Lady Gaga wasn’t always the five-foot-two, meat-dress-clad pop goddess she is know to be today. As found in Lady Gaga: A Biography, by author Paula Johanson, throughout the course of her career, she has shocked and challenged the standards of society and the media with her edgy performances and outlandish outfits. From young Stefani Germanotta who grew up in Manhattan to pop sensation Lady Gaga, she has changed the lives of her fans and pop culture in general along the way. Her ascension to stardom despite a quite arduous journey is both an entertaining story and beacon of hope for those who are struggling with life (2012). Along the way, she has taken time to both push the agenda of the LGBTQ+ community, raise awareness for several disorders …show more content…
Still known as Stefani Germanotta at the time, she started playing solo and in bands at local bars and clubs, as found in Biography, a website sponsored by A&E Entertainment. This was before Gaga found an interest in avant-garde fashion, and her style of music and performance was surprisingly edge and rock-and-roll. Not long after dropping out of NYU, she caught the attention of a producer who slowly pushed her toward adopting a more pop style of music, and to escalate her look. She took his advice and started to change her style, and he was crucial in her signing to Def Jam records. Unfortunately, she had a falling out with said producer and was dropped by Def Jam records (“Lady Gaga”). At this time, according to Neil Strauss, an author for Rolling Stone, Gaga also suffered through a breakup with a long-time boyfriend. As an outcome, her music reverted to its edgy style. On the other hand, she started connecting with her audiences much more than before (“The Broken Heart and Violent. . .”). She had to start supporting herself then, and began both gogo dancing and working as a waitress, explains Biography. This same source indicates that she also started performing more frequently, and collaborated with many local rock bands. She experimented with fashion more than ever. This is quite a rough spot in Gaga’s journey, because she was moving away from success as well as …show more content…
In fact, she has used much of the fame she has gained to create a platform with which she uses to spread messages of positivity to her fans. One example of Lady Gaga using her platform for positivity is explained by Sandra Gonzalez, an author for CNN Entertainment, when she presented a summary of how Lady Gaga plans to both raise awareness and open up about her struggle with fibromyalgia. In her documentary titled “Five Foot Two,” which she produced in partnership with Netflix and aired on September 22 of this year, will showa trip to the doctor’s office. In her documentary, she will explain, in detail, the effects of her disease and how it has impacted her life. Information from this article could be used in my essay to comment on how--even though she has had to suffer from this disease--Lady Gaga is using her experience and struggle in a positive way: spreading the word to reassure and connect with fans who may also be dealing with the same thing (“Lady Gaga will open up. . .”). In addition, Gil Kaufman, an author for Billboard, described how, when Lady Gaga had some free time before her Joanne World Tour, she teamed up with her Born This Way Foundation and Team Rubicon, a veteran-sponsored group to help demolish a house in Houston, Texas after it was damaged by Hurricane Harvey. Said house had suffered water damaging and had
In modern day society, popular culture has gained equal status to world issues and politics. Music, movies, and literature have started cultural revolutions and challenged the straight-forward thinking many individuals have accepted in the past. But while popular culture can advance new ideas and create movements, it also has the ability to challenge advancements society has made. Imani Perry’s essay, The Venus Hip Hop and the Pink Ghetto, focuses on hip hop and its negative impact on women and body image.
During the introduction stage, the product is initially launched and slowly grabbing the public’s attention (Solomon, 2008). Madonna’s career as an entertainer entered its introduction stage when the Warner Bros released her first self-titled debut “Madonna” in 1983. Madonna’s “funky, rhythm-and-blues-tinged sound” (Cengage, 2003) slowly caught the attention of New York underground club dancers and audiences. Madonna and her band members often visit the hottest clubs to attract more audience by wearing multicolored wardrobe and performing provocative dancing.
The pressure of trying to look like celebrities can cause someone to do drastic, unnecessary things to themselves just to please the social critics. In the story, “The Girl Who Was Plugged In” the main character, Philadelphia Burke, was what society considered ugly. After a failed suicide attempt she becomes a candidate to become a celebrity. Philadelphia wanted to finally be what society thought as perfect. To become a celebrity Philadelphia must go through several modifications and electronic implants. Nobody really want to have these things done to them bu...
The intended audience for the article is teens to mid-aged adults. The age is ranged between fourteen and thirty-five years of age. This designated age group is significant because these are the ages that people would listen to Kayne West’s music. For this audience, gender is not favored due to the fact that both boys/girls and men/women both listen to the style of music Mr. West sings. Even though not obviously acknowledged, race is part of the intended audience. Since Kayne is an African American the African American race is a fraction of the designated audience. Lastly, the middle class is also a big part of the audience. The middle class are the people who usually keep up with and care about what the celebrities have to say or what they are doing.
Taylor Swift’s influence over young girls ultimately leaves her in a position of power and responsibility. Swift is a role model, and as such, she is expected to empower her listeners with messages of independence, strength, and equality. Until Swift is able to utilize these tactics in her music, it is imperative that people do not buy her music, listen to her music, tweet about her, go to her concerts, write about her, or watch videos of/about her. As an alternative we highly recommend listening to Beyoncé’s works in order to incite discussion and eventually bring forth positive change in regards to feminism.
