In
lecture, we spoke about the infamous Lady Gaga, and her music video of Bad Romance. In light of the many things we could say
about Lady Gaga, her music, her lyrics, or her fashion, I wanted to focus on
the types of communities that she prides herself on in relation to Lynch’s
arguments.
Pop Culture serves religious functions in a
society – The Social aspect creating a community.
Lady
Gaga has her “Little Monsters” which is what she calls her fan base around the
world. She relates to them as the socially
unique, outsiders of the norm, and the creators of the new.
She
also stands for equal rights for the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgendered
community.
Not
only this, but she believes in bully-free world, and is, I believe, currently working
on trying to make it the law to stop bullying.
Three
very powerful communities. Three very powerful perspectives. Three very
powerful beliefs. All following in the footsteps of the Gaga herself. Gaga
might not know it, but she herself is creating a community, a leadership with
followers.
Not
everyone may believe in the Christian faith, nor believe in Gaga, but everyone
stands for something, which is what Gaga is partially trying to express.
What
I believe Gaga is trying to do is spread the word of love. Demolish hate, and
have unconditional love, like in her lyrics of Bad Romance. And who is the
better image of love, than Jesus himself (in Christian beliefs). Jesus, loves
unconditionally, forgives, forgets, doesn’t judge, and creates a community of
followers who feel comfortable with a leader like that. Gaga is following in
the footsteps of Jesus, since she is a devote Christian; one can assume she is
getting her inspiration from Him. Through her, as a popular culture artifact,
she is serving the religion in a positive way, in the society. Even though
Christianity is not ok with some of her beliefs, one of Christianity’s first
teachings is LOVE, and the love of Jesus.
I am going to leave you with a video of her that she taped for the Etobicoke School of the Arts anti-bullying assembly.
This is a response to Felicia’s excellent article “Peace, Love, Gaga”
ReplyDeleteI should begin by saying I do not listen to Lady Gaga. I don’t quite “get” Lady Gaga, and frankly I don’t understand what a Gaga or a “disco stick” is exactly. I don’t find her music overly exciting, and being an art major I don’t find her outfits and performances all that shocking. I don’t dislike her, but I don’t like her, she sits somewhere in musician limbo in my personal opinion.
I do, however, really respect how forward and public she is on pushing acceptance, inclusivity and personal freedom. She promotes anti-bullying and the It Gets Better campaign and took a public stand against the US Army’s “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy [video posted below]. Gaga is so interesting because she isn’t afraid to consider herself a person with strong Catholic beliefs, yet stands firmly behind a number of social and political issues that are typically overlooked or even rejected by communities of the same religion.
Mother Monster’s power track “Born This Way” is about the importance of loving and believing yourself, whoever that may be. It has been declared by many sources as the “New Gay Anthem”, and with lyrics like “don’t be a drag, just be a Queen” it hardly seems surprising. This again comes back to the message we discussed in class – unconditional love. Through love, Gaga claims that we can overcome anything, because:
I’m beautiful in my way
‘Cause God makes no mistakes
I’m on the right track, baby
I was born this way
Her lyrics for “Born This Way” contain a great deal more religious content than that of “Bad Romance” and the video contains a brief manifesto at the beginning. Although loving yourself is key to happiness and success, Gaga teaches us that we need to be more accepting on a societal level as well. Gaga is all about breaking stereotypes - just because you are religious doesn’t mean you are intolerant.
It doesn’t matter if you love him, or capital H-I-M, just put your paws up and join the Gaga movement and embrace who you are.
www.tumblr.com/getsavedordietryin