Comments on: Culture: Lady Gaga vs. Joni Mitchell

By: работа

работа — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 09:41:30 +0000

работа…

[...]The New Gay » Culture: Lady Gaga vs. Joni Mitchell[...]…

By: CrazyK

CrazyK — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 02:16:48 +0000

have you checked out Stefani Germanotta….

By: jeremy

jeremy — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 07:51:26 +0000

Debish!

That’s not me in the “Sweet Boy” vid — my friends in Seattle offered to make a video so they filmed in and sent it over to me! I think they did a good job :)

By: mauricecullen

mauricecullen — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 23:18:42 +0000

Oh my God, I just realized you wrote this article a year and a half ago. I’m probably preaching to the choir. Well, all I can say is, if you were comparing Joni Mitchell and Lady Gaga 16 months ago when she was just emerging, you may have been paying her a greater compliment than I ever did. Rock on Joni, Rock on Gaga!

By: mauricecullen

mauricecullen — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 23:01:48 +0000

I started listening to Joni in the late 70s and I’ve been a fan ever since. I have a music degree and I my whole career has been in classical music. Dismiss Gaga if you want – this is your prerogative, but I can tell you, as someone like you who journey’s deeply into music and artist’s work, you are missing what Gaga is trying to offer. She is decidedly commercial, yes, but there are many many layers to what she is doing and I can’t get enough. She is on a quest for world domination, but this is an internal quest as well as external, and it is part of her art. And what her art is about right now is creativity itself – making manifest in the universe that which you desire to see in it and who you want to be in it. This is going to be a long career, like Joni’s, with many facets and new directions. Like Joni she is a skilled musician and composer. Joni’s spellbindingly beautiful words brought the counterpoint of romantic poetry to pop music; Gaga focuses on harnessing message and media to achieve a multi-faceted expression a la Warhol and McLuhan. I recently saw the ballet that Joni created with Jean Grand-Maitre – it was wonderful. And I will bet my best dancing shoes that we are going to see full-fledged electronic operas of great musical and theatrical merit from Gaga in the future. I can tell you love music and I don’t think you should write her off just yet. Perhaps you are not connecting so well because, though she has a beautiful voice, she doesn’t use it to create beauty at the level of the other singers you admire. She uses it for the message. This may change. I was really impressed how well she handled the chromaticism and range of ‘Someone to
Watch Over Me’ live on the Today Show. I hope she takes care of those pipes. Anyhow, that’s my two cents. All the best!

By: Debish

Debish — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 06:52:18 +0000

It is astounding to me that such an eloquent and cerebral writer can be such a narcissist (see “Sweet Boy”) vid.)

Lucy, you got some splainin’ to do.

By: Wes

Wes — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 23:57:04 +0000

I think had you gone to the show, you’d have so much more respect for her as an artist than had you sold the tickets.

By: Gogoguy

Gogoguy — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 12:33:41 +0000

Joni Mitchell, amazing artist, music, lyrics, and a knock out to boot!
That other poser, whats her name, an interchangeable chorus line bimbo with a five year lease, at which time, a new bimbo is frog marched in.

By: jon

jon — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 23:24:52 +0000

shes freakin nuts! loved this article though!

review of gagas album here interesting http://thecelebritycafe.com/cd/full_review/14492.html

By: Jeremy Gloff

Jeremy Gloff — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 05:54:41 +0000

Karen J Wilson sounds like a real twat. I’ve been a music snob since my teens.

By: Lung detox info

Lung detox info — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 09:11:49 +0000

lady gaga might not be a very beautiful singer but she can sing and dance well.

By: arthritistreatment777

arthritistreatment777 — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 02:46:45 +0000

Lady Gaga has to be my favorite singer these days. She has a very good sense of fashion, a Mezzo Soprano voice and some freakin dance moves.

By: my2cents

my2cents — Mon, 25 May 2009 01:02:12 +0000

totally agree with rohan, she’s the artist people love to hate and hate to love. but her album seems to me like lady g is almost making a mockery of the elements that constitue ‘fame’ and ‘status’. the lyrics are simplistic and sometimes downright stupid and she’s no ‘elton john music genius’ or anything but hey, a good beat is a good beat. and i am pretty impressed that she composes the music for her own material, how many pop artists can say that they compose/play the piano? not a whole lot.

