M.I.A. has turned her ire toward Lady Gaga

apologizes if this has been posted elsewhere but i don't think it has, original interview is from the NME:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/music_blog/2010/04/mia-unlike-gaga-i-wont-be-blindfolded-with-naked-men-feeding-me-apples-.html

How important are image and visuals to your music?

Very. But it’s not like “Haus of Gaga” (laughs). Me blindfolded with naked men feeding me apples and ....
It comes as part of a longer, must-read ethering centered around a popular criticism of Gaga’s music: that her fashion sense seems to far exceed her songs in terms of future-thinking ambition.

“None of her music’s reflective of how weird she wants to be or thinks she is. She models herself on Grace Jones and Madonna, but the music sounds like 20-year-old Ibiza music, you know? She’s not progressive, but she’s a good mimic…. That’s a talent and she’s got a great team behind her, but she’s the industry's last stab at making itself important - saying, ‘You need our money behind you, the endorsements, the stadiums.’ Respect to her, she’s keeping a hundred thousand people in work, but my belief is: Do It Yourself.”

talk about missing the point

mia otm

i wonder if mia makes her own sunglasses

"mia is shit" troll

Lady Gaga sounds like Milano 25 years ago rather than Ibiza 20 years ago. Not that there's anything wrong with that though....

M.I.A. has become and honorary Gallagher bro.

anyone gonna argue that lady gaga is is making more interesting music than mia?

mia and taylor swift and lady gaga are forming a supergroup with carl palmer

all music is gay wear cool sunglasses if u agree

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PW2LELeeNs

M.I.A.... is a HATERRRRRRRRRRRR

dumb

anyone gonna argue that lady gaga is is making more interesting music than mia?

― iatee, Wednesday, April 7, 2010 11:31 PM (5 minutes ago)

i don't really like either except for a few scattered songs but just to spite this dumb rhetorical qn, sure i'll be on gaga's side

"sure I'll be on gaga's side" is not rly much of an argument

"bad romance" is at least as good whatever m.i.a.'s best song is

^ this

well I mean that's crazy talk but at least it resembles an argument

I'm actually a pretty big fan of Gaga's choons. At least as much as her theatrics.

Anyway, M.I.A. really isn't as revolutionary and copy-able as she'd like to think she is.

the music sounds like 20-year-old Ibiza music

Not entirely, but she's bringing dece devil's advocate game here tbfh.

also, i'm no m.i.a. hater by any means but

She’s not progressive, but she’s a good mimic…

YOUR PRODUCER IS DIPLO

Boring hates on boring.

annoying self-important beep-boop artist criticizes some person

User of thirty year old sample criticizes twenty year old sound.

Without making any sort of statement on the quality of her work, I will say lady gagas stuff is a mix of enough different pre-existing things to be something new. I get the ibiza or whatever influence but none of the stuff people reference actually sounds exactly like her. and was what madonna or grace jones doing in their time really completely detached from and lightyears ahead of the dance pop of the time in a way that gagas is not? actually I kind of would like to have an answer to that.

is anyone really surprised that the daughter of a terrorist would strangle lady gaga to death with her bare hands?

http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2010/04/mia_on_lady_gaga_none_of_her_m.html#comments

lol what does this mean?

And on top of all that, M.I.A. is married to a trust funder who lives in Bed Stuy "just because."

Report

By bkgirlll on 04/07/2010 at 5:04pm

Wanna know why MIA doesn't like Lady Gaga? Because Lady Gaga = THREAT

damn what happened to that free pass with hipsters

if hipsters these days dig either L.G. or MIA, i truly fear for the future of hipsterosity. get yr act together!

http://cache.deadspin.com/assets/images/deadspin/2008/07/catfight.jpg

What does Christina think about these developments???

what's so great about GaGa again? I'm being serious.

she's made at least one undeniably great song and is kind of fun to follow

i dug Bad Romance...but I thought everyone was over her by now?

Anyone who argues that Lady Gaga is better than MIA is going to make me turn into a combination of the Incredible Hulk and Alex in NYC.

I would argue that they're both creatively superior to a lot of their peers, and that I, personally, enjoy listening to Gaga slightly more than M.I.A. (who I think is coming across as a total bitch in this situation).

I think Gaga is talanted, her style is just v v much not my style.

Respect to her, she’s keeping a hundred thousand people in work, but my belief is: Do It Yourself.”

Respect to M.I.A., she's keeping a thousand people in work, but her belief is that nobody should aspire to top-40 dominance.

this snippet of the article sounds more like MIA vs Music Industry.

This is great and all.. wait no it is dull and we aren't asking the real questions. What's HATER from? Love v. money outtake? It's dooooooope.

can I just point out how bizarre it is to see the word "ethering" in a mainstream newspaper?

http://www.indiecrush.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/marcjacobsdx3.jpg
K E E P I T R E A L

DO YOU SEE THE NAKED MEN FEEDING HER APPLES NO I DIDNT THINK SO

love a lot of her music, but m.i.a. has always been a div. though this was pretty much my opinion of lady gaga a year ago, so it's not that bad by her standards. HOWEVER the la times replaced this completely delusional quote with an ellipsis, suggesting they know perfectly well she's being a div (and why is the la times linking to oh no they didn't?!) - "She sounds more like me than I fucking do!" - uhhh

a) if lady gaga is mimicking anyone it's...definitely not m.i.a.
b) having just dismissed lady gaga's music as ibiza house, what's m.i.a. saying about her own music?

she’s the industry's last stab at making itself important - saying, ‘You need our money behind you, the endorsements, the stadiums.’

lol it took the trailer of a rubbish film to get you to a roughly similar place in the industry.

anyone gonna argue that lady gaga is is making more interesting music than mia?

it wouldn't be a weird argument to make. i like 'em about the same, m.i.a. wins in terms of quantity (duh) but gaga is more exciting right now. also, i don't think you're one to be accusing people of not arguing properly, given that your tactic all the damn time is to act like your argument is duh obvious and you don't actually need to defend it.

xpost

this is my little pony VS rainbow brite

lex she might be referring directly to the Wale song that EVERYBODY thinks sounds like Gaga doing an imitation of M.I.A. and not her music in general

What film was m.i.a.'s music in?

slumdog millionaire

i'd totally forgotten that wale existed :(

This is a really interesting thing to be discussing everyone.

Yeah I'm almost on M.I.A.'s side just because of the Wale track.

the wale song was an isolated (though appalling) incident wrt gaga, but since 3/4 of the game is ripping off mia these days anyway i don't really blame her for lashing out at the biggest target. kinda surprised it took this long for her to say anything in fact.

otoh, given that mia hasn't been averse to a fair bit of the old reappropriation herself she'd be on pretty thin rhetorical ice aiming at anyone else that couldnt as easily be insinuated to be a tool of big bland business mindlessness as gaga (would she say the same about rihanna? whyever not?) - slight problem with that notion though is that ibiza was still more of a global village than diplo's rss feed last time i checked.

20 year old Ibiza music = The Beloved?

definitely need a RedOne update on 'Hello' but must still reference and feature a snippet of Kym Mazelle

Wasn't Gaga only on the Wale track because M.I.A. turned it down, so she was basically delivering an M.I.A. imitation upon request? Work for hire, in effect?

