Yep, art is synonymous with commercialism.

Art is such a 19th century catagory. People in their teens and twenties and thirties that try to play the overly romanticized "poor bohemian alienated artist" role need to reconsider what it really means to be a 'unique artist' in this day and age.

For the past coupe of generations, we have been so over saturated with images upon images that even the strangest things will slowly be accepted into that transaction machine called capitalism.

Personally, I'm not a strong fan of capitalism (nor do I hate it, there's almost no point to carry that kind of attitude as it only gets sucked back into that system of selling and buying somewhere down the line).

I'm still a little peeved by the fact that business and industry leaders have raped and pillaged every local culture, sub-culture, and foreign cultures into an evocative ad image. And they broadcast it in a way that there is no escape from that image for a good couple months at a time.

And the fact that I'm forced to trade in things like free time for the sake of earning enough money to live at a completely inflated standard of 'living modestly' - well, sucks for me.


But I found something this weekend that not only killed 'art' and the 'sub-culture' catagory for good and fed it straight into the mouth of slick commercialism, it also killed much of my free time due to it's addictive quality :





Yes its full of memorable, catchy, evocative images that cries out "watch me and listen to me". Yes, it is VERY well done from a production and 'artistic' perspective on the outfits, lighting, and allegorical metaphors of the various shots.

This is the epitome of a postmodern work gone on a selling spree. Postmodern is not about 'originality'. It's about stealing from what's already been done and re-packaging it in a flashy way.

This is the brilliance of Lady Gaga and her brand image - it has completely taken Tokyo eccentricity, gay culture, soft S&M, and 19th century avant-garde aesthetic and sold it to millions of copies after copies all around the world. Capitalism for the win.