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Why Gaga is our generations Andy Warhol


gagzus

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gagzus

I've been obsessed with Andy for a while, but ironically I never knew much about HIM as opposed to his art, Gaga modelled her debut era IDENTICALLY to Warhol's peak of his career and here's how.

In the peak of his career, Warhol gained major notoriety by taking something "normal" that people in the boom of US consumerism were obsessed with and used it to his advantage, his art was proudly unoriginal and wasn't so much of a social commentary as it was a celebration as even he was obsessed with consumerism, capitalism and most importantly his position as a populist.

Gaga took every aspect of his peak and identity and made it her own, Warhol's art was unoriginal much like how Gaga's music was technically in hindsight whether you agree or not, Warhol made consumer driven art while Gaga made consumer driven pop music. Which was genius because she like Andy capitalised on people's obsessions with celebrity, sex, money and dance music. Warhol had what he called his "Warhol suit" which was a notable look AND persona he presented in public with his black suit, striped shirts and his silver wig much like how Gaga did the same with her bleach blond bangs, hairbow and 80s popstar fashion. She sold sex, mystery but also kept an air of trying to be a populist like Warhol was- in the age of rock & r&b she wanted to popularise the return of 80s pop culture with fandomonium, popstars to put effort back into their performances and fashion, and to change the world and have her influence on it.

EDIT: Gaga also had/has The Haus of Gaga which was like Warhol's factory, they help make her costumes, ideas etc but during The Fame she protested that it was ALL her own vision and creation, which it actually wasn't, just like what Warhol did with his art. Her ideas were also not original, often inspired by other pieces of fashion; for example her origami dress was an entire replica/rip off of a Thierry Mugler dress she couldn't afford at the time.

Fast forward a decade and Gaga's impact is on par with Warhol's, she like Warhol popularised an entire form of art/music that was not original but was proudly their own even to this day Dance music is played on radio thanks to The Fame, Gaga made popstars up their fashion and performances and she even had some influence as far as modern fandomonium goes with "stanning" etc. We can argue back and forth on whether this is true or not. but the point is; we're talking about it. 

Gaga's persona shifts and changes and evolves, devolves and transforms alongside her genres, her fashion and even her performance ability. She's even branching out into all aspects of entertainment and art like Warhol did too from film, tv, art, design, music etc etc.

Gaga is most definitely a Warholian artist, even still to this day, whether even she realises it or not. Thus proving Warhol is the greatest modern artist of all time. 

Just wanted to share some thoughts

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TimisaMonster

Mmmm....I don't think anyone sees her as a female Warhol...she's more pop star than an underground artist

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Quartz

I don't agree with the parallelism on their 'unoriginality'. Gaga's music has been, and still is, original in the current musical climate. She doesn't pander and is not consumer driven. It was her eccenticism that drove sales, not because she was thinking of her marketability. Quite the opposite, she always want to alienate herself.

Inside, we are really made the same. 🕊
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NotMyFlop

I get what you're saying & I agree on certain aspects, but the "unoriginality" is just off-putting. While pop, dance and electronic music was not invented by her & her music uses samples and inspirations, all of that mixed together is still originality and ingenuity. Also, while there is no denying Andy had a broader impact on fashion than Gaga has, I think you're understating Gaga's overall impact. It shows in even the smallest of details that Gaga was infiltrated pop-culture to a degree I don't think Andy did (but, to be fair, Gaga had the internet to thank for alot of that influence.)

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doppelganger

A lot of what Gaga does I feel is based on Warhol.

But I wouldn't really put Gaga and Warhol on the same level. Warhol (among others) pioneered postmodern art and his pop(ular), iconographic, and mass-produced artworks were really novel ideas at a time when Modernism hadn't really delivered a better future post World War II. 

Gaga injected the ideas of postmodernism into mainstream pop music, however I don't believe she is the first to do so (Bowie, Madonna). When Gaga broke through the industry pop music was generic and in dire need of a reinvention. Rock was already dead and the internet revolution homogenised the music industry. 

Perhaps what you're saying is that Gaga turned herself into "avatars" of Bowie and Madonna, in the same way that Warhol made Marilyn, soup cans and dollar bills into consumerist icons?

Personally, I believe both Andy Warhol and Lady Gaga is a product of their time. Nothing is original anymore (with the exception of technology) and in a sense we no longer have a preoccupation with futurism and the new. This permeates through what we wear, the music we listen to etc. Everything is a throwback these days. Gaga should be amazingly proud of herself because she saw this coming when everyone else was pre-occupied with generic early 00s stuff. 

