Gay Money

I read an article recently on Yahoo's music blog, The Amplifier, about Lady GaGa weeping at her concert in Poland. Apparently she's been disappointed with other female artists waving their "freak flags" after she's made her career on being the biggest kook of all time. She calls out Pink, Nicki Minaj, Katy Perry and Ke$ha on cashing in on the plight of "freaks" everywhere, especially the gay community. Ironically, I was just talking to a sorority sister about the exploitation of the gay/freak/fringe fan base not too long ago, and we both agreed that them screaming: "this music is for you, buy my album!" is tactless and off-putting.

Its no secret that the music industry is suffering. Its been about a decade since P2P file sharing, and downloading music has nearly replaced buying an actual CD. Labels and artists are loosing out big time on the CD dollar, and are scrambling to fill the void using other avenues. A clever way to do this is to push out a crop of similar artist, and have them cater to a fan base that's center stage in the media. At this point, that niche would be the gays community. Lady GaGa was made at the drag and caberet shows of Manhattan, and she's even come out as bisexual. I personally don't believe GaGa is exploiting the audience that made her, and I kind of agree with her outrage.

It took her years of having people slam the door in her face, writing her off as a club/novelty act and mocking her persona (albeit a kooky one). Yet she's always stayed true to her freakdom, even evolving into a Queen Freak over the years. Fly-by-night artist Ke$ha, and rap chick Nicki Minaj haven't been so convincing with the waving of their freak flags. Ke$ha is just weird and comes off as a GaGa/Katy Perry mash-up with meaningless lyrics. Minaj, playing off her built in gay male Hip Hop fan base, alludes to possible encounters with females but doesn't confirm anything. Personally, Pink has always been the rocker/punk/R&B influenced freak, but with her fan base getting older she's been trying to find ways to reach out to fresh faces by using the oldest trick in the book: "my best friend is gay!"

Its really bothersome to think that people would look to make money off of the struggle of another group of people. Yes, Pink and Katy Perry donated their celebrity to the It Gets Better Campaign, but at what cost? To sell albums? Give me a break! And the industry wonders why 90% of music listeners under the age of 30 download music for free instead of feeding the machine. Make authentic music, you fan base will follow.