Beyonce lip synching the inauguration = better or worse than President Obama paying his own "lip service" to things like civil liberties and the environment while actually strengthening CIA torture and drone warfare and lifting requirements on offshore drilling etc. etc. etc. ?
I still like Beyonce; I still like Obama. Pop music and politics are areas of vast complexity and moral uncertainty.
all is simulated perfection in a world of artifice and moral complexity and surfaces being more valued than substances
B paid lip service to the national anthem just as our government pays lip service to the ideals of the founding fathers. "B" as a character represents and symbolizes and crystalizes various beliefs/desires, just as the character of "the President" does. Their actual human selves/utterances seem to matter less than what they represent to us.
This has been Yours Truly, intentionally trying to be the shittiest cynic ever, while in actuality kind of feeling both Boats/Kevin's calls
on the one hand, modern performance is always a complex mixture of authenticity and artifice, so who cares and why should it matter (didn't YoYo Ma admit last time that they were "lip synching" that string quartet thing they played, because their hands were too cold to actually play the instruments? Not gonna google to corroborate but I feel like I remember this). Also the fact that moral virtuous democracy is itself a weird artificial lie we tell ourselves to keep from going crazy. Just heard about how the Obama Administration has introduced some bill making it legal for them to kill any American they want at their discretion if said American is in a foreign country and represents an "imminent threat" to our nation, obviously without defining what any of that actually means. Hard to get all "the national anthem should be pure and live to honor the inauguration!" in light of that!
on the other hand, it would be pretty badass if, in this world of artifice and complexity, the national anthem was always intentionally sung live, naked, a single human voice articulating the imperfect pain and longing of millions of people trying to govern themselves and do a good job
on an unrelated note, I would just like to point out that while musically our national anthem is utterly fucking badass and almost no one can sing it well, lyrically it is a mess, and it would be kind of cool to have a different one
kdawg, the connection between Beyonce lip-synching and people accepting being lied to by the rich and powerful seems tenuous. It was a performance, not a sacred oath or promise. While I agree with you that the national anthem is more than just pop music, and that it should be held to a higher standard, I don't think Beyonce's lipsynching leads to a "decline of public trust in public institutions." That's slippery slope thinking.
Beyonce's reason for lip-synching:
I am a perfectionist, and one thing about me: I practice until my feet bleed. I did not have time to rehearse with the orchestra. It was a live television show and a very, very important, emotional show for me, one of my proudest moments. Due to the weather, due to the delay, due to no proper sound check, I did not feel comfortable taking a risk. It was about the president and the inauguration and I wanted to make him and my country proud. So I decided to sing along with my prerecorded track, which is very common in the music industry. I’m very proud of my performance.
While I don't know how much of that is true and how much is spin, I'm willing to give her the benefit of the doubt and believe that she wanted to be perfect for the president and the event.
I think imperfection is beautiful and an authentic performance would've been wonderful, but apparently Beyonce doesn't. That's a shame, but it's not a big deal.
That's not to say people don't have a right to be angry if they were fooled. When Madonna lip-synched at the MTV Music Video Awards (or something) and she slipped and it was obvious she wasn't really singing, I was shocked. It seemed so scandalous. (Also, I was eleven years old.)
I'm dismayed that Beyonce chose to lipsynch, but I do not feel betrayed or lied to, although I'm sympathetic to those who do feel that way. I just don't think it's a national scandal.
Yeah, I don't think it's a national scandal either. I just think the weird rush to mock anyone who is upset about it was a really strange and telling phenomenon, and I do think it's an episode that tells us a lot when you start to unpack the semiotics.
But if it's a dumb thing to be upset about, then it's good if people rush to mock those that are upset. That is a feedback loop of society correcting itself.
Yeah, I did see a whole lot of rushing to mock anyone who is upset. Weird, right? Maybe I got to see a little more of that than y'all did because it's a pretty typical reaction amongst gay men especially, for annoying deep-seated cultural reasons, and because i follow a lot of pop music writers on tumblr for work.
I confess that anything approaching "enforced enthusiasm" for pop divas (even the ones I like!) is a little triggering for me.
