tag:theconversation.com,2011:/fr/topics/sia-11375/articlesSia – The Conversation2017-04-11T04:24:46Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/758522017-04-11T04:24:46Z2017-04-11T04:24:46Z30 years of Rage, and no signs of quietening<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/164762/original/image-20170411-31873-1kfct7m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The iconic Rage intro. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Screenshot from Youtube</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Music video program <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/rage/">Rage</a> made its debut on ABC TV 30 years ago this week, on Friday April 17 1987. At the time of its debut Rage was one of five similar music video programs on Australian TV including Video Hits and a local version of MTV. As the others slowly died, morphed or were replaced, Rage has continued with an unwavering commitment to giving Australian audiences access to the weird and wonderful world of music videos.</p>
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<p>One of my most enduring discoveries via Rage was You Am I’s “Berlin Chair” in 1994, at the time (and still) a low fidelity gem that despite the odds remains charming, exciting and just the right amount of strange. It also captures something particularly Australian in its grit. </p>
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<p>Importantly Rage has kept music, and music video art, as its focus. Unlike its competitors, Rage has never had a regular host. This has meant that audiences have a direct line of communication with musicians, exemplified by the “Rage guest programmer” segments where artists explain their influences and own fandom by selecting a playlist.</p>
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<h2>The Australian music scene</h2>
<p>Histories of music video television tend to be dominated by the early 1980s American story of MTV, however beyond the US there is a different story. In Australia, outlets such as Countdown had been exploring music video-like segments since the 1970s, so by the time Rage emerged in 1987, audiences were more than ready. </p>
<p>Rage’s influence on the Australian music scene is undeniable. The ritual of watching, listening, learning and exploring our culture through the program is one that fans across the country have done for decades at weird hours of the day and night. Rage is also often the first place that Australian artists are able to reach a national audience by submitting their videos. </p>
<p>And as John Safran proved in his 2002 music industry doco series Musical Jamboree, even an enthusiastic canine director can get a go if the conditions are right.</p>
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<p>Jokes aside, there is now a solid generation of Australian musicians who have developed their careers as strong music video artists as well as audio musicians. Adelaide-born and now Hollywood-entrenched Sia breaks records and norms by writing for a range of pop icons while <a href="http://www.billboard.com/articles/5770456/my-anti-fame-manifesto-by-sia-furler">holding back much of her identity</a> in performance. Her choice to hide her face initially baffled American listeners in particular, but her style has since drawn much praise.</p>
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<p>Before she took over America, she was featuring in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xXykStD-YA">her own videos</a> for over a decade in Australia, albeit still with a strong visual style that challenged US-centric ideas of female performance. </p>
<p>Similarly, triple Grammy award-winning Melbourne boy Gotye (aka Wally De Backer) gained attention by collaborating with amazing visual artists to bring his music to life. The video for Somebody That I Used To Know first debuted on Rage after the program had solidly supported his earlier work. The video’s success was fundamental to his gaining support beyond Australia, and <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/anthonykosner/2012/07/13/gotye-overload-spawns-hilarious-somebody-that-i-used-to-know-parodies/#7374d388ab93">parodies of the visuals</a> just added to the song, and the artist’s appeal.</p>
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<h2>Legacy and future</h2>
<p>While Rage goes to air outside traditional ratings time frames, the show is still an important part of the <a href="http://about.abc.net.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/ABCAnnualReport2016.pdf">ABC’s TV viewership and website traffic</a>. </p>
<p>In an industry that often seems obsessed with the newest and shiniest stars, Rage has also been a place for older music and histories. One of its most popular features, the annual <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/rage/archive/s3931485.htm">Rage goes Retro</a> season of classic Australian music television repeats, drew nerds and enthusiasts well before the internet. It was the only place where <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/archives/80days/stories/2012/01/19/3411575.htm">Countdown</a> had been replayed since the 1970s, and since then other ABC music icons like GTK and <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/rage/archive/s4515659.htm">Recovery</a> have also been added to the “Retro” mix.</p>
