Lady Gaga, Love or Hate her?

[Anthropophagus]

Originally Posted by DVD-fanatic-9

Not funny.

I would say as it turns out with her latest stab at being a Max Hardcore wannabe in her latest cake cunt video, it's friggin' hilarious.

Just call me Nostradamus. LOL.

[startide]

I like her, but then I like most of what I hear in pop music, so I'm not exactly the most discernible listener.

[DVD-fanatic-9]

Originally Posted by Dobby

As long as there is brain teenagers rip off artist with reign supreme. I remember when Marlyn Manson came out and kids thought he was original. He was nothing more then a wannabe Alice Cooper.

Maybe nothing is original. But Manson is hardly an Alice Cooper rip-off / wannabe. His music hasn't exactly stood the test of time but, as a legitimate teenage fan of him myself in the 90's (I stopped paying attention around the time of Holywood, in favor of riot-grrrl - Bikini Kill, Babes in Toyland, Bratmobile - and then trip-hop - Hooverphonic, Massive Attack, Portishead, Lamb, Moloko, Cibo Matto, Gus Gus, Esthero, Mono), we were not as sheep-like as you might have thought. His music had a lot of intelligence and meaning in it. I haven't done much research on Alice Cooper but I doubt a song like "School's Out" was intended as a hard-hitting critique on any establishment. If AbFab is to be believed, it was just about the rock and the freedom of the sound of the music. That the fans brought all the meaning to it. A lot of things which tried to tap into the spirit of the 90's have aged so poorly, it makes the decade look like shit thanks to being these awful, long-winded analyses on what they thought were "hard truths" that just came out looking like whining sessions (mostly films, and my opinion, but: Swimming with Sharks, Reality Bites, The Ref). But, before the real sea of wannabes / copycats (KoRn, Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park, Papa Roach, Staind, Slipknot) emerged, Manson made an extraordinary amount of thought-provoking songs about family dysfunction, social ostracization, religious and political hypocrisy. Trying to boil him down to a look or stage gimmick, which were his way of adding a style to the music to get more people to pay attention, is extremely dismissive. He actually cared about what he was saying and doing.

Originally Posted by startide

I like her, but then I like most of what I hear in pop music, so I'm not exactly the most discernible listener.

I think we've been in a real new-millennium Golden Age of Pop for at least a decade now. There's simply no debate/discussion when you compare "Milkshake," "What You Waiting For?," "Umbrella," "Telephone," etc to most of what passed for pop in the 90's (Backstreet Boys, N Sync, Ricky Martin, "Baby One More Time," "What a Girl Wants"). Basically... the bubblegum subsect of pop now is not mainstream. Not really. There was no real Disney or Nickelodeon music factory in the 90's and the more "wholesome" artists were the standard. Thanks to... I want to say Missy Elliot (and producers like The Neptunes and Linda Perry), that's completely turned around. Now artists can have major hits with titles like "Fuck You" (and I was actually thinking of Lily Allen, but yeah- Cee Lo Green's single was massive...), Vevo's finally stopped muting the curses in songs (if only this meant they were going to go back and fix what they did to stuff like... and I hate this track but I still think it should be heard as it was recorded: "Drop It Like It's Hot"), Britney finally stopped being a huge hypocrite, and thanks to Nicki Minaj and Ke$ha- there are no lines between rap and pop anymore. After that... will I listen to jackasses complaining about anyone using skin to sell? It's not nearly new. I got used to that in the 90's when Mariah Carey was having her own Madonna-80's heyday and Butterfly was cranking out sensuously marketed singles like "Honey," "My All," and "The Roof." Point being, of course, music quality has never been affected by sexual photos or videos, or "outlandish outfits".

As for this cake thing... um... Rihanna kinda just did that last year: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UJkiMrI6ZI (Now, that is shit. As was Jay-Z's verse on "Talk That Talk," otherwise a pretty good track.)

[startide]

Originally Posted by DVD-fanatic-9

I think we've been in a real new-millennium Golden Age of Pop for at least a decade now. There's simply no debate/discussion when you compare "Milkshake," "What You Waiting For?," "Umbrella," "Telephone," etc to most of what passed for pop in the 90's (Backstreet Boys, N Sync, Ricky Martin, "Baby One More Time," "What a Girl Wants").