That one track aside, though, I really hear no points of aesthetic commonality between M.I.A. and Lady Gaga, other than the use of 4/4 rhythm and lyrics in English. M.I.A.'s shit is clumsy, crude (sometimes on purpose, sometimes 'cause of lack of talent) and panders to white art school nerd sexual fantasies, while Gaga's shit is ultra-baroque and panders to queers and piano-playing high school theater girls. Gaga may not always be artistically successful (she has yet to write a song as good as her videos) but those videos alone put her miles ahead of M.I.A. And if we're gonna talk numbers, the game's already over.

panders to white art school nerd sexual fantasies

^what does this even mean

take away the curious "sexual fantasies" bit and it works ok

(i'd say both have gone beyond their uh core audiences now though)

think it means unperson ws MIA

do black art school nerd sexual fantasies not feature MIA?

not curvy enough xp

how bout asian?

more interested in political activism than fucking

also, i'm no m.i.a. hater by any means but

She’s not progressive, but she’s a good mimic…

YOUR PRODUCER IS DIPLO

― goon with the wind (J0rdan S.), Wednesday, April 7, 2010

he gets a co-composition credit on one track each of her two albums, so he's not her producer in any way that would make this make any sense. the constant identification of MIA with diplo in some quarters is interesting. only real basis for is a six year old mash up mixtape with Arular vocals put over push it, walk like an egyptian etc.

if hipsters these days dig either L.G. or MIA

Okay, really? Hipsters have been on M.I.A.'s jock since "Galang".

yeah so surely they're off it by now?

me too! xp

That one track aside, though, I really hear no points of aesthetic commonality between M.I.A. and Lady Gaga, other than the use of 4/4 rhythm and lyrics in English. M.I.A.'s shit is clumsy, crude (sometimes on purpose, sometimes 'cause of lack of talent) and panders to white art school nerd sexual fantasies, while Gaga's shit is ultra-baroque and panders to queers and piano-playing high school theater girls.

I'm glad the objectively correct "pandering to this crowd is better than pandering to that crowd" argument has finally come along to settle this age old debate.

For both of them much of their critical reputation rises and falls on the basis of whether they're "subversive" vis a vis pop. M.I.A. singling out Gaga demonstrates perhaps inadvertent perceptiveness: on some level she recognizes that their critical game is interconnected.

I'm glad the objectively correct "pandering to this crowd is better than pandering to that crowd" argument has finally come along to settle this age old debate.

That's not the argument I'm making, though.

think i need to read the gaga threads to understand what's subversive about her!

not a hater, just...

i don't think gaga is partic "subversive", unless being ott and dramatic counts as "subversive" now - most people came round to her when she stopped harping on about subversion and upped her game w/r/t entertaining pop bangers

Yes I agree. But I think with both M.I.A. and Gaga some critics run that line because it makes things go down easier.

i know no MIA songs. Gaga OTOH made me bawl this morning with an Ibizi-influenced ode to drunk nostalgia ('so happy i could die').

i think it's stupid that someone feels the need to vocalize this opinion to validate their work, and the commentary on Gaga's fashion is nonsensical.

also the idea that it's ridiculous to posit that MIA is inferior is hilarious.

btw can someone point me at all the stuff M.I.A. is imitating with "Bird Flu" because I have some gaps in my music collection I need to fill

xp: You've never heard "Paper Planes"? Really?

yea, i've heard that song. but i didn't know the name of it until you just reminded me. think that's about it.

it's good, it was a moment.

I think in general it's bad PR for artists to criticize other artists in the press, especially for allegedly biting their style. It almost always comes off as petty, and it turns off fans of the other artist for no good reason.

I tend to assume everyone posting on ILM has also heard "Galang" and "Sunshowers" but that's likely a false assumption:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCL1RpgYxRM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knQuxZj9rTA

also there's the video that Rihanna bit into oblivion:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcN1i6Qcjxg&feature=channel

[I think in general it's bad PR for artists to criticize other artists in the press, especially for allegedly biting their style. It almost always comes off as petty, and it turns off fans of the other artist for no good reason.

screw this, i want them all to fite it out gladiatorally. i wager ten quatloos on the newcomer.

Weird that anyone would really consider the two on the same tier. Artistically, maybe, and even that's a stretch, since they really don't sound at all alike. But my neighbors, who don't buy music, go to concerts, watch MTV, etc., and haven't really in 20+ years, ask me about Gaga all the time but wouldn't know MIA from Merzbow. The Fame Monster has eaten MIA's inertia, and if MIA cared at all about gaining it back (does she?) I can make a bet who will be copping from who next time out.

Er, whom?

don't think there's anything MIA can or should take from Gaga. no! not even a Mentasm sample!

A few years ago when Kala came out I was in a coffee shop where they were playing it and someone had brought their little girl, who was probably too young to even understand english, but she was dancing ecstatically to "Bamboo Banga", just joyfully hopping up and down. I can't really see anyone dancing to Gaga song without it requiring some sort of self-consciousness. And while I love some Gaga songs MIA's beats are lightyears ahead and it doesn't matter who samples what from where, it's the truth.

I think in general it's bad PR for artists to criticize other artists in the press, especially for allegedly biting their style. It almost always comes off as petty, and it turns off fans of the other artist for no good reason.

But yeah OTM

I can't really see anyone dancing to Gaga song without it requiring some sort of self-consciousness.

You've got to be kidding here.

Sure as hell hope he's kidding.

Dance like you're in a Britney Spears video and sometimes make a claw? Even if you're making a fool of yourself it's essentially "Look at how big a fool i am making of myself".

I've only heard like two songs by Gaga ("Paparazzi" and that one that goes "rah-rah ooh-la-la") and they were okay, but not enough to make me want to dig any deeper.

Eh...yeah I'm kidding, and making no sense when i read back what i wrote! Didn't mean to indulge in trolling.

http://oberlin.edu/student/lfamular/headache.jpg

I can't really see anyone dancing to Gaga song without it requiring some sort of self-consciousness.

yea i don't get this at all

also gaga's beats are overly simple which i like -- a good canvas for the rest of it.

besides being outdated insofar as it is rudimentary, i think MIA's criticism disproves itself on its own by validating the existence of pop music as a vessel for the reaction of the public.

hwat

lol that didn't make sense to you? read: this is what lady gaga wants.

2 guys 1 gaga

lol

I can't see this as anything other than a way for MIA to drum up some publicity ahead of her new album. Reminds me of a million different hip-hop beefs.

is it really that inconceivable that somebody could actually dislike lady gaga

http://content.ytmnd.com/content/2/3/c/23cf3beb3bd3c2199734e20bc363bcfc.gif

YES

Not really, but what the hell was the point of bringing her into it? M.I.A. is just stating facts that are obvious to anyone looking, but doing it like a troll.

best response possible xp

gaga is the first music that has made me feel like an old fogey. She just makes me think, where is the tune, it's all just a load of noise, this is giving me a headache, people used to SING not just blabber non-lexical vocables, what is she wearing, etc. I'm 25 :(

aside from "Poker Face", if there's one thing Gaga does exceedingly well it's hammer you with tune

until i read the MIA quote, i didn't know people were comparing the two of them. now people are comparing them, and i don't really think we've learned much from it. we've been duped!

