When they ask you if it hurts, show ‘em your Poker Face.
November 18th, 2009 by 
Matt Straw, IDS Columnist
In yet another show of just how out of touch they are with the modern youth, MTV has shown how the Grammys will NOT nominate Lady Gaga for Best New Artist. I mean, she all ready won the VMA award for the same, because as MTV says -
Few new artists in recent years have made an impact on the pop music scene as quickly as Lady Gaga
And how true that is. Because the pop music scene is such a wonderfully deep arena full of vastly talented people. But she stands above them all. Lady Gaga represents everything about modern pop culture – mediocrity, banality, redundancy, and fashion before talent. And how are we supposed to know who we should be praising if the people who awarded Milli Vanilli and Jethro Tull awards won’t honor her with another misplaced award? Look, Madonna isn’t getting any younger, we need another slutty white girl wearing ridiculous looking fashion to make up for generic music and 8th grade lyrics. And we all know artists like K’naan (I mean, who wants to listen to music about politics, that shit is depressing! and I don’t like to think), or Radiohead (Too many weird noises! His voice is weird), or Sigur Ros (What the hell are they saying, anyway? I want to be able to repeat every word of a song the first time I hear it) are just weird music for those weird art kids. I just wanna dance without having to think that there’s a world beyond my little bubble.
November 19th, 2009 at 6:26 am
A very interesting article.
November 19th, 2009 at 1:03 pm
Although I appreciate the other bands you listed, I completely disagree about gaga not having talent. She was admitted early to the New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and writes almost all of her own music including vocals, piano, and synthesizer. Pop music is a staple of American culture, and I would much rather have a pop star who writes his/her own music and brings new fashion to the spotlight (Alexander McQueen in her latest video). Although I admit the lyrics are cringeworthy at times, the impact of pop culture is undeniable. A trip abroad will quickly expose you to the impact of America’s pop music and culture (for good or bad). In my opinion it is comparing apples to oranges when trying to compare an artist such as gaga to a musical talent such as Radiohead. Both successfully aim for different audiences, and both are talented in their own respect.
November 21st, 2009 at 9:11 pm
I understand that she may have gone to school for music, and in these american idol days when even smokey robinson congratulates adam lambert for ruining his song, writing your own songs is theoretically something we should praise.
But when you listen to her songs, they sound no more like new original material than any brittany spears or miley cyrus song. And the Jonas Brothers play their own instruments, but that doesn’t mean they should.
I think it’s more that she’s not an artist by any means, and that was my original point, that she ISN’T an artist, and just because she references fashion and ostensibly writes her own music doesn’t give her any more depth than the black eyed peas, who do basically the same thing. Boom Boom Pow!
Or something like that. I think you kind of hurt your argument by saying she writes all her own songs, then admit sometimes (for me always) that the lyrics are cringeworthy. I love a lot of songs where the lyrics don’t really make sense, (in indie music, andrew bird is an excellent example, a lot of people seem to think he’s an amazing lyricist, but he makes a lot of the stuff up as he goes) but I generally like music where the lyrics aren’t completely retarded. And I personally find Cartman’s version of Poker Face actually more listenable than hers. But the same was true years ago for his version of sail away. But that’s probably more about how I hate their voices than anything else.
Thanks for commenting!