Couldn't disagree with you more. Music from "today" is no better or worse than the music from "yesterday", it's just... different. But I do love it when my brother says to me "Nat, the 80s suck", when he was a child of the 90s and a lot of the music of that era is cringe-worthy at best. (I have this dream of producing a multi label compilation series based on the radio hits of every year, the 80s are bursting at the seams with classics, but picking some of the early 90s "hits" that don't make me want to poke my eyeballs out is difficult.)

BTW, Mariah Carey's "Honey" is still on my list of one of the most revolting songs ever. Def. makes the playlist of "Totally Inappropriate Love Songs". (And my brother was a huge Mariah fan, so I heard that song a lot!!) In fact, I can't decide if that or Gilbert O'Sullivan's "What's in a Kiss" is top dog. (Where's a vomit smiley when I need one?)

[Anthropophagus]

Originally Posted by Dobby

As long as there is brain teenagers rip off artist with reign supreme. I remember when Marlyn Manson came out and kids thought he was original. He was nothing more then a wannabe Alice Cooper ripped off his entire act. So just give it a few more years and another Lady Gaga will emerge.

As usual, Dobby is spot on.

[DVD-fanatic-9]

Originally Posted by startide

Couldn't disagree with you more. Music from "today" is no better or worse than the music from "yesterday", it's just... different.

If you're thinking I was saying it's any improvement on the 80's- that's not what I was suggesting at all. And being different is everyone else's excuse to dismiss it. (As well as now this conservative, women have to wear freaking berqas in order to be "allowed" in the presence of metalheads, backward, idiotic bullshit I hear a few people spewing here.) I very clearly outlined that it's an improvement over bland, tween-aimed bubblegum pop of the 90's. If you honestly believe "I Want it That Way" is better than, let's say, Kanye West's "All of the Lights," you're flat-out not paying attention (though I see you arguing that you are). (Ideally I'd have used another boy band as an example but they haven't really been as popular now as they were then, the best I could match it with in the last 10 years is Pussycat Dolls and based on what I've heard... yeah, Backstreet Boys were usually better than that. Snoop sings throughout literally 80+% of "Sexual Eruption," so would that be a better comparison?) For you to argue that pop is not doing better, I think you just might need to present a range of comparison. Because I've got my guns full. And my point is solid- there simply isn't the same tween music marketing now that there was in the 90's. Younger listeners have been mass-exposed to artists who don't take the same frigid attitudes of 98-02 Britney and Jessica and buy / download their music. And have just enough discernment to where a younger audience is now expected to lap up whatever Disney's hocking.

Originally Posted by startide

But I do love it when my brother says to me "Nat, the 80s suck", when he was a child of the 90s and a lot of the music of that era is cringe-worthy at best. (I have this dream of producing a multi label compilation series based on the radio hits of every year, the 80s are bursting at the seams with classics, but picking some of the early 90s "hits" that don't make me want to poke my eyeballs out is difficult.)

The 90's is all about hip-hop, electronica, indie rock / punk / pop, and I would defend grunge to a point as well as RnB. Hooray for the industry changing, though. It forces people to think broader. And the attitude you're demonstrating here is just as silly. "People need to Think Hits." Like being a hit proves a damn thing (or cements any kind of argument you're trying to make about 80's vs. New Millennium). If you think there weren't periods in the 60's and 70's and even the 80's that aren't pokable with a stick because they're absurd and flimsy and novelty-ready at best, you're not being realistic- in favor again of that "well... just look at the two." I have. And I have complete and total respect for both, shy of trends which came pre-packaged to appeal to screaming tween girls (because some things can never happen again, and there is only one Monkees and I agree with people who say they were a damn fine band) instead of taking both genders seriously. As for the earlier years of the 90's... I'll take Nirvana and Pearl Jam over almost any and every single hair band of the 80's. Including Guns N Roses (because they had long hair too, they count). Thinking of a band I'd exclude from this list is a chore I'm not strong enough for. And, if you can name one metal or hard rock album from the 80's better than Smashing Pumpkins' Siamese Dream, I would be amazed (or stubbornly disagree until the day I die). And, again that riot-grrrl. I'll take every single one of L7's albums (even if they themselves would laugh at that subgenre label) over stuff like Winger, Motley Crue, and probably all Def Leppard (even though they probably deserve more respect than the scores of Poison and Whitesnake type bands).

