Can We Get Much Higher?

Andy Warhol (officially the most unnecessarily quoted man in history) is renowned for saying that "In the future, everyone will be famous for 15 minutes". It's been repeated ad infinitum that we very much live in Warhol's world now. Big Brother, X Factor, a barren wasteland in the Top 40, the internet and plenty of other 21st century phenomenons have seen to it that anyone can get themselves into the public eye for a brief period of time; whether it be some crazy woman who throws a cat in a bin or some little Canadian ponce who somehow becomes a popstar by flicking his hair around on Youtube.

So in this fame hungry culture in which we live, it's hard to really, truly find a genuine superstar. The kind of person who can casually bathe in gold with winged leopards from Sweden, whilst eating pureed panda cub through a diamond straw. A true pop diva or don. Those who immediately spring to mind in the category - Whitney Houston et al - are aging dinosaurs, washed up and aging, struggling to survive in a new world. You've only got to watch footage of Whitney's recent performances to know that. You can perhaps quote a few others - Kylie Minogue, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera - but come on. They've never REALLY gone that final mile have they? They're arguably good, very good, at what they do. Album sales are irrelevant - they've never gone truly stratospheric with the whole thing, have they? They typify CELEBRITY as we know it in the 21st century, but they're not really superstars.

If you know me relatively well or read my posts often (hi if I don't know you personally and you read this regularly. Thanks for coming!) then, if asked about my musical tastes, you'd probably be very quick to say "indie stuff", or something similar. Not massively shy of the mark I'll grant you, which is why a lot of people are slightly thrown when I say that I'm a massive fan of Lady GaGa.



GaGa is one of those people who everyone has an opinion on; from music industry insiders to brainless Capital FM listeners. The woman (or girl - she's only 24. TWENTY-FOUR. Bloody hell) is one of the only true superstars active in the world and the music industry right now. In the middle of last year she was in what Neil Tennant of Pet Shop Boys called "the imperial phase", in reference to his own band (I got this from a brilliant article by Tom Ewing on Pitchfork, which you can read here) It's basically a period where she can do whatever the hell she likes and it will be gold. In the above article, Tom Ewing mentions that imperial phases inevitably end, but does cite that he thinks Pet Shop Boys went on for about their first 20 singles. GaGa has only had 8, and is only one album proper into her career.

I wrote a post (available here) nearly a year ago on why I fell in love with her eventually, how I was struck with a genuine revelation about what she does.

The Fame Monster was revealed as 2010's biggest selling album worldwide, shifting 5.8 million copies. And she's still touring on The Monster Ball your which started in NOVEMBER 2009 and doesn't end until MAY 2011!

Guys my point is that I am convinced Lady GaGa is going to own this year. Like she did last year and the year before. She is a true superstar, and the world is craving that right now. Via the Lady GaGa persona she creates an artistic distance between herself and the world that is incredibly scarce in our over-Tweeted, over-reported and over-indulged 21st century. I love indie and DIY music and I'm sure this year will be awesome for it, though it will have trouble beating 2010. But a true pop monster/behemoth/leviathan is going to get even bigger this year. Her next album, entitled Born This Way, will be released on May 23rd and the world is already abuzz. She's said it's going to be "the anthem for [her] generation for the next decade". Now, that's a big statement to make - even from a woman who can apparently shoot sparks from her nipples at will and turn herself inside out
. But I can't help but believe her.

Like I've said, I love indie music and stuff that's outside the mainstream, intentionally or not. But I adore putting my trust in the hands of a giant like Lady GaGa. 2010 was a stunning year for independent music, even if the charts went to hell. But I think 2011 will be the year for superstars. It will be almost hilarious seeing GaGa in the charts, clobbering all these crappy little pretenders like Katy Perry, Black Eyed Peas, Bruno Mars etc etc over the skull whilst mocking their whole pathetic, vacuous quest to be famous, no matter what the cost.

And I think there are some stunning lieutenants cantering towards us, ready to flank GaGa. Kanye West and Jay-Z are set to release a joint album entitled Watch the Throne in early March, with a single available on the 11th of January. It's hard to get bigger than that folks. Kanye is for one thing writing tunes that are more epic than Zeus playing the Star Wars theme in an epic electric guitar solo whilst being backed up by an orchestra featuring Darth Vader on the gong, Batman on the bassoon and Aslan on the triangle. As well as that, his album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is - aside from being one of the greatest albums of all time - also possibly the greatest meditation on what it's like to be a superstar in the history of music. Kanye is definitely a superstar, albeit in quite a different style to GaGa. This will be his year too. He hasn't even announced any live shows to promote the album yet. It's already massive, and it, almost unbelievably, can only get bigger. He says it himself, as do all of his friends, in his latest single: "I'm a motherf*cking monster".



People like GaGa and Kanye - born to be superstars (born this way, get it? Hur hur) only come about once or twice in their generation. I hope both of them continue to flood the music industry with their incredible presences for decades to come. But I think 2011 will be a gargantuan year for both of them. Onwards and upwards. If possible!