Get ridiculous to be famous

Bryan DurhamRemember when bizarre music videos were the exception rather than the norm? Well, chances are, you won’t. Sure they were called gimmicks back then as well... but gimmcks you looked forward to. Anything to break the mundaneness of the normal.
But if the ’00s taught us anything, it was that much like the let’s-forget-it-in-a-hurry 80s, a pop/rock star needed to be different, needed to stand out from the rest of the pack.Having a good voice is only half the job done. Today, a good ‘package’ is what usually seals the deals and draws in hordes of fans. Face it, nobody will rush to watch a Sara Bareilles or a Ellie Goulding in as large numbers as let’s say a Rihanna or a Katy Perry or a Madonna or a Nicki Minaj or a Lady Gaga.
Every name on that latter list brings in a certain something their peers can’t. Or won’t. Or don’t. Or all of the above. So, a man will wear a skirt in a black-and-white video shot in a basement car parking area (Kanye West; Mercy) or a woman hurting from a break-up (Katy Perry; Part Of Me) will decide to join the armed forces to divert her mind from a cheating boyfriend, chopping her tresses in a restroom while taping down her assets or a woman turning her excesses and failed relationships into a reason for making a video that has her vomitting multicolored ribbons while sharing an entire pack of lit cigarettes with her guy after long-drawn out fights (Rihanna; We Found Love) or even the likes of Lady Gaga doing battle with her alter ego for the world to see.
An Azealia Banks might warp your brains with her subversive lyrics as much as with the camera zooming on her licking her rather large lips while mouthing the words with a delicate yet pronounced, unmasked fervour (212).
All this while, contemporaries might play safe and sing sappy songs with a guitar and a shake of head. See who stays on top of the charts and on your playlist longer.Controversy and shock-and-awe are tools of the trade that have, by and large, stood the test of time, and now, more than ever, serving a purpose that gets the money, the fans, the hits rolling in a way unlike anything that has been seen in recent years. Carry that rigmarole off the camer and you’ve got a winner. The more bizarre the better.
And don’t even get us started on the crazies in the not-so-mainstream genres. Let’s save that for another day!