The prolific releases keep her in the media spotlight as Ga Ga shows she is the heir to MAdonna as the master manipulator and image changer. In this video for Alejandro the allusions to Madonna's Vogue era are obvious providing another elemnet of intertextuality and self referencing the naked materialism and blatant stealing of well worn marketing techniques. Like Madonna she shocks her audience with sexuallised routines and imagery. The whole fetishitic and militaristic / fascist connotations offer the analyst lots of material. Is it about a love affair in fascist Spain under Franco ? Are there allusions to Eva Paeron and Argentina, another MAdonna link through Evita ? Or is Ga Ga just kicking around for eye catching ideas that will be visually memorable and familiar to anyone with a knowledge of popular culture. Like the Tarantinoesque Telephone this one has many intertextual references which make her work read like anseries of in jokes for a media savvy audience much like an episode of the Simpsons. Again the Guardian love to provide their opinion which is great for our study.
The success of launching a music video as an event and making it an internet phenomenon is again seen in the fact that the web-site hosting the new video crashed after a countdown to its launch online. Cynical but effective marketing for a cynical but insatiable consumerist audience.
One reading is that Ga Ga is unable to attract her male gay friends and the video is about unrecquited love. Like Madonna, Ga GA is clearly wanting to be regarded as a gay icon, attracting a lucrative key audience.
A great web-site to aid your own analysis of the videos is the vigilant citizen which attempts to de-construct the messages and values in the song and video.
No comments:
Post a Comment