<p>These repeat sessions are also where the next generation of bright young things first learned about their legacies. The repeats, coupled with guest program segments that often favour classic clips and styles, remind us that today’s passion pop would be nothing without its 1950s and ‘60s precedents. Today’s soul queens like Adele couldn’t exist without the Arethas and Dustys; and today’s local indie folk and political anthems have their origins in country, indigenous crossovers and minority music.</p>
<p>While these nostalgia trips are what make headlines (and continue to fuel further spin offs like <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4158318/">Molly Meldrum specials</a>), on a weekly basis Rage’s core business is still the promotion of new music. Current Rage producer and programmer Tyson Koh told me that about 40 new videos are added to the program’s lineup each week, with a substantial proportion of these new Australian artists often at the very beginning of their careers. As well as getting broadcast on the show, these new finds are also featured on the Rage YouTube channel as part of the regularly-updated “Wild Ones” playlist.</p>
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<h2>Digital rage</h2>
<p>Rage still regularly appears as a notable outlet for TV viewers and subsequent website visits as part of the <a href="http://about.abc.net.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/ABCAnnualReport2016.pdf">ABC annual reporting process</a>.</p>
<p>The biggest possible threat to Rage’s future is the international music industry’s move towards algorithm-driven music selection. Streaming service Spotify has famously built a business model on this automated process, as while it is arguably becoming <a href="http://www.wired.co.uk/article/tastemakers-spotify-edward-newett">more and more nuanced</a>, the idea of a computer being able to predict a listener’s mood and taste remains somewhat suspect. </p>
<p>At the moment, Rage remains 100% driven by passionate music curators and programmers making editorial rather than business decisions. Their considerations include classification, genre and origins of the artists, as well as advertising (which all ABC programs need to strictly avoid).</p>
<p>This extends to product placement in the videos featured on Rage too. For instance, Koh described how the show’s team will, “Swap shots out if there’s just a hero shot of a product, or we’ll blur it.”</p>
<p>“But on a couple of occasions where the whole thing was basically an ad, we just elected not to play it.”</p>
<p>Importantly, there are questions of taste and that certain X-Factor (to use a commercial music cliché) that the show’s producers have honed over many decades and with a nuanced understanding of the Australian market. Surely there’s no amount of computer programming that can account for that.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/75852/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Liz Giuffre does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>ABC TV’s Rage has so far weathered the storm of digital disruption to remain an important, and nostalgic, part of Australia’s music industry.Liz Giuffre, Lecturer in Communication, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/587412016-05-05T19:50:45Z2016-05-05T19:50:45ZFriday essay: the quest for legacy – how pop music is embracing high art<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121344/original/image-20160505-19838-5y4f78.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Beyonce's baseball bat wielding spree in Lemonade, left, bears more than a passing resemblance to the work of Swiss video artist Pipilotti Rist.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Left, still from Lemonade (2016), right, still from Ever is Over All (1997) </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>From stadiums to galleries, the new frontier for today’s mega pop star is high art. Mass popularity has its charms – sales, world tours, legions of followers – but the legacy-conferring power of art is now the ultimate sign of one’s status within Western culture.</p>
<p>The rallying cry of “witness me, the artist” is the new mantra of pop royalty – from Beyoncé, Jay-Z and Lady Gaga to Kanye, and even Rihanna. Still, is this embrace of high art a phenomenon worth celebrating? Or, might it be seen more cynically, as a case of superstars using art to bestow credibility on their work in defiance of their own mass appeal?</p>
<p>Admittedly, there has never been a clear, dividing line between the pop and art world – and why should there be? Some of the most creative musicians in recent memory – David Bowie, Keith Richards, David Byrne, Brian Eno to name a few – began to study or pursued training in the visual arts. </p>
<p>In Australia, members of the 80’s band Mental as Anything met at art school in Sydney and Nick Cave studied painting before pursuing his music. More recently, Sia, the daughter of Adelaide artist and art lecturer, Leone Furler, has become recognisable for the giant wigs that cover her face, her remarkable voice and her artful music videos featuring various dance collaborations. </p>
