Michael Kelly
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231152921
- eISBN:
- 9780231526784
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231152921.003.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Aesthetics
This chapter examines the nascent collaboration between aesthetics and contemporary art by focusing on the critical reception of the emergence of American Pop art in the early 1960s by four ...
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This chapter examines the nascent collaboration between aesthetics and contemporary art by focusing on the critical reception of the emergence of American Pop art in the early 1960s by four philosophers: Susan Sontag, Stanley Cavell, Arthur C. Danto, and Umberto Eco. In particular, it considers the influence of these philosophers on aesthetics—what it calls the Pop Effect. Sontag, Cavell, Danto, and Eco all realized that Pop was a development within art that aesthetic theory at the time could not understand or explain because most aestheticians had not yet fully appreciated the philosophical significance of the history of modernism and were thus ill-prepared to comprehend 1960s art. To analyze the collaboration between aesthetics and contemporary art in the 1960s, the chapter looks at Thomas Crow's book The Rise of the Sixties: American and European Art in the Era of Dissent. It also discusses the ethics and politics of Pop in relation to its aesthetics.Less
This chapter examines the nascent collaboration between aesthetics and contemporary art by focusing on the critical reception of the emergence of American Pop art in the early 1960s by four philosophers: Susan Sontag, Stanley Cavell, Arthur C. Danto, and Umberto Eco. In particular, it considers the influence of these philosophers on aesthetics—what it calls the Pop Effect. Sontag, Cavell, Danto, and Eco all realized that Pop was a development within art that aesthetic theory at the time could not understand or explain because most aestheticians had not yet fully appreciated the philosophical significance of the history of modernism and were thus ill-prepared to comprehend 1960s art. To analyze the collaboration between aesthetics and contemporary art in the 1960s, the chapter looks at Thomas Crow's book The Rise of the Sixties: American and European Art in the Era of Dissent. It also discusses the ethics and politics of Pop in relation to its aesthetics.
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9781846316456
- eISBN:
- 9781846316708
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9781846316456.003.0003
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
This section focuses on Lawrence Alloway's life as an art critic in the period 1961–1971, beginning with his travel to the United States in 1961 and his dispute with Clement Greenberg with regards to ...
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This section focuses on Lawrence Alloway's life as an art critic in the period 1961–1971, beginning with his travel to the United States in 1961 and his dispute with Clement Greenberg with regards to art criticism, particularly of junk art. It also considers Alloway's writings on American Pop art, the mounting of the exhibition Six Painters and the Object and Six More in 1963, Alloway's relationship with Alexander Liberman and Paul Feeley, his views on abstraction and iconography as well as newness and avant-garde art, his reviews of a number of films and his pluralism.Less
This section focuses on Lawrence Alloway's life as an art critic in the period 1961–1971, beginning with his travel to the United States in 1961 and his dispute with Clement Greenberg with regards to art criticism, particularly of junk art. It also considers Alloway's writings on American Pop art, the mounting of the exhibition Six Painters and the Object and Six More in 1963, Alloway's relationship with Alexander Liberman and Paul Feeley, his views on abstraction and iconography as well as newness and avant-garde art, his reviews of a number of films and his pluralism.
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9781846316456
- eISBN:
- 9781846316708
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9781846316456.003.0002
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
Lawrence Alloway's scope as an art critic became international in 1950, but his criticism only changed significantly the following year after a review of a Roberto Matta exhibition at the Institute ...
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Lawrence Alloway's scope as an art critic became international in 1950, but his criticism only changed significantly the following year after a review of a Roberto Matta exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA). This review marked Alloway's transition from connoisseurship and simple evaluation to a far more dense and demanding art criticism. This section focuses on Alloway's life as an art critic in the period 1952–1961. It provides an overview of ICA in the early 1950s and its Independent Group, Alloway's attitudes toward abstraction and figurative art, his cultural continuum model, his views on graphics and advertising, art autre, Alloway's first trip to the United States, and the emergence of Pop art.Less
Lawrence Alloway's scope as an art critic became international in 1950, but his criticism only changed significantly the following year after a review of a Roberto Matta exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA). This review marked Alloway's transition from connoisseurship and simple evaluation to a far more dense and demanding art criticism. This section focuses on Alloway's life as an art critic in the period 1952–1961. It provides an overview of ICA in the early 1950s and its Independent Group, Alloway's attitudes toward abstraction and figurative art, his cultural continuum model, his views on graphics and advertising, art autre, Alloway's first trip to the United States, and the emergence of Pop art.
