About two weeks after Christians around the world celebrated the anniversary of Jesus' resurrection, this nation's most "controversial" pop star released the video to "Judas," the pseudo-religious follow-up to the anthemic "Born This Way."
In the song, Lady Gaga declares her love for Judas, the disciple who betrays Jesus in those famous, critical moments. In the video, she rides a motorcycle on Jesus' back while batting eyelids at the (clearly) more badass biker Judas.
The Catholic League's Bill Donahue, who can be counted on to take offense and cry bigotry for a whole host of reasons, had this to say about Gaga's latest tour de provocation:
In her "Judas" video, Lady Gaga plays fast and loose with Catholic iconography, and generates several untoward statements, but she typically dances on the line without going over it. Perhaps that is because the video is a mess. Incoherent, it leaves the viewer more perplexed than moved. The faux-baptismal scene is a curious inclusion, as is her apparent fondness for the Jesus character. But if anyone thinks the Catholic League is going to go ballistic over Lady Gaga's latest contribution, they haven't a clue about what really constitutes anti-Catholicism.
You've got to wonder what's going on when the Catholic League's response to our edgiest pop star is essentially "Are you even trying anymore?"
Clearly offending the Catholic Church is not a required step in creating art, and Gaga is a tireless performer and creator, with collaborations with fashion houses that have certainly yielded interesting results. But the video and song plainly took aim at religion, and Gaga herself
has gone so far as to describe a Messianic vision of herself -- the would-be savior of her Little Monsters' right to self-expression.
So, if all we have left are shoes with penis heels and motorcycle-riding disciples, is that enough?
Our rockstars are American Idol judges; our most shocking pop culture moment of the past two years was Kanye West interrupting Taylor Swift. 50 Cent and Dr. Dre are making all their money off of Vitamin Water and headphones, respectively.
Another supposedly enigmatic and hyperoffensive entertainer of the moment is Tyler Okonma, better known as Tyler, the Creator, the 20-year-old brash leader of the rap group Odd Future. Odd Future, or Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All for long, has lyrics that make the Palin-scaring Common seem like James Taylor.
Tyler's lyrics, riddled with anti-gay slurs and rape fantasies are garnering critical acclaim (and even a cautiously admiring profile in the New York Times). It's all seen as so fresh, so daring -- but is it?
If Gaga as pop's Mary Magdalene is Madonna reincarnate, why isn't Tyler as rap's impossible-to-dance-to villain just a recycling of Eminem's early work?
Indeed, the Times' had this to say about Tyler's album "Goblin": "spiteful, internal, confident, vitriolic, vividly bruised stuff, a shocking -- and shockingly good -- album that bears little resemblance to contemporary hip-hop." Couldn't this have been lifted from a review of "The Marshal Mathers LP", Eminem's wake-up call from Detroit in 2000?
Turns out, it could have been. A decade-old review of that Eminem album noted that "Kim," a song the Times describes as a "murder ballad" "follow a respected path in popular music," one that stretches from "The Banks of Ohio" to Johnny Cash's "Delia's Gone" to Nick Cave's album, itself entitled "Murder Ballads."
So 2011's rape fantasies are 2000's spouse murders. Progress.
Perhaps one of the more inventive albums of the past few years was actually Kanye's "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy," which lived up to its insane pre-release hype not by seeking to be controversial, but by seeking to evoke honest emotion by invoking a darkness that hasn't yet been seen on tracks that also prove to be enduring club bangers (lest we forget that "All of the Lights," despite the abundance of Rihanna-vamp in the video, is a song about a broken family).
And West did it by taking up the cause of the artist, as he saw it. The cause of himself. He's at his best when he's delving into himself for inspiration, from the passing of his mother's death to the Taylor Swift media-frenzy. If loss pervades his music (even trifling songs like "Gold Digger" are ripe with hints at disloyalty and real pain), it's because he feeds off of his own emotions, rather than creating monstrosities and complicated fantasies (despite the album's name).
Gaga's efforts in the fight against 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell" were consistent, but did she have to put on Gloria Steinem glasses to make her point? And has there been any continued pressure in the wake of repeated delays?
It's the difference between Kanye's awareness of the nature of celebrity (from the "G.O.O.D. Music Cypher: "In this game you can never win / because they love you and they hate you then they love you again") and Gaga's relentless beating of the Love-Me-for-Me drum (from her newest single, "Hair": I just wanna be myself / and I want you to love me for who I am / I just wanna be myself / and I want you to know, I am my hair"). One resonates, the other makes you wonder if she changed a few lyrics and re-released "Born This Way".
As Gaga heads down an extremely talent-laden path towards attempting to shock for shock's sake, perhaps musicians can find role models not in true-pop's saccharine Katy Perry or bad boy rappers like Odd Future but in performers like West and Adele who direct their art not at offending us, but at our core.
Stop trying to make it new. Just make it real.
Follow Kia Makarechi on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Kia_Mak
Jon M. Sweeney: Is Lady Gaga Catholic?