NAILED IT boats. Hand him his hat, the twerp!!!!! What even kind of bull is that comment, fork beard ?? Bullroar of the highest degree Next time I see you Alan I kick yr butt Damn
This comment seems drunk but isn't, I apologize for being untruthful in my representation
I like what k said about gay men & divas, hasn't thought of that before
Sasha and I have the same bed as Petty (the people we bought our bed from said that he just bought the same model), so I guess there is some Petty Passion there.
im sorry, but i just dont buy beyonce knowles. shes too plastic, to me all her "emotions" seem totally forced and fake. her tumblr doesnt do anything for me except go "gee yr rich, congrats!" i dunno. i wish women had a better role model. like that one scene in the making of that one video where its just a rip of a major lazer song with her singing when she cries because i dunno, something reminds her of something.... its like the only time i feel like she has ever let her guard down
for me, art has to have an entryway. prince balances both sides of sexuality to show both vulnerability and male phallic strength or whatever. it makes it approachable yet strong. beyonce is just fierce with no approachable emotional angle. its all chrome bra's and janet jackson control era fascist dancing and protected life with her power mogul husband... i dunno. i just just cant buy into her whole narrative.
I think a lot of the discussion can head in mean directions... trivializing bras and dancing and beauty, which are thought of as female. To me it sounds like that is what you are saying. Chrome bras represent exactly the same vulnerable/strong dichotomy you like about Prince, but for some reason they're lame? you dont say why
I think beyonce's perfect image is on purpose. Her "character" is not Everyman. She is a totally diff archetype. However, that doesn't make it flat. Even though I contest the idea that prince balances both sides of sexuality (if he did maybe he would have been surrounded by male and female sexy dancers at his half time show, not just women dancers) I get what you are saying about his being more ambiguous and thus relatable. If you want to say his axis is male/female than her axis is heaven/earth. I think we want this star because of our unconscious awareness of how technology can "perfect" our lives. She is a kind of robocop. She's not supposed to express deep dear diary thoughts, so hers is a more mannered, mediated, choreographed experience of sentiments.
she's not trying to be Everyman (neither is Prince, by the way, also he is fucking rich and displays himself being rich and doing outrageously fancy luxurious things in his ridiculous life, which I think is awesome but it's not like he's Bruce Springsteen to Beyoncé's Marie Antoinette). Trivializing fucking incredible virtuoso dancing when it's done by a woman but then we revere Michael Jackson? Like Michael fucking Jackson is so authentic and approachable and didn't lead a bizarre protected life? Dude literally lived INSIDE AN AMUSEMENT PARK. But I'd be surprised if you'd find yourself defensively needing to downplay Michael Jackson's performance or legacy as an artist, Alan. Maybe I'm wrong but I just can't imagine it.
Contrasting Beyonce and Prince really does not work for me as an argument. If you want to take down all popular mass culture for being wealthy/over-produced that's one thing but to compare Prince and Beyonce in some effort to prove that Prince is more authentic/approachable/less rich and protected I don't think is going to cut it
also women have more than one role model. We have Beyonce and Michelle Obama and Hillary Clinton and Lindsay Vonn and fucking Joan Didion and Rachel Corrie and Joni Mitchell and Joanna Newsom and Bjork and whoever the fuck else. Since when does Beyonce represent women's only option for empowering role model?
And, I don't think the issue of race should be downplayed in the conversation either. A Superbowl performance featuring literally no one but black women is fucking powerful, there are simply no two ways about it
Also notice how Beyonce is being extremely fucking smart and thoughtful about representation and presentation? "I am going to consciously have only black women in my band and on my stage." Powerful statement. Prince on the other hand, do we really want to get into the ways that dude deals with women and represents women?
I think there is a lot of room though to enjoy Bey but not fully accept some of her claims of feminism at face value. A lot of the way people talk about her is too third-wavey/Wonder Woman for me.
Also, the Rolling Stones are awful, and YT's point about how no one expects Mick Jagger to be a good role model for boys is true, but also makes me think: why don't we have higher expectations? Like, we could have any kind of entertainment, and we get "Under My Thumb"?