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ARTPOP2

gaga might be inspired by Warhol but cannot be seen as a new Warhol, she's just a talented pop star, not an artist that initiated a whole art movement based on consumerism and banal industrialized art...

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1 hour ago, gagzus said:

Warhol made consumer driven art while Gaga made consumer driven pop music

Pop music always was and always will be consumer driven. Andy Warhol pushed the boundaries on the meaning of art, Gaga did none of that. Yes, she styled the beginning of her career after Andy's life and work but that doesn't mean she's this generation's Andy Warhol. It just means she's a fan and she's referencing his work.

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aaronyoji
5 hours ago, hellothing said:

I don't agree with the parallelism on their 'unoriginality'. Gaga's music has been, and still is, original in the current musical climate. She doesn't pander and is not consumer driven. It was her eccenticism that drove sales, not because she was thinking of her marketability. Quite the opposite, she always want to alienate herself.

but the fame completely encapsulates the sound of late 2000s dance pop. it was gloriously generic af, while rehashing the new wave tackiness of the 80s. 

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aaronyoji
4 hours ago, Bio said:

Pop music always was and always will be consumer driven. Andy Warhol pushed the boundaries on the meaning of art, Gaga did none of that. Yes, she styled the beginning of her career after Andy's life and work but that doesn't mean she's this generation's Andy Warhol. It just means she's a fan and she's referencing his work.

yeah her early work up until maybe btw and ARTPOP (and even then) boiled down to being marketable pop music. she didn't really change the definition to what could be pop music. again maybe with born this way, but even by ARTPOP it became really watered down of something experimental, in the end it was all mostly  still pop music. 

 

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Quartz
47 minutes ago, aaronyoji said:

but the fame completely encapsulates the sound of late 2000s dance pop. it was gloriously generic af, while rehashing the new wave tackiness of the 80s. 

Is it alright if you cite big songs from the late 2000s pre-Gaga that perfectly encapsulates the musical climate then? Just to put into perspective how similar/unique Gaga's sound was in comparison.

Inside, we are really made the same. 🕊
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aaronyoji
8 minutes ago, hellothing said:

Is it alright if you cite big songs from the late 2000s pre-Gaga that perfectly encapsulates the musical climate then? Just to put into perspective how similar/unique Gaga's sound was in comparison.

jason derulo-my head 

uhh 

kevin rudolf "let it rock'

katy perry early songs, 

ushers songs from 2008-2009 

they all might not sound exactly the same, but put the fame songs next to these and it blends in perfectly, if you pretend its not the gaga we all know that has become a pantheon in modern pop music, lol. 

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Quartz
41 minutes ago, aaronyoji said:

jason derulo-my head 

uhh 

kevin rudolf "let it rock'

katy perry early songs, 

ushers songs from 2008-2009 

they all might not sound exactly the same, but put the fame songs next to these and it blends in perfectly, if you pretend its not the gaga we all know that has become a pantheon in modern pop music, lol. 

I'm sorry brother but I don't agree. None of the things you listed were as heavy electronic as Poker Face or LoveGame. None of them were as party centered and feminine as Just Dance. The Fame was different in its music climate. And dare I include the fashion, the visuals, and the performances? They're in totally different universes.

Inside, we are really made the same. 🕊
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aaronyoji
11 hours ago, hellothing said:

I'm sorry brother but I don't agree. None of the things you listed were as heavy electronic as Poker Face or LoveGame. None of them were as party centered and feminine as Just Dance. The Fame was different in its music climate. And dare I include the fashion, the visuals, and the performances? They're in totally different universes.

yes in terms of fashion, performances, music videos, she definitely was pushing something forward and zoom forward a year or two after her peak, everyone was trying to outdo each other fashionably whenever gaga was in between albums. she did set the trend there, but musically? to call pokerface and love game "heavy electronic" is such an overstatement. i mean the black eyed peas where making slightly more forward music right before she came on the scene, and they're not even respected. it was still slightly more electronic and ahead of the curve. The Fame was more an 80s new wave revival with a few dance elements, but heavy electronica? no. 

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Didymus

Nah. She just mentioned Warhol a couple of times and yes, links can be made, but I don't think they should. I think she just pretended to be inspired by him, which was fine, there were never deep links though, the idea of consumerist pop being artistic was carried out by so many pop stars before her...

She was original actually. And her music was in hindsight then? I'd say her music is in hindsight 100x more now :interestinga:

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