MIA wins!

I think in general it's bad PR for artists to criticize other artists in the press, especially for allegedly biting their style. It almost always comes off as petty, and it turns off fans of the other artist for no good reason.

― o. nate, Thursday, April 8, 2010 10:16 AM (1 hour ago)

didn't gaga criticize christina aguilera for biting her style when she first came out?

Yeah, but tbh, that complaint had some merit.

(And that was just a week or two ago.)

considering that Gaga basically bit her EVERYTHING from Roisin Murphy, that's kind of hilarious

and róisín murphy has complained about that, too, and yet it never got this kind of thread

well i guess it did on ONTD

yeah i'd rather listen to roisin than either of them.

gaga bites xtina vocally

Oh yeah, I remember that now.

Róisín → Gaga → Xtina (in her current incarnation). M.I.A. fits nowhere in this flowchart.

lady gaga is great
for me to poop on

there you go, excluding the people of color again

all the "evidence" all over blogs of Gaga or whoever "biting" other female singers is always hilarious -- omg she's wearing a HAT, and so is SHE! oh look a FUNNY GREEN JACKET! coincidence? I THINK NOT!

I can't hear MIA in Gaga. Which tracks should i be listening to?

The stuff she says about Uffie vs Kesha in the NME piece is more interesting i think.
"I’m more concerned by how someone like Kesha can so blatantly copy Uffie. Everyone’s fine with it. Not a fucking lawsuit in sight."

I don't know how she thinks you could sue somebody for sounding like someone else but there it is.

all the "evidence" all over blogs of Gaga or whoever "biting" other female singers is always hilarious -- omg she's wearing a HAT, and so is SHE! oh look a FUNNY GREEN JACKET! coincidence? I THINK NOT!

― my heart will goon (some dude), Thursday, April 8, 2010 5:21 PM (37 seconds ago) Bookmark

laugh me a laugh:

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Music/Pix/pictures/2009/8/12/1250067628666/Lady-Gaga-and-Roisin-Murp-001.jpg

it is p o_O tho that gaga is massive and roisin is that chick who sung it back

i'm more concerned about why anyone would think copying uffie is a good way to go :(

The difference between Ke$ha and Uffie is that Ke$ha has at least one song that doesn't suck balls. Uffie doesn't have one yet.

regardless 'Royal T' may well be the greatest song of the last 6 months and >>> any Gaga

some dude, the Roisin-Gaga thing is pretty blatant:

http://community.livejournal.com/ohnotheydidnt/37966775.html

Uffie was Ke$ha to L'Trimm's Uffie tho.

well thx to this thread for introducing me to roisin murphy!

Kesah's Uffie style-biting is vocally at least i think the single greatest solo-artist-on-solo-artist style-biting i've come across in my lifetime. I'm not usually fond of the old 'OMG this song by X is TOTALLY that song by Y' shimmy but the Uffie/Kesha one is just a jaw dropper.

also: http://idolator.com/5263432/roisin-murphy-knows-that-lady-gagas-imitation-is-in-fact-flattery

sigh that this is giving Idolator clicks but yay that it's for an old article

the thing is i don't think Uffie invented drunken white girl rapping and even if she did that still doesn't mean every subsequent practitioner of that high art necessarily got the idea from her

It's not like Uffie's an unknown quantity, but there's a reason she hasn't broken through to massive success like Ke$ha has. She sucks out loud.

really REALLY (really) bewildered by this idea that Ke$ha is better than Uffie (who i neither rate nor hate).

lady gaga is great
for me to poop on

― velko, Thursday, April 8, 2010 12:19 PM

too soon

okay "Pop the Glock" is kind of nice but other than that it's kind of a no-brainer as to why ppl aren't buying a zillion Uffie albums

tacky pop blasts from a cute blonde are always going to be more marketable than DIY bedroom beats

(btw this impression of Uffie is based solely off of 3 tracks on her Myspace page)

i blame hollertronix fag borad

Dan you may like the Sebastian remix of Pop The Glock (which reduces her to fractious fragments)

is it "uh-fee" or "oo-fee"

uffy of course

does Gaga actually have any good remixes? if not that's actually weird. didn't like the Hercules & Love Affair remix of Bad Romance enough - decent track but didn't quite fit the song (hard song to fuck with tho).

the Roisin-Gaga thing is pretty blatant

― Wood shavings! Laughing out loud! (HI DERE), Thursday, April 8, 2010 5:25 PM (11 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Uffie is totally an indie Ke$ha btw, MIA is pretty OTM with that one

The Ke$ha thing is sort of a half-truth, though, because she's been a behind-the-scenes person for a few years. It's not like she just heard an Uffie song and decided to cop her style wholesale. One's been around as long as the other, but Uffie started releasing tracks a couple years before.

OTM with the comparison, I meant.

wait she's 23? had assumed like 18 at most

royal t is sick

I kind of liked the one Uffie song I heard recently, even though her flow was (deliberately?) terrible.

is it "keh-sha" or "ke-dollar-ha"

who the fuck is uffie

rolling 2007 snap thread

http://www.ilxor.com/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?boardid=77&threadid=345

my goal as an artist is to abduct and dominate uffie

― luriqua, Thursday, 23 August 2007 20:55 (2 years ago) Bookmark

never ban luriqua ;C

Ke$ha also took to Twitter to apologize to Justin Bieber after she gave an interview to Maxim in which she called him a "little baby" and said she would love to "push him around on stage in a carriage."

Awesome thing to say, lame to apologize for it.

This alone is why kesha beats uffie

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVs-ye658As&feature=player_embedded

I love this!

She does Bad Romance too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWYNoOCskcA

after being sort of weirded out, i realised that actually it rules a huge amount

Guy: Wanna go out with me?
Girl: Sure!

if only i'd known that was how it worked, would have saved me years of listening to the smiths

you know what's an awesome amateur version of "bad romance"? this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEQdrfFfawM

that is fucking HOT

okay why the fuck have I not seen these girls before, they're fucking fantastic

those girls are cooler than lady gaga

btw are is M.I.A. rockist now?

am i off the hook for not really liking her two years ago?

nope, you're still on the hook for that

:(

this puts my run for the state senate off by another few years

i think MIA has a point that LG's music is not as forward-thinking as her image/persona (or as forward-thinking as MIA's music). but like, that basically puts her right there with madonna, right? and like, MIA isnt really saying LG's songs are no good, just that her wild outsider schtick is just schtick. in any case, im fine with LG and fine with MIA. ultimately, it would rule for LG to take more risks or make some wilder music. i kinda think she has it in her. she's only been popular for like two years, tops, right?

Yeah, she's really only got a debut album under her belt and then a follow-up set of singles. Not saying she'll follow the same course as Madonna, but I'm looking forward to her True Blue.

that basically puts her right there with madonna, right?

which Madonna tho? she didn't have high-concept music videos in her first 5 years but yeah i would like the approach to LG's music to become as practically omnivorous as Madonna's 20 years ago

it's kind of odd to say that LG doesn't take risks in her music. Bad Romance is not exactly a traditional pop song

also, all MIA seems to be saying is that her image is DIFFERENT from her pop songs. some of the songs may sound like standard pop, and her image is definitely not standard ("forward thinking") -- so fucking what??

i don't know about you, but i don't always want my pop "forward thinking."

