Today’s pop music, and more generally; pop culture, fashion, etc. seems to be a huge throw back to the 80’s and subsequently the late 60’s early 70’s. That pop-cultural history gets reinvented should be no surprise as being steeped in our ontological past is just part of being human. Think about the recent popularization of extremely colorful and ostentatious fashions that hark back to the 80s and early 90s after the relatively plain late nineties, early 2000’s. Highlighting all of the current trend’s connections with past cultural periods would take forever, but I thought it would be interesting to note how still steeped in post-modernism our culture is, even though we seem to be in a certain transitional period. I am exploring one example out of a topic that would really need to be a book about cultural cycles.
Lady GaGa certainly takes her stylistic and artistic philosophy from the realm of Pop-Art, as an electronic-dance-disco artist, this is self evident as the style is essentially about glamorization. Though Mr. Warhol sought to highlight objects we use in everyday life (think Campell Soup Cans), there was a certain unintended consequence of glamorizing consumer objects, whether they be Marilyn Monroe or Coke. This is where the two connect, absurd glamorization of a certain desired objects.
In Lady GaGa’s case her music in her current two singles, Poker Face and Just Dance glamorize by hyper-sexualization of herself and glorifying a lifestyle, which includes: Being so drunk that one is mentally impaired (“I’ve had a little bit too much,” is the first line in Just Dance), Brief indecent exposure (“How’d I turn my shirt inside out,” in Just Dance) and a love life where transience of lovers is the norm (“I won’t tell you that I love you, Kiss or hug you, Cause I’m bluffin’ with my muffin,” In Poker Face). The sultry and heavy electronica that is played along with the content of the lyrics reminds of house parties in Williamburg, Brooklyn. Indeed, the set of the video for Just Dance is a house party. As an aside, it wouldn’t be surprising is she has attended a Brooklyn loft party, as she is native of Yonkers and grew up on the Upper West Side. Combine these elements of her music with her sparkled out fashion, huge sunglasses, face paint and dresses which are further out there than Björk’s swan and we have ourself a reflection of Warholian ideas.
I am not the first one to notice or write about this connection. The New Yorker’s review of Lady Gaga quotes Warhol as one of her influences, “Less verifiable is her theorizing about her work. She cites Andy Warhol, claims to be a ‘fame Robin Hood’ who has lost her mind”. Additionally, watching her aloof, bizarre responses to questions from talk show hosts seems to be a page taken straight from Warhol:
BBC interview (1981)
Edward Smith: Would you like to see your pictures on as many walls as possible, then?
Andy Warhol: Uh, no, I like them in closets.
What does this mean? I believe that looking at current trends in pop-culture, and our entire culture’s inability to move beyond the heavy consumerism that defined Post-Modernism, that we are just cycling into another phase of the same thing. I’m going to go out on a limb here, and say this is a bad thing. It’s time to kill Post-Modernism and move on to something new.