Who was it that told me the story about Prince coming into a record store where they were working one time? He showed up in a limo and took a long time to shop and all he ended up buying was a CD copy of "Kind Of Blue"?
yeah, but in the context of adolescent identity-formation, it fully helps. like, as a young gay dude it was frustrating that almost all the queer music role models that i could find were cool punk ladies. or else talented jerks like morrissey.
halo's just about her taking Jay back after he banged Rhianna tho i read those lyrics as being strong in that she opens herself back up to him after being betrayed. because she can see he is good, and just fucked up. that is, it was written for her it does show her vulnerability
my thoughts on Beyonce come from what i feel is a pretty strong but complicated post riot grrrl/ feminist position on female power relations vis a vis music culture as a whole, but its cool if no one believes that.
it just bugs me that her track record of actually sound feminist statements in her music and shit has always been terrible, from the charlies angels independent era thru to now. her basic statement which resounds in the populous has been pretty consistent on the "im hot so pay me" vibe, which - albeit a strong and universal message about self worth- is just NOT progressive in its blatant upholding of male female power relations in a post hip hop bling capitalist packaging. pretty fucking weak.
then their's her lack of dynamic range as a vocalist. she's a good belter, but is lacking in any musical subtly of grand note.
of course the race/gender shit is important and commendable and all that, i just wish she would/felt she could take that fierceness guard down a bit. expand her musical and emotional range. i just find it deeply wrong that for her to show vulerability, human-ness and dare i say a "feminine" gentleness is somehow weak or "disempowering" in any way. joni mitchell proved that wrong without any fucking doubt two generations ago. i can think of a myriad of woman artists that have profoundly proven this over and over more than beyonce knowles.
the tumblr is a good attempt. her starting to take control of her recorded output is a good step. writing a record of songs for herself would be good. the all black all girl band is a strong-ass move which i respect. anyway, i know the phenom of Beyonce is bigger than the woman beyonce knowles. but i am of the opinion that its when you can steer that ship to uncharted beautiful art that you become a great artist, regardless of the countless suits, dancers, etc etc etc that surround you and depend on you. she has yet to do this in the sorts of ways that some like, oh, say Prince has consistently done for decades. Prince, on a stage made of a combination of the male and female symbols, dressed like a black homosexual - one of the most disempowered and derided demographics in our society - at a the pinacle of male gladiator macho bullshit fest, getting an entire crowd to sing along to the weepy falsetto refrain from purple rain while a fucking marching band plays in the fucking rain....with a guitar shaped like a combination of female and male symbol, all in purple... i dunno, to me its just on another level.
as for janet jackson, her control era robo-cop vibe worked for me because of who she had been, which was this cubby cheeked cute girl in a sit-com and was the youngest of the deeply overshadowing/ abusive dark jackson family. plus earlier stuff like "when i think of you" had a girlish, vulnerable, dare i say submissively sexualized and cute quality to it. and she owned all of it. so when she went into a very hard and tough aesthetic, flirting with military vibes, notes of fascism & playing with more phallocentric/ asexual gender reversal (an aesthetic which beyonce definitely is curbing a whole lotta notes from), (because of her past, where she was coming from...) it had a narrative to it that i feel is stronger, more powerfully human, approachable and engaging than B's. it was a better story of someone who had come from a weird fucked up life, who is strong enough to show both "fierceness" and a very "girly", "weak", "submissive" vibe and OWN both of those sides of being a human. there's some way to relate or approach it than the glossy remove of beyonxe
anyway, it is for these reasons that i have never really bought into the whole Beyonce thing, and i think its a fucking shame that popular culture can't find a compelling female superstar to be an alternative to her.
Comments
I still like Beyonce; I still like Obama. Pop music and politics are areas of vast complexity and moral uncertainty.
all is simulated perfection in a world of artifice and moral complexity and surfaces being more valued than substances
B paid lip service to the national anthem just as our government pays lip service to the ideals of the founding fathers. "B" as a character represents and symbolizes and crystalizes various beliefs/desires, just as the character of "the President" does. Their actual human selves/utterances seem to matter less than what they represent to us.
