Response: Gaga the Fame Monster: Monsters and Christianity in PC

This is a post in response to:
http://ekhoy.blogspot.com/2011/03/gaga-fame-monster-monsters-and.html


Lady Gaga's New Breed of Monsters


As discussed in class, the problematic most often used in popular culture is that monsters are beings that can’t understand themselves as not being forgiven, so they one thing they desire most is redemption. I believe there is a new breed of monsters being born in popular culture today, thanks to Lady Gaga.

Lady Gaga has become notorious for her outrageous outfits (see pictures below) and when asked about her fashion, she said that she is expressing herself in a way that she was unable to do in high school. She has also become widely known as an advocate for LGBT rights. With the release of her newest single “Born This Way”, Lady Gaga made a very positive and bold statement to her fans: that it’s okay to be who you are and we are all born this way. The music video for this song begins with the Manifesto of Mother Monster, the prologue, where Gaga talks about a new race, born without prejudices and concludes with the view of a city populated by this race.

Lady Gaga’s theme of monsters has been apparent since the release of her third EP in 2009, called The Fame Monster. She has also referred to herself as Mother Monster on several occasions and she affectionately refers to her fans as “Little Monsters”. These fans came to her “Monster Ball Tour” concerts often dressed in unique Lady Gaga-inspired outfits.

In class, it was mentioned that the word “monsters” derives from the Latin “monstrum” or “moneo/monstrare” and demonstrates, shows, or reveals something to us. What are Lady Gaga’s monsters showing us? I believe Gaga and her “Little Monsters” are showing us a reflection of the true selves we often wish we were courageous enough to be. Unlike vampires, werewolves, and other monsters prominent in popular culture, Lady Gaga’s new breed of monsters are not yearning for redemption. Instead, all they are yearning for is to be themselves. In my interpretation of Gaga’s affectionate view, monsters are more human than humans. Monsters are honest representations of ourselves and humans are drone-like beings filled with hatred. Being a monster is encouraged in this sense so that we can strive to and be comfortable with who we truly are.

We have been exposed to monsters that represent fear and falling from grace. We have also seen monsters that show us at our best. We are now being exposed to a new sense of monsters that show us our true selves.

The Complexity of Violence

In my opinion, the two definitions of violence brought forward in class were both unsatisfying. The maximal definition only looked at the brutish, harsh view of violence and the minimal definition did not consider implied and discursive violence. This just speaks to the complexity of violence and the difficulty in accurately defining what violence truly is.  

We often talk about violence in sport and whether it can be justified. As mentioned in class and as discussed in Tracy Trothen’s (2009) article on violence in Canadian hockey, the ubiquity of violence in sport has resulted in its normalization. There is a tendency for people to think of violence in binary terms such as right or wrong. When discussing violence and sport, the focus is primarily on the perpetrator and the victim. For example, the recent widely discussed hospitalization of Max Pacioretty (the victim) after experiencing a violent hit from Zdeno Chara (the perpetrator) focused entirely on whether Chara should be suspended and how violence in hockey can affect youth. Rather than looking at violence under binary terms, I believe the theory of violence on a continuum (Falk, 2002) more accurately takes into account its intricacies. Violence can be seen as utility, risk management, and significant.

While continuing with the topic of violence in sport, I want to focus on the individual athlete and the violence they inflict on their bodies. Physically, athletes prepare for competition by working out at the gym and practicing technical skills. This physical preparation is an example of violence individuals willingly carry out on themselves. The underlying theory of exercise is the principle of overload – when an individual applies a greater than normal stress load on their bodies, training adaptation takes place and the body is stronger as a result. This type of violence can lie anywhere on the continuum of violence as utility (since the body is being made stronger for a useful purpose) and also as risk management (preventing physical injuries). The violence athletes inflict on themselves also have great significance to audiences. People who do not put themselves through physical training understand the importance of preparing the body for competition and see the importance for conditioning in sport.

Seeing violence under a continuum of utility, risk management, and significance not only takes into account the audience, but also understands the construct as more than just a binary. Defining violence is a difficult task since it is such a complex and our understanding of violence is constantly changing.

Response: Athletes and the Fall from Grace

This is in response to Leah's post 'Athletes and the Fall from Grace
http://popculturedisciple.blogspot.com/2011/03/athletes-and-fall-from-grace.html

Great post! I agree with you in that the worshipping of sports figures as “gods” can lead to the undesirable fall from grace. Athletes are humans too. Olympic athletes are people who live next to you. . . or sit next to you in class. Although there is the possibility that these people may make mistakes and these errors in judgment will likely be made public, I don’t think idolizing sports figures is such a bad thing. They represent very important values – hard work, determination, persistence and the list goes on. In the overwhelmingly obese North America that we live in today, I believe these athletes can also help promote healthy, active lifestyles.