Gay suggests another way characters within pop culture are portrayed as unlikable or at least not powerful, is by being a person of color. As stated earlier, there exists a narrow conceptualization of womanhood and femininity, which primarily mirrors the privileged class, which dominates pop culture in terms of the books we read, television we watch, ads we consume, heroines we aspire to be, and music we listen to. However there does exist different identities of what it means to be a woman. In Punks, Bulldaggers, and Welfare Queens. Cathy J. Cohen imagines the contemporary view and power of women to be in relation to their homogenized identity. This meaning, to be a woman also depends on other factors of identity; to be a woman in relation to if you are poor or rich, black or white, gay or straight, queer or fall into the dominant class. Luckily, this understanding of womanhood has somewhat expanded. The scope of racial expansion somewhat increases by moving to include Gay’s idolized Black Miss America. Unfortunately, this expansion follows the privilege trend where only a certain type of green girl is able to satisfy the role of Black Miss America. A large issue that Gay has with representation of women of color is that they are tokenized, they are stereotyped, and they are grossly generalized. Instead of this poor misrepresentation of women of color, both Gay and Cohen seek, “a new political direction and agenda, one that does not focus on integration into dominant structures but instead seeks to transform the basic fabric and hierarchies that allow systems of oppression to persist and operate efficiently” (Cohen 165). Gay concludes that inclusion of women of color in pop culture fails to portray them as more than one dimensional characters. This lack of depth is attributed to the lack of respect that women of color face in real life as well. While the
In Superstar, director Todd Haynes uses his understanding of the female perspective to create a semi-biographical movie about singer Karen Carpenter. It uses Barbie dolls as the characters to tell the story about her life, battle with anorexia, and struggles that the family faced daily. The film explores the idea of “who has control of a woman’s body?” As a pop star did her body actually belong to herself? Or did it belong to her manager or record label? The stress of her “perfect and ideal life” caused her to become anorexic in order to sustain her perfect body. By becoming anorexic, Karen
Without a doubt there is one major performer that certainly stands out within our pop culture world. The name of this very famous American icon is, Dolly Parton. Dolly has surpassed any rags to riches story that ever lived. She has touched the lives of so many individuals over many decades through her many talents. Dolly started her career at a very young age and continued fulfilling her life endeavors through country music, pop music, and even acting. This American icon didn’t stop with just her talents, she also gave back to our society through charity, fundraising, and establishing her own theme park. Dolly Parton was brought up in a very poor family, however through much dedication she became the famous icon everyone idolized today.
she will forever be loved and inspirational by many keeping her popularity and fame for another
Robinson, Peter. “Madonna: 50 poptastic facts.” guardian.co.uk. 15 Aug. 2008. Guardian News and Media Limited. Web. 28 Feb. 2011.
From the first time I saw Lady Gaga interviewed on the Oprah Winfrey Show, I decided that she was not only a musical genius, but also so brilliant she probably possessed an actual genius IQ. I was struck by her confidence, especially in light of the fact that she is so young. I never had that kind of poise or self-assurance in my early 20's. Heck, I often feel that I barely have that now!
On August 16, 1958 Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone was born in the world. Madonna is the third of six children as well as the middle child. She was somewhat “the sissy of the family” and she would often use her feminine wittiness to get her way (A&E Biography 2011). Madonna was raised in a devoted Catholic family and attended the Sacred Heart School through her academic years. Her talent for dancing enabled her to graduate high school a semester early and then attend the University of Michigan on a full dance scholarship. Madonna soon dropped out of college and moved to New York to further her dance career. In order to pay for rent, Madonna worked a string of odd jobs that include modeling nude, working at the Russian Tea Room, and performing at the American Dance Center. While working at these jobs, Madonna also began to pursue her music career by forming several bands and then deciding to go solo once she met Camille Barbone of ...
As Barbie gets ready to turn the big 4-2, it is unreal to think that she has completed her last makeover. No doubt that as time changes and people’s attitudes towards life change, this timely doll will also be forced to adjust to the needs of society. With more than 75 successful careers, her own official website, and a namesake magazine, this little doll has become more than a child’s plaything. Whether we love her or hate her, she will always be a part of us all.
...s herself and her true identity. She realizes that she isn't always going to be the girl that everyone wants her to be but as long as she is true to herself that all that really matters (MTV, 2011).
Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanott, famously known as her stage name, Lady Gaga, is a present day, modern pop artist. She dabbles in other music genres such as jazz, folk, country, dance, rock, and electronic music, but still remains as a pop legend. Her known influences ranged from Queen and Elton John to Andy Warhol and Rainer Maria Rilke. Gaga was born on March 28, 1986, in Yonkers, New York, to Italian-American parents, Cynthia and Joseph Germanotta. Joseph, an Internet entrepreneur, and Cynthia, a Verizon executive, raised Gaga in Upper West Side Manhattan where she learned to play piano at the age of four. Her parents encouraged her music talent and she became skilled in classical piano and took a full day of acting classes every Saturday