to move up and down
About a decade before Lady Gaga donned a meat dress at the 2010 Video Music Awards, a similar fleshy ensemble was attracting controversy at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa.
Jana Sterbak’s Vanitas: Flesh Dress for an Albino Anorectic featured 50 pounds of raw flank steaks stitched together. A city councillor called it a “decadent and perverse waste of taxpayers’ money.”
Here are the Top 10 Albums of 2011, as chosen by you
A couple of weeks ago, National Post arts writers, critics, reviewers and general music-lovers got together to name their favourite albums of the year, resulting in a highly unofficial list of 42 great records, presented in no particular order. And while it was lots of fun to present our picks and extol their virtues, we though there must be some way for us to rank our faves – and that’s when we turned to you, the reader, and asked you to pick your Top 10 Albums of the Year from our list of 42. And you did!
1. Adele, 21
2. Bon Iver, Bon Iver
3. The Black Keys, El Camino
4. Radiohead, The King of Limbs
5. Feist, Metals
6. Jay-Z and Kanye West, Watch the Throne
7. Lady Gaga, Born This Way
8. Drake, Take Care
9. Austra, Feel it Break
10. The Decemberists, The King is Dead
Sentimental tool: What Canadian media thought of these public figures in the last six months
Photos: 2011 MuchMusic Video Awards
Lady Gaga performs “The Edge of Glory” during the MuchMusic Video Awards in Toronto June 19, 2011. (Mike Cassese/Reuters)
Teenage brains might be a crystal ball for hit-makers
If you were given 100 songs to listen to, all by little-known or unsigned acts, would you be able to predict which ones would become hits a few years down the line? Chances are, you wouldn’t, at least not consciously, but new research from Atlanta’s Emory University suggests that teenage brains may be able to detect a musical hit even if they have no idea what or who they’re listening to. (Photo: Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)
The decline and fall of rock bands: How going solo has replaced the group dynamic
When Arcade Fire won the Grammy Award for album of the year in February, nearly everyone called it a shock: they were non-superstars who played non-radio-friendly rock music. But just as significantly, they were, and remain, a band in the traditional sense. Not an airbrushed vocal trio with backing musicians like Lady Antebellum, nor a cobbled-together assemblage of solo superstars like most of the other acts at the Grammys, but a self-contained group with a stable lineup who play their own instruments.
There haven’t been many of these on the charts of late. Indeed, the overwhelming majority of songs — and albums — on the charts are by solo artists or acts that can’t be classified as bands (e.g., the cast of Glee). Upstart bands are now driven to utter ambitious pronouncements. “It’d be great if we could kick Lady Gaga off the charts,” said Thom Powers, of sleek New Zealand rock band The Naked and Famous, to aux.tv this month. The Vaccines, a quartet from London, England, release their debut album this week in North America; the NME has called them, “The Return of the Great British Guitar Band” and quoted them as saying, “We want indie back on the charts!” The album What Did You Expect from The Vaccines hit No. 4 in the U.K. — a strong showing, but the hegemony of solo stars remains in place. Why is it that the idea of the band has lost so much cultural currency?
Culture Club: Born this Way and the curious case of Lady Gaga
Lady Gaga released Born This Way on May 23, but we wonder if this pretty little monster has peaked. She edited the Metro newspaper, played Cannes and topped the list of the most powerful people in entertainment, earning US$90-million over the past 12 months. But is her music original and will this new album, which has received so-so reviews, pave a new way forward or cut her down, dead in her tracks?
Photo: Lady Gaga arrives at an album signing event for Born This Way at Best Buy in New York, May 23, 2011. (Jessica Rinaldi/Reuters)
Turn on, tune it, thaw out: The best of spring arts & culture
Mildred Pierce, Chester Brown and The Strokes share top billing on Mike Doherty’s opinionated list of the best culture headed this way.
Winnipeg girl to sing with Lady Gaga in Toronto
Maria Aragon, the 10-year-old Winnipeg girl who has become a YouTube sensation after covering a Lady Gaga song, will get a chance to share the stage with the eccentric superstar Thursday night. Aragon, who has made countless television and radio appearances since her piano-based rendition of Born This Way was posted online a few weeks ago, is expected to perform the song with Lady Gaga at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto.
Photo: Ten year old Maria Aragon exits a limo and is greeted by her classmates at Isaac Brock School in Winnipeg, February 17, 2011 after she was interviewed and sang at a local radio station. (Wayne Glowacki/Winnipeg Free Press)
Prairie songbird, 10, given standing ovation on Ellen DeGeneres’s show
Child pop sensations set to surpass crude oil as Canada’s number one export
Winnipeg girl becomes an Internet star after getting Lady Gaga’s seal of approval
