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2010 MTV VMAs: FLAMING Hot Ritual 

Note that every show has a theme. Well, there's no doubt about it...The 2010 VMAs was a show for the POLITICALLY INCORRECT, and perhaps one of the most homosexually charged award shows MTV has ever hosted. In some way or another, EVERY performance elaborated on the metaphor of "Lighting up the stage" (some more FLAMING than others). And Lady Gaga was clearly the queen of the night, cleaning up the show with an outlandish 8 moon men! The world has clearly gone GAGA and I LOVE IT! Chelsea Handler, the "politically incorrect" talk show host was the perfect choice to host this year's show, as she ushered in the ceremonies with a dramatic exit (ON THE LAP OF RAPPER RICK ROSS). Let's take a look at the performances, shall we...?

The show opens with a performance by Eminem and Rihannah, where they literally "light the stage on FIRE." Hot. Eminem opens in a pit of darkness, with nothing but a subtle green light to show the way as he comes on stage. The song, "Not Afraid" addresses his attempts to overcome drug abuse; a serious epidemic facing Americans. The performance is concluded by a surprise appearance from Rihannah to sing the song "Love The Way You Lie," about domestic abuse. Merely performing these songs highlights an incorrectness in American popular culture, with music that calls attention to drug use and supports "women beaters." How else do we address these issues without it coming off as "gay"? We perpetuate the images with beats that hit hard and a dope performances. Interesting.

Next up is teen (burning) sensation, JUSTIN BIEBER. By now, everyone is familiar with the coined phrase, BIEBER "FEVER", even KIM KARDASHIAN... who introduced him in such a way that condoned pedophilia. Popular Culutre's crush on Justin Beiber is just down right "politically incorrect." The boy is not legal yet, and still we have the industry whoring him out like a baby prostitute to "USHER" the teens of America into club/techno music before they are even of age. I was especially taken aback when REALLY young children took the stage (some as young as elementary school students), because I then found myself questioning what the cut off age was for "too young" to be thinking about finding love. Clever business tactic, but not very respectable. But what can we do? Justin Beiber is ADORABLE, ANDROGYNOUS with so much swag. AND he plays the drums...that's SICK. And so are we.

Then there was Usher, whose dance moves lit up the dance floor and the stage with a techno light cage. It's funny, because his latest single "DJ Got Us Fallin In Love" reminds me of the matrix effect of techno/club music. Music can actually release serotonin and make you FEEL like you're falling in love (Wait, so you mean to tell me that love is made up?! That ain't right! Exactly). It's taken one step further with his next song OMG, where he's just worshiping women by his admiration of their body parts. It makes him feel like a god-body. In this day and age, no one sees anything wrong with that. It's just a normal part of entertainment. Regardless, it's still politically incorrect and fits in with the theme. Notice how Will.I.Am performed with Nicki Minaj but not Usher? Wonder what that was about. Suspect.

The next performance, Dog Days Are Over by the Florence and the Machine, is up for a more queer theory interpretation. The performance was definitely about Moon Worship, as the "Moon Light" cast a glow on the stage. The manner of the dancing even suggest some occult worship to Luna the moon goddess and dancing under a spell. The title of the song even suggests that it's time for the cats to awaken in the night. Either way, moon worship and pagan rituals are certainly politically incorrect, continuing the theme.

And then there was TAYLOR SWIFT, who had no choice but to acknowledge last year's performance because of the mere anxiety that the media created for this year's performance created. Her song "innocent" was a perfect way to light up the stage, as she emerges from the gloom of last year's embarrassment and still finds a way to shine through it...being "still an innocent." Now, some might say, "That's gay." Well, so was Kanye's drunken "politically incorrect" interruption last year... no matter how true his statement was. The sunrise illuminates the stage at the end of her performance, suggesting that the star rises again. The guitar she used in this performance, gives her a fairy vibe.