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780853239949
- eISBN:
- 9781846313301
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9780853239949.003.0007
- Subject:
- Literature, Poetry
This chapter argues that in Frank O'Hara's hyperscapes, text and image, poetry and painting, and representation and abstraction do not simply coexist but also cross over or ‘cross-dress’, and applies ...
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This chapter argues that in Frank O'Hara's hyperscapes, text and image, poetry and painting, and representation and abstraction do not simply coexist but also cross over or ‘cross-dress’, and applies the idea of semiotic exchange (whereby text becomes image, image, text) to O'Hara's poetry and collaborations. It contextualises this analysis by demonstrating how O'Hara's poetry uniquely interfaces with the semiotic, semantic, and ideological elements of two highly contrasting contemporaneous art movements: Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art.Less
This chapter argues that in Frank O'Hara's hyperscapes, text and image, poetry and painting, and representation and abstraction do not simply coexist but also cross over or ‘cross-dress’, and applies the idea of semiotic exchange (whereby text becomes image, image, text) to O'Hara's poetry and collaborations. It contextualises this analysis by demonstrating how O'Hara's poetry uniquely interfaces with the semiotic, semantic, and ideological elements of two highly contrasting contemporaneous art movements: Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art.
Steve Redhead
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748627882
- eISBN:
- 9780748671182
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748627882.003.0002
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Media Studies
This chapter is an extract from Baudrillard’s The Consumer Society, with an editorial overview
This chapter is an extract from Baudrillard’s The Consumer Society, with an editorial overview
John Hughson
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780719096150
- eISBN:
- 9781526115331
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719096150.003.0006
- Subject:
- Sociology, Sport and Leisure
This chapter examines the occurrence of the1966 World Cup in England against the cultural mood, or perceptions of the cultural mood, of the mid-1960s. This involves consideration of the stereotype of ...
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This chapter examines the occurrence of the1966 World Cup in England against the cultural mood, or perceptions of the cultural mood, of the mid-1960s. This involves consideration of the stereotype of the ‘swinging ‘60s’ and ‘swinging’ London. While these stereotypes are challenged the period was undeniably one of cultural change and England, certainly London, was regarded as a desirable international destination. The World Cup is examined within the popular culture context of this period and the non-football creativity, directly sponsored by the World Cup as a cultural and commercial occasion, is addressed. In this regard, items including posters, stamps, and the tournament’s mascot, World Cup Willie, are discussed. So too is the official film of the World Cup, Goal! In differing ways each these items offered something distinct, leaving a unique cultural legacy from the 1966 World Cup.Less
This chapter examines the occurrence of the1966 World Cup in England against the cultural mood, or perceptions of the cultural mood, of the mid-1960s. This involves consideration of the stereotype of the ‘swinging ‘60s’ and ‘swinging’ London. While these stereotypes are challenged the period was undeniably one of cultural change and England, certainly London, was regarded as a desirable international destination. The World Cup is examined within the popular culture context of this period and the non-football creativity, directly sponsored by the World Cup as a cultural and commercial occasion, is addressed. In this regard, items including posters, stamps, and the tournament’s mascot, World Cup Willie, are discussed. So too is the official film of the World Cup, Goal! In differing ways each these items offered something distinct, leaving a unique cultural legacy from the 1966 World Cup.
Stephen Monteiro
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781474403375
- eISBN:
- 9781474421881
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474403375.003.0003
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
In his prodigious output of hundreds of films throughout the 1960s, Pop artist Andy Warhol cultivated an approach to making and viewing movies that borrowed heavily on the conventions of family ...
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In his prodigious output of hundreds of films throughout the 1960s, Pop artist Andy Warhol cultivated an approach to making and viewing movies that borrowed heavily on the conventions of family home-movie culture. Warhol’s Factory studio in New York and his entourage of so-called “Superstars” functioned much like a family of misfits. This chapter explores film’s role in this context, analysing how Warhol combined improvised scenarios with personality differences to forge or reinforce intimate relations through filmmaking. It argues that his tendency to screen these films in the Factory—often before the people who appear on screen—functioned as a means of identifying, describing, and securing a nucleus of close social relations. Through comparison with the rhetoric of home-movie advertising and guidebooks, it teases out ways Warhol’s films paradoxically became avant-garde distortions of home-movie practices through strict adherence to suggestions and tips given to home-movie practitioners.Less
In his prodigious output of hundreds of films throughout the 1960s, Pop artist Andy Warhol cultivated an approach to making and viewing movies that borrowed heavily on the conventions of family home-movie culture. Warhol’s Factory studio in New York and his entourage of so-called “Superstars” functioned much like a family of misfits. This chapter explores film’s role in this context, analysing how Warhol combined improvised scenarios with personality differences to forge or reinforce intimate relations through filmmaking. It argues that his tendency to screen these films in the Factory—often before the people who appear on screen—functioned as a means of identifying, describing, and securing a nucleus of close social relations. Through comparison with the rhetoric of home-movie advertising and guidebooks, it teases out ways Warhol’s films paradoxically became avant-garde distortions of home-movie practices through strict adherence to suggestions and tips given to home-movie practitioners.
