This is my first ever blog. Sure I had an Angelfire webpage as a teen in the mid-90s, like everyone else did, but that wasn't really a blog. More of an advertisement for oneself. While in theory this has all become more user friendly, I find using this site a lot more difficult than coding that Angelfire page all those years ago.
Like self-promotion on the internet, the popular culture has really changed. Currently in North America (at least) Christ, christianity and the morals attached are more dominant than they ever have been, in my lifetime. Christian groups are louder and wield more power, and they seem to factor in more heavily in governmental decisions. One need only look to the struggle for gay marriage in America. Not surprisingly this increased presence is very obviously reflected in the artefacts of popular culture, such as all three of the music videos we have seen to date in class.
One in particular, Bad Romance, illustrates my point very well.
In class I mentioned, briefly and poorly, the overt gay theme in this video. Anyone who knows anything about Gaga knows that she fancies herself the new female pop icon for the gay community, and she really is (at least one of the main icons, anyway). The video is full of shout-outs to the gays; it takes place in "Gaga's bathhouse", the dancers all look like drag queens (also less relevant, but they are amazing and worth mentioning: the Alexander McQueen "horse shoes"). The song itself does as well, with lyrics stating that the "bad romance" is both criminal and associated to disease. But this video and song are also very christian, for all the reasons we covered so thoroughly in class.
But the gay icons didn't always come with Christ attached.
When I was a child in the 80s my uncle gave me his copy of She's So Unusual and I used to spend hours in my basement, playing it until it wouldn't play anymore. In so far as I have ever noticed, my generation's gay icon (Cyndi Lauper), was never very christian. Her videos and music never contained the blatant christianity that does Gaga's. I think 80s pop culture was more focused around cocaine, shoulder pads and new wave.
That's not so say that christianity didn't appear at all in popular culture. Watch Like a Prayer. Black criminal Jesus? Sex in a church? The early 90s were the same; look at the original version of Hurt, or Soundgarden's Jesus Christ Pose.
I think that somewhere in the late 90s God made a huge comeback, at least in North American culture. So it's not surprising that popular culture flipped from having an absence or criticism to a more prominent promotion of christianity.
As such this course has never been more relevant, as the link between the two is stronger than it's been in a very long time.
But what does this flip mean? I think that the two (popular culture and christianity) have been altering each other steadily (and of course they have). Homosexuality really illustrates this change.
While the christian right in the US is still fighting to oppress us, so many more (young, new) gay men have christian values. Increasingly they have faith (in God), they attend church, they want traditional christian families. Christianity has also changed; they are numerous gay friendly churches. Seems that christianity’s positive presence in popular culture is a reflection of a social change in the US, but as a result it’s become more accepting, and more accepted.
So, ultimately it's not surprising that Lady Gaga can successfully unite a christian message in a visually christian video while simultaneously representing the gay community.
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