Lady Gaga's 'Judas' Upsets Religious Groups - The Hollywood Reporter
Lady Gaga's 'Judas' Co-Director Explains Video's Religious Imagery ...
'Edge' is subjective, of course, and it is child's play to offend the Bill Donahues of the world, but, more challenging to offend death metal fans. Because of this elusive subjectivity, no one, including Kia Makarchi, despite a fascinating perspective, can really consider themselves an authority on 'Edge' for everyone.
Perhaps the real 'edge' in 21st century pop music is that way too many artists coming of age in the generation of 'autotune' are bypassing an all-important step in the development process mandated by previous generations of artists: Actually learning how to sing - in tune and with more than a 1 octave range.
If you really want 'edge' listen to the new song 'OpeRADical' - not just for its edgy and brutal jabs at pop culture and the 'stupid little girls and their autotune' but also for the absolute upper and lower 'edges' (3 octaves) in the vocals that you rarely hear in pop music.
Maybe I'm too old but the why are the charts heavily dominated by non-ROCK groups? Are the all underground?
How do white kids identify with many of the Black artist of today singing about the Black experience? They look stupid trying to share the these real concerns and problems, dressing like they belong on the streets.
White kids have their own true problems which I'm sure are expressed by many of the unknown bands out there. When American Idol and MTV dominate the charts you know the direction Music is going.
Every generation should have their OWN voice, mine certainly did. The Afro-American community
has theirs.
And by the author of this Blog using the word Pop Music, you know you're not going to be on on any EDGE.
first, i'm white, 27, although i now live in france i spent twenty five years living in inner city baltimore's east side ghetto. i listen to r/hip hop largely because it's what i can relate to-i was the only white girl in a five mile radius, slinging --- alongside my afr. neighbors, using, w.f., the whole deal. i got out of it, am now two years sober, relocated to fr, am now writing/modeling. i still agree that many white kids who listen to hh r nothing but suburban trust fund bebes who just dig the imageon the other hand, rock as a genre is pretty much finished. not much original going on there anymore. hip hop on the other hand, still has some awesome possibilities-as ppl like eminem, kanye west, drake, etc. continue to show us. concerning mainstream music, it's sort of the final frontier at the moment. (i said mainstream...not underground.) plus, it has the capacity to be light hearted, as well as shockingly poignant and deep...simoutaneously--something rock has never been able to do. rock doesn't have much of a sense of humor. frankly, i tend to find it depressing. i still enjoy some classic rock (old aerosmith, the doors, the smiths) but it is in hip hop that i find my heart--laughs, tears, and just plain old booty shaking funsies.
why do think that this ISN'T the voice of our generation? seems like you have racial issues as well, btw. if part of the current generation's standards (therefore voice) is a lack of dividing lines between race and lifestyle...love of the music 4 the sake of the music shouldn't you consider that a good thing? keep in mind that lyrically most gangsta rap/hh is largely satire...and overcoming adversity. a healthy message, imo, anyway. normal midde class ppl, black or white, don't get how hard it is to come from welfare and nothing doing what u've gotta to survive and take care of u'r fam, i was paying bills h/e i could at eleven to take care of mine. overcoming these incredible odds surrounded by failure and ppl who want nothing more but to drag you down with them but still being able to live thru it mostly in tact and able to make something of yourself in those conditions is like surviving vietnam as a one man army. rap/hip hop is a celebration of success against incredible odds. something economically relevant among all races currently. voice of a generation i'd say, yeah.
oh. and no, i have never acted 'black.' i have never adoped the dress or manner of speaking...that would be disrespectful. but i share the same background. and these days with poverty levels what they are more and more whites are finding themselves in the same situation. so.....
These kind of lyrics, had it been a heavy metal band who was writing it, would have been reviled from sea to shining sea by the American and British rock critic establishments. But when a rapper, especially if he's black, does it, it is "daring." What a bunch of pc hypocrites.
Clearly Madonna wanted to push buttons. But she also made great pop music. But most of the great "controversies" of pop music were, in retrospect, manufactured outrage, like Fox News wailing about Common at the White House.
Go through rock history -- Elvis couldn't be shown below the waist on TV because of his gyrating hips; the Beatles got grief because of their hair; the Sex Pistols' songs seemed simply to reflect the mood of the young British working class and were a thousand times less violent than countless rap songs today.
But adults baffled or upset by Elvis, the Beatles and the Sex Pistols grew up at a time when it was a parent's natural reaction to be shocked by someone challenging established rules and conduct. If we can thank the Baby Boomers and the generations after them for anything, it is that appreciating new artists no longer comes with an expiration date or an age limit.
Parents and kids listen to the same music, so there's no need to shock for shock's sake. It may not be cool to have your mom singing along with Lady Gaga in the minivan, but at least it's the music that's getting the attention and not her hips, hair or heels.
There are great acts out there. They are hard to find but they are out there. Only the sloppy c r a p makes its way to radio and MTV.
I'm not saying the woman wasn't in the wrong. I'm saying the treatment she received was not the same as what a white person would have received in the same situation. That equals racism in my book just like the disparity in sentencing between blacks arrested for crack and whites arrested for cocaine.