Critical Approaches to Gender and 21st Century Pop Music

Here is an interview that questions whether there is gay artists in the music industry and more specifically the 'rap game' as the interviewed calls it. But can be considered as controversial is that he states that there is a 'gay mafia' and that they are controlling the hip hop scene. For instance he refers to Lady Gaga and how she is running with the gay community and she is winning!

I wholesomely agree with this article and i love the angle that she took with it. I agree that women in the industry are pitted against men and it is a women jobs to look as they state; "Girls are allowed to be sexy, but not too sexy. Pure, but not a prude." In addition women or girls are only portrayed as long as they look 'pretty' or from the industries point of view perfect! That is why this article compares the treatment of men against the mistreatment of women in the industry and why there is a unbalance of expectations.

A critical approach to Lily Allen's New song "Hard Out Here'

Very interesting video of a lecture trying to get people to understand the white privilege and diversity a little better. 

The video and an article on Billboard about Lily Allen's new song. The video is really interesting and relevant to what we've been discussing as Allen calls out industry sexism in the lyrics and has a reference to Robin Thicke's 'Blurred Lines' video.

I love this song and video, when I saw it I though Lily's back!! It seems she has taken a few years away to really see the industry for what it is and has come up with this song that addresses everything thats wrong it. My favourite line is 'if you can't detect the sarcasm then your misunderstood!'. I have so much respect for Lily Allen as an artist because her songs always tell it how it is, and she doen't feel the need to take her clothes off ( eg Miley Cyrus).This song reminds me of The Fear when she sings 'i'll take my clothes of and it will be shameless, because everyone knows that's how you get famous".

Amanda Palmer's response to the Daily Mail coverage that we discussed and showed in class

A college student turned in a blog post we read early in the term as his paper.

Article on MTV about Miley's recent display at the EMA's. I find it interesting that she's still generating controversy and attention in a bid for more time in the limelight. I wonder what her next stunt will be...

This is a blog response to Joss Whedon as a feminist ally, I think it's interesting to see how some people view things as opposite to what was intended.

This is a meme about the views on women and what feminism is standing up against and not the "man hating" view that most people have.

Yeah Miley has gone too far this time!! I think it is worth noting that the section where she was smoking a joint had been censored from TV. But why was it censored from US Television? Plus it begs the question of whether TV needs to have tighter restrictions on what should be seen and what should not.

I posted this article in response to the articles about Miley Cyrus smoking weed on stage. This is Lady Gaga doing the same thing and like Cyrus she is also in Amsterdam. I don't understand what the fuss is about it's legal in the Netherlands so really why bother? These artist never smoke tobacco or drink alcohol on stage and these are legal substances in most places, plus they would impare their performances which fans pay money to see. I would be so annoyed that I payed money to watch an artsist get high on stage and then perform not because its predominately an illegal substance but surely they want to be at their best and their fans want to see them at their best.

I agree that people may have gone overboard with miley when you compare her to gaga because she has done the exact same thing. I think the reason for this is because people still have this goody-goody, disney image of miley and cannot still tear themselves away to look at her in this new light. Also Gaga never started out the same way as miley so i don't think people really care if she smoked weed or had a drink on stage, therefore i think origins play a big role for the perceptions of people in relation to artists such as miley and gaga.

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.

I referred to this song in my position paper - similarly to "Beautiful" by Christina Aguilera, this is meant to inspire people to accept who they are and express their inn beauty. It's a really beautiful song and I just thought I would share it if you haven't heard it already.