Raymond A. Patton
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780190872359
- eISBN:
- 9780190872397
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190872359.003.0003
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western, Popular
This chapter situates the rise of punk in the avant-garde artistic networks that spanned the First, Second, and Third Worlds of the Cold War era. It examines the roles of UK punk impresario Malcolm ...
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This chapter situates the rise of punk in the avant-garde artistic networks that spanned the First, Second, and Third Worlds of the Cold War era. It examines the roles of UK punk impresario Malcolm McLaren, who launched the Sex Pistols, and Polish punk impresario Henryk Gajewski, and the mutual interest between burgeoning punks and international art circles involved in avant-garde art movements such as Pop Art and Fluxus. It shows how punk evolved in dialogue with the wider phenomenon of postmodernism, challenging conventional metanarratives structuring the social order, blurring genres, and striking down the boundaries between art and everyday life.Less
This chapter situates the rise of punk in the avant-garde artistic networks that spanned the First, Second, and Third Worlds of the Cold War era. It examines the roles of UK punk impresario Malcolm McLaren, who launched the Sex Pistols, and Polish punk impresario Henryk Gajewski, and the mutual interest between burgeoning punks and international art circles involved in avant-garde art movements such as Pop Art and Fluxus. It shows how punk evolved in dialogue with the wider phenomenon of postmodernism, challenging conventional metanarratives structuring the social order, blurring genres, and striking down the boundaries between art and everyday life.
Patrick Frank
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780813062228
- eISBN:
- 9780813051710
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813062228.003.0006
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Latin American Studies
In chapter 5, Frank traces the spread of Nueva Figuración’s international renown, discussing the artists’ growing number of group shows and related reviews in U.S. and European magazines. Comparing ...
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In chapter 5, Frank traces the spread of Nueva Figuración’s international renown, discussing the artists’ growing number of group shows and related reviews in U.S. and European magazines. Comparing it to the postmodern treatise The Anti-Aesthetic by Hal Foster, Frank examines Noé’s Antiestética, a theoretical text in which he extolled chaos as a value in art and announces his views on other dominant movements of the day such as Pop Art. Frank closes on the dissolution of Nueva Figuración: with the art scene in Argentina trending toward Pop and related styles and with Marta Minujín staging “Happenings” and proclaiming that painting was dead, the New Figurationists had one final group show in Buenos Aires and then went their separate ways.Less
In chapter 5, Frank traces the spread of Nueva Figuración’s international renown, discussing the artists’ growing number of group shows and related reviews in U.S. and European magazines. Comparing it to the postmodern treatise The Anti-Aesthetic by Hal Foster, Frank examines Noé’s Antiestética, a theoretical text in which he extolled chaos as a value in art and announces his views on other dominant movements of the day such as Pop Art. Frank closes on the dissolution of Nueva Figuración: with the art scene in Argentina trending toward Pop and related styles and with Marta Minujín staging “Happenings” and proclaiming that painting was dead, the New Figurationists had one final group show in Buenos Aires and then went their separate ways.
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9781846316456
- eISBN:
- 9781846316708
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9781846316456.003.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
Lawrence Alloway (1926–1990) can be considered one of the founders of contemporary cultural ideals. One of the most esteemed art critics of the post-war years, Alloway was significantly involved with ...
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Lawrence Alloway (1926–1990) can be considered one of the founders of contemporary cultural ideals. One of the most esteemed art critics of the post-war years, Alloway was significantly involved with both the Independent Group and the Place and Situation painters in London during the 1950s. At the beginning of the 1960s, he moved to New York, where he became a leading interpreter of Pop art, ‘systemic’ abstraction, and the realist revival as well as women's art. He wrote more than 800 texts ranging from books to reviews and catalogues essays and displayed wholehearted commitment to pluralism and diversity in both art and society. In post-war London, Alloway witnessed an art scene that was impoverished but received a boost from the newly elected Socialist government's emphasis on culture. Art News and Review, a magazine launched by Richard Gainsborough in 1949, proved invaluable to Alloway as an aspiring art critic in the post-war years in London.Less
Lawrence Alloway (1926–1990) can be considered one of the founders of contemporary cultural ideals. One of the most esteemed art critics of the post-war years, Alloway was significantly involved with both the Independent Group and the Place and Situation painters in London during the 1950s. At the beginning of the 1960s, he moved to New York, where he became a leading interpreter of Pop art, ‘systemic’ abstraction, and the realist revival as well as women's art. He wrote more than 800 texts ranging from books to reviews and catalogues essays and displayed wholehearted commitment to pluralism and diversity in both art and society. In post-war London, Alloway witnessed an art scene that was impoverished but received a boost from the newly elected Socialist government's emphasis on culture. Art News and Review, a magazine launched by Richard Gainsborough in 1949, proved invaluable to Alloway as an aspiring art critic in the post-war years in London.
