Hello world, here's the next instalment of Don't Dance Her Down Boys Does Christmas and today it's all about Ms Gaga and her lovely 'Christmas Tree' or rather who's under it.
Oh yes Gaga has managed to take the wholesome and completely non sexual image of a christmas tree and turn it into a sordid, innnuendo ridden ditty.
A great one to play in front of Grandma, she won't even notice it's dirty.
Grace Jones accused Lady Gaga of stealing her look in a interview in the Guardian recently and when asked if she liked her music Ms Jones replied "I wouldn't go to see her".
Meow, but does Jones really have anything to worry about.
Gaga is leading the pop world now but will anyone care in 10 years time.
I think we all know that Gaga is OK for today but it takes a special lady to bore herself into our memory boxes and still remain a icon after attacking a presenter on live TV.
Pop. That word, genre, capitalist marketing team, whatever you want to call it, is what the whole alternative scene came together to fight against.
Indie was meaningful, real, challenging and pop was, errr, well evil. Just evil no explanations.
Now that we've seen indie music jump stream into the mainstream, see what I did there, can we really hold it up to such high esteem and call it 'independent' any more. It is just as popular as traditional pop and r'n'b and it is fair to say indie has been equally bad at times.
With that in mind I believe we shouldn't turn our noses up at more popular music anymore.
It has made collosal mistakes, as does every other genre, but no one can deny that it has come up with as many gems over the years as any other genre.
So here's my mixtape with what I think are some particularly huge pop diamonds, enjoy.
Tracklisting:
1. Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)- Beyonce
2. Are You That Somebody?- Aaliyah
3. L.E.S Artistes- Santigold
4. Love Long Distance- Gossip
5. Bootylicious- Destiny's Child
6. Bulletproof- La Roux
7. Hot 'n' Cold- Katy Perry
8. Bad Romance- Lady Gaga
9. Bills Bills Bills- Destiny's Child
10. Rude Boy (Diplo Rudeboyz Remix)- Rihanna
11. Lights Out- Santigold
12. Sweet Dreams- Beyonce
13. Make It Take It- Amanda Blank
14. Stillness Is The Move (Dirty Projectors Cover)- Solange
15. Jai Ho- A. R. Rahman Ft. Pussycat Dolls
16. Telephone- Lady Gaga Ft. Beyonce
I've neglected doing this post for nearly a month now mainly because I felt my list was pretty predictable to anyone that's seen a post or two on this blog, but who cares I'll put it up anyway and if you think it's predictable you can tell me. I won't cry.
The rules of this list, yes there are rules, are that those featured have to have come to prominence in the last decade and they must have had a lasting effect on the world, or at least enough of an effect that it can be explained in written form.
Now that everything been explained let's get started...
Beyonce
I've loved Beyonce since I was shy little tween, this was before tween was a real word. I'm counting B in this list because she became a super influential star when she went solo. For all her faults, the separation of Beyonce and Sasha Fierce to name a few, she is probably the greatest pop star of her generation and one that can wiggle her crotch at you without looking too dirty. To quote the great Kanye West "Beyonce had one of the greatest videos of all time."
M.I.A
I previously discussed my annoyance with how criminally underrated M.I.A is and I'll say it again M.I.A is criminally underrated. 'Kala' was the stand out album of the last few years and saw Maya take over the world with her genre-bending, top tapping, worldtown beats. She has sung about her feminist beliefs previously and has discussed her feelings to the haters who put her down. M.I.A is the most aggressively political rapper out there who has not resided to rest on her talented laurels as many others have. She can do no wrong in my eyes.
Karen O
Karen O was my first love. I ignored all the spot ridden boys and focused all my shrinking violet energy onto Karen. Her semi-violent, colourful outbursts turned my grey mundane life into array of colours. Not only is she one of the best performers around today but she's also in an ever evolving, charismatic, super band.
Lady Gaga
I've tried my hardest to figure out this girl. She is a mass of contradictions. In a way she is an amazing pop star what with the stage costumes, grandiose performances and catchy tunes but she also lets us down sometimes. Her shaky ideas of feminism and her reliance on sexuality make me slightly wary of her but she has still made an amazing impact on music in 2009 and for that reason deserves to be on this list.
Peaches
Peaches is a true artist of the noughties. She came into our lives in 2000 like a filthy storm and blew us away with the cult hit 'Fuck the Pain Away'. More than just a one hit wonder she has stayed around the whole decade to entertain us with her sex-crazed, fun filled spectacular shows.
Beth Ditto
Beth is probably the woman who sums up this decade. To compensate for our society's sick obsession with thin women we developed a sick obsession with supposed 'real women'. This led to a sick obsession with one larger woman named Beth Ditto. The constant tabloid obsession would have destroyed a lesser woman but not Beth. She has enough charm, personality and talent to brave the tabloid storm for now and probably another decade as well.
I never thought I'd see the day when I'd be posting about Lady Gaga but here I am. I appreciate that she is doing well, she does make good pop songs (I can't get Bad Romanceout my head) and she is certainly different but at lot of her sucess is built on sexuality, porn star sexuality at that.
To get get back to my original point the Guardian recently wrote a piece somehow linking a few girl popstars, some new some not, to Lady Gaga. The girls featured in the article are Nikki Jane, Eva Simons and Janelle Monae. There isn't much of a basis for the article and it kinda just feels like the Editor told them "Shove Lady Gaga somewher in that story will you, we need a tedious celebrity link".
I doubt it was meant in the way that I perceive but it can't be denied that every new female artist has to be linked to a previous one to validate them as such. This happened to Lady Gaga when she first popped onto the scene. The next time you see a woman who plays guitar in a music magazine I bet you they'll be compared to PJ Harvey. It's lazy journalism and it should not be accepted. Women have more influences than the last flavour of the month.
