Boybands and Why I Love Them (Sheridan Pierce Supplemental Post #7)

I have always loved boy bands and girl bands.   I was an avid Spice Girls fan and watched Spice World frequently.  In fact, the VHS I had got stuck in my grandma’s machine and I insisted that we break it open to get it out.  I also was obsessed with both N*Sync and The Backstreet Boys in their heyday.  I remember winning the title of "best dancer" in kindergarten after wowing the class with my moves while "It's Gonna Be Me" was playing.  Here's a link to the song, in case anyone's forgotten the classic:

You could say that I was a bit of a fangirl.  And now, of course I am a fan of One Direction, a "Directioner" if you will.  I'm fully aware that I play into the hype, and I'm okay with that.  What's intresting about One Direction in particular is that they make attempts to brand themselves as an "unconventional" boyband.  Unlike the Backstreet Boys and N*Sync, the members of "1D" cannot and do not dance.  This is something made apparent in their music videos, as well as their concerts.  When I went to The Rose Bowl to see them perform during the Where We Are Tour, I noticed that there was a lot of running around onstage and interacting with fans, but very little choreography.  It was actually refreshing.  They are much more relaxed than boybands from the late '90s/early 2000s, and this is an indication that audiences want to see more natural, "unplanned" performances.  Suddenly the songs become more personal.

The idea of “types” is highly ingrained into most boy/girl bands, and this is a concept that One Direction plays into as well.  Zayn Malik (who controversially just left the band) is the "mysterious" one, while Harry Styles is the heartthrob and household name.  And even if they didn't consciously create these types, the fans categorize the boys themselves.  It's just what fans are used to when thinking of boybands in general.  There's "someone for everyone," and that's what gives them mass appeal.

And, One Direction is notorious for using renowned celebrities as guest performers onstage and in their music videos.  If 1D's target audience is tweens/teens, I'd say these celebrities play more to the appeal of parents than kids.  My point being that having Ronnie Wood play guitar in a live performance One Direction's new hit "Where Do Broken Hearts Go" will interest a fan's mom or dad more than the kid.  In fact, my dad is a huge Stones fan and we both watched the video together.

Ronnie Wood performing "Where Do Broken Hearts Go" on X-Factor with One Direction

Danny DeVito and Harry Styles dance together in the "Steal My Girl" music video

Say what you will about One Direction, but I think they make fun music that's great to listen and dance to.  They also seem like genuinely nice guys.  I got to seem them perform live again at a taping for Dick Clark's New Years Rockin' Eve, and they seemed like genuinely friendly and charming guys.

Taylor Swift & Lily Allen (Supplemental Post #6)

I have always had (and I think I will always have) mixed feelings about Taylor Swift.  My relationship to her as a spectator follows a cyclical pattern of two interchangeable steps:

1. Being a fan.
2. Remembering why I'm not a fan.

Taylor Swift writes great music and she's very talented.  I actually own a lot of her songs and enjoy them often.  But it's her persona aside from her music that can at times leave a bad taste in my mouth. By this, I mean that she seems to make business decisions that often anger me. I hit my breaking point when she took her music off Spotify and wrote a whole article about how the application is stealing from artists.  I personally love Spotify, and think it's great because you're not actually downloading music, but streaming it online.  In my eyes, and this was probably not Ms. Swift's intention, the decision made her look greedy.  Furthermore, in a matter of weeks news broke out that she had trademarked phrases like "party like it's 1989."  I'm pretty sure Prince coined that one with "party like it's 1999."  Her business decisions can get on my nerves, but I do enjoy her music.

Concurrently, I am rediscovering my love for Lily Allen music.  I think she's extremely smart and many of her songs are extremely satirical.  I'm particularly liking her track "URL Badman" from her latest album, Sheezus.  In the song, she sings from the perspective of an internet "troll" who tears into female artists on his blog.  She points out the ruthlessness of online bloggers, singing "I don't like you/ I think you're worthless/ I wrote a long piece about it up on my Wordpress."  I think she makes a great point of how the Internet can be a pretty brutal place, and not just for celebrities.  It's fine to have your own opinions, but people can often take it too far and make nasty comments that they'd never say in the light of day.  I also particularly like her song "Hard Out Here," in which she points out the double-standard for women in the music industry and the objectification they face on a daily basis.  She sings, "You should probably lose some weight, 'cos we can't see your bones/ You should probably fix your face or you'll end up on your own/ Don't you want to have somebody who objectifies you?"  The music video is particularly poignant since it shows Allen dancing with half-naked women while an older studio executive instructs her on how she should dance more provocatively.  I think the video tackles a lot of issues female artists face today, especially in music videos which have the "male gaze" at their core.

Tutti Frutti (and Apparently Some Booty) - Sheridan Pierce Core Post #5

In Negron-Muntaner’s article “Jennifer’s Butt,” the author describes the experience of watching Jennifer Lopez act in the film Selena.  She points out that during the film, she never saw Lopez as Selena, but was aware throughout that it was Jennifer Lopez taking on the role.  This seems interesting to me because it depicts the ways in which star persona can often be an obstacle in onscreen persona.  In a postmodern society, we are so used to recognizing celebrity and obsessing over their personal lives that it can often get in the way of suspending belief during a film.  Further, the author discusses the fact that Jennifer Lopez, an American actress of Puerto Rican descent, playing Selena, a Mexican-American singer/songwriter, caused controversy.  There are different sides to this argument.  One could say that it is indeed important to pay attention to ethnic background when casting to not further perpetuate the false stereotype that people who speak Spanish are all “the same.”  But, as the author also states, there was not much Puerto Rican representation in Hollywood at the time, and Lopez playing Selena marked a shift in the portrayal of Puerto Ricans as “secondary roles.”