In the early 90's, pop really split between coming up with a girly alternative to New Kids on the Block (Ace of Base- and I still like most of their stuff, especially anything from The Sign) which of course brought in a wave of international dance outfits (C+C, Technotronic, Snap!, Crystal Waters, The Real McCoy, Culture Beat, La Bouche) and Janet trying to be more 'urban' (MC Lyte on the remix of "You Want This") - which gave us Brandy, Monica, Toni Braxton, etc. Pop became Eurodance and RnB became its' own thing, where in the 80's Whitney Houston, Paula Abdul, and Janet were put in the same basic category as Madonna, Cyndi Lauper, and Taylor Dayne (before she went soul-ballad). Somewhere there, we get Boyz II Men (and subsequent clones- Soul 4 Real, Blackstreet, All for One) and Mariah (for the longest time a fascinating cross between Janet and Celine Dion- as I think "Vision of Love" begs to be seen / Janet's had her schmaltzy stuff too, "Let's Wait Awhile"; "Make It Happen" is the song that argued Mariah had remix duets with Sean "Puffy" Combs and Ol' Dirty Bastard in her sightline from the start). But the 90's proved that you can't judge popular music on the surface. If all you heard was "End of the Road" or TLC's "Baby-Baby-Baby," you were missing Massive Attack's "Unfinished Sympathy," or Portishead's "Glory Box." I guess they weren't "hits" if you have to define popular music this way. But both bands are legends now. And, I don't believe for a second the mainstream was that clogged either. Or we wouldn't have seen singles like Prince's "7" or Janet's "If." And, if the first few years of the 90's weren't still producing killer returns from Pet Shop Boys ("Being Boring," "So Hard," "Jealousy," "Yesterday When I Was Mad," "I Wouldn't Normally Do This Kind of Thing"), I was born yesterday.

If the early 90's have to be seen as training bra years to pave the way for the likes of "Your Woman," "Sugar Water," "Lovely Head," "Day for Night," "6 Underground," "Inhaler," "Come On, Let's Go," "Fingertips," "Cotton Wool," "Penguin Freud," "Country Livin'," "Is Jesus Your Pal," sobeit. I'll take it.

Originally Posted by startide

BTW, Mariah Carey's "Honey" is still on my list of one of the most revolting songs ever. Def. makes the playlist of "Totally Inappropriate Love Songs". (And my brother was a huge Mariah fan, so I heard that song a lot!! Where's a vomit smiley when I need one?)

I like it.

[Katatonia]

Originally Posted by Anthropophagus

As usual, Dobby is spot on.

Yup, Dobby must've masturbated earlier.

I could give a shit less about Marilyn Hanson and his sweet dreams. Relegate that idiot to the past.

[Dobby]

Originally Posted by Katatonia

Yup, Dobby must've masturbated earlier.

I'll get you hot, show you what I've got

Can't read my, can't read my
No you can't read my poker face

P-p-p-poker face, p-p-poker face
(Mum mum mum mah)
.....poker face

[deepred]

Gaga Horrors

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zRwtfRvSRU

[dave13]

Originally Posted by deepred

Gaga Horrors

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVZuX2g7TBQ

that was pretty great. the only things i didn't recognize were true blood (does that really count? ) and doppelganger.

i liked the Nightmare City scene, although it made me wonder how they could have left out Murder Rock?

[DVD-fanatic-9]

It shouldn't count because it's television. They should have replaced it with Ghoulies and Asia Argento's clubbing scenes from The Church. Especially, get it, since the song was religious... oh, shoot me already.

[deepred]

Originally Posted by DVD-fanatic-9

It shouldn't count because it's television. They should have replaced it with Ghoulies and Asia Argento's clubbing scenes from The Church. Especially, get it, since the song was religious... oh, shoot me already.

I have regretted putting True Blood in there for a while because although it has horror elements, it is a TV show. I just nixed it. I couldn't find files for Ghoulies, The Church or Murder Rock but I thought of some other good supplements.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zRwtfRvSRU

[dave13]

didn't realize you were the creator. nicely done. but yeah, true blood was definitely a slip. you redeemed yourself with nightmare city, though!

[Mutilated Prey]

Originally Posted by deepred

Gaga Horrors

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zRwtfRvSRU

That was great!

[Mr. Eddy]

Coincidentally this thread has been resurrected on her birthday!