Sorry Bill Maher - but Lady Gaga SHOULD be one of Time's most influential people

[Hawaii Hiker]

One "Real Time" on Friday, Bill Maher made fun of Time selecting Lady GaGa as one of the 100 most influetial people (he also poked fun at Sandra Bullock, Taylor Swift, for being on the list)....Bill seems to think that the most influential people MUST all relate to politics....

When your debut album has 5 straight #1 hits (as Lady Gaga's does), you are influencing pop music, very much so...Her concerts are selling out in minutes...

I agree with (most) of Maher's views, but there has to be a picture of him in the dictionary under the words arrogant & smug...

[Skidmore]

1. Someone explain to me what is so fabulous about Lady Gaga.

I guess I must be getting old. I don't think there has been decent music sinc the 1970s.

[JuniperLea]

5. I don't care for her music at all...

But I love her style, and her seemingly unending talent for coming up with interesting and new fashion statements!

I never watch Oprah, but happened to be home over the last three-day weekend, and caught her whilst channel surfing.

She's really something... I like her! I still can't stand her music, but I think she's really cool.

[KonaKane]

6. Hair, clothes and makeup.

Same thing that's so fab about every constructed pop idol.

And the beat goes on.

[Hawaii Hiker]

8. I've always been a fan of pop music

her songs are very up tempo, she sounds like Madonna in some ways, IMO...I'm a fan of Katy Perry, Avril Lavigne, etc.

I know some people that really stick their noses up to pop music, they ONLY like classic rock & metal, in their view, that is the only real music, pop is seen as inferior shit to them...And they can lecture you all day as to why they think that...

I don't care, give me up tempo pop music anyday over classic rock....

[superduperfarleft]

9. Not a goddam thing.

She's overrated vapid pop crap, and her fans are as bad as the twilight crowd.

[Johonny]

16. got me

having a top selling album isn't what it use to be. The sales volume isn't close to what it was at the hey day of the charts and more important music doesn't have the same limited vehicles to deliver it anymore. Basically Lady Gaga hasn't touched my life in the least. I couldn't pick her out of a police line up. She certainly doesn't come close to the influence the Beatles had on the 60s generation or Michael Jackson had on the 80s generation. With the current state of music, recording artists are ever going to be able to have that much influence again.

[BuelahWitch]

70. I think you overlook these "pop stars" unless you watch certain types of TV shows

When I was a kid pop and rock music was merged into mainstream TV. The pop and rock bands of the '60s and 70s used to hit variety shows like Ed Sullivan and talk shows like Mike Douglas. As a result, my Grandma knew who The Beatles were (shit, she knew who Sly Stone was too!). I'm lots younger than my grandmother and I have no clue who Lady Gaga is, I wouldn't know her from Pink or any other singer with a strange name. If you don't watch gossip shows or MTV or listen to contemporary radio, you're SOL about all the current pop stars. She might influence me to turn off the TV, but that's about it.

[underpants]

17. Nothing. She is the embodiment of how anything can be marketed and shoved down people's throats

The first time I saw her first video I actually laughed out loud. I was sure that it was some industry inside joke.

[PurpleChez]

21. Thank you!!!!!

The idea that being a popular pop star make you "powerful" is a sad statement. I guess that makes me smug and arrogant.

[underpants]

25. I know from this thread that the video was "Poker Face"

I was up getting ready for a run and was just cracking up.

As I watched (the camera was REALLY far) from the "star" I thought --"Okay she must have a nice bod" as that was the explanation I could come up with.... then the close up-I laughed harder. "This must be some record execs debutante daughter" because she has NO body.

Oh well what do I know. She and the record company are rolling in dough which I would not be surprised if they put that in a video just to rub people's face in it.

[Number23]

75. "The first time I saw her first video I actually laughed out loud."

OMG I feel the same way after watching her videos.

Her voice isn't bad but it's like she is trying so terribly hard to be avante garde and an artiste it's almost hilarious. She's avante garde to people who think that Wal-Mart is high end shopping.

[WinkyDink]

48. If you have to "explain" it,.........

[H2O Man]

54. That's easy:

She's on Time-People's list of the ten most influential world leaders in human history.

[spoony]

72. She's the product of a military experiment where they made ear worms a bioweapon. nt

[Dorian Gray]

80. People have tried to explain to me

as well. I think it's something about the spectacle. Her music is boring, and without the crazy spectacle, she'd be Christina Aquillera Part II. (Successful but boring and really not all that influential.)