Next up, Drizzy Drake featuring Mary J. Blige and Swizz Beatz. In this performance, Drake's name is in FLASHING LIGHTS, lighting up the stage as he descends down the stairs of illumination. Now, I'm going to make a bold statement (since neither Drake or Swizz is with this song), but....I think Heartbreak Drake is gay. How many guys do you know that can list the different tools a woman uses to get "fancy" for events? He says it himself, "you don't do it for the man, men never notice..." Not to mention, his gesticulations suggest a subtle gay flare, but who cares? Not me. Keeping along with the politically incorrect theme (g'head...), the gender-bender question, "oh, you fancy, huh?" promotes effeminate behavior. It's questionable.

Then there was Bruno Mars, B.o.B, and Hayley Williams (my soul mate), with a medley of "Nothin on You"/"Airplanes"/"ONLY EXCEPTION". The stage was first illuminated by a cluster of shooting stars, symbolic of where these performers are in their careers. All with a flamboyant flair, Hayley with her hair, Bruno with his metro-sexuality, and B.o.B. with his exuberant energy. Again, we see the continuation of the politically incorrect theme. Haley concludes their performance with her HIT single "Only Exception," the stage is lit up, or better illuminated, by close network of lantern light bulbs. Hailey's anti-romantic emo music is politically incorrect, on its own.

Next was Lincoln Park with their song "The Catalyst". Their performance took place at an OBSERVATORY, as they sang about the wrongs that can't be undone. This is obviously a worship song (something politically incorrect for an event such as the VMAs) but a worship song for the celestial bodies. Needless to say, a new found glory...a new found religion was lighting up the audience with excitement. Very interesting.

And LAST but not LEAST, KANYE WEST'S PERFORMANCE of his new single RUNAWAY. He opens up his performance with a BRILLIANT WHITE LIGHT...as he plays his own beat. Truly original, and the song is yet to begin. But then his song begins, and the content reveals something else... the song is addressed to one (or all) of the females he's been talking to. He says:

I always find somethin' wrong/
You been puttin' up wit' my shit just way too long/
I'm so gifted at findin' what I don't like the most/
So I think it's time for us to have a toast...

I don't know what it is with females/
But I'm not too good with that, shit/
See, I could have me a good girl/
And still be addicted to them hoodrats/ (notice how "hoodrats" is a good cover up, could be men)
And I just blame everything on you/
At least you know that's what I'm good at...

Let's have a toast for the douchebags,/
Let's have a toast for the assholes,/
Let's have a toast for the scumbags,/
Every one of them that I KNOW/
Let's have a toast to the jerkoffs/
That'll never take work off/
Baby, I got a plan/
Run away fast as you can...

HUH? HE'S GAY!!! And the pretty ballerina's...it's all a PLAY!!! But his suit fit well.

So, in conclusion, from the Glee Cast to the Gay soldiers, to Lady Gaga sweeping up and to Kanye cheering up, this was truly a night to remember. I have a strong feeling this was a ritual in light of queer theory (notice that everyone was wearing white, black, or red again this year) and that we will certainly see some of the themes I discussed shining through in popular culture.

What's Next? A Brief History on Generation X

Where did we come from? Where are we going? Where are we now? These questions have plagued mankind for many generations, and yet, it seems, questions of time and place have never been more relevant than this day and age. Ironically, existential questions are now intrinsically intertwined with those of the collective consciousness (i.e. how did "I" become "we"?). How did we, the generation of great change, arrive at this point in history? Let's site the temperment of this point in Time. We are living through what feels like the craziest times EVER. The word "conflict" is a universally understood term and many people are conflicted. Many things are at odds. But history is a chain of events and the present does not exist without the past. Our generation is a RESULT of the choices and circumstances made by those who made decisions for our parents. Every generation is a solution to the previous generation's limitations.