Bad Romance is not exactly a traditional pop song

"Bad Romance" is absolutely a traditional pop song wearing raver pants.

Bad Romance has a very Cher-like chorus, imo, which is traditional-ish at least.

it's a big mix of crazy, both in terms of composition and production, and i haven't heard anything like it in years. it also sounds like it appropriates a classic rock sensibility in terms of the backing chorus, which i find refreshing.

i just don't think the songs are getting as much play as they are because they're "ordinary." she does a great job of disgusing outside-the-box songwriting with a performance that sells it. somebody once said something about kate bush that i'll always remember - the composition can be totally batty but she sings it like it's a britney spears song.

Has she released a single yet that didn't go verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus repeat until end?

verse-chorus-verse doesn't mean that the song is ordinary . . .

She's so kooky-crazy! She could literally do anything! It is important that we continue to discuss her and her untapped potential.

It certainly doesn't mean that the song is out of the box, though!

i didn't say it did . . .

there are a lot of things about her songs that are out of the box, though, and i think she reels it in with just the right amount of pop sensibility (verse-chorus-verse) to market it.

Actually "Telephone" has a verse after the bridge, doesn't it?

xp: hitting the dance presets on her synths doesn't exactly make her "out of the box" either!

i didn't say that it did . . .

i don't really feel like going over the forward thinking bits of her songs point by point, but i do think it's kind of undeniable that for a regular top 10 charting artist, her songs are kind of fucking weird.

i don't think they sound like anybody else right now.

That doesn't automatically make them weird, is my position.

time for a different producer

i do think it's kind of undeniable that for a regular top 10 charting artist, her songs are kind of fucking weird

naaa

the "weirdest" hit she's had so far is "Bad Romance" which isn't any weirder than "Disturbia" which came before it and I don't see anyone falling over themselves to be like "OMG Rihanna is, like, soooo artsy!"

Rihanna >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Lady Gaga btw

"Rude Boy" is one of the best things on the radio right now

true, but not saying a lot

^^^^ new board description

xpost

when your competition includes "Hey, Soul Sister," i guess it isn't saying a lot, but it's still such a great song

it's a good song, but she's definitely had better

no one else agrees with me but I like "Russian Roulette" better

I agree with you.

nah son

the "weirdest" hit she's had so far is "Bad Romance" which isn't any weirder than "Disturbia" which came before it and I don't see anyone falling over themselves to be like "OMG Rihanna is, like, soooo artsy!"

― government mane (The Reverend), Thursday, April 8, 2010 7:13 PM (10 minutes ago) Bookmark

i'm not saying LG is artsy. i'm saying her songs are unconventionally conventional. in my mind, this is true for her across the board whereas Disturbia is pretty much rihanna's only "weird" song before the most recent album.

Can we all agree that Rockstar 101 is a horrible mess of a song? xp

i'm saying her songs are unconventionally conventional.

i'm not really sure what this means.

her songs that i've heard sound like normal types of songs, that you would hear on the radio and stuff. like just basic pop songs.

no one would think they were weird if she looked like kelly clarkson

MATT OTM

i'm not really sure what this means.

it's not really that complicated. the songs are conventional enough to sell, but she throws the melody and strucutre off somewhat, making them unconventionally so.

whenever I hear her music I turn into will ferrell in that one scene of zoolander

her songs that i've heard sound like normal types of songs, that you would hear on the radio and stuff. like just basic pop songs.

― m@tt (M@tt He1ges0n), Thursday, April 8, 2010 7:27 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i just don't think they sound completely normal, but i'm also listening to all the songs on the fame monster, not just the hits.

in any event, the point is that it doesn't matter if her visual shtick is much weirder than her songs. so what?

same can be said for roisin.

i only have time for The Hits, i'm a busy man ;)

Sorry surm but I disagree with that hardcore. The melodies of her singles are primarily basic stepwise motion and the chord progressions they lie on top of are all songwriting 101 tonic/dominant relationships with detours around iii and vi and the structure, as I pointed out earlier, are basic pop song formula.

xp: yeah sorry, nothing I've heard by Gaga even comes close to "Ruby Blue" or "Ramalama" in terms of quirkiness

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-duPPLhqe0

^^^^ absolutely weirder than anything Gaga has done

to be honest, the " weird " quality is something that i hear that i cannot fully articulate, and i don't think it's really that important to dissect. my main point is that MIA's claim that LG's songs have to live up to the insanity in her visuals is kind of stupid.

yea but roisin has also had a lot of songs that sound pretty straightforward that are accompanied by less than straightforward visuals.

that's all i'm saying, not that i think LG is weirder than roisin.

in the larger sense yeah who cares if she's whatever MIA thinks she should be

she's a pop star who dresses up like a weirdo and has catchy songs, plus talks a mean streak of faux-art jive, there's always a place for that

Can we all agree that Rockstar 101 is a horrible mess of a song? xp

Nope. It's fantastic.

but i actually think this is really the crux of the weird debate.

i don't think they sound like anybody else right now.

― 2 guys 1 gag (surm), Thursday, April 8, 2010 7:01 PM (41 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

That doesn't automatically make them weird, is my position.

― Wood shavings! Laughing out loud! (HI DERE), Thursday, April 8, 2010 7:02 PM (41 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i don't know about "automatically," but i do think that a sound that is different and sets itself apart is, well, strange.

and i think that when i say "weird," i don't only mean the song structure, but the production, her voice, and the range of sound as well.

"Umbrella" didn't sound like anything else on the radio and I don't remember people going "OMG Rihanna is, like, soooo artsy!"

black people aren't arty, remember?

kanye west is

*slowly backs away*

OK rev you've made your point. rihanna's had 2 weird smash shits. was a typo but i left it.

glad we got that figured out

I don't think either of those songs are weird tho

weird is a loaded word, but "paparazzi" & "bad romance" & "telephone" are singular in current context

http://www.thequoteblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Buckley.jpg

"`Weird' is a loaded word, but "paparazzi" & "bad romance" & "telephone" are singular in current context."

ha

ok, but you think Umbrella was very unique, and you think Disturbia is as weird as Bad Romance. same difference for the purpose of this conversation.

I've yet to hear a Lady Gaga song as weird as "Work It".

I think "Umbrella" was very unique and "Bad Romance" is kind of a "Disturbia" ripoff

"Work It" is weird

well, missy is on a different level -- it's not really fair to gaga or rihanna or mia to bring her up

But not arty. Remember -- she's black.

with missy you could more easily count her singles that are NOT weird

Oh, no, wait, she's not straight.

