In academic and non-academic writing, the way words are capitalized matters:
gaga is not the same as
Gaga; and
not is not quite the same as
NOT. The well-known pop singer Lady Gaga seems to agree that capitalization matters.
In
Lady Gaga to call her third studio album Artpop, Rick Kelsey writes about the music album that Lady Gaga is currently working on. According to Kelsey, the busy and financially successful Lady Gaga is planning to release her third collection of songs next year. He also tells us that she insists on the word ARTPOP being written in ALL CAPS.
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| It does look meaty. |
I wouldn't normally look at the Entertainment section of the BBC News, but I thought it would make a change from the more serious response I wrote about the unjust drug policy that my government foolishly wastes my tax money on. However, I have read stories about Lady Gaga before. She is a great headline maker. When she wore a meat dress, that did get my attention, which I'm sure is what she wanted. And on her recent visit to Thailand, she again made the headlines when she Tweeted about buying an illegally copied Rolex. The silly Thai officials then made more international headlines with their childish response to her joke. In fact, I was interested enough after the fuss of her visit to Thailand to actually go to YouTube and watch one of her videos: "Born this Way". The music didn't grab me as lot, but it had a good beat, and the video was very eye-catching; obviously a lot of other people, perhaps younger than me, think the Lady is great.
One thing I do like about Lady Gaga is that she peacefully but forcefully challenges traditional ways of thinking that might be rotten. She doesn't say they are rotten (or does she? Maybe I'm wrong about this), but she certainly makes people think, as the fuss about her performing in conservative countries like Indonesia shows. Sadly, some people are terrified of free and independent thinking. They want to use the law to ban anything new and progressive and force everyone to shut up. What they should do is defend their traditions if those traditions really are good. I think that if some part of a culture is strong, valuable and useful, the citizens will keep it. If a traditional bit of culture is not valuable or useful, isn't it better to throw it out and get something better?
So, are performers like Lady Gaga a force for good or a force for evil? Or neither?
Kelsey, R. (2012, August 6).
Lady Gaga to call her third studio album Artpop. Newsbeat, BBC News. Retrieved August 6, 2012 from
http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/19140535
Another example of blogging the news. This time, my source is again an article on the BBC News website.
ReplyDeleteWhen I started, I actually wanted to respond to the CAPITALIZATION issue, but after writing two paragraph in my response, I decided that was enough.
But I am wondering why Lady Gaga wants the title in ALL CAPITALS, and how she feels when the BBC gets it wrong and write "Artpop" instead of "ARTPOP".
I personally like Lady Gaga.I have no doubt why she is so popular.She always knows what to do to be in the center of the attention.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you.It is good that she is dare to challenge traditional ways of thinking that might be rotten.However,some songs are related to sensitive issues which may hurt people's feeling such as Judas,one of her song which many people think her video is about religious innuendos.
Pang,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the informative comment. I did not know about Gaga's song "Judas" before, but I did a quick Google and found out about it on Wikipedia. You are right: some religious groups, such as the Christians, did object to the song (2012). I haven't listened to it, but I presume that Lady Gaga did sing something offensive to them.
However, I don't think that's a big problem. People are free to believe whatever they want, but almost all religious beliefs are false and have no solid supporting evidence at all, which makes them very silly things to believe in. Do we respect believe in such things as Santa Claus, astrology, fortune telling or dragons and magic?
Worse, religions often teach morally bad things. For example, the Christians oppose laws allowing abortion; this opposition to abortion is unjust and causes enormous harm to society, the women and children affected. And many religions have supported anti-gay laws, which are evil, so religion is also one of those traditional things that are not always good. I think it's important to be honest about these things, even if some people are offended.
Reference
Judas (song). (2012, August 6). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 00:08, August 7, 2012, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Judas_(song)&oldid=506091954
She is one of the best singer in the world. I saw her concert in Las Vagas and Bangkok recently. She is fantastic.
ReplyDeleteI'd say I'm not Lady Gaga fan, but I like her. It might be common that pop singers possibly try to stand out from the others, by waring weird dress.
ReplyDeleteI think she is unique and be herself. I did not go to her concert in Thailand due to ticket prices. I saw some of her concert and heard that during showing, her head hit something! but her show was going on. I respect that she confident in her idea and do the best in her show. I think that most famous singers or Hollywood stars might be concerned their image and people opinion a lot.
Lady Gaga works hard for her singing and show; consequently, I'm not surprised why her musics are very popular. Another reason is that there are rarely bad news or gossip about her personal life, such as drug, sex and so on.
I think that Tom makes a good point, one I had not thought of before. Although she sometimes shocks and is a bit outrageous, Lady Gaga does seem pretty sensible. I suspect she is also a good business woman.
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