Cathy Curtis
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- August 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780190498474
- eISBN:
- 9780190498504
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190498474.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History, American History: 20th Century
During the 1960s, Elaine lived in a succession of New York lofts, where she painted, wrote, and entertained large groups of friends—including artists, writers, and athletes. She became caught up in ...
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During the 1960s, Elaine lived in a succession of New York lofts, where she painted, wrote, and entertained large groups of friends—including artists, writers, and athletes. She became caught up in the Death Row case of Caryl Chessman, one of several causes she vigorously pursued. Feminism was not among them. She was equally hostile to Pop Art, scorning it as simply “a way of making money.” The mid-sixties were a troubled time for Elaine: her mother died; Bill tried to divorce her. Her drinking escalated, leading to several car accidents and embarrassing scenes. (She stopped drinking in the mid-seventies.) Elaine spent summers in Paris as a teacher at the New York Studio School, bringing a family member or student along for city excursions. A Jules Dalou sculpture in the Jardin du Luxembourg prompted her Bacchus painting series, which captured the play of dappled light and foliage on the bronze figures.Less
During the 1960s, Elaine lived in a succession of New York lofts, where she painted, wrote, and entertained large groups of friends—including artists, writers, and athletes. She became caught up in the Death Row case of Caryl Chessman, one of several causes she vigorously pursued. Feminism was not among them. She was equally hostile to Pop Art, scorning it as simply “a way of making money.” The mid-sixties were a troubled time for Elaine: her mother died; Bill tried to divorce her. Her drinking escalated, leading to several car accidents and embarrassing scenes. (She stopped drinking in the mid-seventies.) Elaine spent summers in Paris as a teacher at the New York Studio School, bringing a family member or student along for city excursions. A Jules Dalou sculpture in the Jardin du Luxembourg prompted her Bacchus painting series, which captured the play of dappled light and foliage on the bronze figures.
Ellen Willis
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816680795
- eISBN:
- 9781452949000
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816680795.003.0020
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
This chapter presents an obituary of Andy Warhol, a leading figure in the visual art movement known as Pop Art, who was shot in 1968 by radical feminist writer Valerie Solanas. Warhol was arguably ...
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This chapter presents an obituary of Andy Warhol, a leading figure in the visual art movement known as Pop Art, who was shot in 1968 by radical feminist writer Valerie Solanas. Warhol was arguably more responsible than anyone else for obliterating the line between the avant-garde and mass art. As it happened, the shooting of Warhol had a political dimension, at least in Solanas’s mind. A couple of Warhol’s obituaries solemnly refer to Solanas as a member of a group called S.C.U.M., or Society for Cutting Up Men. Warhol, who once said “I like my paintings because anyone can do them,” died in 1987.Less
This chapter presents an obituary of Andy Warhol, a leading figure in the visual art movement known as Pop Art, who was shot in 1968 by radical feminist writer Valerie Solanas. Warhol was arguably more responsible than anyone else for obliterating the line between the avant-garde and mass art. As it happened, the shooting of Warhol had a political dimension, at least in Solanas’s mind. A couple of Warhol’s obituaries solemnly refer to Solanas as a member of a group called S.C.U.M., or Society for Cutting Up Men. Warhol, who once said “I like my paintings because anyone can do them,” died in 1987.
Edward P. Comentale
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252037399
- eISBN:
- 9780252094576
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252037399.003.0006
- Subject:
- Music, History, American
This chapter concerns the formal silence that pervades pop music in the late modern era, which both allows for greater experimentation in music and preserves, in the face of complete commercial ...
