rolling americana

Today I am in love with the promotional shot for Lady Gaga's Born This Way. My actual opinions on Lady Gaga fluctuate between love and hatred. I hate the meat dress. I love the underwear as outerwear. Lady Gaga has been heralded as the poster girl for the cult of celebrity, so to me in this picture she's almost offering a satirical position on the American dream. This picture then appears as a parody - of - sorts on the early liberal attitudes within Warhol's Factory and the rebellion, freedom and hedonism American rock is famed for. At the Venice Film Festival Sofia Coppola won the Golden Lion award for Somewhere. A controversial film that remarks upon the banality of our society's lax in moral standards and the extent to which we have been numbed to the shock factor. Miuccia Prada based her Spring collection on "everybody's obsession with being famous." Her collection was intentionally over - zealous, over - styled and over - dramatic. Bold colours, defined prints and silken fabrics all helped to create the look - at - me effect, whilst the utilisation of American Idol's theme tune in the Miu Miu soundtrack emphasised Miuccia Prada's objective. After all, Celebrity Worship syndrome is now a recognised psychological affliction. Gaga has always looked to clothes and colour for a dramatic way to gain publicity. In this promo shot it will be more the lack of clothes that gets the column inches however.

001 Andy Warhol's famous quote. 002 Lady Gaga addressing the crowd at the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network DADT rally, Portland, Maine, September 20th 2010. 003 Bansky graffiti. 004 Irregular Choice Spring 2011 Lookbook. 005 Sign in America. 006 Courtney Love and Kurt Cobain from 'Dirty Blonde: The Diaries of Courtney Love.' 007 The Runaways Film Poster starring Kristen Stewart as Joan Jett and Dakota Fanning as Cherie Currie. 008 The infamous Chateau Marmont hotel. 009 Irregular Choice Spring 2011 Lookbook. 010 Banned Calvin Klein Jeans Summer 2009 Campaign. 011 F*** Me I'm Famous t-shirt. 012 Levi's advertising campaign. 013 Hooters Girls promotional picture. 014 Cult of celebrity article. 015 Irregular Choice Spring 2011 Lookbook. 016 Selection of my own books. I think you can make out which in the photo so I won't list them here. 017 Promotional shot for 'The Simple Life' starring Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie. 018 Movie still from Showgirls. 019 Courtney Love and Kurt Cobain from 'Dirty Blonde: The Diaries of Courtney Love.' 020 MDMA cereal mock up. 021 Photobooth pictures of Dave Navarro from 'Don't Try This at Home.' 022 Courtney Love American flag t-shirt from 'Dirty Blonde: The Diaries of Courtney Love.' 023 Cherie Currie from The Runaways 024 Iggy Pop on the cover of LOVE Magazine Spring/Summer 2009 edition. 025 Lindsay Lohan leaked picture. 026 Front cover of 'The Dirt - Motley Crue: Confessions of the World's Most Notorious Rock Band. 027 Courtney Love shot by Heidi Slimane. 028 P.J Harvey. 029 Dire Straits single 030 Holywood sign.

I'll leave you with this quote I find rather disturbing from Jon Katz, taken from an article in The Observer: "Celebrity worship is akin to a national religion in the United States. It's one of the country's most invasive and dubiously valuable exports to the world and it is the fast - burning fuel for a relentless, corrosive media machine that infects almost every part of our culture." Now off to listen to more Bob Dylan. I've had 'Like a Rolling Stone' on repeat the whole way through writing this.