In response to your original post, Marica (above) suggested that athletes who take performance enhancing drugs may do so to fulfill the image that fans place upon them. I would have to disagree with this. I don’t think athletes engage in banned practices to enhance performance to meet the expectations of fans; I believe they do so for their own selfishness and greed. If an athlete claimed to take banned substances or engage in illegal performance-enhancing practices as a result of their fans’ expectations, I would have to say it is more likely that it is the result of an athlete’s in own skewed perceptions of fan expectations. Expectations from fans are inevitable. If a person is competing in professional leagues, as unfortunate as it may be, they have become mere commodities that can be traded or sold.

This discussion of athletes as role models reminds me of last week’s talk about musicians as role models. If I were to compare both groups, I would have to say that on average, athletes are more positive role models for the general public than most pop stars or rap artists. What both groups have in common is that they all chose to be in the professions they are in. They worked hard for their dreams knowing full-well that they would be public figures. If they are willing to remain in their professions, they must all accept the fact that the public viewing them as role models is unavoidable. By accepting this, they should act accordingly based on what kind of person they would like to be perceived as. Too often, the mistakes people make are justified under the notion that “they are human and all humans make mistakes.” Yes, they are human. But no, they must understand that as professional athletes, should they make mistakes, the world will know about it.

Athletes as God and God Helping Athletes

There are many ways in which sports and Christianity overlap. The two share a dynamic and complex relationship. Two situations in which individual athletes interact with Christianity, which I find are both equally interesting and important, are: athletes are supreme god-like beings and God’s role on the playing field.

Athletes as Supreme, God-Like Beings

LeBron James, also a known as “King James”, has been portrayed as a god-like athlete. He is worshipped, idolized, and has a strong legion of “believers”. The slogan “we are all witnesses” was first introduced by Nike in November 2005. In June 2007, this particular advertisement (photo) was released as an “integrated marketing campaign” to celebrate James’ first appearance at the NBA finals. What, exactly, were “we” witnessing?

 

The world was witnessing LeBron James’ apparent “greatness, power, athleticism, and beautiful style of play”. I, personally, don’t follow the NBA, nor do I know very much about LeBron James but this advertisement and this marketing campaign is all too blatantly similar to Jesus or the second coming of the Christ. His outstretched arms below a sea of black nothingness, the melodramatic effect of the black-and-white design, and the Biblical slogan are almost too much for one to handle. The image may be too small to make out the small print at the bottom-left corner, but it says: “believe at nikebasketball.com”. As Leah mentioned in her post (Athletes and the Fall from Grace), viewing athletes as more than just a standard of good role models will almost always leave fans disappointed. In my response, I agreed what she said, however, I also said that athletes should understand that as a result of their membership in professional leagues, they should be prepared to be seen as role models to the public. This portrayal of LeBron James as almost the second coming of Christ is over-the-top and offensive.

God’s Role on the Playing Field

Similarly to celebrities thanking God at award shows, athletes often thank God for their success during games or competitions. Many athletes attribute their wins to the “power of God” and claim God played an important role in helping them succeed. How often have we seen basketball players pointing to the heavens after scoring a basket? We have also witnessed Olympic athletes dropping to their knees in prayer after winning gold medals. Did God really help them win? If so, did God want them to win over their opponents? While I’m sure most of us can think of several times we have seen or heard athletes thanking God after wins, how often do we hear athletes blaming God on losses? I have only come across this one time. Last year, Buffalo Bills player Steve Johnson took to twitter to blame God after dropping the game-winning pass in his team’s overtime loss. "I PRAISE YOU 24/7!!!!!! AND THIS HOW YOU DO ME!!!!! YOU EXPECT ME TO LEARN FROM THIS??? HOW???!!! ILL NEVER FORGET THIS!! EVER!!! THX THO..." I do believe that spirituality can impact the holistic health of a person and can ultimately affect performance in sport. However, I am skeptical to think that God would personally have a hand in helping a certain athlete or team win over another.

Athletes as God-like figures and God’s role on the playing field are only two examples of how athletes and Christianity overlap. This speaks to the complexity and dynamic relationship between sports and religion.