This has been Yours Truly, intentionally trying to be the shittiest cynic ever, while in actuality kind of feeling both Boats/Kevin's calls
on the one hand, modern performance is always a complex mixture of authenticity and artifice, so who cares and why should it matter (didn't YoYo Ma admit last time that they were "lip synching" that string quartet thing they played, because their hands were too cold to actually play the instruments? Not gonna google to corroborate but I feel like I remember this). Also the fact that moral virtuous democracy is itself a weird artificial lie we tell ourselves to keep from going crazy. Just heard about how the Obama Administration has introduced some bill making it legal for them to kill any American they want at their discretion if said American is in a foreign country and represents an "imminent threat" to our nation, obviously without defining what any of that actually means. Hard to get all "the national anthem should be pure and live to honor the inauguration!" in light of that!
on the other hand, it would be pretty badass if, in this world of artifice and complexity, the national anthem was always intentionally sung live, naked, a single human voice articulating the imperfect pain and longing of millions of people trying to govern themselves and do a good job
on an unrelated note, I would just like to point out that while musically our national anthem is utterly fucking badass and almost no one can sing it well, lyrically it is a mess, and it would be kind of cool to have a different one
Beyonce's reason for lip-synching: While I don't know how much of that is true and how much is spin, I'm willing to give her the benefit of the doubt and believe that she wanted to be perfect for the president and the event.
I think imperfection is beautiful and an authentic performance would've been wonderful, but apparently Beyonce doesn't. That's a shame, but it's not a big deal.
That's not to say people don't have a right to be angry if they were fooled. When Madonna lip-synched at the MTV Music Video Awards (or something) and she slipped and it was obvious she wasn't really singing, I was shocked. It seemed so scandalous. (Also, I was eleven years old.)
I'm dismayed that Beyonce chose to lipsynch, but I do not feel betrayed or lied to, although I'm sympathetic to those who do feel that way. I just don't think it's a national scandal.
And that is beautiful.
I didn't see ANY backlash to the coverage. My own reaction was my own and not based on anything else I'd seen.
Have you encountered a lot of "rushing to mack anyone who is upset."
Maybe that's a lot of people's natural reactions.
I confess that anything approaching "enforced enthusiasm" for pop divas (even the ones I like!) is a little triggering for me.
So dismissive.
Beyonce's not fierce, she's good.
Prince jacks off guitars.
What even kind of bull is that comment, fork beard
??
Bullroar of the highest degree
Next time I see you Alan I kick yr butt
Damn
This comment seems drunk but isn't, I apologize for being untruthful in my representation
I like what k said about gay men & divas, hasn't thought of that before
Petty Passion.
Can anyone muster passion for Petty?
maybe some hippie i went to boarding school with??
would be a sort of cute passion. "Him?"
I was at that Diana Ross one in 96.
for me, art has to have an entryway. prince balances both sides of sexuality to show both vulnerability and male phallic strength or whatever. it makes it approachable yet strong. beyonce is just fierce with no approachable emotional angle. its all chrome bra's and janet jackson control era fascist dancing and protected life with her power mogul husband... i dunno. i just just cant buy into her whole narrative.
I think beyonce's perfect image is on purpose. Her "character" is not Everyman. She is a totally diff archetype. However, that doesn't make it flat. Even though I contest the idea that prince balances both sides of sexuality (if he did maybe he would have been surrounded by male and female sexy dancers at his half time show, not just women dancers) I get what you are saying about his being more ambiguous and thus relatable. If you want to say his axis is male/female than her axis is heaven/earth. I think we want this star because of our unconscious awareness of how technology can "perfect" our lives. She is a kind of robocop. She's not supposed to express deep dear diary thoughts, so hers is a more mannered, mediated, choreographed experience of sentiments.
she's not trying to be Everyman (neither is Prince, by the way, also he is fucking rich and displays himself being rich and doing outrageously fancy luxurious things in his ridiculous life, which I think is awesome but it's not like he's Bruce Springsteen to Beyoncé's Marie Antoinette). Trivializing fucking incredible virtuoso dancing when it's done by a woman but then we revere Michael Jackson? Like Michael fucking Jackson is so authentic and approachable and didn't lead a bizarre protected life? Dude literally lived INSIDE AN AMUSEMENT PARK. But I'd be surprised if you'd find yourself defensively needing to downplay Michael Jackson's performance or legacy as an artist, Alan. Maybe I'm wrong but I just can't imagine it.