The Baby Boomers were limited in their scope of vision for the future. Their lack of vision foresaw the invention of madness. The Vietnam War, the Housewife, the Ghetto, the MAN, the Hippie, the Cold War, the advertising, the toys, the sex symbols were all resulting factors of their generation and contributing factors of madness. They severed the very essence of togetherness that  many policy makers had worked so hard to uphold. The "Golden Age of Television" played a destructive game of show and tell with the American people, who, again, found themselves conflicted. Are we the democratic robocops of the world or the intrusive judgmental eye on differing ways of life? Is a soldier a hero or a villain? Is perspective everything? The Baby Boomers were torn apart by the dangerous double edges of such rhetorical questions, but CONTINUED to digress from REAL resolution. 


They had seen too much. Their bubbles had been "POP"-ed by the mainstream. "Popular culture," as it became known, took a note from "the hippies" they once ostracized.The youth started dancing their stresses and pain away with the arrival of the MTV Network and the advent of the music video. Of course, once an independent lifestyle becomes mainstream, it becomes detrimental. The glorification of the vices of "Miami life" confused the first wave of the "MTV generation." They began abusing drugs and desensitcizing relationships by romanticizing romance wiith larger than life stars and surreal movie scenes. It seems that after the war, everyone went "fucking" nuts! The G.I. Joe Act from decades before had created a schism between suburbia and the inner city ghetto, and the affects of popular culture on low-income "hoods" created several subcultures to perpetuate the vicious cycle of capitalism. They overpopulated the already over-crowded inner city and masked the problem by distorting hip hop culture, BLACK culture into something gaudy and materialistic. Meanwhile, the upper class increased their wealth. Big Businesses were on the rise again after an industrial collapse. And together, the classes, with their varying institutions of thought, continued to increase the birth rate...

And birthed GENERATION X. The most CONFUSED generation to date...

We may have discovered AOL and advanced technology, but the Baby Boomers saw TRUE LOVE. For that, they forever have one up on us. Generation X, the "Second Wave" of the MTV generation, is also the ADD generation. We can't focus on any one thing for too long because we have too many options. The Vietnam War, the first televised war, made the parents of Generation X insane. Women were fighting to get out of the kitchen and into the work force. Pedophiles moved into the neighborhoods. Veterans were drinking in cardboard boxes on street corners, raving mad about a system that had forgotten about them. Overworked fathers, still clinging onto the American Dream, became alcoholics. Psychology and Sigmund Freud began diagnosing after the fact. The time span of wars became highly concentrated and people lived in fear of the Soviets, of Communism, of Atomic Energy. Generation X was birthed into a world that worked on fear. Kids were kept indoors and in front of a TV, being programmed to obsess about "things" they didn't need to boost the suffering economy.

The parents of Generation X were being swindled by prospering "Mad Men." The TV became a baby sitter. The baby sitter became a gossip, attentive in all the wrong ways. And the advent of Home Entertainment became a new psychological addiction. Video games, Teen Dramas, Wrestling, Commercials, Hollywood...The Industry! Big TVs, big stereos, COMPUTERS! The Patriarchy, once upheld by the nuclear family, was now upheld by a new type of "digitized" Matrix! Sound waves and high frequencies from all directions blocked people from thinking on their own. Subliminal messages were everywhere and inescapable and the media, with it's negative overcast, pretended to be confused about Columbine, JonBonet Ramsey, Anorexia, armed robbery and unabombers when they perpetuated the insane images to begin with!

And so, Generation X, a generation born into fear, clung onto the fairy tales that the "Disney World" provided them. But cartoons "stopped being polite, and started getting REAL." Then violent. The "anti-hero" was placed on a pedestal as a protagonist, while supermarkets profited. Cartoons were used to advertise foods lacking nutrients and kids were more concerned with the toy in the happy meal than they were with the fat saturated burger. GENERATION X became obsessed with bringing to life a fantasy that wasn't real to begin with. We started making barbies and robots out of ourselves, without even realizing what we were doing! Divorce rates sky rocketed. It seemed the parents of the era of the first wave were late in concluding that fairytales don't exist. They were stubborn and couldn't give up on their American dream. They fooled themselves into believing they were making progress, despite the fact that their minds and their spirits were conflicted.


