On why it’s Cool to be Weird
I like Weird Things. I like the freakish, the outlandish, and the downright strange are subjects of endless fascination to me. I read the Strange Deaths section Fortean Times with a mixture of ironic amusement and rapt astonishment. I stare at pictures of strange fish from the bottom of the ocean which look like creatures from outer space. I find the bizarre, the crazy, the sheer batshit mental things in life to be a source of constant and spectacular joy.
It’s the same in music. It’s always been that way- Rock and Roll is about the Freak, the Outsider, the Strange. Witness, for example, the entire career of David Bowie- he’s striven to cultivate an ever-developing sense of ‘otherness’ in his endless succession of alter-egos and stylistic shifts, seducing us with a sense of alien glamour. Lady Gaga is a modern exponent of this art, her carefully crafted Alien Sex Robot act a wonderfully entertaining mishmash of styles and previous http://www.music-banter.com/wp-admin/post-new.phpinfluences, which are guaranteed to garner attention, foster a sort of predictable outrage, and to situate her at the center of popular culture with a remarkable amount of skill.
Yes, I like lady GaGa. People seem to find that surprising. They shouldn’t. She’s musically ok, and culturally very interesting. She’s like a mad Frankenstein carefully creating a Monster (or should that be a Fame Monster? Oh, how wonderfully clever I am, see the games I play with words!) which will make her very rich indeed.
She’s also flying the freak flag very high. It’s currently cool to be weird again. Still, she’s not a patch on Karin Dreijer Andersson of Fever Ray. This is footage from a Swedish Awards ceremony. Gaze upon it and wonder, ‘what the hell is going on?
It’s like that weird alien singer from Fifth Element with the tentacles or something, strange pop music that genuinely sounds and looks like it comes from another planet.
Bloody marvellous.
