Reinvention, Reincarnation and Pop Chameleons

The power of a new facial expression

SO this week sees the latest change of image from the nations beloved chameleon of pop. What do you make of this new incarnation?

Well the shape shifting genius has done it again haven’t they? I mean would you have thought this was remotely possible?

I don’t know would you? Is it the trousers or the extra layer of eye shadow that has facilitated this rug-pulling event?

 I think is essentially something more superficial than that. Or perhaps a combination of the two.  The sleeveless jump suit could also have a major influence in the way the public perceive this tectonic shift though.

But it’s not a new thing is it? I mean after all many musician have played with their image and the idea of celebrity haven’t they? Haven't they?

Yes that’s true. Take Tony Hadley for instance he started off wearing tartan blankets and then morphed into a kind of city man suit-wearing persona. Or even someone like Toyah who entranced the public with her new wave sylph incarnation then became something totally different. Or look at Kim Wilde who was a kid in American with big hair and then became a more mumsy gardener type.

So what you’re saying essentially is that pop stars have reincarnated themselves since time immemorial. That even when Socrates was tuning into Greek totps there was this sense that the pop star was searching for some kind of essential substance beyond the accidental qualities such as hair style or height of heel?

That’s exactly what I’m saying and Madonna of all people highlighted how it is a mistake to seek an essential substance rather than process. She proved this with her hit song Vogue “don’t just stand there” she said “let’s get to it. Strike the pose there’s nothing to it”. A rallying cry if ever there was one to see the pop-star as an event rather than an object.

So really what we are seeing with this latest transmogrification is a return to something essential. A reaching out to the “other” of the self, which stands beyond the male thrust of chronological time?

Well perhaps not quite that but definitely a change of make-up application as well as a vaguely different facial expression in the publicity shots.

Ah well you’ve caught the mood entirely there and we haven't even mentioned Lady Gaga's meat blouse. So quite how the public will respond to this mythic volte-face remains to be seen thanks and farewell.