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Thank you, Weapons/Shaftoe for clarifying your statement. And I'm going to go ahead and apologize for the nonsense post right from the get-go. It definitely needs to be unpacked. Okay, so let's do this.
1) I found No Doubt interesting because of the band dynamic. The man dating her for a long time was also a member of the band - see "Don't Speak" for more info on this. I think the band really wasn't the Gwen show even though the media portrayed it as such. No Doubt greatly benefited from the fact that there were many different members with different backgrounds.
2) I refer to "quirky" outfits in that post. I'm going to delete this retroactively. It doesn't make sense, and I admit as much. Shaftoe calls me on this, and he's perfectly correct to do so.
3) The Neptunes. According to Wikipedia, the song "Hollaback Girl" was written by Gwen and Pharrell Williams, but produced by the Neptunes. My earlier statement was a half-mistake, in that I forgot the usually forgotten half of the Neptunes. My bad, as the kids say.
With that out of the way... I dislike the Neptunes now. I admit that my tastes have changed in this case, but my taste has changed in correlation to the amount of singers and songwriters hiring the Neptunes. I personally feel that the Neptunes have lost what made them interesting in the first place. Specifically on "Hollaback Girl," I find the production deriative (Toni Basil), uninspiring and downright tedious after three minutes of the same thing.
My earlier statement on the Neptunes should be unpacked further and clarified. For the record, I am not judging the Neptunes for producing more songs, and thus becoming more famous (the indie fallacy that once something is popular, it is "uncool") I don't believe this. What I do believe is that the Neptunes have mysteriously become interesting. It seems that the quantity is up, but the quality is low. Case in point: the production on Justified by Justin Timberlake is immaculate. Every song seems to stand on its own in terms of production. Each song has its own unique beat and unique flavour. On the other hand, "Hollaback Girl" is bland to my ears.
4) the "bling" factor: The Harajuku Girls, in my opinion, are a form of "bling". But seeing as how "bling" is a moveable feast, as Shaftoe put it, I'm going to step back from this statement. It needs to be unpacked, and I do not have the skills to do so. I find the Harajuku Girls to be offensive for the same reason Margaret Cho does:
"Amos ‘n Andy had lots of fans, didn’t they? At least it is a measure of visibility, which is much better than invisibility. I am so sick of not existing, that I would settle for following any white person around with an umbrella just so I could say I was there." (Thanks to grant for this)
5) "like every other celebrity" - Now the statement I'm going to make is going to be controversial: I think when Gwen and No Doubt came out, one of the reasons they were successful is because there had previously been no mainstream ska/punk band fronted by a woman. There was the Plasmatics, but they were not mainstream, IMHO. So here is our point of comparison: No Doubt was "original" because it was a pop-punk band fronted by a woman who was extremely attractive.
Now, she is singer produced by the Neptunes. She has a clothing line. Now, she sings songs extremely reminiscent of Toni Basil. Now, it seems, her style is the most important part of her oeuvre. I'm going to give an example, and it's not supposed to be concrete proof or anything. It's just the remarks of a concert reviewer:
"And the shit was bananas! Soon after, the MTS Centre’s corridors were clogged with girls and their moms trying to buy a Harajuku Lovers hoodie, shirt or hat with a banana logo sporting the phrase: 'This shirt is bananas. ' "
If you follow the link, you'll read a concert review that just as consistently reviews the music, also reviews the clothes. The first paragraph remarks that Gwen is a "high profile fashionista" - not a former singer for No Doubt. The title of the article refers to her clothes.
My point is that I think Gwen has become uninteresting because her fashion is the high point, the selling point, as opposed to when she was fronting No Doubt, and the music was first and foremost. Although, I admit, her style while she was in No Doubt was heavily covered by the press. It seems that Gwen has always been a fashion icon; the only thing that's changed is that now she is only a fashion icon, IMHO.
6) "Props to her for doing it" - she's making money. It's more than I can say. I admit that this statement is confusing. I hope to clarify this. I spent most of my post complaining that Gwen was uninteresting. Then I say, "Good for her for being uninteresting." When I posted that post, I had been reading Kevin Smith's responses to AICN's Talkbackers on Smith's ViewAskew message board. Smith's consistent reply to vicious "haters" was that he had gotten off his lazy ass, made that movie, and is now successful from it, which was more that any of the TalkBackers could say. Smith could not be insulted or offended because he was doing what he loved. That really struck a chord with me. If Gwen loves to sell Japanese fashion to middle-class preteens, then she should be so lucky. My point is that I refuse to buy into it, but I respect the fact that she is doing what she possibly loves (I can't say for sure). I apologize for the confusion. I regret that I posted it, but I didn't want to seem like one of the AICN TalkBackers.
7) the "clock" comment: Yes, it was a reference to Flava Flav. I had no idea that Gwen appeared in a clock, or wore a clock or whatever. And for defending myself, I'm going to quote Haus, who perfectly enunciated what I meant:
"the point was that Flavour Flav, by wearing a clock, was being individualistic and that individualistic and eccentric style decision was considered cool, whereas Stefani has instead taken a far more mannered, complex and conformist approach to being cool, presumably as a reaction to a change in the times which has made being considered cool by (such indivdualistic and quirky acts as) wearing a clock impossible and instead offered cool status to people who conform."
Thank you Haus. |
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