07
Dec
J & L’s The Insiderer, Number One
Jonathan Bernstein & Lori Majewski get elbow-deep in the filthy water of pop culture on a maybe-weekly, maybe-not basis.
For (some of) our entertainment: ALam at the AMAs.
Top One: The Last Word on Lambertgate (We Think)
LM: Are we the only ones still talking about Lambertgate?
JB: I remember David Bowie performing “Starman” onTop of the Pops back in 1972, and he snakes his arm around guitarist Mick Ronson in a closer-than-friends fashion. The next day, the school yard was buzzing and hardened soccer thugs were running to the makeup counter.
The problem with Adam Lambert’s performance on the AMA’s is that it was desperate, not cool, and it wasn’t a good song. But here’s a guy — Bowie — who wasn’t desperate, who was cool, and who did have a good song.
Lori: Found it: the Starman video. The “closer than friends” bit seems beyond innocent, but if you adjust it for inflation, was this the Adam Lambert-style performance of its day?
JB: Yeah. Back then, men and women only shook hands at weddings.
LM: How come Lady Gaga got away with wearing next-to-nothing, burning a piano, and smashing bottles on the same show?
JB: Not because she’s a woman but because she’s had more than a year to establish what kind of artist she is and she was triumphantly performing a huge hit record.
LM: Adam had months on America’s biggest TV show during which he wore nail polish and guy-liner. But Bowie’s outfit upstages anything Lambert’s ever worn — even the KISS get-up on the Idol finale.
JB: Bowie had eight years to fashion his eccentric image.
LM: It was years before Madonna put out the Sex book.
JB: Madonna was a hot slut straight away. She wasn’t on Star Search. She wasn’t singing country songs. Neither she nor Gaga went through the we’re-trying-to-please middle-America thing. By being on Idol, Lambert was.
LM: So should ALam have waited a while before unleashing his S&M-y side? Or was the S&M okay; he was just too desperate to shock that he wasn’t cool?
JB: I don’t know. I can’t think of anything else.
There’s more come — we’re here for your entertainment!