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<p>Nor can we overlook the phenomenon of art rock that emerged in the sixties. Some of the most remarkable turning points in music history have been credited to the artistic turn in the work of The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds (1966), The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967), and The Velvet Underground & Nico’s eponymous (1967) album under the influence of Andy Warhol’s New York Factory scene.</p>
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<p>While the emergence of the concept album took hold in the 70s, the pioneers of the music video age – Madonna, Michael Jackson and even Prince – understood the visual possibilities of the pop song better than many of their contemporaries. Their work endures for its blend of powerful music and evocative storytelling through videos such as Like a Prayer, Thriller, and When Doves Cry.</p>
<p>But today, the story is different. A song, mostly, is not enough. This is not to say that image is everything, but rather that one’s stake in the pop world depends on musical and visual novelty. For today’s pop leaders, this increasingly means sidestepping the boardrooms of marketing professionals in search of the artistic underground.</p>
<h2>Making art out of Lemonade</h2>
<p>Beyoncé’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/beyonces-lemonade-tell-all-or-fizzy-soap-operatic-art-object-58513">high-concept visual album Lemonade</a>, for instance, takes listeners on a bold new form of musical storytelling in the style of Prince’s Purple Rain (1984), Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker (1988) or, perhaps more recently Kanye West’s 35 minute film Runaway (2010) and Lana Del Rey’s Tropico (2013).</p>
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<p>For years, Beyoncé has been consciously attempting to shed herself of her Destiny’s Child/Top 40 persona. Lemonade accomplishes that. Equal parts high-art and high-profile, it tackles the personal and the political, solitude and sisterhood and the emotional wounds of infidelity against the backdrop of race in America today.</p>
<p>A tapestry of song, visuals and locales, Beyoncé plays the survivor, a women-in-healing, trying to come to terms with the emotional aftermath of a love gone wrong. With cinematic grandeur, the album swims in evocative visuals of nature’s mysterious powers (which have drawn <a href="http://blogs.indiewire.com/criticwire/a-lot-of-people-are-comparing-beyonces-lemonade-to-terrence-malick-20160425">comparisons to the work of Terrence Malick</a>), and spoken word narratives, including <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/04/27/entertainment/warsan-shire-beyonce-lemonade/index.html">the poetry of London-based, Kenya-born Somali writer Warsan Shire</a>.</p>
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<p>References to high art abound. Beyoncé infamous <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-3555858/Beyonce-smashes-car-baseball-bat-debuts-new-music-Lemonade-visual-album.html">baseball bat wielding sequence</a> in the song Hold Up pays homage to the work of Swiss artist <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a56RPZ_cbdc">Pipilotti Rist, whose 1997 video installation Ever is Over All</a> featured a woman walking down a street smashing car windows. Some have accused Beyoncé
of appropriation rather than <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/music/beyonce-accused-of-stealing-swiss-artists-work-for-fiery-hold-up-video-clip-20160503-gokwvq.html">homage</a>. </p>
<p>Last year, such concerns were expressed about Drake’s video for <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2015/10/22/drake_s_hotline_bling_video_resembles_james_turrell_s_light_installations.html">Hotline Bling</a> which was strikingly similar to the light installation pieces of American artist, James Turell.</p>
<p>Beyoncé also collaborated with <a href="http://www.okayafrica.com/news/beyonce-lemonade-laolu-senbanjo-sacred-art-of-the-ori/">Nigerian visual artist Laolu Senbanjo, whose sacred body painting</a> features in the film.</p>
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<span class="caption">Beyonce on the cover of Garage Magazine.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Garage</span></span>
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<p>Observant Instagram followers of Queen Bey, meanwhile, will have noticed signs earlier this year of her increasing contact with the high art world. In collaboration with Swiss-born, New York-based Urs Fischer and Garage magazine (<a href="http://garagemag.com/beyonce-interview/">Spring/Summer 2016 edition</a>), Beyoncé offered her thoughts on art via the magazine’s app. On its cover, she was photographed with cornrows, amidst a thick swirl of pastels painted by Fischer. In the interview, she discussed Andy Warhol and her interest in modern art, name-dropping some of her favourite artists (Tracey Emin, Kara Walker, Aaron Young and Donald Judd).</p>
<p>What’s interesting about this new period of Beyoncé’s work is that she has reinvented herself as the Benjamin Button of the pop world – apparently becoming younger, less bourgeois and more defiant with age.</p>
<p>While most have certainly embraced her newly, empowered voice, other fans, however, wonder if the less complicated, <a href="http://www.gigwise.com/blogs/106621/beyonce-new-album-lemonade-review-no-hit-song-rihanna-kanye-west">radio-friendly Beyoncé</a> will ever return.</p>
