As reported on The Guardian’s music blog yesterday, it’s now possible to take a degree in… Lady Gaga.
The University of South Carolina is offering a degree entitled ‘Lady Gaga and the Sociology of Fame,’ upon which presumably students can study aspects of the popstar’s persona, her publicity-driven lifestyle, and her impact on popular culture of the twenty-first century.
After all, Lady Gaga was recently voted the ‘most influential artist of 2010’ in Time magazine.
Are there any other artists who might merit their own degree ? Joni Mitchell ? Bob Dylan ? Miles Davis ? Did I mention Joni Mitchell ?
Comments please!
I read you can also study Madonna….Nay, you can’t study greats like Dylan but Madonna and Gaga. Maybe a degree or four on Tinky Winky, Dipsy, Laa-Laa, and Po could be next? Oh dear..
+1 for Joni!
These ‘Most Infuential’ awards always make me smile. Exactly who has she influenced and in what way and how do you put a value on that? And aren’t we still in 2010? Surely a bit to soon to be able to judge the influence of someone as ephemeral as a pop star? I think it she has probably influenced a few young girls to raid the dressing up box. But musically – I am afraid I don’t have an opinion on that – I have never heard her (well not knowingly).
As to degrees. Something doesn’t feel quite right to an old hippie/punk like me. Should we be intellectualising/analysing/picking apart great soul, rock’n’roll, jazz? Punk was for pogo-ing not pontificating. Though I grant you I might find the former a bit of struggle these days.
Oh well if you insist and putting influence on other artists to the fore, how about Sam Cooke? I still hear his influences in young singers and without him Rod Stewart and Van Morrison might have had entirely different vocal styles. And if he hadn’t got himself murderd in a dodgy motel at such a young age who knows to what heights he might have taken us?