Good. Now that I have your attention and the word "weird" now sounds extremely strange to you, let's talk, shall we?
I'm talking about the concept of pop singers trying to be, well, weird. There have always been the bands who have been deemed "strange" and "unconventional", but I'm talking about super mainstream singers. Okay, I'll be specific. Here's looking at Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, and Nicki Minaj. I don't know if I'm about to start a war here, but I'm going to say that of these three, Lady Gaga started the whole "Look at me, I'm freaky and you'll never know what I'll wear next!" in these recent years. And sure, you know, whatever gets you noticed, and whatever you decide is fine. But what's bothering me is that Katy Perry didn't used to be this strange. She didn't used to wear outrageous outfits and coloured wigs. She only appears to have been doing this recently, and I really interpret that as "Oh God, Lady Gaga's really popular and she's weird, I need to step it up!"
Same goes for Nicki Minaj. I mean, have you seen her? If we're going by degrees here, there's Lady Gaga, then a super girly version of her that Katy Perry embodies, and then Nicki Minaj is like Katy Perry to the fifth power! And have you seen these three at award shows? It's like they've been spying on each other and then they all try to outdo one another. Lady Gaga, not so much as far as I've noticed. But Katy Perry and Nicki Minaj? Crickey! Frankly, it's exhausting because eventually, somebody's going to run out of ideas. And why can't they just be odd in their own right instead of just looking like different facets of each other?
Look at Florence Welch. It's not like she's trying really really hard to be different, she just is. And that's probably what makes her very likeable, because she is different in her own way without forcing you to notice it. So I say, "I salute you Miss Welch, for proving that you don't need to be exaggeratedly weird to command attention." You know what it probably is? Nicki, Katy, and Lady Gaga all have such very generic music that they have to make up for it some how, so they go all out on stage presence instead of improving the quality of their music.
I think it is great that these pop stars are trying to be unique, but is it really being unique when you're just copying and competing with one another? For that reason I agree with you, and also agree with the idea that so much music today is mediocre and unoriginal, and artists focus on appearances rather than the music that started it all.
ReplyDeleteWell, the odd thing about Florence Welch is she looks and sounds like Kate Bush (1970s) and yet is deemed by the American press as odd and strange, much in the same way as LAna Del Ray.
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