<h2>Yellow Basquiat in my kitchen corner</h2>
<p>In his own plea for artistic cred on his 2013 album, Magna Carta, Holy Grail, Beyoncé’s husband Jay Z’s hyper-capitalist dreams come to the fore. In the song Picasso Baby, Jay name-drops icons of the art world (Rothko, Bacon, Basquiat etc).</p>
<p>In homage to the reigning queen of performance art herself, Marina Abramovic, Jay adapted her (2010) MoMA installation, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/31/arts/design/31diva.html">The Artist is Present</a> – in which she sat six days a week, seven hours a day in a chair for a “silent opera”.</p>
<p>Jay did a <a href="http://pitchfork.com/news/51474-jay-z-performing-picasso-baby-for-six-straight-hours-today-apparently/">six-hour performance</a> of his Picasso Baby at at Pace Gallery in NYC. In the video of this, directed by Mark Romanek (who also did his “99 Problems” video and is one of the directors of Beyoncé’s Lemonade), Jay raps to a room full of carefully selected artistic and cultural leaders ranging from actor/director Judd Apatow to filmmaker Jim Jarmusch to artist Andreas Serrano to Abramovic herself.</p>
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<p>Both Jay-Z and Abramovic were on good terms, until in <a href="http://www.spikeartmagazine.com/en/articles/i-will-never-do-it-again">an interview with Spike magazine,</a> she accused Jay of not meeting his end of the business deal – namely, a sizable donation to her new Marina Abramovic institute of performance art in upstate New York. The mutually-contrived deal turned into <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/may/20/jay-z-substantial-donation-maria-abramovic">an awkward PR debacle for both camps</a>. (Jay-Z’s people later confirmed that a donation had, in fact, been made and Abramovic apologized for the oversight.)</p>
<p>What’s unique (but slightly predictable) about Jay’s celebration of the art world is how he fantasies about it. Picasso Baby is less homage to great art for art’s sake, more reverence of the reckless spoils of the “good” life. Art is worshipped as a sign of cultural power and extreme wealth:</p>
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<p>Yellow Basquiat in my kitchen corner <br>
Go ahead lean on that shit Blue, you own it.</p>
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<span class="caption">Jay-Z is a noted collector of street artist Jean Michel Basquiat.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Boy and Dog in a Johnnypump, 1982</span></span>
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<p>While some might argue that Picasso Baby is a “gateway hit” that opens younger fans up to the history of art, ultimately, the song never really embraces it as anything other than “art consumed by consumerism,” as one NPR commenter suggested.</p>
<p>We are not far away here from 19th century British cultural critic Matthew Arnold’s observations about the elitism of high culture. It is valued, he wrote, out of,</p>
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<p>sheer vanity or else as an engine of social or class distinction separating its holder like a badge or title, from other people who have not got it.</p>
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<h2>From Queen Bey to Rhi Rhi</h2>
<p>Recently, Barbadian bad-girl Rihanna has also thrown herself into the art game. On her latest effort, Anti (2016), the art partnerships are numerous: Israeli-born artist <a href="http://www.roynachum.com/">Roy Nachum </a>and poet <a href="http://www.etonline.com/news/173552_rihanna_unveils_groundbreaking_new_album_art_featuring_childhood_photo_is_it_called_anti/">Chloe Mitchell</a> worked on the liner notes, and there were enough producers and writers to staff their own soccer team.</p>
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<span class="caption">Album art for Anti (2016).</span>
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<p>The lead single, Work, was highly anticipated and ultimately a head scratcher. Her canoodling with Drake in the song’s video was predictably sexy but missed the feverish mystery suggested by the very powerful Antigone/Oedipal hallucination of <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/rihanna-cover-artist-on-how-he-crafted-groundbreaking-anti-imagery-20151020">the cover art</a>. (On the album, a young Rihanna – eyes covered by a crown too big for her head – holds a balloon and is smothered by a blood red stain that she cannot see).</p>
<p>With songs like Woo and Work there’s a blatant disconnect between the music and imagery. Arguably, Rhianna appears to be swimming in artistic waters well over her head and not satisfying her <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/music/what-to-listen-to/rihanna-anti-album-review-rihanna-without-the-hits/">Top 40 fan base either</a>.</p>
<p>Still, the recently released video for Needed Me, (directed by indie art renegade <a href="http://www.gagosian.com/artists/harmony-korine">Harmony Korine</a>) has a <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2101441/">Springbreakers</a> meets <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086250/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Scarface</a> meets Viceland in Miami documentary feel to it, making Korine the perfect accomplice to Rihanna’s nihilistic turn. With a simple, yet devilishly dark storyline, Rihanna plays the elegant, savage murderess, taking care of business the only way she knows how.</p>
