18
Why Do Gaga's Machinations Seem Mechanical Now?
"The innovation of Lady Gaga in the desultory days of 2007 was the difference between becoming a youth icon at 16, as Britney and her ilk did, and becoming one at 22, after a diploma from Sacred Heart and a few solid semesters at New York University—and so, presumably, with enough Freud, Marx and Gawker to understand her identity as a commodity, and what that really meant…. 'The Fame' was unmitigated fun, a likeable young trader making a killing for her personal account with crafty biography arbitrage—who knew there were inefficient markets willing to pay so much for 'shut my playboy mouth' and 'I wanna take a ride on your disco stick'?"
—There's got to be a morning after.
So Lady Gaga is the Jeff Koons of pop music? That works.
@NinetyNine: this.
Lady Gaga is to Britney as Haley Reinhard is to Lauren Alaina.
tl; paimi.
("Too long, punched author in mouth instead.")
Miss the old analog days when you could stop a song just by physically attacking the jukebox.
I'm still angry at all of you for not telling me she said "I'm Batman" the other night on Letterman.
Use of the word "ilk" is a pretty reliable signal that it's O.K. to stop reading.
@Mr. B ? Why do we hate the word "ilk"?
@Kakapo – Have you ever heard it said aloud? It sounds retarded.
I think of it as one of those cliches used by writers with some vague notion that it makes them seem smarter than they really are; at that point I can no longer take them seriously.
@Mr. B Wait, I read the whole column, skimmed at least. I thought it was parody. Overwrought to the point of awful, but knowing. Right? Or am I reading this wrong?
@Mr. B Oh, the article was definitely insufferable. I'm just not getting the "ilk" hate.
@Mr. B But it doesn't even have two syllables! I thought words that writers use to sound smarter were supposed to be scary multisyllabic big words.
Team Ilk.
It's the whole phrase: "of her ilk," "of that ilk," etc. Certain cliches get under your skin, right? This one just strikes me as an overly precious archaism — the kind of thing that would appeal to someone whose idea of elevated diction comes from reading Tolkien in junior high. Another example: referring to a book that isn't the Gutenberg Bible or The Book of Kells as a "tome."
@sunnyciegos – No, I agree. Being parody doesn't make it readable.
@Mr. B I've heard that word.
@k-rex The bird is the word?
"now"
Or also: "What took ya'll so long?!?"
@CatsInBags Preeeeeeeeeeeeeeecisely!
I think it's great that NYU students make coked-up bets, L Ron Hubbard-style, and then actually try and carry them out but I don't like being told by otherwise sensible people that the products of those bets are worth my time.