With depleting resources and down sizing, the Middle Class and their youth became the topic of debate. Politics became entertainment as Liberals and Conservatives took the stage, playing two sides of the same coin. And here we are, the second wave of the final current. A generation with so much potential for change, but no direction. We have no definitive stand points but progression at any cost. Knowledge, science, numbers, are the only universal truths. Religion is not the crazy glue for most families and communities that it once was. 

Today's youth barely pray and are desperately searching for their spirituality, often turning to basic Astrology as means for knowledge of self. So NOW... our generation faces our own set of double-edged questions. Do we progress in an unhealthy direction or regress to aid those suffering at the hands of neglect? Do we continue to seek enlightenment, perhaps to the defeat of morality, or do we remain ignorant behind the veil of comforting fairy tales?

We don't know. We don't give a fizzuck. "SHOTS,SHOTS, SHOTS!!!"

So, we smoke more potent marijuana then the hippies did. So much so, its legalization has become politically debated as a solution to yet another recessing economy.  We self-medicate worse than the first wave so we can escape the fact we're feeling pressured by the uncertainty of the future. And because its fun. Middle school students are drinking. High school students are fainting from intoxication. College students are dying, for the relationships they wished they had or that their parents had. We party to the beat of hypersexuality. Contraception is wide spread and necessary. It's also unhealthy and unnatural. And scientists are claiming that the end of the human being is close, with the nearing of the next stage of our evolution...Homo Evolutus. The World is over populated. China instituted the "one-child rule." Other countries let people STARVE. Water will soon be an expensive commodity and, if we are not careful, the endangerment of the middle class will be REAL. Socialism is coming to America and it's not coincidence that music videos have begun portraying the militia-state.


Learn from your past. We are NOT exempt from drastic change. We are change.... A beat poet was handed a lobotomy for dishing out the truth about the Vietnam War and politics. Now, the beat poets are heroes...and vegetables... Or dead. People should have heeded the warning of the concerned for the unaware.

Unfortunately, it's about time for a civil war.It's about time for a renaissance. It's about time for a reconstruction of the system. It's about time for self-awareness. In 50 years, we will be history. What will they be saying about us? They'll say we lived through terrorism, lived through cloning, lived to see the first Black president. What's next for Generation X? Z...the end, because no one can figure out why.

Coming full circle, how did "I" become "we"? Group think. Help yourself and afford yourself a life. Social entrepreneurs will see the future. They handed you a dream but remember you have your own. Resist brainwashing.

Power: Death of a King, Birth of a G

A powerful position is such a pivotal place, especially in American society. We fight for it, crave it, struggle for it. Power has become the focal point concerning American politics in every aspect. Kanye West's new music video for his song POWER illustrates a working definition for the term and his means for achieving it. Mixed with occult imagery, Kanye has truly made a piece of art.

Similar to the famous painting in the US Capitol, The Apotheosis of Washington...this is a portrait of Kanye West becoming a god. Recognizing major occult symbolism is the first step to understanding the meaning of the portrait. ENLIGHTENMENT is a big theme these days in popular culture. I believe the media is sending a "save yourself" type of subliminal message to encourage the youth of this generation to seek enlightenment as a means for survival and success. So, the video begins with a close up on Kanye with his eyes illuminated, signifying that HE has a light glowing from within himself. As the camera pulls out from the close up, we see that he is standing in the middle of two white pillars, echoing into the background...as if greatness is calling him. After looking up the symbols, I've learned that this is a replica of the gateway to a "new [enlightened] world," represented by the PILLARS OF HERCULES. Kanye, the black pillar in between, is representing himself as an initiate in the Masonic order.