It is interesting that Lopez’s body practically became a marketing point for the film.  As the author describes, during promotion for the movie, Lopez was asked “’Todo es tuyo?’ (Is that body for real?)” (Negron-Muntaner 186).  Personally, even reading the question made me feel uncomfortable, and I would be offended if anyone asked me that in any circumstance.  But, as the author describes, Lopez “stood up, gave a 360 degree turn, patted her butt and triumphantly sat down: ‘Todo es mio.’” (Negron-Muntaner 186).  It is fair for Lopez to be proud of her “big bottom” as she describes it, but it just seems like the media is objectifying her body in the name of film promotion.  It reminded me of what Roberts describes of Carmen Miranda in her article “The Lady in the Tutti-Frutti Hat.”  Miranda’s “exoticness” as dubbed by Hollywood, was used to promote films.  Her ethnicity changed from film to film depending on what the studio wanted, and her body became the focus of any character she portrayed.  

Madonna & Shock Value (Sheridan Pierce Supplemental Post #5)

In light of the aftermath of what I am sure will become Madonna's infamous performance with Drake, I thought it appropriate to bring up the early roots of her ability to shock audiences.

I decided to start reading Life with My Sister Madonna by Christopher Ciccone, Madonna’s brother, who is featured in the film Truth or Dare.  In the film, he is portrayed as one of Madonna’s confidants.  He’s always there when she needs him, and he is often telling her how great she looks.  I was curious about the “real” Madonna, and when I found out her brother had written a book, I had to read it.

In an interesting excerpt from the book, Ciccone recounts Madonna’s first ever “performance” at a school talent show when she was 14 years old.  From the author’s account of the event, one can tell that Madonna was always willing to push the boundaries, even from a young age.  Ciccone says, “Madonna suddenly twirls onstage, covered from head to foot in green and fluorescent pink paint, which creates the illusion that she is stark naked… Madonna starts dancing—or perhaps writhing is a better word… none can take their eyes off Madonna” (Ciccone 43-44).  From early on, Madonna was sexualizing her image, drawing the “male gaze” to her body, and dancing and dressing provocatively.  Although she was not actually naked, Madonna created the illusion of nudity through costume.  She wanted to shock people and make a statement, and her brother states that “her performance is the most scandalous one that anyone has ever seen in that conservative community” (Ciccone 44).  Madonna was already crafting an onstage persona in middle school, aware that she could make audiences pay attention by both charming and shocking them.

And it seems, not much has changed.  Part of Madonna's persona has become her ability to be outrageous onstage.  She wants her moves to seem spontaneous when in reality they are very calculated.  She is a self-proclaimed perfectionist who loves to rehearse.  If she's made you gasp, at least in her eyes, she's done her job.

Madonna and Her Persona (Sheridan Pierce Core Post #4)

Madonna has that indescribable “it” factor that makes her so interesting to watch.  She even transforms the documentary, Truth or Dare, which is supposed to be a look at Madonna’s everyday life, into a platform for her stardom.  It gives the audience the sense that Madonna is always performing even when she’s not.  Even Warren Beatty questions her decision to put her private life on the camera, and jokes, “What point is there existing off camera?”  And this statement is coming from an acclaimed and respected actor whose profession involves being in front of  a camera.  The difference is that an actor like Beatty is able to separate himself from the character he is playing, while Madonna feels the need to constantly uphold the persona she has created.  As Cvetkovich points out in The Powers of Seeing and Being Seen, “Truth or Dare suggests that Madonna enjoys displaying herself for the visual pleasure of others… The making of a film about the tour suggests, furthermore, that Madonna is not content to merely be watched onstage” (Cvetkovich 156). 

It is also interesting to consider the amount of work it takes to be Madonna.  She is constantly being touched up in the film, or even giving her testimonials about having a “motherly instinct” towards her dancers while sitting in a make-up chair.  The audience can get the sense that she is a perfectionist to the extreme, she can’t let her guard down for one second or else the whole illusion goes to pieces.  But that is what makes her “Madonna.”  She’s larger than life and she desperately wants the viewer (her potential fan) to know that.  As Bell Hooks states in “Madonna: Plantation Mistress or Soul Sister, “Madonna never lets her audience forget that whatever ‘look’ she acquires is attained by hard work—‘it ain’t natural”… “Certainly no one, not even die-hard Madonna fans, ever insists that her beauty is not attained by skillful artifice” (Hooks 159).

Madonna is also criticized by both Hooks and Cvetkovich for appropriating Black and gay culture in crafting her image.  As Hooks points out, in the film, “We found it tragically ironic that Madonna would choose as her dance partner a black male with dyed blonde hair… he was positioned as a mirror, into which Madonna and her audience could look and see only a reflection of herself and the worship of ‘whiteness’ she embodies—that white supremacist culture wants everyone to embody” (Hooks 163).  I thought this was an interesting point, since the same man is also one of the only, if not the only straight male dancer on the tour.  Perhaps this decision was made because Madonna, while very reliant on her gay fans, equates masculinity with heterosexuality, as Hooks suggests.  She likes to "crotch-grab" in her performances because it asserts a male power that she wishes to embody even though she is a female.  Having a straight dancer, and creating this "reflection of herself" that Hooks suggests, in Madonna's mind makes her seem "strong" or "male-like."