Do any of you remember the performance stage at Australia’s Wonderland? Hanna Barbera characters would bounce around singing and dancing, a surreal ventriloquist act of commercial cliches? Your friend’s mum would make you sit down and watch, as she’d reminiscence her lost youth, while the Bush Beast and Demon taunted you in the distance?
Well watching the back-to-back live performance of pop sensations, Ke$ha and (more importantly) Rogue Traders took me back there. A pastiche of all things cool in kids world, smacked together into one big musical extravaganza.
Mindi was very talented, a great dancer, definitely great to shoot, captivating and engaging with the crowd, but what with her pantomime dance moves and big cheesy grins, I couldn’t help but think, should a band clearly appealing to teenyboppers be so sexualised? But then hey, when I was that age I was doing dance recitals to Madonna’s Erotica, Salt’n'Pepper’s Let’s Talk About Sex. And my personal favourite, Prince’s Get Off! 22 positions in one night.
Ke$ha’s band looked like the Ukranian covers band of Peaches come Pirates of the Caribbean The Musical. Dressed up in a PVC Evil Knieval type jumpsuit, teamed with parachute boots, feathers and sparkles, it was a very now post-modern mish-mash of a sight, without any irony (or so it seems). But, them yankees can certainly put on a show. Despite being pushed away from the photo-pit by a monster of a security guard, and being somewhat disillusioned with the naive and blatant appropriation of so many pop icons and idols, I was impressed with the gusto at which they performed, coming to a bang of an end when hundreds of thousands of gold streamers were catapulted out into the crowd.
Anyway, perhaps these photos will show what I am trying to say….kid’s today!
What scares me most is the age of the girl in the last photo parading around in her bra… my mum would have had a heart attack if I did that! You’re not wrong Cybele… kids today!
Amazing photos of course. What do you think of Ke$ha? I’m still not convinced…
Sweet Jesus, that last photo Cybele – whoa! “Kids today” indeed! Great pics anyway.
lets just say, as each year goes on, I become more and more convinced that the Spice Girls were actually good. At least there was a recognition lunacy of their instant fame.
I don’t think Ke$ha has much lasting power. Consider other female leads such as Lady Gaga, Britney Spears, Katy Perry and Beyonce and you realise they’re in another world. However Beyonce is probably the only one parents would be OK with their daughters looking up to. However that still doesn’t stop parents taking their 12 year olds to Gaga’s concert and being offended at what they see! I wonder how long Gaga will maintain her insane worldwide momentum, time will tell. Spice Girls are the quintessential girl pop band though. They took what ABBA did in the 70′s to a whole new level of worldwide commercialism and everyone loved them for it. Ah the 90′s!
The day I started referring to them as ‘the kids’, I knew I was getting older. You’re right, I try to think of the sexual references when I was a teen (and reading yours it sounds like we’re about the same age) and I distinctly remember it having less sex/drug overtones. Or to be kind at least more discrete… Or something.