The Indie Rock Fag: Thoughts on Gaga, part Infinity
The Indie Rock Fag is Zack’s Thursday afternoon music and culture column. Please be kind to it.
Hey, did you hear that Lady Gaga appeared at the VMA’s with discharged gay soldiers to make a statement about Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell? That’s awesome. But she was wearing that meat dress. Eww. But “Alejandro” was a good song with a nicely queer video. But its basically a retread of “Don’t Turn Around,” and Madonna’s been making videos like that since Gaga was still Stefani Germanotto. But Lady Gaga did curry my favor by making a bold gay rights statement at last year’s Equality March. But then she advocated celibacy for women, equating sex with dependence. But she says she’s bi, so that’s something right? But Just Dance is essentially an paean to being molested while drunk on a dance floor. But…
And so it goes.
I think of Lady Gaga and HRC in very similar respects. Both are titans of contemporary queer life, but both have very little do do with my actual existance. Still, the queer blogs won’t stop covering them, they won’t stop being power players and it doesn’t do me very much good to pretend they don’t exist.
And I’ll say that Lady Gaga makes some fucking catchy pop music. I won’t put it on to ease me through a breakup, and I don’t think there is much subtext to any of it (unless you count “love love love” as subtext) but I’ve spent literally all summer with “Alejandro” in my head and I don’t mind it. That’s not even to mention the effect that “Bad Romance” will have on any dance floor, anywhere. Its basically a universal solvent when it comes to making people move.
So that’s how I feel about her music. Keep it going, girl! Write your next album. Masturbate with a cross on the White House lawn. Put a piano in a sandbox filled with coke and write a song called “Pets (that died to make my wardrobe) Sounds.” You’ve certainly got people’s attention.
So Lady Gaga, this post isn’t for you. It’s for the rest of the gay universe that’s put you at their center. Has it ever occurred to blogs like Queerty that a lot of us really, really are sick of reading about you? I’m sure you love the publicity, and I know that the mere mention of your gossamer frame drives traffic up like Mark Foley’s dick at a daycare center. But the job of the media shouldn’t just be to parrot back whatever is hot and superficial at any given moment. It’s really gotten to the point that Lady Gaga wiping her ass back to front is national news. Lady Gaga looks the wrong way at the Catholic Church and people stop the presses. She goes to Easter Dinner wearing the actual shroud of turin as a tampon and little crippled boys in wool caps shout “extree, extree, barf all about it.”
When even Camille Paglia weighs in, you know things have gone too far. What’s next, Judith Butler giving a treatise on Susan Boyle? Naomi Wolf appearing on Glee? I always enjoy when ivory tower academics recognize the import of pop culture, but I honestly cannot read any more posts about Lady Gaga. The irony of even writing this on TNG is making my spleen hurt, and I bought a hair shirt to wear for the next week as a consequence.
The best I can hope is that my words signal the herald of the inevitable backlash. God, how I’d love that. Unless it leads to a billion more articles about Lady Gaga’s falling star, which will just set the stage for her inevitable “comeback” whenever she’s doing paying the penance for initial success.
But I wanna get back to the gay blogs for a minute. To paraphrase an old chestnut: Lady Gaga isn’t a gay issue. She’s a human rights issue. Everyone can be annoyed by her equally. The endless breathless coverage is starting to make me feel like I’m less of a fag for not caring. I hate being told who to worship because, really, at the end of the day I’m not letting Lady Gaga define me.
So for all the queer media outlets that do, I have to ask: What’s wrong with you? It’s a big queer world out there. Lets start hearing about more of it.
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Brilliant. Love her music. Hate her popularity.
I look forward to the passing of Lady Gaga’s pop culture reign. Basically everything I don’t like about Gaga is in sync with everything I don’t like about modern culture.
Jesus Christ Zack, shut the fuck up!! You sound like a whiny bitch. I hate HRC as much as the next socially-conscious queer and the Lady Gaga phenom is as bloated as a floater in the Anacostia but fuckin-A this is what you choose to whine about?? Some white girl who got fame making other white girls blush and opening their little Coca-Cola/Happy Meal stuffed minds a bit?
Who cares if she is coming or going, if you don’t like it turn it off. If you don’t want to read it, skip the page. If you are looking for something more substantial from the gay press, fucking write it jackass!
Until then, stop being a whiny bitch (just like the HRC, I might add) and “just dance,” lol. You spud like a fag.
Damn, that rant was awesome til I spelled sound as spud. I suck.
I was gonna ask you how one “spuds” like a fag. Putting a potato in my ass?
Thanks, Zach! I was worried I was losing gay points or something (or just getting old?) by not really giving a flying F*&K about Lady Gaga.
I guess I can see the point, but we need people like her in the music industry rooting for us. I mean, the bands TNG covers and interviews would never, ever in a million years speak out for gay rights like she does. Though, yes, she’s incredibly over-exposed, I do agree about that.
i just wanted to say THANK YOU! I love her, but god damn she’s not my new god. Let’s move on.
http://smarloff.typepad.com/blog/2010/09/falling-for-fall-in-dc.html
I don’t really get how she helps anything at all.
This is one of the interesting materials I’ve read on LGBT so far. Something else that’s related to your post is this comedy video I’ve seen on You Tube: http://www.joshrimer.com/only-gay-in-the-world/. You might want to check it out.
Love her music but the media is a bit stalkerish in its obbession with her currently. I would not go as far as comparing her to the HRC though.
Shady CaCa sucks. It’s all just more muzak.
I think a huge problem in popular culture is oversaturation and overexposure. Many times, it is definitely the subject is to blame for famewhoring to no end, and Lady Gaga is definitely guilty of this.
What I think is interesting and commendable, regardless of your thoughts on Gaga, is that she is famewhoring undoubtedly but she is usin that to steer the conversation to queer equality, feminism (though she seems to be figuring this out herself, still…but she IS making progress) and towards self love, self care and positive youth development. Out of every other pop star or phenomenon in the past 20 years, I genuinely don’t think I’ve seen anyone who focuses constantly on positivity and does so with a certain level of eloquence.
I mean, would you rather Britney Spears be everywhere again, and the dialogue center around her shaving her head? You’re not a bad gay for being sick of her, but let’s give her some respect for the positivity she’s brought to the lives of young queer kids and for bringing these conversations to mainstream America.
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