A friend of mine recently got upset about the following ad from Reebok:
While it does somewhat perpetuate the objectification of women, it's hardly the worst example of it. Yes, the concept of a guy being unable to keep his eyes off a woman's ass is disgusting in many ways. However, the woman in the ad is cool, confident, commanding, and seems to have a very positive self-image. Yeah, sure, the ad leads us to believe she's like this as a result of having a nice posterior due to her use of their shoes, but these are generally good qualities to have, and it is far from portraying her as a submissive object at the mercy of mens' desires.
There is admittedly something wrong with our culture when women feel that they have to use their bodies to even the playing field; however, that is something intrinsically wrong with society, and expecting Reebok to adhere to a different set of standards to advertise their products is ridiculous. To get angry over this ad, one should be expected to admit that every commercial advertising shampoo, makeup, or any other beauty products is inherently offensive for suggesting, however subtly, that women need to look "beautiful" to be accepted by society.
That's a sound argument on a basic level, but it somewhat contradicts my view of feminism, which is that it's about choice. This includes the choice to be a housewife or stay-at-home mom, the choice to get plastic surgery, the choice to wear makeup and other beauty products, and yes, the choice to wear Reebok sneakers in order to tone your ass so that men will stare at it. I'm not in any way suggesting that women belong in the kitchen or need to look dolled up for their husbands, but if they choose to do it, that's their prerogative. So as long as that woman in the Reebok commercial seems to be in control of her choices, who are we to judge what shoes she wears?
Friday, December 11, 2009
Saturday, December 5, 2009
In Review: Lady Gaga's Fame Monster
Few artists in the past year have had as much of an impact on the music industry as Lady Gaga, a fact made all the more impressive considering she is a essentially a newcomer to the scene. Gaga's "The Fame" brought a new and exciting flavor to dance/electronic music, combining common elements of the genre with pop vocals and style. Perhaps more importantly, in a genre full of names and music that lack image (what do Daft Punk and Justice look like?), Gaga brings fashion and art to the scene as well, giving a face to a commonly faceless genre. Some might consider her a pop starlet in the same vein as a Britney Spears or a Simpson sister, but one only has to listen to her new album, "The Fame Monster," to appreciate that she's taking a departure from the kind of overproduced crap Britney's been singing lately.
Gaga's concept for the album is (according to her) the darker side of being famous. I'm not really sure that I see that in the lyrical content of the songs on this album (most of the songs seem to be about romances going sour or not working out - maybe it's just metaphors that I'm not getting?), but at the very least the musical content is far heavier than her previous effort.
* * *
Bad Romance
Currently sitting at number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 (expect this to change by next week), Bad Romance provides a metaphorical look into Gaga's relationship with the music industry. I originally didn't care for the song (musically speaking it's almost exactly the same as Poker Face) but after seeing the fabulous music video, I really started to warm up to it. There's a section ("Walk, walk, fashion, baby / work it, move that bitch c-razy") that features Gaga singing a minor seventh about a minor triad that also got my music theory muscles twitching. Otherwise it's not as spectacular as some of the other songs on the album, but it's catchy as hell and lots of fun, which is essentially the point of Lady Gaga.
Alejandro
Alejandro opens with a violin solo playing in the harmonic minor, but when the chords come in (the harmonic rhythm is quarter notes on the offbeats throughout the song - awesome), they're in the natural minor. Gaga employs one of her favorite compositional devices here, modulating to the relative major for the chorus, but starts it on a subdominant chord, reminiscent of a lot of European club/dance music. On a whole, a simple, catchy, and effective composition with rather bland lyrical content. It's a good thing that's not why I listen to her.
Monster
Ever wish people would use 80s drum machines more often? Wish no longer!
I don't really want to like this song. It uses a total of three different chords, and only in the same progression over and over, which is something I usually despise. That said, I do like the stylistic use of auto-tune (yeeeaah T-Pain) and as usual, Gaga has a flair for catchy melodic vocal lines (listen to Speechless for further on that). It's an average song that gets more addicting with each listen.
Speechless
Speechless is at once the "best" song on The Fame Monster and the most out of place. A ballad that contains no hint of the electronic dance beats that are present in the rest of the album, Speechless shows a clear influence from The Beatles, Queen, Billy Joel, and Elton John with the distinction of having Gaga's vocal stylings and lyrics.
This song is so good in so many ways that it really makes me sad to say that it has absolutely no business being a track on The Fame Monster. In between two heavy dance tracks, the presence of a ballad distracts from the overall industrial pop-dance feel of the work as a whole. I suppose I might recommend she write an entire album of ballads - God knows it would sell - but I'd honestly rather she keep up with the dance music.