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This chapter concerns the formal silence that pervades pop music in the late modern era, which both allows for greater experimentation in music and preserves, in the face of complete commercial appropriation, the utopian possibility of some more subtle form of engagement with modernity. It argues that Buddy Holly's music represents the moment when popular music became “pop music,” and moreover that both John Cage and Holly pursued silence to the point of freeing song (and specifically lyrical song) from the expressive demands of identity and tradition. The chapter then draws from Jacques Derrida's Speech and Phenomena to show that Holly's vocals work via a process of “indication” rather than “expression” and thus point toward the very world that they fail to name or include. Finally, this chapter links Holly's music—and pop music in general—to the Pop Art movement of the late 1950s and early 1960s.Less
This chapter concerns the formal silence that pervades pop music in the late modern era, which both allows for greater experimentation in music and preserves, in the face of complete commercial appropriation, the utopian possibility of some more subtle form of engagement with modernity. It argues that Buddy Holly's music represents the moment when popular music became “pop music,” and moreover that both John Cage and Holly pursued silence to the point of freeing song (and specifically lyrical song) from the expressive demands of identity and tradition. The chapter then draws from Jacques Derrida's Speech and Phenomena to show that Holly's vocals work via a process of “indication” rather than “expression” and thus point toward the very world that they fail to name or include. Finally, this chapter links Holly's music—and pop music in general—to the Pop Art movement of the late 1950s and early 1960s.
Jesse Berrett
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780252041709
- eISBN:
- 9780252050374
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5622/illinois/9780252041709.003.0002
- Subject:
- Sociology, Sport and Leisure
This chapter explores how official National Football League publications encouraged and attempted to manage a range of interpretations of professional football. These books set out a playing field ...
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This chapter explores how official National Football League publications encouraged and attempted to manage a range of interpretations of professional football. These books set out a playing field and opened it for discussion. Even as liberal social observers worried about pro football’s rising appeal, conservatives celebrated its meritocratic traditionalism, radicals found it terrifying, and journalists increasingly made fun of its pretentions to gravitas, David Boss’s books conveyed the broad notion that football mattered in the broader culture and was worthy of serious intellectual consideration. Without centering on a particular meaning, they emphasized the idea that football mattered in the wider culture.Less
This chapter explores how official National Football League publications encouraged and attempted to manage a range of interpretations of professional football. These books set out a playing field and opened it for discussion. Even as liberal social observers worried about pro football’s rising appeal, conservatives celebrated its meritocratic traditionalism, radicals found it terrifying, and journalists increasingly made fun of its pretentions to gravitas, David Boss’s books conveyed the broad notion that football mattered in the broader culture and was worthy of serious intellectual consideration. Without centering on a particular meaning, they emphasized the idea that football mattered in the wider culture.
Mark Dery
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816677733
- eISBN:
- 9781452948324
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816677733.003.0005
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Media Studies
This chapter comments on Lady Gaga and her music. Is Lady Gaga the last, best hope for pop music smart enough to beat the Society of the Spectacle at its own game by selling out with a shamelessness ...
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This chapter comments on Lady Gaga and her music. Is Lady Gaga the last, best hope for pop music smart enough to beat the Society of the Spectacle at its own game by selling out with a shamelessness that would shock even Andy Warhol, yet still snooker cultural-studies profs and nth-wave feminists into a deconstructive swoon about her Judith Butler-approved gender performativity? Is she pop, or Pop Art? One thing is certain: much of the hair pulling about the goggle-eyed vacuity of her music, her persona, her getups, and her career moves and media poses is really, deep down, a debate about how not dumb—or not not dumb—she is. As for her music, there is something profoundly dumb about Lady Gaga’s Fame-Monster Mash of electroclash, bubblegum disco in the Madonna mode, and hair-metal power ballads. If you listen to the best songs by her cited influences like David Bowie, you will hear, beneath the virally unforgettable melodies, a percolating intelligence that isn’t just a musical sophistication but is equally a cultural literacy.Less
This chapter comments on Lady Gaga and her music. Is Lady Gaga the last, best hope for pop music smart enough to beat the Society of the Spectacle at its own game by selling out with a shamelessness that would shock even Andy Warhol, yet still snooker cultural-studies profs and nth-wave feminists into a deconstructive swoon about her Judith Butler-approved gender performativity? Is she pop, or Pop Art? One thing is certain: much of the hair pulling about the goggle-eyed vacuity of her music, her persona, her getups, and her career moves and media poses is really, deep down, a debate about how not dumb—or not not dumb—she is. As for her music, there is something profoundly dumb about Lady Gaga’s Fame-Monster Mash of electroclash, bubblegum disco in the Madonna mode, and hair-metal power ballads. If you listen to the best songs by her cited influences like David Bowie, you will hear, beneath the virally unforgettable melodies, a percolating intelligence that isn’t just a musical sophistication but is equally a cultural literacy.
