I can’t completely get my head around the recent round of (supposed) self-constructed music video image women, although it should be my zone of expertise… Nicki Minaj, Lana Del Rey and of coursey, the lady gaga, for example. The following isn’t judgement, it’s merely reflection on surface impression.
I haven’t delved into any of these ladies too much, I don’t own any of their albums. A couple weeks ago, I was surprised by how much I like Nicki Minaj, after seeing her on the superbowl (I was soo curious about the Madonna hype!) I wondered, who the hell is she? Often, I live under a rock. Now I know the song and video, ‘Stupid Hoe’. From what I can deduct, she is one oversexed to the max crazytown bitch (I mean this in the most respectful way) who marks an aesthetic lineage from say, Grace Jones and Missy Elliot. L’il Kim is too obvious. Now I can’t get that song out of my head, with the schizophrenic siren drilling the hook over and over (dissing Lil Kim btw) “you a stupid ho you a you a stupid ho!” as she shakes her ass in a cage. If she was a big lesbian (which I think she is on some level…), that would make her even more awesome.
I like Lana Del Rey’s songs, as they are very easy to like for indie people, but I am not in love with them as I want to be. The broody, cinematic melodies and girl’s aesthetic are hard to dislike for someone like me, but ultimately I find the melancholy too cool to be sincere. I wished she had the type of voice where she could really belt her heart out. So far, the lyrics to me are dumber than Stupid Hoe and they don't have the same wink and nod. Video games? So young! And painfully to me, the first time I saw her video posted I was really saddened by the botox. I thought it was an ironic joke done for one video, until I watched another.
I imagine that lady gaga by now is old news. I will say that over all, I like that gal, and in many ways she started this recent wave. She’s got a lot of chutzpah, and that Telephone video she did with Beyonce is, I think, the pinnacle of her cultural significance in music video history.
I am not going to say what a lot of music fans say, that artifice today trumps the sincerity and talent of a nostalgic past, of Nina Simone or Cat Power or Janis Joplin or Etta James, et al. because that isn’t the point. Today is today, unfortunately.
I’m curious, are any of these women aware of Orlan? Just curious. And did you notice that I started every paragraph with I? That was by chance. To end this article is a Bell Hooks dissertation on the politics of why black women don’t identify with Madonna much. As a woman of colour, I was never fanatic about her either, even though I love her VOGUE era. Hook explains this well. The article is taken from a fb post from curator Gabi Ngcobo via Martha Rosler. Next week’s article… I’m getting off the internet!
http://stevenstanley.tripod.com/docs/bellhooks/madonna.html