[JuniperLea]

2. I love her, really can't stand her music...

But she's influential, no question!

I ceased having use for Maher long ago... mainly due to the last two adjectives you used in your OP.

[wolfgangmo]

7. I imagine this news is devastating to him.

Along the lines of "oh nooooooooooooo. I've lost JL as a fan. Shut the show down. We're DONE."

[JuniperLea]

10. Was that meant to hurt me somehow?

:shrug:

I don't give a flying fuck what he thinks...

It's really insulting to me what you wrote here, but not how you think.

[Dappleganger]

3. This old lady loves her.

I think she pushes the envelope like Cyndi Lauper and Madonna. She seems to have a very smart head on her shoulders unlike a lot of other singers her age.

[Codeine]

19. Diamanda Galas pushed the envelope. Amanda Palmer pushes the envelope.

Patti Smith pushed the envelope.

Lady Gaga plays dress-up and croons via auto-tune over some else's beat. That ain't envelope-pushing, that's predigested pop pabulum for dumb teenage girls.

[mitchum]

41. Thank you! Gaga is a ripoff of Dale Bozzio...nearly 30 years too late

And "her sound" is even less interesting than that of Missing Persons

[Rex]

43. She seems very superficial, which is not new. In many ways, to me, she

represents what 'pop-music' has become - nothing special.

[Dorian Gray]

81. Don't forget...

she wrote a song for Michael Bolton.
If that's not influential, I don't know what is!

http://ladygagaonline.net/2010/01/13/lady-gaga-makes-duet-with-michael-bolton-murder-my-heart/

[WCGreen]

35. Pushing the envelope just for the sake of pushing the envelope

isn't really about talent. It's about seeking attention.

In that case, Lady GaGa is influential to people who consider getting attention for attentions sake influential, which, in our society, makes her influential...

[mdmc]

4. I know she met the queen

perhaps my girlfriend knows a couple of her songs..

[blogslut]

11. She's fun

I'm no rabid fangirl but I thought the video for Telephone was hoot and Poker Face has a catchy hook.

The other day, blogslut Jr. confessed she's started listening to GaGa out of spite because of Amanda Palmer's hipster-look-at-me-e-e-e-I'm-so-much-deeper-than-lady-GaGa-now-I-shall-exploit-the-disabled-to-get-people-to-pay-attention-to-my-awesomeness bullshit.

Bill Maher is meh.

[Codeine]

22. Lady Gaga is not fit to lick the soles of Amanda Palmer's feet.

Miss Palmer has taken dumps that contained more art and creativity than Lady Gaga's entire career path will ever exhibit.

Yes I am a fanboy; why do you ask? :evilgrin:

[blogslut]

27. Okay

All I know is her wee conjoined twins project pissed off a lot of actual disabled people and Ms. Palmer isn't very gracious when it comes to criticism.

[Codeine]

30. The twins thing has been a disaster, to be sure.

I really don't give a toss what the conjoined twins community felt about it, I just thought it was supremely lame and ill-conceived from a musical perspective. But her solo work and Dresden Dolls stuff was epic.

[blogslut]

33. Well, there you go

Personally, when it comes to criticizing artists, I prefer to refrain. One person's genius is another's trash and until the day comes that I sell a million CDs, I got no standing on what is or is not "good".

[tularetom]

12. WTF is a Lady Gaga?

I have to admit I don't really catch up to trends until 15 years after everybody else has forgotten about them.

My iPod is filled with Chuck Berry, Hank Williams and the Stanley Brothers.

All of whom I consider extremely talented and entertaining but none of whom I'd call "influential".

[Ron Green]

14. Nor do I have a clue. I couldn't identify her music or pick her out of

a line-up.

[cherokeeprogressive]

63. She'd be easy to pick out of a lineup. She's the one dressed like a bug. n/t

[Mz Pip]

23. I don't know who she is either

other than seeing her name a lot. I guess she's a pop singer. :shrug:

[X_Digger]

42. No clue. I don't listen to music. n/t

[vanlassie]

55. Meee2

[Hawaii Hiker]

44. This is

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrO4YZeyl0I

[senseandsensibility]

66. Come now, tularetom

You don't think Chuck influenced the Stones or the Beatles? And you don't think those British bands dominated our musical culture for decades? LOVE Chuck, and he was influential.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

13. If anybody should get credit, it should be Rick Steves.

Yes, that nerdy little Ned Flandersesque travel host with the TV and radio show.

