On freaks

I consider Lady Gaga a pop star tailor-made for the 21st century.

She has become one of the main figures of contemporary pop culture, having managed to cross the border separating the commercial radio -listening "masses" from the trendy fashionistas and hip music aficionados of the blogosphere (don't expect me to use THAT word in this post or any other post because I truly, honestly believe THAT word is the handiwork of Satan, capable of mutilating all the beautiful images of smoky cafés, Joe McCarthy, Benzedrine and jazz THAT word could still evoke, if not for the media indulging in the modern context of it).

But what is even more notable is that she has managed to become this sort of patron saint for all the "freaks" in the world, whether it's the LGBT community whose rights she has been (rightly) vocal about, or just troubled and questioning youths and outcasts all around the world who feel detached from their surroundings. Her "little monsters" as she calls her fans. She is an empowering figure, no doubt about that.

Okay, I cannot go on being this neutral (or phony, hello Holden Caulfield) anymore. To get back to the beginning, yes, she truly is a pop star tailor-made for the 21st century: a refined and well thought-out product. She is the embodiment of commercial controversy and commercial counterculture, a "freak" that pleases the eyes, ears and minds of the majority.

I believe even her most dedicated fans wouldn't go as far as to say her music is radical. Gaga's a soft option for every two-bit DJ around the world wanting to play something new, trendy and simple enough to get even the most sober squares ("the 50s called, they want your vocab back, man!") dancing. Yes, she writes her own music, which is admirable, but since there's nothing shocking or outrageous in her music, her image as a "freak" is pretty much based on what she wears.

But for a rich pop star, surrounded by a team of designers and marketing professionals, to wear a humongous headpiece or a costume made out of meat isn't really that provocative, it's just calculated. Of course YOU'd get some stares (and a diagnose, plus some prescription drugs) if you walked down the streets dressed in a meat suit, but Gaga needs stares, her career depends on visibility as much as it does on audibility. Before she became Lady Gaga, Stefani Germanotta was a pretty, yet pretty ordinary looking young girl. To be honest, before the Fame (I hate myself for these puns and these sidenotes that follow them) she looked more like someone fresh out of Jersey Shore than someone from Andy Warhol's Factory.

Of course, the shit mainstream audience considers controversial has been done, recycled and refined a multitude of times before it hits the fan. Fashion-wise, Gaga is pretty much a blend of David Bowie, Klaus Nomi, and Peter Gabriel.

The "radical" nature of her character is made considerably more acceptable and selling by the fact that, all in all, she's just another good-looking fit pop diva in a skimpy costume (however "weird" the costumes might be), surrounded by good-looking fit backup dancers. Of course someone like Gaga can pull off those costumes. The Hollywood-effect: trained abs posing as the soft white underbelly, pretty faces portraying ugly faces. The motive of her style is more Awe than Shock.

Where's the balls? Where's the middle finger not straightened by the record company? Gaga is a freak stripped of all the abnormities, the monstrosities, all the warts and edges. A freak designed in a marketing meeting. Bleh.

I personally yearn for times when people like John Lydon or Kurt Cobain could rise into international stardom and sell millions of records, despite their upfront rejection of the star trip. They wore clothes they had used before the paparazzis swarmed around them, they slept in the clothes they wore on stage. They originated from the margins of society. Inspired by fellow freaks, they fed on sounds and words that most people ignored or rejected. They were freaks before they were famous, and I bet all the freaks and outcasts around the world sure as hell felt more at home in a world where people like them were for once raised on a pedestal, because and in spite of the fact that they were just being themselves.