What did I just say? Ya, that's right. Lady Gaga's shocking looks are nothing new. From her PVC outfits, shocking meat dress, to her latest horns upon her face and shoulders for her last performances follow in suit something done by another musician. Marlyn Manson. When I first saw the video to bad romance, all I could think about was some of Manson's videos. The dramatic costumes, the art and the story. I honestly thought that he was an influence over the pop star. Sure enough, one day in Chapters I found a book looked into it and lo and behold. No Manson.
Manson shocked the world with his "Shock rock." The basic idea, to blow peoples minds with the strange and odd things he would do on stage and in his videos. One of my favorites is "I don't like the drugs but the drugs like me." Where he parades around in white, with red eyes carrying a cross made of television sets, headless cops chase him, and everyone else has giant eyeballs from learning from the television. In the song he actually talks about how society seems to force drugs upon lower classes. It also talks about how confessions will be televised and we'll have "15 minutes of shaaame" This really to me, reflects our world today. (Charlie Sheen anyone?)
Now lets look at "Bad Romance." In this video we have women "grown" out of containers wearing PVC, we have the bath tub where she looks very amine with big eyes, big hair more PVC, we have her show to a group of men wearing black with different ways of expressing their wealth and they buy Lady Gaga. We can't forget the random Micheal Jackson groin grab, Bat hair, and the very glamorous secondary presentation with her in black, sparkling gems everywhere. The whole video is about the sex trade of women only difference is the ending where she roasts the dude. The song however, is all about sex. Free, dirty, nasty sex.
I think the key difference between the art forms of "Shock Rock" and what I'm going to start calling "Shock Pop". Shock Rock, is more gruesome. Showing the distortions for what they really are. Ugly, repulsive and nasty while still being art. Shock Pop, is glamorous. Making the ugly into beautiful art, desirable and even sexy. Both cover G words but one is deceiving and the other honest.
Now I'm not going to compare their music. They clearly fall into very different categories there. I do enjoy music done by both. (Yes, I'm a Mormon who likes Manson, I have a history you know. Baby bubbles is gonna have a heck of a time trying to be a rebel with mommy.) I just can't get over the similarities between the two in their performances. I'm sure I could go deeper and compare some more video's but some of them by both artists I can't handle. Example, Lady Gaga's "Telephone" where she gets stripped down and makes out with a she-male and there are a few of Manson's, not gonna try and find them.
An interesting take on Lady Gaga. I never thought of it a "shock pop." My personal views of Lady Gaga is more of a person pushing the boundaries of social norms. I see her more along the lines of Madonna. As I've read about Lady Gaga I've learned that she is very socially intelligent and open minded. Specifically, I enjoyed the music video Alejandro for its take on homosexuality, the military, and women's rights.
ReplyDeleteI totally don't disagree she's socially intelligent and opened minded. That said, Manson is also quite intelligent, little hating on Christianity but everyone has their battles. I really don't see Gaga as pushing boundaries of social norms. She's smashing them. That said, I sorta fail to see the women's bit in the Alejandro video.
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