<h2>Pablo does Picasso</h2>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121334/original/image-20160505-19779-51no1n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121334/original/image-20160505-19779-51no1n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121334/original/image-20160505-19779-51no1n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121334/original/image-20160505-19779-51no1n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121334/original/image-20160505-19779-51no1n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121334/original/image-20160505-19779-51no1n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121334/original/image-20160505-19779-51no1n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121334/original/image-20160505-19779-51no1n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Kanye West dances during his the presentation of his fashion collection during the 2016 New York Fashion Week, which was also a listening party for his ‘The Life of Pablo’ album.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">REUTERS/Andrew Kelly</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Then there’s Kanye. The insufferable “think” pieces on his latest album, The Life of Pablo (2016), the Twitter meltdowns and ego-mania have reached peak decibel level, but it should be noted that as a former art school student, Kanye embodies the “child-like curiosity” that German philosopher Frederick Nietzsche discusses so fondly in many of <a href="https://philosophynow.org/issues/94/The_Twin_Souls_of_Oscar_Wilde_and_Friedrich_Nietzsche">his aphorisms on art and creation</a>. </p>
<p>In interviews, it would appear that he can’t get his dreams on paper – or into the factory – fast enough. He has also suggested that the paintings of Picasso, Matisse have inspired his work. In a 2013 interview <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/16/arts/music/kanye-west-talks-about-his-career-and-album-yeezus.html">Behind Kanye’s Mask</a> with The New York Times, discussing his recent love for the history of architecture, he refers to himself as “a minimalist in a rapper’s body.”</p>
<p>West’s art idols are a unique blend of European and American artists/innovators (Walt Disney, Steve Jobs, George Condo, Pablo Picasso, Marco Brambilla, Vanessa Beecroft, just to name a few – and let’s not forget his collaboration with Japanese artist Takashi Murakami during his Graduation period either).</p>
<p>For a recent collaboration with filmmaker Steve McQueen, West opened up about <a href="http://www.artnews.com/2015/07/27/kanye-west-would-trade-his-grammys-to-be-in-an-art-context-the-rapper-discusses-his-new-steve-mcqueen-directed-video-at-lacma/">having his work seen primarily as art</a>, adding:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I would trade all my Grammys – or, maybe, two Grammys – to be able to be in an art context.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>For his new album, he collaborated with relatively unknown <a href="http://www.thefader.com/2016/02/11/who-is-peter-de-potter-the-artist-behind-kanye-wests-new-album-cover">Belgian artist Peter de Potter</a> for the cover art. West’s artistic influences, fashion tastes (Givenchy, Balmain, Raf Simons) and interests in design, (The UK’s Daily Mail <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-3482281/Kanye-West-visiting-Ikea-base-Sweden.html">caught him returning from a meeting with IKEA in Sweden earlier this month</a>), suggest an explorer’s spirit and a sense of genuine creative experimentation.</p>
<p>Vanessa Beecroft, one of West’s collaborators for his recent fashion/performance pieces, (the Adidas Yeezus fashion shows, the Yeezus tours, and some Art Basel projects) has spoken positively of the <a href="http://www.highsnobiety.com/2016/03/16/vanessa-beecroft-working-with-kanye-west/">artistic freedom he allows on their projects</a>. Indeed American fashion has been revitalised by his street style alone. Consider the <a href="http://ca.complex.com/sneakers/2016/03/adidas-yeezy-boost-march-line-up">week-long lineup</a> outside any store releasing new editions of his Adidas Yeezus shoes.</p>
<p>West’s tireless quest for artistic perfection and new forms of visual expression is a welcome wake-up call to the increasingly blasé world of both high art and mainstream rap. Even if he raps about anal bleaching and “fame-thirsty” New York models, his obsession with garnering high-art legitimacy has generated some of the most interesting fusions of art, fashion and music in recent years.</p>
<h2>When Koons met Gaga met Botticelli</h2>