Awhile back he was discussing music from around the world on his NPR show. Folk music, or pop music. It didn't matter.

He introduced some music that all the kids were listening to in the artist's native Switzerland. The song? Pokerface. The artist? Lady Gaga.

Two weeks later she was all over American pop radio.

That's right, we all have Rick Steves to "thank" for Lady Gaga.

[Codeine]

15. I heard her described as "Art-y Spice" recently.

That about sums her vapid, empty, soulless nonsense up.

[PM Martin]

18. Lady Gaga is techno pop nonsense.

[Rex]

20. I agree with him on Lady GaGa, she is just a prefabricated star like

todays ho-hum pop-music 'stars'. She was Lady Nobody until her ex came along, but ain't that showbiz for you?

[Bluenorthwest]

34. She's 23 years old.

So if anything she was Kid Nobody, as are we all, usually long past her age. I mean, you are making the point that she was not very famous when she was 21? Really?

[Rex]

36. No not my point, her ex made her what she is. Prefabricated like

most pop-star ho-hummers. Just another nobody in a crowd of somebodies is my point.

[Dorian Gray]

83. How did he make her who she is?

I mean, I know he's suing her and all because he collaborated with her. But, she's the one who writes her music and wears the crap she does and lives the persona. I don't think she's all that great, but I also don't understand how he's more responsible for her persona than she is.

[MadBadger]

37. That doesnt change the fact that she has influence

You can argue that she shouldnt be influential, but you cant argue that she is.

[Rex]

39. I won't argue that at all, I don't think she has made the big impact

like people want to believe she has. Same old same old, in my book.

[LanternWaste]

24. I'm unaware of her music

I'm unaware of her music, yet when the cleverer-than-thou crowd on DU metaphorically rends their clothes over the mere mention of her name, I think I may be compelled to check her out and see what all the hubbub's about...

Heck, it was their very condemnations of two movies in particular that got me to see those very good two movies. When I read their reviews of just about anything in the mirror, it's almost always spot on for me.

[Swede]

26. Gaga has real talent.

I like her stuff,she plays her own instruments and writes her songs.

[Codeine]

She does write her own music.

That's why it kinda stinks.

[Swede]

51. No,it's pretty good,actually.

Real music,non of this prepackaged gunk out there.

[MilesColtrane]

78. Given the choice, I'd rather listen to an entire Susan Boyle CD than one Gaga song.

[Dorian Gray]

84. That's the choice they give you

IN HELL!

LOL.

[mitchum]

90. Hell, I would rather sleep with Susan Boyle than listen to one Gaga song

[corpseratemedia]

28. "Give me back my sunglasses made of cigarettes!!"

I didn't pay attention until I saw the video. I thought it was (except for the vomitus product-placement) hilarious. It's a level of total silliness you have to kind of be disengaged i guess to get.

I'm surprised at the amount of people twice her age who have a real interest in what she's doing. So whether I'll be a follower or not, I think there's something definite there, or there would nothing intriguing for anyone older.

[mitchum]

88. Those are people who fear that if they don't "get down with the kids"...

they will miss the next Beatles.
"I'm surprised at the amount of people twice her age who have a real interest in what she's doing"
Conditioning and marketing work very well.
However, that 3rd rate hag act Gaga isn't even the next Monkees.

[Ghost of Tom Joad]

29. performance artist who is

recycling Cher, Madonna for a new generation

[Marr]

65. That's how she seems to me, too.

I saw her on television about six months after I first heard the name. She was singing a catchy, disposable little techno/something song, and doing her best impression of Cher doing a Madonna impression. I'm sure she's making plenty of money, but... "influential"...? lol...

:shrug:

[msongs]

31. Madonna clone lol nt

[hlthe2b]

32. Influential now? sure. In two years? three years? five years?

I'm not so sure.

I'm not saying she isn't talented, but the gimmicks are going to wear thin. She seems to want to be Madonna, but strikes me as unlikely to go the distance and will likely be a shorter term "flash in the pan." Madonna has survived....like her or not, because she reinvents herself constantly stylistically, vocally, thematically (and not only with wild costumes, PR stunts and nudity).

My sincere opinion. Your mileage as always may vary...

[Art_from_Ark]

76. That reminds me of a "Billy and the Boingers" (Bloom County) song

"Sure we look disgusting
But whose charts are we busting?
In a year, maybe two, we'll seem tame

And three years down the track
We'll be a Las Vegas lounge act..."

