Monday, February 14, 2011

Grammy fantasy fun...

I don't know if you all watched The Grammys last night, but I was very entertained by the fantastic elements thrown into a lot of the performances. I thought I'd share a little picture album of some of my favorites, or at least the most obscure ones.

Of course we have Gaga, who arrived on the red carpet in a giant egg being carried by gold-clad servants.

She "hatched" during her performance...


And.. if I had to guess, I'd say that Cee Lo Green is the one who laid the egg in the first place. He looked like a giant rainbow turkey, and was surrounded by singing puppets (and Gwyneth Paltrow) during his song otherwise known as "Forget You."


There were more, but in attempt not to bore any of you or kill too many servers with this post by not rehosting my pictures, I'll end it with Katy Perry's performance, which as a friend of mine said, "looked like a burlesque exploded into a Gigi's Cupcakes."


Arcade Fire's performance had so many strobes I thought I was going to have a seizure from my living room...

So what I'm getting at here... Do you think performance art like this is moving even more towards adding elements of fantasy and the obscure, or has it always been that way? What's the appeal of adding something like this as opposed to having performers on stage singing their songs in pretty dresses or suits and then taking a bow and walking off? Obviously it's more fun, but what else do you think?

5 comments:

Shauna McDaniel said...

Technically it wasn't an egg. Gaga said last night on Leno that it was a vessel. The designer Hussein Chalayan told her to be sure people knew it was a vessel. I thought it looked like something from Alien myself, but I love Gaga and everything she does. I think performances have started to use elements of the fantastic. They are starting to explore the depths of what makes people interested maybe even frightened. I like it.

Bailey Carpenter said...

I think that they really just do this for entertainment. Sadly, with the many technologies and things to distract us and entertain us these days, we are actually more bored and desiring more, more, more every year with every performance. And Cee-lo's performance blew my mind. I've loved his performances ever since I saw him perform in Gnarls Barkley the song "Crazy" in a full-on Darth Vader commercial with a band dressed in full-on storm trooper outfits. The turkey was no less entertaining.

Jordan said...

Ohhhh a 'vessel.' That is good to know. But doesn't explain why she looked like a yolk coming out. ;)

And Cee-Lo is incredible! Saw Gnarls Barkley open at a Red Hot Chili Peppers concert and they were decked out in Austin Powers: Goldmember garb. Haha. Not as awesome as Star Wars, but still fun.

Kirstin Sockwell said...

All the costumes and "shock factors" are fun, but I do wish we could occasionally still watch "calm" performances. Sometimes I feel that the insane things these people are doing is to distract from lack of talent (not necessarily the people mentioned). It's like if you think about all the work done on voices in studios now. It's so difficult to find a band that actually sounds like they do on the CD live. It's just my opinion though. (I do still enjoy the theatrical performances sometimes!)

John Harris said...

Oh, modern music... What has happened to you? Maybe its a cyclical sort of thing, and its only a matter of time until we get back to shock-rock (you know, like vintage Alice Cooper and Ozzy) and fantasy themed metal bands like Man O War. Or we could skip that one... GWAR is still around though. They should get a Grammy. That would be an interesting night on the red carpet.