Elana and I have been listening to a lot of hit music on the radio together, and watching some of the videos. A few days ago this 11 year-old gave me a splendid reason to watch the latest controversial hit. Have you seen it?
“Scott, there’s a new video with Lady Gaga and Beyonce.”
“Yeah?”
“Oh. My. God. It’s the nastiest thing I’ve ever seen…”
After she filled me in on some of the details, I had to go watch it for myself. It happens this song, “Telephone,” is one I noticed on the radio a couple of weeks ago. I really liked the song a lot from the first time I heard it. Thinking about what the video might look like, I had mental images of the two divas dancing in a packed club and being frustrated with their cell phones.
If you haven’t seen it, the music is only on for a bit less than half the time of the video. I think this is better – drastically better – than “Thriller” or anything Madonna or ZZ Top or Duran Duran put out in the 80’s, or any music video that has followed. Watching this video reminded me of how I felt the first time I heard “F*** the Police” or “Anarchy in the UK.” I think it’s totally brilliant, up there with Little Richard, Elvis and the Beatles.
My gentle and well-educated wife likes the classics, you know, life-affirming art such as “Romeo and Juliet.” For me, this video is a lot more entertaining than a lot of Shakespeare, and it gets the job done in ten minutes instead of several hours.
I admit it: for many years I have been whining about how everything in Western Society is in a terminal decline. Finally I find something I can point to as a sign of hope for the future – and my family and most of my friends disagree! They think this is “just vile and depraved.” Oh well.
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