I think "Bad Romance" has better lyrics than "Disturbia" tho

xps

"Bad Romance" is kind of a "Disturbia" ripoff

― government mane (The Reverend), Thursday, April 8, 2010 8:13 PM (5 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

waht

i just think they are very different sonically

i'm glad that gaga is putting out "alejandro" as a single -- best joint on fame monster

"Bad Romance" is kind of a "Disturbia" ripoff

― government mane (The Reverend), Thursday, April 8, 2010 8:13 PM (5 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

yeah this is rong

For the purposes of this conversation, I think the point being made is that Rev thinks Lady Gaga's music isn't particularly different from or out of step with the music around it. The extrapolation that I am adding (not meaning to speak for Rev) is that any perceived weirdness is owed almost totally to the accompanying visuals, which goes back to MIA's point of everyone calling Gaga weird and arty and out there when she makes (IMO good) relatively safe mainstream music, particularly compared to what MIA does (for better or for worse).

None of which is really a value judgment about the music of either, since I like both of them. I definitely play more MIA than Gaga but I'm also an at-heart indie kid desperately in love with MIA.

the point is that it doesn't matter if her visual shtick is much weirder than her songs. so what?

this just doesn't satisfy me personally. i see something "weird" (for argument's sake) i tend to want to hear it on an equivalent level too. seems like a valid criticism no (probably the most valid criticism of Gaga) no?

its fascinating that you can apparently experiment more in pop visually or aesthetically than sonically...

Rihanna's Rated R singles (minus Rude Boy) are way more crazy and ballsy than Gaga's e.g. "Wait Your Turn" & "Rockstar 101". Shame Rihanna doesn't have Gaga's force of personality to make it seem all quite as triumphant.

this just doesn't satisfy me personally. i see something "weird" (for argument's sake) i tend to want to hear it on an equivalent level too. seems like a valid criticism no (probably the most valid criticism of Gaga) no?

its fascinating that you can apparently experiment more in pop visually or aesthetically than sonically...

― mdskltr (blueski), Thursday, April 8, 2010 8:21 PM (35 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

yea, this is not true for me. i like contrast. great pop song (paparazzi) + her dancing on crutches = good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALEmbB4c7yI&feature=related

I miss 2002 sometimes.

I love that song. ^

yeah that is fine but the song could be be more interesting/unusual than the visuals even for a pop star and this would still be contrast.

"Work It" is weird

not in the context of her previous singles tho

ha I was gonna say, "Work It" might be the least weird non-ballad Missy single

The real divide here is between posters who think Gaga's music is provocative in its own right on some level, and those who think its just a vehicle to power ahead her more ambitious characteristics. That's fair. People like what they like. I don't happen to consider her songs throwaways, though. Weirder than the rest of the chart? Probably not. Sonically "bigger" than the rest of the chart? Oh yes.

and no i don't think it's a particularly valid criticism, blueski. it's not like gaga is purporting to put out some diamanda galas shit, just because of the way she dresses. she can wear what she wants, and still make dance music, imo.

weird is a loaded word, but "paparazzi" & "bad romance" & "telephone" are singular in current context

― goon with the wind (J0rdan S.), Thursday, April 8, 2010 8:10 PM (16 minutes ago) Bookmark

what a disaster for the current context. but srsly if they count as singular we are in some pretty weak times. im not even a hater, but they are nothing special.

"rah rah ooh la la", etc. = "bum bum dee-dum bum-dee da-dum dum"

morbid themes = morbid themes

electrohouse = electrohouse

xp you're not a hater? must be that "Ibiza 20 years ago" aspect of her music (don't even know anymore if this is a zing tbh)

fwiw, I think Lady Gaga's visuals ARE weird! no argument there

rev that's obv really reductive & stupid

re distrubia & bad romance

no more so than half the arguments being made in this thread!

tbh my main problem w/ Lady Gaga is that I kind of hate the type of music she makes

"rah rah ooh la la", etc. = "bum bum dee-dum bum-dee da-dum dum"

these parts don't even sound alike...

xp you're not a hater? must be that "Ibiza 20 years ago" aspect of her music (don't even know anymore if this is a zing tbh)

― mdskltr (blueski), Thursday, April 8, 2010 8:32 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

im trying to kip. i don't f/w gaga but don't mind she exists. tbh i don't hear much balearic-ness to her sound. perhaps i am missing s.thing tho. or just hearing the singles idk.

rev is otm enough about bad romance vs disturbia. at any rate, bad romance is not weirder or more relevant than disturbia.

these parts don't even sound alike...

― 2 guys 1 gag (surm), Thursday, April 8, 2010 12:33 PM Bookmark

they are hooks made of nonsense words that fulfill very similar functions within the context of their songs

but but they are totally different hooks. and that is only 1 small fraction of the Bad Romance package. it's almost of a throwaway extra.

they're not the same song. just quite similar!

lol the melodies and production values are entirely different

yeah but they do serve the same function

what's that?

they're not the same song. just quite similar!

― history mayne, Thursday, April 8, 2010 12:38 PM Bookmark

^this

ftr, I do think "Bad Romance" is a slightly better song, but LG shouldn't be getting as much credit for it as she is

anyway, "bad romance" is way more house in its bigness & boldness & lavishness -- "disturbia" is the kidz bop version of house

what's that?

― 2 guys 1 gag (surm), Thursday, April 8, 2010 2:40 PM (22 seconds ago) Bookmark

they are hooks made of nonsense words that fulfill very similar functions within the context of their songs

― government mane (The Reverend), Thursday, April 8, 2010 2:36 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark

thought Disturbia was crap but like Bad Romance which has a few more ideas in there

Gaga is routinely wearing fewer clothes in music videos than anyone before. the police cordon tape "outfit" is inspired.

tbh i don't hear much balearic-ness to her sound.

pretty sure MIA meant more like mid 90s handbag house with some rave influence, maaaaybe stuff like CLS 'Can You Feel It'? this is good tho (just not as inventive as the garb)

u really believe rihanna's team is to credit for bad romance, rev?

what's that?

― 2 guys 1 gag (surm), Thursday, April 8, 2010 2:40 PM (22 seconds ago) Bookmark

they are hooks made of nonsense words that fulfill very similar functions within the context of their songs

― government mane (The Reverend), Thursday, April 8, 2010 2:36 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark

― goon with the wind (J0rdan S.), Thursday, April 8, 2010 8:41 PM (37 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i thought u meant the 2 songs on the whole, since you posted this comment after the fact.

oh

n e way idea that gaga is s000 weird is itself weird imho

pretty sure MIA meant more like mid 90s handbag house with some rave influence, maaaaybe stuff like CLS 'Can You Feel It'? this is good tho (just not as inventive as the garb)

― mdskltr (blueski), Thursday, April 8, 2010 8:41 PM (16 seconds ago) Bookmark

exactly! think im ehhh just because she sounds like a kind of anonymous house record from back then. mia basically otm.

but US pop with a Euro-rave revival vibe was supposed to cure cancer dammit

You guys sound like rock critics!

I don't think RiRi's team is to credit for it, but "Bad Romance" pulls a lot of the same tricks

what other trix, besides the 2 opening hooks?

anyway, "bad romance" is way more house in its bigness & boldness & lavishness -- "disturbia" is the kidz bop version of house

― goon with the wind (J0rdan S.), Thursday, April 8, 2010 12:41 PM Bookmark

the house "Bad Romance" sounds like is basically the version of house I dispise

already spelled that out, surm

a morbid theme and house music? that's not a lot of tix.

trix

dude, I'm not saying it's a note-for-note copy, just that they share a lot of things in common, now fuck off

lol but you can't even come up with the things they share in common!