Integrational Christian Bands - The Misfits

In Brian Schill's (2007) article, he outlined Howard and Streck's topology of Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) that divided Christian rock bands into three groups: separational, transformational, and integrational.

Having grown up going to church my whole life (until university), I am familiar with quite a few separational bands. On the other end of the spectrum, I can't name any transformational bands, other than the one discussed in class - U2. Obviously, the one group of Christian rock bands that I am (and probably most of us are) most familiar with is integrational rock bands.

“Integrational bands, while not explicitly evangelical rhetorically or behaviourally, give listeners all the sounds and style of today’s most popular rock and roll but offer symbols, lyrics, and lifestyles that remain consistent with Christian values.”

From Schill’s definition of integrational bands, it seems to me as though there is an enormous range of artists that can fit into this category - all the way from Switchfoot, to Relient K to Carrie Underwood. This definition is so vague that even Kanye West could be considered an integrational artist!

For 8 years, I played drums as part of the worship team at church. We always sang songs written by separational bands such as Hillsong or Chris Tomlin. Although they were good songs and added a lot to Sunday service, they were redundant and seemed irrelevant to many people. One Friday evening, our church had a “seeker sensitive” service where members of the church were encouraged to bring non-Christian friends. The worship team leader saw this opportunity and thought it would be appropriate to integrate popular music with Christian themes, such as “Dare You To Move” by Switchfoot and “Hanging By A Moment” by Lifehouse. I was horrified, and so was the rest of the church.

Ironically, this sort of music (although Christian) just seemed as though it was something that didn’t belong in church. In the song “Dare You To Move”, the lyrics are almost a call to worship. . . however, when singing it in church, not one person in the service dared to move. When singing “Hanging By A Moment”, I swear I heard crickets in the distance. Not one person responded to these songs because they were “too secular” for church.

I find it interesting that Switchfoot is more successful after having returned to the label of Gospel music. It was almost as though their music was “too Christian” for popular culture.
Other than bands who have publicly stated that their music is not at all related to their religious beliefs such as Paramore and Evanescence as well as country music artists, it seems as though integrational bands are the odd-balls in the music industry. They don’t seem to fit in mainstream culture and they don’t seem to be appreciated in the church.

Response to: Faith + 1

I was planning on making this an original post but after reading ‘Faith + 1’, I decided to post it as a response to Josh!

This weekend, I was driving in my car listening to some of my favourite albums – nothing out of the ordinary. But thanks to SMC305, I had another ‘AHA’ moment about Christianity and Popular Culture.

The first album I was listening to was one of my all-time favourites – The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. Although I have listened to this CD dozens of times, it wasn’t until this weekend that I delved deeper than the rhyming lyrics and smooth melodies. The first song that caught my attention was “To Zion”, a song written to her first son. The lyrics of this song reflect the story of Mary and Jesus and it is not difficult to relate the words to the Bible. She describes how an angel came to her and proclaimed she would be having a baby.



However, it wasn’t until the song “Forgive Them Father” that I realized just how deeply rooted in Christianity Lauryn Hill’s lyrics were. In this song, she uses text from The Lord’s Prayer to ask forgiveness for the state of the world. It was just surprising to me that after years of listening to this album, I had never been aware of how “Christian” her lyrics really were.



The ‘AHA’ moment didn’t come until I switched over to Leona Lewis, a pop singer from the UK, most famous for winning The X Factor and hit singles “Bleeding Love” and “Better in Time”. The song “Footprints in the Sand” is a musical interpretation of the popular Christian poem. Again, my ears were opened to the deeply Christian lyrics of her song, which sounds just like any other secular ballad on her CD.



It was just amazing to me that after a few years of listening to both these albums, I never truly listened to the lyrics and understood the meaning behind them until now. What’s more is that both artists had songs so deeply rooted in Christianity between songs that have been so successful on secular charts such as Billboard. It seems as though Christian artists are everywhere. Their singles may not always be their songs with Christian themes (Leona Lewis’ Footprints in the Sand was #2 in the UK) but those songs are still making it to these popular artists’ albums! There are other popular bands such as Lifehouse, Paramore, and Evanescence that have claimed to be Christian in interviews. Although many of these bands have decided to keep their music separate from their faith, it is obvious many of their lyrics still reflect Christianity. I think Christian bands are all around us, we just don’t know it!

Oh, Bieber!

I had been so annoyed with 'the Biebs' appearing in all the things I love - the Ellen Degeneres Show, Chelsea Lately, and especially GLEE.
...And today, he made his way into lecture!

No more Bieber, please. It's too much hair flipping for one to handle.