Piece by piece, the camera reveals more symbols...including Kanye's gaudy "Horus" piece. Horus is the god of enlightenment and the god of the sky. This is why the background looks like the scene is taking place in the heavens.The eye of Horus is pretty popular symbol at this point in Time, known as the eye in the center of the pyramid. The symmetry of the portrait represents the duality of realizing enlightenment, and we see that Kanye is standing right at the border between the gates of enlightenment and the chaos of the ordered world. Also, the symmetry alludes to the idea of division. You've heard the mantra before..."DIVIDE AND CONQUER" and Kanye is doing just that by splitting the image right down the middle. GENIUS.

The camera PULLS OUT even more (perhaps because the whole concept of power means 'fuckin' with ya), to reveal what appears to be two horned goddesses equidistant Kanye, on opposing sides. The horned goddesses are ISIS and HATHOR, ancient Egyptian mythological characters, representing black, magical nature and musical liveliness and fertility, respectively. This also represents the very duality of KANYE and the nature of his music. It is also understood that the goddess Isis crowns the Pharaoh, the god of Egypt.

Speaking of kings... the haloed sword floating above Kanye's head, the SWORD OF DAMOCLES,  is symbolic of another aspect of power. It seems that those at the highest echelons of power also stand to fall to the lowest heights...sometimes even to their deaths. It's a symbol of death and rebirth, a ritual of apotheosis. "The death of a king" is a masonic ritual for the 33rd degree of masonry. I believe this to be a direct allusion to the "Taylor Swift incident" at the 2009 MTV VMAs... where Kanye literally put his career in jeopardy in a public forum. KANYE HAS BEEN INITIATED into the 33rd degree of Masonry!

Pulling out further, we see maidens on their heads, revealing more symmetry and more duality. When one of the maidens drops her cloth in the air it floats, as does the water from the water bearer. This represents the defying of gravity, floating, and the achievement of the impossible, while simultaneously alluding to the satanic mantra, "AS ABOVE, SO BELOW." I also think Kanye is being funny, making a joke about how he can get females to do anything...including dropping clothes and getting wet. FUNNY (especially since I  think he's gay, but whatever, "we rollin").

As the full expanse of the portrait is revealed, we see a number of conflicting realities...symbolizing earth and life. This is the ordered chaos I referred to earlier. Sin and sexuality, beauty, lust, conflict, control, mediums... all representations of the realities of human nature (according to Kanye, lol). Kanye's world begins to take SHAPE...as the portrait begins Squaring the Circle, a well-known concept of masonry.This is reinforced with the two conflicting men, fighting with swords...drawing a compass with Kanye at the center (Kanye's a G, yo, lol). He's got people fighting over him.

Courtesy of Vigilant Citizen

Now, if you're asking yourself how you were ever supposed to figure all this out on your own, that is exactly the point. You weren't. ENLIGHTENMENT is the key. Both in the video and in the real world, there is so much going on that it is hard to see the full picture unless it is fully exposed to you. Power is realized by those who seek to understand it. Look up the symbols. Become a symbol.






ALEJANDRO: Video Breakdown

"Don't call my name...don't call my name...ALEJANDRO..." 

So, before the video even dropped...I was in love with this song. I thought it was SO funny. Clearly, on the surface its a song about Gaga rejecting an old Hispanic lover. And Behold, the video drops and GAGA has dropped a bomb again! But what does all this mean? The first time I peeped it, I was like wait...so...nuns...gay Nazi's...uhhh...didn't Madonna do something like this? But then I put my occult/esoteric thinking cap on to try and dissect the video. The interpretation I came up with did not digress too far from what seems to be the main current of themes in music videos today...the deconstruction of organized religion, the establishment of the military state...and of course...Love, Fashion, & good ol' Fashion Brainwashing. Let's see if I can break down my interpretation for you guys: 

Well first, let me just say that this video gives the song crazyyyy dimensions. Kind of like a fashion model...but the song opens with Gaga...talking to her old love...praying...because Alejandro is her euphemism for God...and the song, at large, is discussing her choice to reject her relationship with the Catholic Church, traditional feminine roles and appearances, and perhaps even monogamy.

