When thinking about fantasy and world-building in the real world it often gets me thinking about the term recession pop, but specifically it reminds me of Lady Gaga’s – Bad Romance. At that time she was experiencing a pretty once-in-a-lifetime debut, and you could not escape her. Bad Romance was a cultural hit. There wasn’t a moment during that song’s initial release when nobody wasn’t talking about it and I think that is where its greatest strength came from.
The song describes a lover who is obsessed with their partner, and wants all the worst parts of them. It was set to an electro pop beat that made you get up and dance. It was so infectious and theatrical that it came to offer a sort of escape during the difficult times of the ongoing Great Recession. It was of course part of a bigger pattern of escapist music produced during that time but this song really helped catapult the trend. Everybody offered their own form of extravagance and out-of-the-box styles such as Katy Perry, Kesha, Nicki Minaj, etc. Music was becoming escapist in its central themes and visuals were more important than ever.
The music video for the song offered a lot of controversy and spectacle. It was adorned in wacky choreography and bold outfits with an even wackier storyline. It was essentially a distraction for the world when the economy was pretty hard, as well as other difficult situations going on. This wasn’t necessarily a “realistic” alternative to reality, but it essentially represented the wants of the general public. People just want to live their lives, free of the stress of the economy and our government. It just wasn’t really a possibility to live free of that stress so people often turn to pop culture as an escape. The term recession pop came from this type of music and it just added to the difficulty of the time. Many people now are comparing our current events to how it felt back then when the economic collapse was imminent. But I don’t necessarily think this is “unrealistic” life, where we can be free of economic stress. Just requires a little work.
Digital media literacy is critical now more than ever especially as we face the current mis/dis-information problem in media worldwide. I believe that art and creativity are vital to getting messages across all kinds of audiences and music can reflect that as well as pop culture. We can use our tools to bring attention to artists and pieces that best showcase difficult topics, but can also be digestible to general audiences. I feel this video explains well what I am saying:
During difficult times such as the Great Recession or the Vietnam War music offers an outlet for the problems facing society. By using our skills we can promote work that challenges audiences to think about these issues instead of becoming complacent. It can be used even to inspire. Our work as media and communication experts is now more important than ever.
Politics Is Everything 