I gave you 3

3 is a coincidence, it takes 8 to be a trend!

the nonsense interjection
the bombastic synths
the mid-range relentless 4/4 thump
the thematic equivalence of love and mental illness
the overall sleaze vibe

I don't think they're carbon copies or anything but saying that there's no way anyone could make a link between the two is basically just refusing to compare the songs.

as someone who is a relative pop music outsider (I listen to contemporary hip-hop and r&b radio a fair but, but only occasionally flip over to top 40), I had heard of Lady Gaga in the media as EXCITING WEIRDO ARTSIDER long before I realized that her music was the dishwater-dull electrotrash I kept hearing that routinely makes me change the station.

xxp i just feel like you're reaching bc as you already said, you don't like the type of music she makes. there's nothing wrong with that opinion on its own.

yea i guess i see similarities but there's no way i would say it is a rip off.

the bombastic synths
the mid-range relentless 4/4 thump

It isn't "Paparazzi" and the synth and tom-tom syncopation in "Lovegame" help switch up the beat.

it wasn't about it being a rip-off: it's about gaga being a 'thing' and seen as 'weird/arty', whereas rihanna isn't seen that way, when sonically, gaga isn't doing anything very exciting.

xp

xxpost like, I don't even mean that in a bad way, that's just the "genre" she's workin' in

I don't care for "Disturbia" either, ramz

xxp i was just responding to rev's claim.

whew u called me ramz :) after the 'fuck off' i didn't want to think u were made at me <3

*mad

callin a dude out by his real name when shit gets heated XD

Hey MIA, Neneh Cherry called and want her shtick from the 80s back sucka!!!!

aw shit, son!!

lolling that we've got a 300 response MIA thread that is mostly about Lady Gaga

welcome to self-parody, ILM; you have been missed

Ok I got that out of my system. I get what MIA is saying, but I don't think Gaga has ever said she was an original. A matter of fact, she wears her influences right on her sleeves where we can see them. I guess that is why I like Gaga (to an extent) because she knows she is copying.

lol @ j0rdan

Plus, I like MIA and her counterpart Santogold, but at the same time it irks the hell out of me that Neneh wasn't this popular for this long as them. Granted her pedigree is a lot more diverse and she is tons of more taleneted than the both of them (and Gaga too obvs). But I still connect Neneh ----> MIA, Santogold, and MIssy too.

Santi's and MIA's similarities begin and end with "Creator," though, so can we stop lumping them together?

^^^^^^ FOR REAL. Someone tell me exactly what "Anne" or "Starstruck" has to do with MIA

Neneh wasn't this popular for this long as them

'buffalo stance' is bigger than ne thing santo or mia have done, surely? w/v, i like neneh cherry but i don't think she's in some whole other dimension of talent to them.

They are the different side of the same coin to me. Still copying Neneh though.

that coin = dark-skinned girls who appeal to white hipsters?

Whoa- MIA even stole the "performing while very pregnant" thing from Neneh:

"Buffalo Stance" was an international blockbuster and she caused controversy when she performed the song, complete with gyrating choreography, on UK television show Top Of The Pops while 7–8 months' pregnant.

- from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neneh_Cherry

weird

Neneh Cherry has two top ten American hits and a gold album; MIA has one top ten and no gold albums. Neneh Cherry wins.

cause the industry is EXACTLY the same as it was 20 years ago.

hey if there's something we can all learn from this it's - just post this "newsitem" in the gaga thread so we don't have to go through why people like lady gaga every time her name comes up

certified blog platinum

Neneh was also raised by a revolutionary.

Oh man, I remember watching Neneh pregnant on top of the tops! She was kicking in the public which annoyed the fuck out of me. But I still idolized her enormously.

Still copying Neneh though.

ugh, some bullshit

OMG I read that as "I remember watching Neneh get pregnant on top of the tops!" and was very o_O until I read it correctly

easy to see the pun there re "Top Of The Pops" but I am struggling for The Tube and The Old Grey Whistle Test

is it bad that i don't know who this neneh is

oh come on you know 'Buffalo Stance'!

cause the industry is EXACTLY the same as it was 20 years ago.

Exactly – Cherry's chart numbers meant more then.

oh come on you know 'Buffalo Stance'!

― repugnant appearance, Irish background, not an animal (Jon Lewis), Thursday, April 8, 2010 9:58 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

isn't that a song by dreamboat gorilla?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWsRz3TJDEY

btw I hadn't seen this video in years and I'm kind of o_O at how indebted MIA's "Galang" is to it

cause the industry is EXACTLY the same as it was 20 years ago.

Exactly – Cherry's chart numbers meant more then.

― filling the medicare donut hole with the semen of liberal (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, April 8, 2010 1:59 PM (17 minutes ago) Bookmark

but going gold meant less.

xxpost

Once again proving that every thread can be improved with a Neneh Cherry video. Thanks!

btw I hadn't seen this video in years and I'm kind of o_O at how indebted MIA's "Galang" is to it

remember the infamous 2005 MIA thread? miccio was all lol Neneh Cherry.

I've never successfully managed to navigate that one all the way through.

Merge her with Dave Matthews for maximum goodness lol

neneh cherry's dad and lars ulrich's dad were friends

think about it

Hmmm. I'm sure in the greater West London scheme of things Neneh not only knows MIA is hommaging, she has probably endorsed it. Maya is seriously networked into the Buffalo posse ('buffalo stance' refers to an aesthetic produced by a specific group of stylists, photographers and fashion designers in the mid-'80s, in London; many of these are now seriously powerful fashion and music types) through St Martins and certain friends she made before she was famous but was known as some kind of multitalented creative person.

I can't say I know the ins and outs of how Gaga was united with the people on her creative team (which is just a newer generation of NYC/East London creative people led by the Italian fashion director of Dazed and Confused) but it certainly wasn't because she met them on an MA course.

oh look, suzy's here

http://www.plong.com/MusicCatalog/M/Matt%20Caseli%20&%20Lorenzo%20Al%20Dino%20-%20Penthouse%20Ibiza%20vol.1/Matt%20Caseli%20&%20Lorenzo%20Al%20Dino%20-%20Penthouse%20Ibiza%20vol.1.jpg

'ruby blue' is fkn great

Uh Rev, in all fairness wherever 'here' is, I was t/here first.

Also worth noting on a day where Malcolm McLaren has died: he bit on the Buffalo posse too.

thanks thread for introducing me to roisin murphy

p sure "here" is this thread, and in all fairness your contrib was on the level of reading a coupla wiki pages & dressing it up as blessing us with insider knowledge. if u wanna write about how & to whom "maya" was "known" as "some kind of multitalented creative person" & how exactly she is connected to that old buffalo group, that may or may not be interesting.

high-five

xp

lol gbx. I seriously hadn't read your post before I posted that!!

neneh cherry's dad and lars ulrich's dad were friends
really? that is neat.

quote from lars wrt neneh cherry:

Dexter Gordon was my godfather. I used to play with Neneh Cherry when we were little kids. Her stepfather, Don Cherry, lived like six houses from where we lived in Copenhagen.

