Lady Gaga: Anything For Attention
Almost every generation of music has had the professional fame whore. Pretty much since media became a visual medium (the TV era), there has always been at least one attention whore running around, doing whatever is required, dressing in whatever they can, just to get attention. The rock and roll world has had more than it’s share, from the outlandish costumes and glasses of (the still in the closet at the time) Elton John, to the makeup of Kiss, the 70s and 80s had their share of pure attention whores. Madonna took the whole deal to another level, being willing to get naked for a book if that is what it took to keep people’s attention.
The latest phenom to run down this road is Lady Gaga, aka Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, and she is proving not only is she willing to go the extra mile, but that she is horribly transparent at it. What is more disgusting, I think, is that the public is buying into it bigtime and rewarding her with huge amounts of fame and money. I was surprised up front that people didn’t catch on to the idea of outrageous outfits (many of which reveal more flesh than the average stripper), or the mind numbingly stupid afflictions (the tea cup), or the whole “on 24 hours a day” attitude. Gaga travels in full “costume”, and is rarely if ever seen in public in anything but outrageous. This morning, she was travelling in basically bra, panties, and fishnet stockings. This isn’t for an event or anything else, it’s just to get on a plane and fly to the next performance.
Her real trick is the outrageous for the intention only of getting the media to cover her. A minidress made entirely out of meat, example, which got enough press that she repeated it (as one of her many different outfits) at the MTV awards. She changed outfits a rediculous number of times. Again, I cannot grasp why people cannot see they are being set up. Her “connection” with certain people or groups is entirely to outrage as well, including her close personal relationship with failing (or is that flailing) gossip dude Mario Armando Lavandeira, aka Perez Hilton. Her support of causes (this week is the “don’t ask, don’t tell” gay military issue) is also quite transparent, often timed to perfectly match media desire for coverage and not really showing any true depth.
Wake up people… you are falling for an attention whore. The 15 minutes is long overdue. Time to tune out and move on before the maggots come and eat the meat off her back.
