to other pop songs. They talk about the similar beats and chord progressions and songs these days are all from the same cookie cutter outline. They are saying that essentially this is proof that pop music sucks and it lacks authenticity. Let me know what you think!

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.

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!

Today in class we discussed parodies and it reminded me of this Jon Lajoie ditty. He is arguing that all pop songs have the same song structure and are unoriginal. 

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.

Hanson argues that at this point in pop music, artists like Miley have nothing to rebel against to make them artistic -- Miley has to go full circle and just make sex, music, and performance ugly.

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.

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.

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.

An awesome feminist critique of the pop music industry by Lily Allen.

Ann Powers responds to Paglia's critique of Lady Gaga

Article that reviews "Katy Perry: Part of Me"

Indy Pop musician Amanda Palmer responds to Sinead O'Connor's open letter to Miley Cyrus, arguing that we have to build a world where women can make their own decisions.

A rather ironic article in which Katy Perry blasts female pop-stars such as Lady Gaga and Miley Cyrus who take all their clothes off

Bajan pop star Rihanna has swapped hot pants for hijabs as her Diamonds World Tour takes her to Abu Dhabi - but she's still courting controversy BY Olivia Bergin | 21 October 2013 Pop superstar Rihanna will happily don a T-shirt and knee-high boots for a trip to the zoo, but as her world tour takes her to the more reserved countries in the Middle East, she's had to adapt her wardrobe accordingly.

Sia is donating to LGBT programs after collaborating with Eminem, who is known for using harsh words towards the LGBT community

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!

This is an article from the British magazine "Look", Its dicussing how Adele turned down an 12 million pound deal to replace Cheryl Cole as the face of Loreal. Adele says no because she doesn't want to be associated with a brand for fear of 'selling out'. I though this went well with our discussions of authenticity; unlike other artists Adele money comes 100% from the sale of her music which I think is both impressive and admirable.

I thought this was interesting because by adressing the idea of "selling out," Adele demonstrates what she considers "fake" about other pop artists. It gives insight into how we see authenticity as opposing commercialism and supporting brand names in the music industry. It also shows another dimension of why the public considers Adele an authentic artist.