"I know that we are young/

and I know that you may love me/

but I just can't be with you like this/

Alejandro..."

The opening of the music video establishes a suppressed policed society...perhaps even a gay suppressed society. Two of the men are "wearing" the occult symbols that oppress them in a dark fashion...the pyramid of hierarchy and the "Star of David" (better understood as the occult symbol meaning as above so below). 

Then, Gaga, the "dark ice queen" unveils her eye of illumination, as she oversees the oppressed, dancing 

...after the precession of the death of the one with the sacred heart...(this clearly has religious connotations) but also notice that "Lady Gaga" is a HIGH fashion ice queen...and the sacred heart has a fashion needle piecing through it.

  
The music video juxtaposes feminized men with traditionally machismo men holding guns. The feminized men are dancing and fighting with each other, possibly hinting at inner struggles with their manhood while the machismo militia are being held up by strings (hinting at the fact that they are puppets and they are being controlled)...using their manhood as a weapon.

 

Gaga also playing the nun character, is controlled by strings as well...

"She's got both hands/
In her pocket/
And she won't look at you/
(Won't look you at)
She hides through love/
en su bolsillo/
She got a halo around her finger/
Around you"

The above mentioned lyrics can be interpreted in several ways. On the surface level, we get the sense that the ice queen is speaking about herself in regards to her relationship with "Fernando". You could also say that she is speaking about the effect of the celibate nun married to Jesus, from a Catholic's perspective. You could also say that she is referring to a model...posing as she goes down the runway...captivating the audience with her glow.

The bridge...

As we literally and metaphorically cross the bridge with Gaga, she says...

"You know that I love you boy/

Hot like Mexico, rejoice/
At this point I gotta choose/
Nothing to loose..."

The song is hinting at her making some kind of transition. It could mean several things...her rejection of... a boy, her Catholic upbringing, her male model counterpart(s), tradition, you name it...I think she's realeasing herself of everything sacred, everything traditional. She represents this transition, by shedding off her clothes...and being as "nude and crude" as she possibly can...f*cking with androgyny ...good and bad, male and female, domination and submission for her greater goal...

(its kind of like Jay-Z saying..."I got a million ways to get it...CHOOSE ONE)

The chorus...

"Don't call my name/
Don't call my name, Alejandro/
I'm not your babe/
I'm not your babe, Fernando/

Don't wanna kiss, don't wanna touch/
Just smoke one cigarette more/
Don't call my name/
Don't call my name, Roberto..."

Dare I say, Gaga is calling out to all to secretly reject God...the way she has 3 names for Fernando...hints at a trinity of some sort. There are so many dimensions to the lyrics and songs, she could also be calling for the rejection of oppression, the rejection of attachment to any one person...SO MANY POSSIBLE MEANINGS!! It WORKS (snaps fingers) on so many levels...perhaps that's why she needs a cigarette break.

The next verse...

"She's not broken/
She's just a baby/
But her boyfriend's like a dad, just like a dad/
Draw those flames that burn before him/
Now he's gonna find a fight, gonna fool the bad..."

...continues with the multi-dimensional metaphor. Anyone who has watched America's Next Top Model...can just hear Mr. Jay telling the model to make herself look broken. And further, we all know that the entertainment industry favors youth...you can see the image of a young, beautiful model getting spoiled and using a boy to buy her everything she wants. However, you could also interpret the lyrics on a more sexual manner...as she's still a virgin...in her relationship with God...still yet to be broken down...

So in conclusion...

The video concludes with Gaga completely clothed again, dancing with androgyny. There are flashes of her on a stage...with slicked back hair...a very masculine identity. She also has Madonna's gun-bra...which hints at Gaga paying tribute to themes that Madonna previously discussed in a previous generation..."Release yourself." Gaga has crossed over...in fact...it seems that the nun has transformed into some evil, sexual, satanic high priestess with the inverted cross at her crotch...meaning the perversion of the sacred sacrifice that Jesus made on Calvary.

