Critical Approaches to Gender and 21st Century Pop Music

An article about Rihanna's recent incident in Abu Dhabi where she offended the local people when she posed 'suggestively outside a Mosque. An example of the stereotyped persona of black artists to be 'provocative' and 'wild'.

I chose to post this because it is a brilliant break up song from Lily Allen, it is blunt and to the point whilst still remaining fun. In my opinion this is the ultimate break up song and makes Break up songs by Taylor swift seem very immature.

On her show, Wendy Williams discusses racial appropriation, and how Miley Cyrus and others, have "picked up" black culture in order to be cool and make money, and then have the privilege of putting black culture away and return to whiteness when they're older.

The music video for Amanda Palmer's 'Ampersand', and I thought of it as a comparison to Miley Cyrus's 'Wrecking Ball' - in both, the singers strip down to show vulnerability.  The difference is that Cyrus's is overly sexual, and Palmer's has a distinct lack of sexuality to her nakedness.

Britney Spears says that her latest song - "Work Bitch" - is a play on Karl Marx's ideologies.  A short blurb.

Perez Hilton and gossip websites/columns/shows/etc. are my weakness, as I admitted the first day of class... This article explains the current and on-going feud between Lorde and Selena Gomez regarding feminism in music. Even Cher Lloyd is making herself apart of this. Valid points either way, I believe.

After watching the video I was very interested in the lyrics of the song! 

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!

There's a new rumor spreading around about Miley Cyrus: Apparently, Cyrus has been dating Theo Wenner (an ex-boyfriend of Liv Tyler) since summertime. While this article doesn't necessarily deny nor confirm the rumor, the author does make a point of acknowledging a friendship between the two. I don't know about you guys, but personally, I'd be impressed if they really have been dating and getting away with it staying under wraps for so long; ergo, I doubt the rumor is true. Still, it's possible!

I feel like Miley Cyrus would let people belive anything if it maintained her publicity. I think she would do little to confirm or deny rumours such as these as they allow her to remain in the spot light. I think it is a shame that she is becoming more artifical everyday and making music is no longer her number one prority; being in the spotlight for any reason now appears to be her claim to fame.

Here is an article that includes a recording of a new song by Taylor Swift: "Sweeter Than Fiction." According to the author, the song will be included in an upcoming British movie called "One Chance," (which I found comical, since it's like One Direction and, well, you know) and was released on iTunes at midnight. Obviously, it was made for the film; it doesn't sound like a typical Swift song (although the lyrics contradict this claim, I'm focusing on the overall sound). Take a listen!

This video is in response to Emily's post regarding Katy Perry and the back lash she faces after agreeing to do a pepsi commercial. I absolutly loved this commerical with Beyonce, Pink and Britney but hate pepsi therefore I was in no way encouraged to buy. The point I am trying to make is that the consumer groups in Emilys article seem to disrigard the fact that some people enjoy seeing there favourite artist anywhere and when an awesome video (in my opinon) like this is made I would not want to see it cancelled purely beacuse some people think Pepsi is bad for you. Surely having fun watching you three favourite singers is good for you?

This commercial is very intriguing because it reminds me of the old Pepsi commercials Britney Spears did back in the early 2000s. I wasn't as sucked into this one as I used to be by the old ones; it could be because I LOVED Britney Spears growing up, but I like Beyonce and still preferred the old commercials over this one. I'll post an old Pepsi commercial with just Britney Spears in it. Interesting find! :)

I find it interesting that PETA is criticizing Perry for her use of animals, although she had done it safely, when they are free and willing to sexualize women as if it wasn't harming gender.

I have to disagree with you here I think this is terrible that Katy perry would agree to do this. The article is correct when it says animal acting is abusive, and stressful on any animal. I feel like Katy Perry put her fame and success over the welfare of animals because she is not only condoning animal acting she is promoting it as safe. Can you tell me more about how PETA are willing to sexualize women are you referring to the naked campaigns?

So someone decided to get an operation to look like the Biebs. It is interesting to see how far this person went to look like a celebrity. 

This makes me really sad. I'm not a fan of plastic surgery at all, and I just can't imagine what that boy is going to think 10 years from now. If it was me, I know I would regret a surgery like that (especially since there's no guarantee he'll still be that obsessed with Justin Bieber in a few years). That's crazy.

In December 2009 a Facebook campaign was set up in the attempt to put Rage Against the Machines song 'Killing In the name of' as christmas number 1 in the UK. This was attempted as many had become disallusioned with the idea of the Xfactor winner dominating the charts for the previous four years; many felt X factor was runing the christmas chart and was purely linning Simon Cowell's pocket! I can recall when the video came on christmas day and my mum said 'why is it that song that is christmas number one' to which my brother made the interesting point that ' its not about the song the point is it had to be anything but an Xfactor song'. I think this is an interesting show of the consumer taking back control.

This is the BBC news article from 2009 which goes into more detail about how Rage against the machine beat Xfactor for the UK christmas number one spot, in case anyone was interested in knowing more about it.

This video reminds me of the Watson and Rialton article we read for Tuesday.  The black women are hypersexualized and animalistic, while the white women are looking down on the black women (like in the beginning of the song).  

I think a great line is "even white boys gotta shout" so it not just one group, but generalizes to all.

Ignore the headline; E! News likes to over exaggerate and produce false headlines to attract attention. Whedon does not "call out" Katy Perry in a derogatory sense, he just uses a phrase she said as an example to demonstrate his point. This is an interesting viewpoint, worth watching. The guy is pretty funny, too!

I love Joss Whedon and all the shows/films he creates and part of that is because of his views on equality and how that translates to his shows. BUT, I read some interesting blog posts about about him that viewed his ideologies as patronising and ignorant. Whilst I don't agree and think he's just trying to do his bit, I think it's interesting to see other perspectives on what Whedon has to say.

Amanda Palmer gave this TED talk on crowdsharing and the way she interacts with her fans. This sheds light on our discussion of Amanda Palmer's practices of hiring musicians without paying them and asking fans for help in funding her music. I thought it was particularly interesting to see her reasoning and perspective behind what so many writers have criticized her for.

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