All artists have a statement to make, just as every opinion columnist has a favorite love-to-hate target.
I have plenty, but one of the top contenders and repeat offenders is corporate sponsorship of music. This practice has garnered vocal support from industry insiders, and I’ve mourned how modern singers rely on big businesses to back their careers.
Leave it to “Mother Monster” to help restore my faith in pop music.
Lady Gaga nixed her upcoming album’s promotional deal with Target on March 8 just weeks after it was announced. Though neither side has openly discussed the post-split specifics, the singer’s publicist told The Advocate magazine, “She and Target didn’t see eye to eye on Target’s policy of political donations and how they affect the LGBT community.”
The venture seemed doomed as a bad romance from its inception: The bisexual Gaga criticized Target’s contributions to conservative, traditional-marriage activists, and the corporation conceded it would have to adopt a more equality-friendly company philosophy.
“Our relationship is hinged upon their reform in the company to support the gay community and to redeem the mistakes they’ve made supporting those groups,” Gaga told Billboard Magazine in February.
Both parties knew the stipulations, but Target ultimately didn’t fulfill its end of the bargain, prompting Gaga to nip the marketing campaign in the bud. The company’s perfunctory news release response said Target was “surprised and disappointed” by the cancellation.
I’m not bashing free enterprise or painting Target as the “big bad capitalist corporation.” A private company can support whatever causes it fancies.
I’m questioning its apparent renege on a professional promise — that’s just bad business.
I’m also not saying “F–k Target! Target hates gays!” Neither is Lady Gaga — and that’s my point.
Gaga proves she’s indeed a lady and a true artist — not a corporate whore — with her rejection of Target and the manner in which it was executed.
However you view her political preferences or flamboyant lifestyle, credit Gaga for sticking to her convictions rather than selling out. Her courageous refusal to compromise her ideals should be commended.
The larger-than-life superstar also sent a refreshingly understated message to the LGBTQ community: Protest can be executed with respect and class.
Such an outspoken, unpredictable diva could’ve blasted Target and mobilized her Little Monsters to boycott the stores. Instead, she has remained diplomatic, proving even business breakups can be civil.
Gaga’s desire to amend the company is also admirable, but a better target of reform would be the increasingly corporation-reliant music industry. Optimally, pop singers should downsize their tours and music videos to prove their longevity when independent of sponsorship, but this equates to a celebrity version of “The Weakest Link.”
Even a classically trained musician-singer-songwriter and interweaver of high and pop culture like Lady Gaga realizes the benefits of big business allies. As a theatrical performer, spectacles are required and expected of her and her genre.
Her two-year “electro-pop opera” Monster Ball Tour delivers, and like any major event that needs financing, it’s corporately funded. She’s also a remarkably artful integrator of product placement.
Lady Gaga’s spurning of firms that contradict her beliefs reflects even more impressively on her talents. A 20-something pop diva with only five years of experience and the clout to drop a major commercial patron is practically unheard of, but she shows her contemporaries how it’s done.
How great art thou, Gaga? Good enough to kick a corporate sponsor to the curb.
Her decision requires social context: Culture shapes the artist, and when said culture is consumerism, a bold business maneuver like Lady Gaga’s speaks louder than her outrageous antics or fashion statements. And that is saying something.
Put your paws up for ethical artists.
Kelly Hotard is a 19-year-old mass communication junior from Picayune, Miss. Follow her on Twitter @TDR_khotard.
 
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Contact Kelly Hotard at [email protected]