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Soundtracks of Our Lives week ending 25 November 2012 CE
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IanB
IanB
6761 posts

Edited Nov 26, 2012, 18:19
Re: Soundtracks of Our Lives week ending 25 November 2012 CE
Nov 26, 2012, 18:09
Short answer? I think she has staked out ground as more of an Art Celebrity rather than as a composer or recording artist. Rock is just her chosen medium for getting that celebrity validated. It's hard to explain but to me she is like Jeff Koons when what I want is Cindy Sherman. Sherman is present and visible in all her art but completely obscured. There is nothing of the celebrity about her. Koons and Bjork are all over their art and don't you just know it. They could be selling anything at all.

Everyone (in pop, in the visual arts, in literature, in fashion, in sport, in politics, in the world of contemporary music, even in science and especially in the movies) is dazzled by celebrity and nothing banalises art and music and everything that matters in our culture faster than that. It flattens everything and denudes it of any real feeling or meaning. She is now more famous than ever for being famous. In fact the more un-pop her work gets and the fewer records she sells the more famous she gets. It strikes me as being very calculated and a bit bogus but very 21st Century.

Why does it make me write so much? If you love something seriously then you should be prepared to take a position. Because I love Pop and Rock as much as I love serious Contemporary Music or painting or movies or opera or great tv it pains me to see any of them used as a fame vehicle. I don't want to have to see the world through a prism of camp and irony and hyperreality and "guilty pleasures" and all that jazz. It's just a sneaky way of commodifying everything so that nothing has real weight or value. Kick out the Style bring back The Jam. And I never thought I would find myself quoting Tears for Fears though that second album ....
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Re: Soundtracks of Our Lives week ending 25 November 2012 CE (jb lamptoast-morsley)		 Replies:
Re: Soundtracks of Our Lives week ending 25 November 2012 CE (keith a)
Re: Soundtracks of Our Lives week ending 25 November 2012 CE (jb lamptoast-morsley)
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