Yes, that failure did seem like a portent. I have observed some signs that the whole leotard stripper era might be on the way out. Young women who don’t know (or pretend they don’t know) or care about Taylor Swift, young men who prefer a little old fashioned mystery when it comes to finding a mate, various super-skilled young musicians on YouTube with robust audiences.
The problem with these "princesses," just like in all other areas of art, is that the bland and crowd-pleasing is given far too much space. The dominance of the marketing strategies behind it means you really have to search before you find something that stands out from the mass of agreeable, formulaic work. As for me, I've always been more interested in queens than in princesses. At the top of the list is Kate Bush, of course, but I’ve also drawn powerful inspiration from Jarboe, P. J. Harvey, Lisa Gerrard, and more recently Maria Franz from "Heilung," who has earned her place among the musical queens. And that’s just a small fraction of the extraordinary women artists who barely get noticed by the media. (Yes, Kate Bush was a star in the 1980s, but the brilliant work she produced after her long break is almost completely ignored by the mainstream.) So the question isn’t just why the princesses take up so much space. It’s also worth asking who gives them that attention and why. There are real artists out there. They can be found.
Yes, so true. We are lucky to have the internet. It isn't as easy as the Porny Pop Princesses to hog the listening space as it was in the age of payola radio, television, and gatekeepers. I suppose it is up to us to find better alternatives.
I enjoyed Madonna in Desperately Seeking Susan, which was right at the cusp of her superstardom. But since then, she devolved steadily into the bizarre creature she is now. Can’t bear to look at her these days, and that goes for all of the pop princesses you mention!
Had she aged more naturally, I think Madonna would have been a beautiful elder. She has excellent bone structure. But instead she grasped at faux youth. Joe Rogan said he thinks Roseanne is hotter than Madonna. Scathing.
And here I was, thinking that the disco era was a horror show! By comparison, it was up to the level of Beethoven: those ladies had pipes and could sing. Well, many of them. Tell the truth, I've noticed the names you mention passing by my eyes, but I could never stomach more than a bar or two of their manufactured music. And the sexualization of everything. Pray gods it has passed its peak! Sacred stuff traduced for many reasons, the almighty buck just one of them. I don't want to see what the afterlives of these entities, once human, will be. The horror!
I know, right? I never thought we would be looking at disco as virtuosic compared to what is going on now. Also, at least disco was FUN. The music of this age is so whiney. For example, Olivia Rodrigo is actually not that bad of a songwriter. Her melodies are good and her lyrics are clever, but it's all such a litany of grievances set to autotune and swearing (she adores the F bomb) that I turn it off the second I hear it if there is a choice. The music of this era is a symptom of collective astral sepsis. If it manages to be fun (rare), it is surely at someone else's expense.
I think it might already be.
The “Women … In … Space …” fiasco kind of ended that I thought.
Nobody cares anymore.
Yes, that failure did seem like a portent. I have observed some signs that the whole leotard stripper era might be on the way out. Young women who don’t know (or pretend they don’t know) or care about Taylor Swift, young men who prefer a little old fashioned mystery when it comes to finding a mate, various super-skilled young musicians on YouTube with robust audiences.
The problem with these "princesses," just like in all other areas of art, is that the bland and crowd-pleasing is given far too much space. The dominance of the marketing strategies behind it means you really have to search before you find something that stands out from the mass of agreeable, formulaic work. As for me, I've always been more interested in queens than in princesses. At the top of the list is Kate Bush, of course, but I’ve also drawn powerful inspiration from Jarboe, P. J. Harvey, Lisa Gerrard, and more recently Maria Franz from "Heilung," who has earned her place among the musical queens. And that’s just a small fraction of the extraordinary women artists who barely get noticed by the media. (Yes, Kate Bush was a star in the 1980s, but the brilliant work she produced after her long break is almost completely ignored by the mainstream.) So the question isn’t just why the princesses take up so much space. It’s also worth asking who gives them that attention and why. There are real artists out there. They can be found.
Yes, so true. We are lucky to have the internet. It isn't as easy as the Porny Pop Princesses to hog the listening space as it was in the age of payola radio, television, and gatekeepers. I suppose it is up to us to find better alternatives.
I enjoyed Madonna in Desperately Seeking Susan, which was right at the cusp of her superstardom. But since then, she devolved steadily into the bizarre creature she is now. Can’t bear to look at her these days, and that goes for all of the pop princesses you mention!
Had she aged more naturally, I think Madonna would have been a beautiful elder. She has excellent bone structure. But instead she grasped at faux youth. Joe Rogan said he thinks Roseanne is hotter than Madonna. Scathing.
Joe is definitely right!
I think what’s scarier than her actual appearance is the desperation behind it.
And here I was, thinking that the disco era was a horror show! By comparison, it was up to the level of Beethoven: those ladies had pipes and could sing. Well, many of them. Tell the truth, I've noticed the names you mention passing by my eyes, but I could never stomach more than a bar or two of their manufactured music. And the sexualization of everything. Pray gods it has passed its peak! Sacred stuff traduced for many reasons, the almighty buck just one of them. I don't want to see what the afterlives of these entities, once human, will be. The horror!
I know, right? I never thought we would be looking at disco as virtuosic compared to what is going on now. Also, at least disco was FUN. The music of this age is so whiney. For example, Olivia Rodrigo is actually not that bad of a songwriter. Her melodies are good and her lyrics are clever, but it's all such a litany of grievances set to autotune and swearing (she adores the F bomb) that I turn it off the second I hear it if there is a choice. The music of this era is a symptom of collective astral sepsis. If it manages to be fun (rare), it is surely at someone else's expense.