Lil Nas X’s “J CHRIST” pacing a top 80 debut on The Hot 100

[SimonBaetens 6,730]

1 hour ago, NCgaga said:

It’s funny how so many of you have never heard of Marilyn Manson. A straight, white man who constantly used crucifix/religious “blasphemy” in the 90s  and was labeled the devil by conservative America. Major protests and album burnings across the entire country at that time. The same could be said for NIN. Madonna’s like a Prayer video was banned on MTV in 1990 due to “blasphemy” and cross burnings. So yeah, you’re reaching to make this a race thing. 

Yeah the whole of the US being prude Catholics is another issue

[StrawberryBlond 13,988]

It all comes down to things remaining the same. I was surprised that he made direct visual callbacks to the Call Me By Your Name music video with the stripper pole and Colloseum scenes. And the dancing in puddles scene almost seemed to reference Rain On Me. One of the major misjudgements made when making art is giving people too much of the same thing, even when they've been proven to enjoy it. CMBYN, regardless of what you think of the song, is at least different and interesting and the video, regardless of what you think of it, is at least different and interesting. Above all, it was a new concept all round and that demanded attention and praise. But to reproduce parts of this with a substandard song 2.5 years later just doesn't cut the mustard. The blasphemy thing doesn't really stand when you consider that CMBYN was such a hit. But he basically played all his shock cards with that one. When you've given the devil a lapdance in your music video, there's not much more you can do to shock people further, at least as far as blasphemous images go. He's desensitised us to shock, so further shock attempts aren't having the same effect. To quote ToddintheShadows who talked about what he called shock fatigue: "eventually, the world runs out of monocles to pop."

And while, yes, Gaga could do shock value and still go on to be successful, it's easy to forget that she only did that stuff for about a year or so. Alejandro was in 2010, Judas in 2011 (and that was called out as being a Bad Romance rip-off sonically) and other than that, how else has she ever shocked from a religious standpoint? It was a very specific brief moment in time and she knew when the public had had enough and moved on swiftly, eventually getting to the point where she abandoned any attempts at her pop persona and made a jazz album followed by an album inspired by country. Lil Nas X would be wise to do something similar because he's been putting out the same kind of music since he debuted and just like Gaga, the "look at me," attention seeking antics are no longer paying off, so recalibrate and give us something different. And for that matter, female artists are expected to do this with every album if they want to survive. It's refreshing that we're no longer letting males get away with copying and pasting their same style for album after album now.

[MaybeKermit 3,971]

22 hours ago, HiddenWeirdo said:

I get that this theme is overdone but why so much hate? I don't get why some of you celebrate that it's probably charting low.. 

 

I see a pattern... the same happens with Sam Smith every time he releases something 

I get that it comes across as hate, but I just find it annoying that some of y’all FORCE us support him just bcs he is black/femme/queer.

idc about ANYBODY’S personal business, no matter straight/trans/gay/queer/….., REPRESENTATION is CRUCIAL, but so is ART. Im not going to blindly support or like sth just bcs the creator is queer. Especially if he’s about to “represent” us. 

it’s nothing special, unique, groundbreaking etc. Heck even his music is unlistenable? I get it’s rap to some of y’all, but I dont hear him spitting tbh, barely any bars. Just the same old CGI music videos with his monotone voice. 

same in Sam Smith’s case. Yes his voice is beautiful , but never been a fan I guess. The music is just not my vibe 

[A Very Gaga Holida 20,434]

7 hours ago, StrawberryBlond said:

how else has she ever shocked from a religious standpoint?

Not you forgetting Aura, her biggest blasphemy 

[Teletubby 134,117]

 

[TheSine 6,090]

Whelp...

[Bling 31,039]

On 1/14/2024 at 7:45 AM, Robo Ga said:

It’s not flopping because it’s blasphemy… it’s flopping bc it’s a tired ass copy of what he did before, and the song is ass. Lyrics are not clever or hard as they should be if you’re going to be essentially ripping a Kendrick beat.. he needed something FRESH and he did not deliver

 

On 1/14/2024 at 9:14 AM, ThisGuyTony said:

It’s not catchy. He doesn’t have a loyal fanbase. The MV is a CGI-mess. 

Not to mention that he had a lot riding on this because its the era immediately following his massively successful debut era, so the stakes were high. It's a tricky spot to be in because you need to put something out that enough of your existing fanbase can eat up, but also appeal to enough of the masses that you still get streams, etc.

And this, while visually appealing, just felt like an EP or deluxe track from Montero. 

Tl;dr: 

 

 

Edited January 21 by BlingNotTheMusic