<p>Of course it would be impossible to discuss recent pop/high art collaborations without mentioning Lady Gaga’s undervalued 2013 release ARTPOP. The album’s cover art featured a prominent collaboration with Jeff Koons, with fractured pieces of Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus (1484-6) spliced into the background.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121337/original/image-20160505-19747-1biq2ee.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121337/original/image-20160505-19747-1biq2ee.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121337/original/image-20160505-19747-1biq2ee.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121337/original/image-20160505-19747-1biq2ee.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121337/original/image-20160505-19747-1biq2ee.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121337/original/image-20160505-19747-1biq2ee.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121337/original/image-20160505-19747-1biq2ee.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121337/original/image-20160505-19747-1biq2ee.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Album art for ARTPOP (2013).</span>
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<p>In interviews, Gaga appears to be highly articulate on the subject of artistic processes and influences.</p>
<p>She cites Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet as a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/understanding-lady-gaga/2011/02/14/AByv3jH_story.html">major source of artistic inspiration</a> and has a quote of his about the necessity of making art tattooed on her upper left forearm. With ARTPOP, her intention was to <a href="http://pitchfork.com/thepitch/132-lady-gagas-artrave-the-beginning-of-the-end-of-the-extravagant-album-launch/">bridge the world of pop and art</a> in ways that mass culture has never seen before.</p>
<p>Her powerful and unique songs, such as Artpop and Venus realised the goal. However, sales were lacklustre. Critics questioned whether her <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/11/11/artpop-review-lady-gaga-s-album-wants-to-be-everything-but-is-nothing-at-all.html">“art game” was as strong as her marketing prowess</a>, with some all-too-literal songs such as “Donatella” and “Fashion”.</p>
<h2>Legacy building</h2>
<p>Artistic legacy is clearly pop’s new watchword. Still, today’s pop stars might want to pay heed to Aristotle, whose observations about the process of artistic creation still ring true. “The aim of art,” he wrote, “is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance”.</p>
<p>History teaches us that many artistic experiments flourish and fade. The true artists of our day (regardless of the medium) create works that connect with the complexities of the human soul in ways that crass materialism and persona-mongering cannot. </p>
<p>No amount of artistic referencing or posturing will take the place of original, inspired and soul-searching work.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/58741/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Blair McDonald does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>From Beyoncé and Lady Gaga to Kanye and even Rihanna, pop royalty is crazy for high art. Is this a phenomenon worth celebrating or are pop stars mining the art world to gain credibility?Blair McDonald, Lecturer in Journalism, Communications and New Media, Thompson Rivers UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/288622014-07-07T20:09:19Z2014-07-07T20:09:19ZSia may be the face of music’s future<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/53161/original/cjjykxxb-1404715046.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Sia refuses to use her body to sell her music. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Laurence Barnes</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Australian singer-songwriter <a href="http://siamusic.net/">Sia</a>’s new album <a href="http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/pop-shop/6084942/sia-1000-forms-of-fear-release-date-track-list-chandelier">1000 Forms of Fear</a> has been released internationally today, accompanied by a deluge of media reporting her story: she’s one of a handful of the most successful songwriters in the world, an artist in her own right, and doesn’t want to be famous. </p>
<p>She’s written hit songs for Beyoncé, Rihanna, Britney Spears, and Kylie Minogue. People want her songs because they know they will be hits, in part because Sia’s songwriting craft is infused with intimate knowledge gained from her own incredible singing voice. The clip for her current single Chandelier has been viewed over 51 million times on Youtube. </p>
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<p>In a sexist industry driven by image and obsessed with youth this is an incredible feat for a 38-year old woman from Adelaide who <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/20/magazine/sia-furler-the-socially-phobic-pop-star.html?_r=0">now refuses to show her face</a>.</p>
<p>In recent performances including on the Ellen DeGeneres Show and Jimmy Kimmel Live! Sia sang with her back to the audiences. When the Australasian Performing Rights Association (APRA) honoured her with songwriter of the year award in June <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/music/sia-makes-quirky-apra-acceptance-speech-20140624-zskcb.html">she accepted</a> via a male stand-in dressed in her signature blonde wig. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Sia on Jimmy Kimmel’s show.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The cover of her new album features only its title and the image of a blonde bob wig floating in blackness.</p>
