"The Fame Monster" Review

     Considering this weekend I attended Lady Gaga’s concert in Atlantic City, I think it is only appropriate to use her album "The Fame Monster" for my critique. An addition to her debut album "The Fame," "The Fame Monster" consists of eight new tracks. Ranging from dance tracks to a soulful ballad, the album blends dance/techno with some dark undertones. Although wildly popular, it is not another cheap bubble gum pop album; there is some substance to it. Often times, one buys an album for that one hit single. After playing that one hit song (I guess in this case it would be "Bad Romance") one finds that the rest of the album is lacking at best. Not this album. "The Fame Monster" has yielded three hit singles. Even the dissenters cannot deny that fact. 
     Gaga has been much criticized for her bizarre fashion choices and her provocative, attention-grabbing performances. Everyone, not just teens and the young twenty-somethings, has seen or heard of the pop diva and has something to say about her. She has been compared to Madonna and Queen, and has even been accused of ripping them off, copying their style or their music. However, on the basis of originality, I have to stand by Gaga on this one. Just as in fashion, nothing is truly original. Things that we wear now are based off of styles from previous decades, but have been reworked and modernized. To say that Lady Gaga has been influenced by David Bowie, Madonna, Andy Warhol, and the like, would be absolutely true. To say she she is merely copying this idols, however, I disagree with. As an artist, whether with music, paint, or whatever medium, it is completely normal to be inspired by other works or other fellow artists. The way you twist, turn, and recreate what has already been done is what constitutes your own style. And as far as Lady Gaga is concerned, it is hard to deny that she is one of a kind. 


"The Fame Monster" Review

Definition Proposal

1.      The word I am going to be defining is “friend.”

2.     According to Merriam-Webster, a friend is defined as “one attached to another by affection or esteem.”

3.     For the typical Penn State student, people are constantly being introduced to you all the time. Acquaintances are made, and the foundations of friendships are established. At what point does a person meet the qualifications of a “friend.” And what about those people from high school that occasionally write on your facebook wall, are they really living up the “friend” standard? Or when does a friendship receive “relationship” status? We deal with these questions about friendship all the time.

4.     The goal of the paper is to give a solid definition for friendship. Are we living up to our titles as “friends” to other people? Or have we attached more meaning to the word than is actually intended? What is a true friend?

5.     I will be writing to college students who maybe are not being true to their friends. My audience may also include college students who are in relationships, or for whom a relationship may be budding. 

Definitions

1.             According to Oswalt, a nerd or geek is typically an adolescent male who immerses himself in science fiction and pop culture. His interests usually include “post-punk music, comic books, slasher films, and video games.” Unlike other teenage boys, he had no aptitude for sports nor for getting girls. In Japan, people of a similar classification are referred to as otaku. Meaning “someone else’s house,” Oswalt defines otaku as “people who have obsessive, minute interests – especially stuff like anime or videogames.” In relation to the rest of the society, the geeks, nerds, and otaku, are somewhat outcasts. They have their own clique, which they consider exclusive. While “everyone else” vied for popularity, normality, and the all-important ability to “fit in,” the geeks thrived on being different, even mysterious.

            Now, however, what was once different, mysterious, unknown, and edgy, is now the norm. According to Oswalt, geek culture is dead. This is his reason for defining geek in the first place, to explain what it once was, and the meaning it used to have. The things that used to define them, have now become mainstream. Popularization of your “culture” cannot exist when the founding principles of your clique require you to be different and stray from “the herd.” Nerdery has been stripped of its most important feature: its “differentness.” In order to regain their status, geeks must find new ways to stray from what is considered the norm.

2.          In supermarkets today, even the not-so high end ones like GIANT and Redner’s, it is impossible to escape the “organic movement.” Soy chips, organic tomatoes, and Kashi frozen dinners line the shelves and beckon you to take a more “wholesome, natural” approach to dining. The organic food market has become a lucrative industry. According to Michael Pollan, it even has its own literary form: Supermarket Pastoral. The description on a box of Nature’s Promise cookies or bottle of Kombucha juice has become a literary style all its own. Your typical American shopper picks up one of these products, usually in earth-tone colored packaging with a picture of an idealistic farm, reads the description about the organic granola bars that “are made with only 5 simple ingredients, no preservatives, and no high fructose corn syrup,” and feels reassured that he or she has selected food that is more wholesome, nourishing, and uncorrupted by industrial hands. And the premium price? Well worth the investment.

            But all of those who believe in the organic way, have really just bought into yet another brilliant marketing scheme, and I do mean BRILLIANT. The truth about processed foods and Tastycakes with enough preservatives to make them last ten years, has been exposed. The American population has decided to take a stand against the industry-tainted crap it calls food. This is where the lure of “natural, free range, hormone/steroid free” food becomes extremely enticing. People wish to rid themselves of the evils of industry, and instead support food that, as Pollan puts it, combines the best of the modern world and the natural world. It is surely a novel, admirable concept. However, it is a delusion. The organic strawberries that we think come from a quaint, mom and pop farm have their real origins in the farms of “corporate organic growers.” The increasing “industrialization of the organic food industry” is an oxymoron, and an ingenious plot for organic food producers to have it all.