Essentially...when Gaga swallows the rosary...

she is making herself a god (of fashion, music, sexuality, identity)...she's SAVING herself in an oppressed society.

Gaga is CRAZY. No doubt about it. But you have to learn to take the good with the bad. Undeniably, the video is genius...evil...and entertaining all at the same time. I think the most important thing you can get from the video is that you have to BREAK DOWN the images that the media is giving you. There's nothing to fear if you KNOW and understand what society is feeding you...

The Mass Media Machine: Moving Towards Homo Evolutis 

Introduction

As arguably one of the biggest sensations of popular music to date, Beyonce is a juggernaut taking the world and music industry by storm. The performer has transcended racial lines to make universal music that sells out concert tours spanning the globe. In fact, Beyonce is often self-depicted as a robot because of her remarkable speed for producing and performing music. With the entertainment industry and mass media being the most readable indicator of the social temperament, Beyonce is a manifestation of the realization of an American machine. Her music videos, Ego, Single Ladies, and Video Phone illustrate in greater detail her recognition of becoming an entertainment icon and what it means to maintain such a title while simultaneously being the significant other of the hip-hop mogul, Jay-Z. Despite her larger than life stature, Beyonce is only a small facet of a much greater concept: music as an instrument of influence in persuading the masses into accepting a homogeneous future.

She's A Super Freak

In her music video Ego, Beyonce succeeds in getting multiple points across all in the span of three minutes. The video ostensibly discusses her ego and offers an explanation for her new found diva attitude. But reviewed more holistically, her song and video is alluding to her status as the wife of Jay-Z. In a sense, the music video is more about Jay-Z than anything else. In the chapter, "Get Your Freak On," Patricia Collins discusses the concept of a commodified black culture in mass media, explaining that "Because of its authority to shape perceptions of the world, global mass media circulates images of Black femininity and Black masculinity and, in doing so, ideologies of race, gender, sexuality, and class" (Collins 122). With this being the case, the mass appeal of a video where Beyonce deconstructs her body for the appraisal of her husband aids in the "white normality [becoming] constructed on the backs of Black deviance, with an imagined Black hyper-heterosexual deviance at the heart of the enterprise" (Collins 120). For example, in the song Beyonce says:

"Damn I know I'm killing you with them legs/
Better yet them thighs/Matter a fact it's my smile/
or maybe my eyes/ Boy you a site to see/
kind of something like me."

By praising herself and her husband on a purely physical level, she has bounded her limitations of greatness to physicality and performance. She also becomes linked to Jay-Z using her mass appeal as an advertisement for her husband, the owner of her sexuality. The double entendre of the song's chorus, "It's too big, it's too wide/It's too strong, it won't fit/It's too much, it's too tough/ He talk like this 'cause he can back it up" is giving Jay-Z accolades on his physical endowment. The racial message being put forth for both Beyonce and Jay-Z is that Black hyper-sexuality is the most prevalent pinnacle of success for African-Americans; Jay-Z is idolized for marrying one of the most lusted after woman in the world.

It can be argued that figures like Jay-Z reclaim their power by manipulating Western fascination with their blackness while simultaneously mobilizing African-Americans for their own enslavement to their sexual objectification. In a system that strives to keep the white man at the top of the hierarchy, Beyonce helps to perpetuate black deviance in mass media and keeps the average African-American from aspiring to break free of the luxuries of materialism and commodification.