[hlthe2b]

89. heh heh.. that about sums it up...

[mitchum]

38. She's over hyped product who rips off even Dale Bozzio for gawd's sake!

[blogslut]

40. And Dale Bozzio ripped off Klaus Nomi

So, there's that.

[TexasObserver]

45. Lady Gaga continues to make her detractors look silly.

Some people simply cannot recognize singing and writing talent if its packaged in someone under 30 years old. Ironically, it's often people who said not to trust anyone OVER 30 when they were under 30.

[Codeine]

47. I like all sorts of new young artists.

Franz Ferdinand, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Metric, Los Campesinos!, Friendly Fires (now that's some killer dancey pop), Beirut, and The Cribs are all recent plays on my iPod. I just don't like lame-ass cookie-cutter pop songs.

Jon LaJoie sums it up nicely in this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0Gs4xGw1Eg

[TexasObserver]

50. Well, you've missed the boat on Lady Gaga.

[Greyhound]

79. Packaged", you said it yourself. Another wholly fabricated side-show

like the thousand before her and the thousand yet to be produced.

[TexasObserver]

82. You sound like the parents of youngsters in the 1960s, talking about the Beatles.

It's not supposed to appeal to you.

[undeterred]

46. No, his picture is under misogynist asshole.

misogynist asshole

[WinkyDink]

49. There is no award for being proudly ignorant and/or disdainful of anything well-known to and

popular with MILLIONS world-wide.

[Stevenmarc]

52. Dr. Andy Hildebrand belongs on the list before Lady Gaga since he invented Auto-Tune

[Codeine]

53. Not enough ass-kicking in the world for that man. nt

[Stevenmarc]

56. Agreed

[PM Martin]

61. Same here

[mitchum]

59. He deserves to burn in hell right beside the inventor of pantyhose!

[CBGLuthier]

57. They still make pop music?

I mean really, what with the internet what is the point of only listening to whatever some record company decides is worth promoting?

[jpak]

58. LG's new video has a nice asian man carving wood while she fries chicken in cornflakes and croons

vapid Klaus Nomi technopop

it's true

:evilgrin:

[KonaKane]

69. How deep.

.

[rocktivity]

60. I don't think Maher objects to Swift and Gaga not being politicians

I think he objects to them not being particularly talented.

As for Bullock, she won an Oscar and adopted a non-white child. But would Time REALLY have considered her if she hadn't been cuckolded, as well?

:boring:
rocktivity

[cherokeeprogressive]

62. Lady Who?

Influential people? Lady Who?

[depakid]

64. She's influenced me... to change the radio station on more than one occasion

[RagAss]

68. LOL

[athenasatanjesus]

67. Shouldn't she be #1 on a list of most influenced people?

She is the ultimate manifestation of commercialization come to life.
She is everything corporate america has been pushing for decades especially since the mid 90's,she sells sex,tries to pass off randomness as creativity,has her talent generated by a computer,creates music so simple it could be mass produced with the greatest of ease,and has no beef selling product.

[PM Martin]

73. That is one angle to consider.

I am serious when I say that since she is a commercialized freaks show.

[mr_liberal]

71. I love Gaga.

My guess is Maher doesn't know anything abotu her, he jsut dislikes her because she's popular with the American public and is successful.

see for him Americans are idiots and anything that comes from the free market is garbage. he should look in the mirror.

Gaga is very talented. She's a good singer, a good pianist, a good wrtiter, plans her own show, her own videos... and is extremely smart and fearless. She's very unusual for a pop star. Thats why people love her so much.

[XemaSab]

74. Her music is so close to being awesome

and yet so far. :shrug:

And to elaborate... I don't know whether I am supposed to take her music seriously or not.

[Buns_of_Fire]

77. Eh, she's no Rudy Vallee...

And get off my lawn, dammit!

[marmar]

85. From a pop culture POV, I agree......but unlike Madonna......

....Lady Gaga will be long forgotten in a decade. She's too gimmicky.

[Ghost of Tom Joad]

86. you give her that long?

[blue_onyx]

87. I worry that she may be gimmicky

I love her and her music but all the costumes are getting old. It feels like Lady Gaga is trying too hard to be shocking/edgy. Madonna was just being herself. Lady Gaga sometimes comes off as a Madonna impersonator....like she's trying to be "the next Madonna."