Yeahhhh, sounds like he played with Miles Davis and Stan Getz, too! A tennis pro, to boot. What a cool, old Danish guy. Anyway, what are we talking about here? The Germs?

Re the status of "Bad Romance" as weird pop, i think a lot of this has to do with weirdness and electro-pop/dance-pop not necessarily going together usually. A lot of the people who love "Bad Romance" etc are treating it as one end of a continuum containing "When Love Takes Over", "Release Me", BEP, Ke$ha and the like rather than say "Disturbia" or R&B generally excepting maybe Beyonce.

In that continuum "Bad Romance" is both the best and the weirdest big anthem in a while (best since Kylie's "The One" probably, and weirdest since i dunno). And certainly to some extent BEP and Ke$ha have contributed to make this particular niche a bit less predictable than it was before, though that's a relative development.

With R&B a habitual restlessness and adventurousness is almost taken for granted; people don't tend to fixate on it unless they're critics looking to justify their enjoyment.

Ironically a lot of the very weirdness that dance-pop fans respond to in Gaga/BEP/Ke$ha is taking a good chunk of its cues from R&B/rap.

xpost

yeah lars dad became a tru hero for me with his "I would press....delete" reaction to the metallica rough mixes in some kind of monster

lol that was fantastic

Zvookster, unless you are just stone cold feeding on resentment as a kind of universal panacea defending you from anyone who knows much of anything, I don't know what value there is in accusing me of glossing Wiki. I have a job that for 20 years has put me into professional contact with fashion and music people, BFD, and the people who raised the Buffalo Stance clip made an interesting observation deserving of expansion.

BTW, I have a feeling that fashion is after resurrecting this look as a big summer trend, because younger people at work have been biting it for about six months.

not accusing u, just saying on the level of.

i want ur job

bad

need an intern?

yeah lars dad became a tru hero for me with his "I would press....delete" reaction to the metallica rough mixes in some kind of monster

haha i reference that all the time. "i would...delete it."

there was no expansion beyond the pop (or in your case, fashion) trivia of where the "buffalo" came from in "buffalo stance" and MIA being from west london, is what i'm saying, suzy.

m.i.a. doesn't really remind me of anyone else and also is pretty awesom

if this thread is functioning as an introduction to róisín murphy for some people can i just

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osVJYUISFOY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24NRvX8w63k

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y75_TZ6gyBU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkjWwz3kc3Q

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlFjf1pWk2c

one time in some song of the year thread i was praising that one song for having such a dope, original beat, then someone posted the link to that clash song (hadn't really ever listened to combat rock a ton and it was years ago) and i was all like ooops.

now i love combat rock, thx mia

also i didn't know that about the buffalo posse & find suzy's knowledge v helpful; insider stuffz about these cliques is as useful as getting schooled on the music theory of m.i.a.'s songs.

also we've mentioned neneh, missy and rihanna, so the time has probably come to drop nicki minaj into the conversation - a female rapper who's come up through traditional hip-hop routes but who's making a bid for pop star status via an explicitly missy x gaga aesthetic. i'm sure m.i.a. could accuse her of mimicry too.

if your gonna post roisin murphy at least have the decency to post primitive ffs

lol those were two fair points to make but they're not insider knowledge
also rolling enlightening music discussion thread

i'm sure m.i.a. could accuse her of mimicry too.

She will as her own album release draws closer.

when she goes up the octave at the end of primitive i kind of die (obv)

at least have the decency to post primitive ffs

Best. Róisín. Ever.

haha i was gonna post "primitive" but thought 5 might be a bit much!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppDzHE4zY_I

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFR9Kn2A-Eo

(off topic, but if Primitive isn't in the top 10 or 15 of our 2005-2009 ILM poll, I'm going to quit the internet.)

nicki minaj's debut video (double-jointed dancers, pink-wigged harajuku army, tarantulas): http://www.worldstarhiphop.com/videos/video.php?v=wshh8uc5CpPk10r1Je8F

^ hot

hey roison murphy is good!

i thought she was some kinda like indie chick with a piano or sumthin

o god, no, she's what ppl call " the real deal "

yea hot video lex

yeah!

like lots of times on threads about new pop songs and stuff people are talking about some some or artists and they are all flippin' their lids about how futuristic and epic and crazy awesome it is and then i listen to it and i'm like...ah yeah that's a song. it's pretty okay. (like lady gaga actually)

but this woman has some real presence and drama, plus the beats are cool and original but really good geir approved capital-S Songwriting going on too

Haha Roisin is also a fashion darling and has been since like 1996.

Buffalo was a term coined by a fashion stylist, Ray Petri, who worked with Culture Club and Neneh Cherry before dying of AIDS at the end of the '80s; there is a west London photo studio called Crunch whose occupants have association with musicians and fashion people from Massive Attack to Vivienne Westwood who were also integral, as was the rise of the style magazine who employed the photographers and stylists to work with bands and designers, many of whom were friends from scenes in and out of London. And 'pop' is nothing so much as a collision between sound and image, otherwise known as music and fashion. You can't pry them apart from each other no matter what genre of popular music we're discussing and it would be unwise to try.

LOL surm I don't believe in internism. In fashion and the media especially, it just puffs up unsustainable businesses and leads to unpaid 'editorial directors' subsidizing the pretensions of a certain kind of 'entrepreneur'. Socializing risk, privatizing profit. YUM.

Back to Gaga. I think MIA had a point and how unlike the NME, trying to turn an honest (if slightly myopic) disagreement about the artistic practice of two women into BITCHEZ, FITE. Because they never do that! But Gaga has become phenomenal to the point of my non-concertgoing sister hassling me to work guest list magic (never happened before) for Gaga's Mpls show. MIA isn't going to reach someone like my sister unless I play it for her in the car.

btw can u get MY sister onto the guest list?

qi thought she was some kinda like indie chick with a piano or sumthin

this is exactly what i had thought up until this point, too, tbh

this introduced me to & made me check for roisin murphy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DL7tz03v8wc

love the record that herbert produced too, it's some of his best shit

i think one thing gaga & minaj do with the murphy/mia steez is make it appeal to wide swathes of not particularly cool very young girls in a deliberate pop ploy. everything's bigger, nonsense lyrics are nursery or funny in cadence not aggie or distant, funny voices (minaj) & exaggerations of femininity that appeal like the mags named after years older than the audience, same thing that makes them potential queer icons, i guess. & they do this while being sexual to appeal to erryone else of course.

saw roisin murphy play at sonar a couple of years ago just after the release of overpowered w/ my ex who had seen her play dublin on the same tour. was insane, possibly the best concert ive ever been out, kindof hysterical being in the front row. boyf afterwards told me that every joke, gesture and movement was EXACTLY the same as in dublin, it seemed so spontaneous and elegant and wild but it was apparently incredibly rehearsed

re: Róisín for newcomers

The first Moloko album is crap, but everything she's been involved with since then (Moloko, solo and otherwise) is pure gold.