By: Karen J. Wilson

Karen J. Wilson — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 18:42:38 +0000

I love how people try to intellectualise their attitude to music as they enter their 30s. Some take the semantic/semiotic route and look for “significance” and “meaning” while others simply give a more or less honest account of their own listening history and responses to the music they hear.

There’s nothing as pitiable as a middle-aged teacher bleating about the lack of “passion” and “commitment” in everything that’s been made since the heyday of punk. But a tendency to buy into other people’s singer-songwriter quasi-poetic navel gazing and think of it as “adult music” is also rather sad. It’s actually quite possible to appreciate Joni Mitchell when you’re an introspective and angst-ridden 15 year-old, and to move OUT of that and INTO fun music blatantly shallow fun music as you come to appreciate the manifold virtues of pure pop.

I wouldn’t care if Lady Gaga’s lyrics were ALL about having fun and dancing one’s cares away, even though they are not. Her music is melodic, rhythmic, energetic, well-produced and well-sung and listening to it makes me smile. I’m happy to spend some time in her genre, just as I’m happy to devote some time to Joni Mitchell, to Mary J. Blige, to Alicia Keys, to Beyonce, to Ornette Coleman, Miles Davis, Gary Burton, Oscar Peterson, Mahler, Bruckner, Shostakovich, Puccini, Stravinsky, Arvo Part and anybody else who catches my ear.

I really believe in the old truism “there’s only two kinds of music, good and bad” and I think each genre should be considered in its own right, not abused by comparison with other genres.

By: fossyboots

fossyboots — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 23:08:32 +0000

i’m with you, i am really turned off by lady gaga. her style and image is very affected. she tries too hard to be “arty and weird.” i think you put it well that she is just as boring and souless as the other pop tarts, but with different packaging.

By: scantron

scantron — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 04:30:02 +0000

more like lady gag-a
barf

By: Um...

Um... — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 20:55:06 +0000

There is nothing to hate about Joni Mitchell. I saw her once explain “Both Sides Now” on CBS News, I believe (Maybe “60 Minutes”). My jaw dropped and I thought “Holy…shit.” She basically explained how her critics slammed her for bellowing about love at such a young age (“Hey kid, what do you know about love?”). Yet, her explanation about her childhood and how it shaped her views on love floored me.

Every time you dig up a layer of one of her songs, there is another layer to pick apart. I’m not a huge Joni Mitchell fan or expert. But, every time I take a bit of time to thumb through her collection I am smacked by its complexity.

By: Rohan

Rohan — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 20:21:53 +0000

Lady Gaga is hilarious. Her music is vapid and all about partying, but i think she might be in on the joke (have you seen her set pieces?). Pop music has always been about having fun. I enjoy Lady Gaga in the same way i enjoy gummy bears.

Comparing her to Joni Mitchell is irrelevant, mainly because they are different artists. That is like saying you can’t like Britney Spears because you love Pavement. There is plenty to love and hate about both artists, and I see why someone would dislike Lady Gaga, but comparing them on artist merit is unwarranted. Apples to Oranges.

Now there is plenty of new pop coming out of the Uk that blows Lady Gaga away and may make you like Pop music of this decade too, La Roux, Little Boots and FrankMusik are all doing great shit, and I bet none of these artists will ever be as popular here on these shores.

One last comment, and I mean no offense, but the music critic in me always comes out. I listened to your songs on the Myspace and nothing really comes close to Lady Gaga, maybe it might be the cheap casio “demo” sounds and garageband production, but i veers on amateurish and almost a joke (plz tell me it is). sorry.

By: Um...

Um... — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 19:39:57 +0000

“Vs.”? There is no “Vs.” There is no contest. Mitchell is the queen.

I’m on the sidelines about Lady Gaga. Every piece of information I get about her just makes me not care.

I loved this piece that you wrote here, fyi.