Dance in the Dark
Interscope Records really bit the big one by not releasing an uncensored version of the album. In the opening section of this song, Gaga is supposed to be saying "I'm a free bitch" multiple times, but it's edited to "I'm a free bit" due to censoring, and it sounds terrible. I have yet to hear of an uncensored version available, which is really unfortunate because I don't really know what a "free bit" is. [Edit: I hear Interscope/Cherrytree is working on it. Still think it's a pretty stupid error to begin with.]
This song is Gaga's way of saying she's anti-plastic surgery, apparently - she opens by referring to silicone and saline as poison. The best parts of this song are the spoken word bit in the middle and the chorus that immediately follows it - like the opening of Lovegame, which contains a measure in 7/8 time with the verse coming in an 8th note earlier than expected, the spoken word section ends on a 2/4 measure rather than a 4/4 one, and the chorus comes in half a measure earlier than one would think. It sounds pretty sick. Otherwise it's pretty standard dance fare. The awesome chorus is in the relative major again (plagal cadences too!) - it's starting to be a signature move for most of Gaga's songs that are in minor. [See Poker Face, Paparazzi, and Boys Boys Boys from "The Fame"]
Telephone
Reported to be the official second single from The Fame Monster, Telephone is the only song on the album I can claim I truly don't like. It features a brief appearance by Beyoncé, who sounds extremely out of place - she's got a fabulous voice, but it's being put to horrible misuse in this instance. Musically- and lyrically-speaking, the song is repetitive and just plain boring. It's good enough for a mindless dance number but it does absolutely nothing for me.
So Happy I Could Die
This is, to me, the most interesting song on the album by far. In A minor, the verses feature a chord progression that ends in a Picardy third situation. Specifically, [ F > G > Em > A(sus4) > A ] the first time through and [ F > G > Em > Am ] the second time. While the major-tonic-in-a-minor-key thing would be pretty cool regardless, Gaga continues singing in the minor key while this is happening in the accompaniment - it's very reminiscent of her prior song, The Fame, in which she sings in G mixolydian while her accompaniment is in playing in G natural minor. The chorus ends with a pretty cool F# half-diminished chord resolving to an A minor chord to transition back into the verse. I've never heard of anything quite like this outside of maybe classical music or jazz, though I can't really think of an example of it even then. It's moments like this that I'm really glad Gaga writes her own music.
Let's add to this the incredibly feel-good lyrics and the fact this is about as catchy (especially the chorus) as everything else on the album as well. Love.
Teeth
Anyone remember Beautiful Dirty Rich from The Fame? Full of attitude, sass, and confidence, it was probably one of best songs from Gaga's first album. Teeth is that song for The Fame Monster. It focuses heavily on her ability to sell a song on vocals alone, and it works. Her static accompaniment uses very few chords (3) but this is the kind of song where that's all you need.
* * *
Overall, The Fame Monster has a fairly unified sound, with the ballad in the middle serving as a distraction, albeit quite a pleasant one. It shows a shift in sound from the more pop-oriented songs of The Fame [see: Eh Eh (Nothing Else I Can Say)] to a darker, industrial, dance-oriented focus in The Fame Monster. It's not a masterpiece by any means, but no one expects that of Gaga. We expect fun, catchy music that we can move to, and in that The Fame Monster is complete success.
Gaga's concept for the album is (according to her) the darker side of being famous. I'm not really sure that I see that in the lyrical content of the songs on this album (most of the songs seem to be about romances going sour or not working out - maybe it's just metaphors that I'm not getting?), but at the very least the musical content is far heavier than her previous effort.
* * *
Bad Romance
Currently sitting at number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 (expect this to change by next week), Bad Romance provides a metaphorical look into Gaga's relationship with the music industry. I originally didn't care for the song (musically speaking it's almost exactly the same as Poker Face) but after seeing the fabulous music video, I really started to warm up to it. There's a section ("Walk, walk, fashion, baby / work it, move that bitch c-razy") that features Gaga singing a minor seventh about a minor triad that also got my music theory muscles twitching. Otherwise it's not as spectacular as some of the other songs on the album, but it's catchy as hell and lots of fun, which is essentially the point of Lady Gaga.
Alejandro
Alejandro opens with a violin solo playing in the harmonic minor, but when the chords come in (the harmonic rhythm is quarter notes on the offbeats throughout the song - awesome), they're in the natural minor. Gaga employs one of her favorite compositional devices here, modulating to the relative major for the chorus, but starts it on a subdominant chord, reminiscent of a lot of European club/dance music. On a whole, a simple, catchy, and effective composition with rather bland lyrical content. It's a good thing that's not why I listen to her.
