can you handle what i'm 'bout to do / 'cos it's about to get rough for you
Fuck it, this post needs to happen.
You guys? I CAN'T STOP WATCHING ADAM LAMBERT'S "FOR YOUR ENTERTAINMENT". Or as I call it: the video for the "Yes, Master" song.
No, not the live "watch me make out with the bass player" performance at the AMAs. The official video.
Here's the thing: I've never watched AI, don't like reality shows, never heard anything else by this guy, it's not exactly my preferred brand of pop music, etc. etc. But then this video got posted by half my f-list and... OK. At first I was amused by the eyeliner and the cane-wielding. Then I was like, I think I need to see that again because, uh, the pretty people who obviously didn't get hired for their resumes are hilariously awkward dancers. And that snake is really fucking funny. And the whole Berlin decadence aesthetic is kinda pretty. And... at some point I realized that was just bullshit.
You know how, in the mainstream media, there are no positive representations of sexually aggressive gay men? Let alone REALLY TOPPY sexually aggressive gay men?
YEAH.
Aaaaaand this is why the video ROCKS. And why the title of the song can't be interpreted too literally - sure, on the highest meta level he IS entertaining us (and very well!) with the whole glammed up S&M-flavored show on display, but the person addressed in the song is NOT about to be freakin' entertained. Terrified, probably; thrilled, certainly; fucked through the mattress and into nirvana while possibly going a bit insane in the process - sure sounds like it. But damn if the line "I'm here for your entertainment" isn't verrrrrry much tongue in cheek, and I really love that.
Speaking of meta, our narrator in leather could very well be singing about the public expectation that a gay man be represented as "soft and sweet" a.k.a. unthreatening in any romantic context - only he's decided to turn that expectation on its ass and give it a good, hard lashing. He's the puppet master, folks, and he's here to make sure we watch, acknowledge, and learn to enjoy it. (We're just... ahead of the curve on this one, ladies.) And damn, the authority is unmistakable. That's why my favorite moments in the choreography are the hand motion which "drops" everybody around him to the floor around 1:05, and a similar moment around 2:00 with the cane - oh, THE CANE. The rest, with the grinding and the grabby hands, looks like something he's decided to tolerate for the time being... because, despite the perfect eye makeup and THOSE PANTS, he's not there to be objectified. (That's everybody else's role.)
So, he is most certainly NOT Britney, who's elevated self-objectification to an art form, expressing own desire only in terms of what she'd allow to be done to her because of it. And I've seen comparisons to Lady Gaga, but I feel conflicted about much of her stuff. I think he's closer to Madonna who's always had the definitive "want-take-have" attitude, even in performances in which she was supposed to play a sexual object. You just can't turn that stuff OFF, you know? And this guy... this guy goes through the motions of making a video, including the cheesy singing-to-the-camera thing and the pop icon smirking and the cane-humping, snake-fondling business, but... damn, on some level, he looks like he REALLY FUCKING MEANS IT. Like this is a very public, very stylized performance about something private, and that's what sells the show.
Uh, how do I put this... you need at least a little bit of insider knowledge to sing about NO SAFEWORDS with such comfortable authority in your posture as you manhandle the people around you, ya know? And, yes, for all I know, he might be using Velvet Goldmine as a how-to career manual and that's where the song and the video came from; but when it comes to even the lighter forms of S&M? Some things are not easy to fake. (Especially since, um, he doesn't seem to be that good of an actor.)
In conclusion: HOT DAMN.
(I am not requesting fic recs. NO, I AM NOT. ...yet.)
P.S. Ahahahaha - so in my repeated viewings, I kept thinking that the glass thing on the bar is, like, the cutest lube dispenser ever... until about 6 viewings in, when it finally occurred to me that it was for BOOZE. *facepalm*
You guys? I CAN'T STOP WATCHING ADAM LAMBERT'S "FOR YOUR ENTERTAINMENT". Or as I call it: the video for the "Yes, Master" song.
No, not the live "watch me make out with the bass player" performance at the AMAs. The official video.
Here's the thing: I've never watched AI, don't like reality shows, never heard anything else by this guy, it's not exactly my preferred brand of pop music, etc. etc. But then this video got posted by half my f-list and... OK. At first I was amused by the eyeliner and the cane-wielding. Then I was like, I think I need to see that again because, uh, the pretty people who obviously didn't get hired for their resumes are hilariously awkward dancers. And that snake is really fucking funny. And the whole Berlin decadence aesthetic is kinda pretty. And... at some point I realized that was just bullshit.
You know how, in the mainstream media, there are no positive representations of sexually aggressive gay men? Let alone REALLY TOPPY sexually aggressive gay men?
YEAH.
Aaaaaand this is why the video ROCKS. And why the title of the song can't be interpreted too literally - sure, on the highest meta level he IS entertaining us (and very well!) with the whole glammed up S&M-flavored show on display, but the person addressed in the song is NOT about to be freakin' entertained. Terrified, probably; thrilled, certainly; fucked through the mattress and into nirvana while possibly going a bit insane in the process - sure sounds like it. But damn if the line "I'm here for your entertainment" isn't verrrrrry much tongue in cheek, and I really love that.
Speaking of meta, our narrator in leather could very well be singing about the public expectation that a gay man be represented as "soft and sweet" a.k.a. unthreatening in any romantic context - only he's decided to turn that expectation on its ass and give it a good, hard lashing. He's the puppet master, folks, and he's here to make sure we watch, acknowledge, and learn to enjoy it. (We're just... ahead of the curve on this one, ladies.) And damn, the authority is unmistakable. That's why my favorite moments in the choreography are the hand motion which "drops" everybody around him to the floor around 1:05, and a similar moment around 2:00 with the cane - oh, THE CANE. The rest, with the grinding and the grabby hands, looks like something he's decided to tolerate for the time being... because, despite the perfect eye makeup and THOSE PANTS, he's not there to be objectified. (That's everybody else's role.)
So, he is most certainly NOT Britney, who's elevated self-objectification to an art form, expressing own desire only in terms of what she'd allow to be done to her because of it. And I've seen comparisons to Lady Gaga, but I feel conflicted about much of her stuff. I think he's closer to Madonna who's always had the definitive "want-take-have" attitude, even in performances in which she was supposed to play a sexual object. You just can't turn that stuff OFF, you know? And this guy... this guy goes through the motions of making a video, including the cheesy singing-to-the-camera thing and the pop icon smirking and the cane-humping, snake-fondling business, but... damn, on some level, he looks like he REALLY FUCKING MEANS IT. Like this is a very public, very stylized performance about something private, and that's what sells the show.
Uh, how do I put this... you need at least a little bit of insider knowledge to sing about NO SAFEWORDS with such comfortable authority in your posture as you manhandle the people around you, ya know? And, yes, for all I know, he might be using Velvet Goldmine as a how-to career manual and that's where the song and the video came from; but when it comes to even the lighter forms of S&M? Some things are not easy to fake. (Especially since, um, he doesn't seem to be that good of an actor.)
In conclusion: HOT DAMN.
(I am not requesting fic recs. NO, I AM NOT. ...yet.)
P.S. Ahahahaha - so in my repeated viewings, I kept thinking that the glass thing on the bar is, like, the cutest lube dispenser ever... until about 6 viewings in, when it finally occurred to me that it was for BOOZE. *facepalm*