The Birth of the Machine

The universal appeal of Beyonce and other music stars gives way for the mobilization of the Mass Media American machine. In other words, the individuals who control the music industry have the potential to mobilize the masses for working to install an empire built on Western philosophies. The ability of music to mobilize is evidenced in Beyonce's "Single Ladies" video. The superficial premise of the video is to seek sisterly solidarity as an alternative to the unbalanced relationship. However, the lighting in the video used to reflect this message signifies that seeking sisterly solidarity means embracing your dark side. Along side the lighting of the music video, Beyonce's infamous mechanical hand, something she now wears in almost all of her music videos, simulates a human ability to impose a robotic theology. With a robotic base beat and gracious flare for systematic dance moves, the all-white background for the video suggests the illusion that fun can be found in confinement and nothingness. When Beyonce calls for all her single ladies, she's calling for women to come and find condolence in being in a group. Juxtaposed with the mechanical beat, it implies that women should conform and work under the philosophies of the music industry.

Sarah Bardo discusses in her article,“Material Girl: The Effacements of Postmodern Culture," the bridge between popular culture and the transformation of the human body: " In a culture in which organ transplants, life-extension machinery, microsurgery, and artificial organs have entered everyday medicine, we seem on the verge of practical realization of the seventeenth-century imagination of body as machine." Single Ladies premiered Beyonce's robotic hand and her darker hyper-sexual alter ego, "Sasha Fierce." Sasha Fierce is the icon that promotes the fundamental ideals of a culture where women are a complete facet of the government they live in, valueless because they consist of interchangeable parts. In a sense, they are spiritually dead. Mass media, over all, is the largest perpetuator of bringing to life the idea that perfection imagined is something worthy and almost necessary of recognition.Our generation is witnessing the birth of a universal machine.

Robotic-ism and Homo Evolutis

With videos like her recent single, "Video Phone," Beyonce fantasizes the future, becoming an embodiment of the ideal for the future. She channels pop culture icon, Betty Page in the video, predicting the grim realities of the future ideal and, even further the prediction by Chairman and CEO of Biotechonomy, Juan Enriquez, for the next stages of evolution of our species: Homo Evolutis.

"Enriquez says that humanity is on the verge of becoming a new and utterly unique species, which he dubs Homo Evolutis. What makes this species so unique is that it "takes direct and deliberate control over the evolution of the species." Calling it the "ultimate reboot," he points to the conflux of DNA manipulation and therapy, tissue generation, and robotics as making this great leap possible" (Fisher).

Bordo, in her article, takes the machine body argument one step further by explaining what mass media is bridging the masses to, stating "they reproduce on the same conditions that postmodern bodies practice: a construction of life as plastic possibility and weightless choice, undetermined by history, social location, or even individual biography (Bordo 339). Lady Gaga's feature only emphasizes the crossing of racial boundaries, as she is an Italian-American star who has crossed over into many facets of mass media.

It seems that our generation is moving into a progression of altering the physiological composition of our anatomy. The "Video Phone" music video depicts men in business suits with camera lenses for heads being able to see satisfaction in technology both fiscally and sexually. The video also depicts shirt-less black men with sacks over their heads falling slave to the rhythm of the libido. This presents an interesting socio-economic question for the dynamics of the future: Who bears the burdens of a homogenous identity? It can be argued that popular African-American and other minority international icons have already conformed to the superficial standards of Western influence. An ideal that favors Western appeal eliminates attraction to minorities until they become surreal. It seems that Beyonce and other minority icons bare the burden of representing false images of their races and promoting the desire for something fabricated. In this sense, our generation is moving towards a new species both mentally and physically.

Conclusion

To conclude, as an age that heavily relies on mass media and technology for the realization of our environment, it is important to take time consider what the images flashing around us mean. Popular culture is the biggest indicator of what is relevant and every generation has shown this correlation. I am just as guilty as the next person in falling victim to being consumed with mass media. With materialism as rampant as it is, we've reached a point where technology and the homogeneous machine is almost inevitable. This duality of our nature to want to know as much as we can know does not need to be used as the loss of our humanity. Rather, we should seek to find the balance between maintaining what is already perfection and taking time to appreciate the beauty of new perfections in the making.