Monster
Ever wish people would use 80s drum machines more often? Wish no longer!
I don't really want to like this song. It uses a total of three different chords, and only in the same progression over and over, which is something I usually despise. That said, I do like the stylistic use of auto-tune (yeeeaah T-Pain) and as usual, Gaga has a flair for catchy melodic vocal lines (listen to Speechless for further on that). It's an average song that gets more addicting with each listen.
Speechless
Speechless is at once the "best" song on The Fame Monster and the most out of place. A ballad that contains no hint of the electronic dance beats that are present in the rest of the album, Speechless shows a clear influence from The Beatles, Queen, Billy Joel, and Elton John with the distinction of having Gaga's vocal stylings and lyrics.
This song is so good in so many ways that it really makes me sad to say that it has absolutely no business being a track on The Fame Monster. In between two heavy dance tracks, the presence of a ballad distracts from the overall industrial pop-dance feel of the work as a whole. I suppose I might recommend she write an entire album of ballads - God knows it would sell - but I'd honestly rather she keep up with the dance music.
Dance in the Dark
Interscope Records really bit the big one by not releasing an uncensored version of the album. In the opening section of this song, Gaga is supposed to be saying "I'm a free bitch" multiple times, but it's edited to "I'm a free bit" due to censoring, and it sounds terrible. I have yet to hear of an uncensored version available, which is really unfortunate because I don't really know what a "free bit" is. [Edit: I hear Interscope/Cherrytree is working on it. Still think it's a pretty stupid error to begin with.]
This song is Gaga's way of saying she's anti-plastic surgery, apparently - she opens by referring to silicone and saline as poison. The best parts of this song are the spoken word bit in the middle and the chorus that immediately follows it - like the opening of Lovegame, which contains a measure in 7/8 time with the verse coming in an 8th note earlier than expected, the spoken word section ends on a 2/4 measure rather than a 4/4 one, and the chorus comes in half a measure earlier than one would think. It sounds pretty sick. Otherwise it's pretty standard dance fare. The awesome chorus is in the relative major again (plagal cadences too!) - it's starting to be a signature move for most of Gaga's songs that are in minor. [See Poker Face, Paparazzi, and Boys Boys Boys from "The Fame"]
Telephone
Reported to be the official second single from The Fame Monster, Telephone is the only song on the album I can claim I truly don't like. It features a brief appearance by Beyoncé, who sounds extremely out of place - she's got a fabulous voice, but it's being put to horrible misuse in this instance. Musically- and lyrically-speaking, the song is repetitive and just plain boring. It's good enough for a mindless dance number but it does absolutely nothing for me.
So Happy I Could Die
This is, to me, the most interesting song on the album by far. In A minor, the verses feature a chord progression that ends in a Picardy third situation. Specifically, [ F > G > Em > A(sus4) > A ] the first time through and [ F > G > Em > Am ] the second time. While the major-tonic-in-a-minor-key thing would be pretty cool regardless, Gaga continues singing in the minor key while this is happening in the accompaniment - it's very reminiscent of her prior song, The Fame, in which she sings in G mixolydian while her accompaniment is in playing in G natural minor. The chorus ends with a pretty cool F# half-diminished chord resolving to an A minor chord to transition back into the verse. I've never heard of anything quite like this outside of maybe classical music or jazz, though I can't really think of an example of it even then. It's moments like this that I'm really glad Gaga writes her own music.
Let's add to this the incredibly feel-good lyrics and the fact this is about as catchy (especially the chorus) as everything else on the album as well. Love.
Teeth
Anyone remember Beautiful Dirty Rich from The Fame? Full of attitude, sass, and confidence, it was probably one of best songs from Gaga's first album. Teeth is that song for The Fame Monster. It focuses heavily on her ability to sell a song on vocals alone, and it works. Her static accompaniment uses very few chords (3) but this is the kind of song where that's all you need.
* * *
Overall, The Fame Monster has a fairly unified sound, with the ballad in the middle serving as a distraction, albeit quite a pleasant one. It shows a shift in sound from the more pop-oriented songs of The Fame [see: Eh Eh (Nothing Else I Can Say)] to a darker, industrial, dance-oriented focus in The Fame Monster. It's not a masterpiece by any means, but no one expects that of Gaga. We expect fun, catchy music that we can move to, and in that The Fame Monster is complete success.
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