Quote:
Originally Posted by Despanan
While I'll grant you that Lady Gaga is better than the usual pop-fair, and I definitely give her props for being able to get red-state mid-westerners dancing to tunes about it being okay to be gay...the fact of the matter is that her music is extremely superficial, and without the bizarre presentation and fashion sense, she'd be pretty forgettable.
This is what happens when some music executives decide to manufacture David Bowie from the top-down. Without the economic downturn and the people's subsequent wish to find a "real" artist Gaga would never have been booked at those "Underground NYC rock-clubs" by her agent and production team.
What it comes down to is, are you cool with slick top-down commercially created performers (I'm not) or are you interested in bottom-up artists?
I mean if you're cool with the music and culture you consume being a product first and expression second (well really fifth or sixth when you get down to it) then have at it. I personally need a bit more.
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I contend that you shouldn't be bothered by the idea of your music being a product first if you enjoy it. The idea that "real" artists are somehow better than "fake" artists (pretty much any musician the guy doesn't like) is a lie perpetrated by people who want to return to some "glory days" that never happened.
Unless your problem is that by buying her music your feeding into the massive dinosaur that is the record business, I hate to break it to you, but unless you're listening to nothing but buskers playing on the streets, you're feeding into that machine one way or another. One of the problems of living in a capitalist society and whatnot.