<p>Sia has been making music since her teens, and released her first album in 1997. She had some success, including with Breathe Me, a song featured on the television series Six Feet Under, but her most significant success has come through writing hit songs for some of the biggest names in popular music. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/53157/original/w5k496fh-1404714548.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/53157/original/w5k496fh-1404714548.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/53157/original/w5k496fh-1404714548.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/53157/original/w5k496fh-1404714548.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/53157/original/w5k496fh-1404714548.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/53157/original/w5k496fh-1404714548.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/53157/original/w5k496fh-1404714548.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/53157/original/w5k496fh-1404714548.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The album cover for 1000 Forms of Fear.</span>
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<p>The money she has earned and the reputation she has established have given her the clout to get a unique record deal with RCA that does not require her to tour or do promotional press. </p>
<p>In an “<a href="http://www.billboard.com/articles/5770456/my-anti-fame-manifesto-by-sia-furler">anti-fame manifesto</a>” published in 2013, Sia wrote that the collective public response to fame creates a creature that is “sharp-tongued and lying in wait for my self-esteem”. </p>
<p>And, having experienced this beast by proxy through the famous people she’s worked with, she seeks to avoid it. This evasion protects her personhood, private life, and mental health: Sia has spoken publicly of her struggles with addiction and mental illness.</p>
<p>Discussions generated by Sia’s choices have focused on issues around fame and celebrity. But gender is also at stake in Sia’s strategy. By performing without showing her face and absenting her image from publicity, Sia forces viewers to listen to her voice rather than focus on her appearance. </p>
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<p>In this way, she turns around the history of women in music. Sia fits into a trajectory of female singer-songwriters beginning with Laura Nyro, Joni Mitchell, Carole King and Carly Simon whose music, since the late 1960s, has explored personal themes in a confessional mode. </p>
<p>Yet these women <a href="http://jah.oxfordjournals.org/content/97/3/682.short">struggled with a music industry</a> that had no idea how to market them without sexualising them or somehow highlighting their femaleness. </p>
<p>Since the 1980s, some women in music have sought to combat this phenomenon by owning it. In that decade, through popularising music videos, MTV made image central to music and its marketing. Madonna capitalised on this by using music videos as a forum to explore her sexuality and create publicity through sexual controversy, a trend that continues with artists such as Lady Gaga. </p>
<p>Madonna also made clear that <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1540-5931.2006.00204.x/abstract">the female body was not simply an object</a> for male consumption but a site where women themselves could explore their sexual desires and gendered identities. </p>
<p>In the 1990s, Riot Grrrls and Courtney Love played with non-traditional performances of femininity and sexuality, using what scholar Karina Eileraas has <a href="https://www.google.com.au/?gws_rd=cr&ei=cVdbUsPfCcaVkgXD0IGwCQ">described</a> as “ugliness as resistance,” to comment on issues including beauty standards, the objectification of and violence against women, patriarchy and compulsory heterosexuality. </p>
<p>But despite their challenges to the status quo and claims to agency, women who use their bodies as part of their musical performance still navigate a treacherous line between personal power and a wider system that continues to exploit, objectify, and cruelly judge women.</p>
<p>In this context, Sia’s refusal to show her face or use her body to sell her music is potentially revolutionary. By disappearing her own image and symbolising herself through a wig that is easily replicated and switched between various users, she refuses norms of female beauty, plays with gender, and draws attention to identity as a performance. </p>
<p>Sia’s strategy defies the obsession with appearance and youth, especially for women, and especially for women over the age of 30. Interestingly, as the result, she’s received an extraordinary amount of international attention, likely more than if she’d bared everything. </p>
<p>For women in music and the role of image in music more broadly, is Sia’s the face of the future?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/28862/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rebecca Sheehan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Australian singer-songwriter Sia’s new album 1000 Forms of Fear has been released internationally today, accompanied by a deluge of media reporting her story: she’s one of a handful of the most successful…Rebecca Sheehan, Lecturer in US History, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.