Read the piece on Lady Gaga on Angel. In addition, look around the Gaga Stigmata blog beginning with the post on her video Born this Way. What sort of arguments do they make about Lady Gaga? What evidence do they use? Note a few rhetorical tactics that are used that are particularly effective in this kind of cultural commentary.
The piece on Angel by Camille Paglia used many rhetorical tactics. One was establishing ethos by drawing the reader in by listing Gaga's accomplishments at the beginning. She also showed pathos by making examples from lyrics of Lady Gaga's songs in her own opinions. Paglia then proceeded to give her strong negative opinion on Gaga's persona and unoriginality by comparing her to other artists that inspire her. She makes it sound like Lady Gaga is just a figurehead for her music, and that she doesn't have a lot of say in what she actually wears and does. Paglia believes that Lady Gaga's music and style are the end of sex in the music industry because of how she dresses and the content of her music videos.
The "Gaga Stigma" blog piece analyzes Lady Gaga's latest hit music video "Born This Way." The author, Samantha Cohen, referenced other writers like Lewis Hyde who wrote Trickster Makes The World. Cohen also defined the word "trickster"so the readers could follow her interpretation of "Born This Way." She also uses anecdotes like the Chinese symbols of the Monkey and the Lion to describe her opinion. Cohen wasn't trying to defend Lady Gaga's work, but she did by describing what she thought her purpose was in the production of the video.
No comments:
Post a Comment