^^^That is because she shits herself from stage fright, in a non-literal manner of speaking. xpost

gbx LOL as I have neither interviewed nor expressed any interest in Gaga in the direction of her press office, I seriously doubt there's much hope for the sisters on MN on this one (and I'd be a dick to ask for the reasons mentioned).

'the truth' is still a jam imo

stage fright! why does that make such sense. also, it's so cute. i can see the shyness in her eyes. but what i love the most is how far she takes her fashion + videos given this phobia.

always loved how the album vers of tell everybody is like a minute long but the live version is like 15 mins iirc

she has a great speaking accent too 50% wicklow 50% london

which is a weird combo

i forgot how fucking great this video is

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpINtHXjLek

i think i love her now

yes ! just watched it the other day

not that i partic love this song but i cant think of any other singer in pop currently who could pull off partic. the opening bars of this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0U3E9zCWcg

And 'pop' is nothing so much as a collision between sound and image, otherwise known as music and fashion. You can't pry them apart from each other no matter what genre of popular music we're discussing and it would be unwise to try.

"pop (or in your case fashion)" was throwing a bone to your supposed credentials, not a diss.

she has a great speaking accent too 50% wicklow 50% london

there's a bit of sheffield in there too! and yeah she's terrific live - seen her twice, once at sónar (but after the ruby blue album - overpowered made her a lot more of a "pop star") and once at koko after overpowered, where she'd really gone all out on the costumery, stagecraft etc.

i actually quite like moloko's first album! but their third, when they just went str8-up ibiza disco (hey m.i.a.) was easily their best, and róisín's come into her own as a solo artist.

this is her latest amazing track btw, with crookers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mzWFt5e1mk

i think one thing gaga & minaj do with the murphy/mia steez is make it appeal to wide swathes of not particularly cool very young girls in a deliberate pop ploy

yeah i guess, though i think both come from more populist backgrounds (despite what gaga claims) than art-school m.i.a. or róisín, whose first band were (sort of bizarrely) lumped in with trip-hop by the press and whose background is clearly in 90s underground dance culture.

oh as for róisín's commercial traction, it's close to none - her biggest two hits were in 2000 with moloko, as a solo artist she's had a couple of minor charting singles but nothing like a proper hit - frustrating in the light of last year's infestation of way inferior british quirky girls (florence & the machine, la roux). she's currently without a deal, just given birth, randomly released "momma's place" herself this year to little or no fanfare.

(the royalties off those moloko hits - "sing it back" and "the time is now" - apparently mean she's loaded and can afford to do whatever the hell she likes career-wise.)

it feels really weird as somebody who went to art school/hung out w/ fashion students, i genuinely thought roisin murphy and m.i.a. were household names (that is, the music ppl played at parties was 30% mainstream rnb 30% mia/murphy/theknife/santogold and 30% lol 80s/old house music/prince - spose i thought they were all equally mainstream)

sing it back is ridic awes

it all 'pends on who u hang out with bro

I feel guilty for helping derail this thread into talk about Róisín, but she's just so easy to gush about. Overpowered is one of the few flawless albums released anytime recently in any genre.

("Momma's Place" is quite strange, as was "Orally Fixated," but I hope she makes whatever kind of album she wants next. I'm along for the ride.)

m.i.a. has roughly 900% more exposure in the u.s. than roisin murphy

clearly!

The only people in the US who know who she is are people that bought the first Moloko album and serious UK pop stans.

(And a few people who gave Ruby Blue a spin because of the Matthew Herbert production.)

ah shit handsome boy modeling school...i didn't know she went that far back

Overpowered is one of the few flawless albums released anytime recently in any genre.

Not flawless, but one of the few I look forward to playing. 2007 was a very good year.

First Moloko album = 1995. xp

yeah overpowered is so much better than ruby blue, tho i thought the opposite for a long time

ahhh, handsome boy modeling school, THAT's where i'd heard the name before!

i love finding shit like this on YT tho - high school drama kids dancing to Ramalama Bang Bang at a pep rally

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaErh8_IKkE

ok this http://i41.tinypic.com/eufp0w.gif + "overpowered" is hilarious and mesmerizing

never paid much attention to Roison Murphy before, but those videos are great!

hot chix sure do get the ILMers posting!

roisin is v v pretty

Lady Gaga /= hot

gay for roisin over here

would do all 3

very happy that this thread is so roisin-heavy.

I like Gaga and love MIA but yeah, I too would rather talk/read about Roisin

lol @ u dudes sleepin on RM

more lols: @ dan for telling surm that a song cant be weird bcuz its melodic structure isnt unusual

yeah, because roisin murphy is such an unavoidable persona here

I still haven't heard anything about her that makes me interested in checking her out

There are several youtube embeds up there. All you have to do is press a button.

rev: in the uk moloko's 'the time is now' and 'sing it back' are two of the most ubiquitous tracks of the 00s (arguably)... actually that's not a recommendation is it? basically if you're interested in great singers, songs, music, &c., you may like her.

She really is one of the best vocalists to emerge from the mid-90s. Like, unambiguously quality top to bottom.

sorry deej

i think what make's roisin's voice so captivating is that it reflects a few different styles of song. it sounds like a strong, incensed combination of various themes.

MIA launches fresh attack on Lady Gaga

MIA has laid into Lady GaGa again after US TV presenter Oprah Winfrey praised the 'Poker Face' singer.

Maya Arulpragasam vented her anger after Winfrey apparently gave her the cold shoulder at this year's Metropolitan Ball in New York.

"[Winfrey] made this huge speech at the ball praising Lady GaGa about how she is helping Americans to be the best of themselves," MIA explained. "There's millions of other Americans who represent that for me. Is [it] about numbers? About how much you're selling? Is it truly about the journey? Because [Lady GaGa's] journey isn't that difficult: to go from the fucking Upper East Side to a fucking performing arts school and onto a stage at the museum of fucking wherever. That journey's about four miles."

She also said she was angry with the TV presenter for her attitude towards her at the bash.

"Oprah seemed like she was giving me the cold shoulder," MIA told Time Out. "She was with [David Bowie's wife] Iman. Iman was always dancing with me, hugging and kissing me, but Oprah seemed really pissed off with me."

The rapper and singer previously accused Gaga of ripping off the work of artists like Madonna and Grace Jones, calling her \"a good mimic\".

http://www.nme.com/news/mia/52256

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This time it doesn't seem like much, other than some reporter trying to get a snappy quote. But also, LOL at Iman and Oprah bro-ing down all night.

all I want to do is take your money and then complain that it is all about the money

Maya's clearly the only person who realizes how important she is. We should all be ashamed.

she brings the lolz, what more could I ask for

all I want to do is take your money BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM ch-CHING... and then complain that it is all about the money

― Dominique, Wednesday, July 28, 2010 4:53 PM Bookmark

being super-catty, the mark of the working class

making it very hard to enjoy u, maya

i don't pay attention much to MIA, did she say anything at all about the gruesome end of the sri lankan civil war last year?

yeah, Oprah's right!--Lady Gaga's making us all better people...

she did

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/music/archives/2009/05/does_mia_suppor.php

http://www.theonion.com/articles/lady-gaga-kidnaps-commissioner-gordon,17789/

has Oprah heard about this yet?!

too busy giving cars away to Tom Cruise, I heard