Though the accessories and gadgets in Hollywood have shifted since the age of the silver screen, the sought-after celebrities that occupy stardom in 90210 have yet to experience a shift. With international shipping-and-handling of a more angst-driven type, the teen singer-songwriter, Lorde, is defining her own status of celebrity in the star-studded zip code.
Whether you draw parallels between the blonde bombshells from then and now or the slick and shimmering fashions that have ever walked the red carpet, most of the stars we follow for their image and not their intellect. With lyrics written to linger on her listener’s ear, the “Royals” singer is playing a melody meant for depth and analysis—a true anomaly compared to many a “Queen of Pop” that she shares the stage with.
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| Rolling Stone, January 2014 cover |
“I think the thing that people relate to about me is that I—you know—I kind of try not to fall into your typical traps of song writing,” Lorde said in an interview with Studio Q.
Peering in on the lives of celebrities, one might find the images, air and behaviors that belong to them indicative of what our society deems a “stereotype”. For the American pop star, the subconscious associations bring to mind a slew of all-too-expensive objects and all-too-chiseled body types. It is a stereotype unfitting of 17-year-old Lorde’s gothic stylings.
In Lorde's cover story in the January 2014 issue of Rolling Stone, Tavi Gevinson, editor of Rookie said: "Everyone talks about Ella [Lorde] as the anti-Miley because she dresses like a witch and she doesn't twerk. But it's more nuanced than that. She sings about partying, she curses like a sailor and her songs aren't completely asexual. She reflects an intelligence in girls our age, and normalizes it."
Certainly for the celebrity culture that has proven a steady market in America, there is what Patricia Divine of University of Wisconsin at Madison calls, “inevitability of prejudice”. As consumers, we tend towards the stereotype that the unintelligence that celebrities have is more than redeemed with their unshakeable choruses and good looks. The type of pop star that Lorde proves to be helps us to marry the all-too-familiar “cool factor” with the keen factor, which she carries from her image and into her work in the recording studio.
For this Aussie, the American Dream of fame and stardom does not come at the cost of incapability. It comes with a dark lipstain, a shattered celebrity stereotype and lyrics with a clever likability factor all their own.
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I love when artists make it their goal to make sure their career doesn't follow the stereotypes of what their meant to be and the sequence of events they must go through to attain their star status and title. It's a shame that due to stereotypes an artist hast to restrain their talents and confirm to popular expectations.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the pressure to conform to popular expectations may be inhibiting our mainstream artists of the creativity and potential for moving artistry that is bound within them, Alejandra. I also find it important to note that the prejudices and stereotypes that accompany stardom in contemporary media are propelled and continued by the audience. Perhaps it is us, on the other end of the headphones and the innumerable screens of technology that are sending a message to artists that what we want is stagnant, surface-level entertainment. As Patricia Devine notes in her dissertation on stereotypes, the ritual of stereotyping makes for a social heritage and our social heritage has become one that aligns with our values in entertainment, but not our personal beliefs. We find this in the instant gratification we get by the bubblegum choruses of Katy Perry, but our lack of hesitance to criticize her ditzy public persona. In order to re-create our social heritage of worthy and wise icons, we must be cognizant of subscribing to entertainment that aligns both our values and beliefs.
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