Contrasting Beyonce and Prince really does not work for me as an argument. If you want to take down all popular mass culture for being wealthy/over-produced that's one thing but to compare Prince and Beyonce in some effort to prove that Prince is more authentic/approachable/less rich and protected I don't think is going to cut it
And, I don't think the issue of race should be downplayed in the conversation either. A Superbowl performance featuring literally no one but black women is fucking powerful, there are simply no two ways about it
I mean, whatever
Well, baby they're tumbling down
And they didn't even put up a fight
They didn't even make up a sound
I found a way to let you in
But I never really had a doubt
Standing in the light of your halo
I got my angel now
It's like I've been awakened
Every rule I had you breakin'
It's the risk that I'm takin'
I ain't never gonna shut you out"
Also, the Rolling Stones are awful, and YT's point about how no one expects Mick Jagger to be a good role model for boys is true, but also makes me think: why don't we have higher expectations? Like, we could have any kind of entertainment, and we get "Under My Thumb"?
Pretty sure he'd know just what to say to make everyone feel alright about this whole situation.
just wanted to put that out there
i read those lyrics as being strong in that she opens herself back up to him after being betrayed. because she can see he is good, and just fucked up.
that is, it was written for her
it does show her vulnerability
my thoughts on Beyonce come from what i feel is a pretty strong but complicated post riot grrrl/ feminist position on female power relations vis a vis music culture as a whole, but its cool if no one believes that.
it just bugs me that her track record of actually sound feminist statements in her music and shit has always been terrible, from the charlies angels independent era thru to now. her basic statement which resounds in the populous has been pretty consistent on the "im hot so pay me" vibe, which - albeit a strong and universal message about self worth- is just NOT progressive in its blatant upholding of male female power relations in a post hip hop bling capitalist packaging. pretty fucking weak.
then their's her lack of dynamic range as a vocalist. she's a good belter, but is lacking in any musical subtly of grand note.
of course the race/gender shit is important and commendable and all that, i just wish she would/felt she could take that fierceness guard down a bit. expand her musical and emotional range. i just find it deeply wrong that for her to show vulerability, human-ness and dare i say a "feminine" gentleness is somehow weak or "disempowering" in any way. joni mitchell proved that wrong without any fucking doubt two generations ago. i can think of a myriad of woman artists that have profoundly proven this over and over more than beyonce knowles.
the tumblr is a good attempt. her starting to take control of her recorded output is a good step. writing a record of songs for herself would be good. the all black all girl band is a strong-ass move which i respect.
anyway, i know the phenom of Beyonce is bigger than the woman beyonce knowles. but i am of the opinion that its when you can steer that ship to uncharted beautiful art that you become a great artist, regardless of the countless suits, dancers, etc etc etc that surround you and depend on you. she has yet to do this in the sorts of ways that some like, oh, say Prince has consistently done for decades.
Prince, on a stage made of a combination of the male and female symbols, dressed like a black homosexual - one of the most disempowered and derided demographics in our society - at a the pinacle of male gladiator macho bullshit fest, getting an entire crowd to sing along to the weepy falsetto refrain from purple rain while a fucking marching band plays in the fucking rain....with a guitar shaped like a combination of female and male symbol, all in purple... i dunno, to me its just on another level.
as for janet jackson, her control era robo-cop vibe worked for me because of who she had been, which was this cubby cheeked cute girl in a sit-com and was the youngest of the deeply overshadowing/ abusive dark jackson family. plus earlier stuff like "when i think of you" had a girlish, vulnerable, dare i say submissively sexualized and cute quality to it. and she owned all of it.
so when she went into a very hard and tough aesthetic, flirting with military vibes, notes of fascism & playing with more phallocentric/ asexual gender reversal (an aesthetic which beyonce definitely is curbing a whole lotta notes from), (because of her past, where she was coming from...) it had a narrative to it that i feel is stronger, more powerfully human, approachable and engaging than B's. it was a better story of someone who had come from a weird fucked up life, who is strong enough to show both "fierceness" and a very "girly", "weak", "submissive" vibe and OWN both of those sides of being a human.
there's some way to relate or approach it than the glossy remove of beyonxe
anyway, it is for these reasons that i have never really bought into the whole Beyonce thing, and i think its a fucking shame that popular culture can't find a compelling female superstar to be an alternative to her.
i dunno.