Pop Polymaths (he said poly)

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

katstevens suggested that I ask about pop stars who do OTHER THINGS. I think this is a fine area of study. First of all, let's find out who they are:

[Poll #1034227]

It seems to be that being a pop star makes it less likely that people will take your other things seriously (or will assume that you will be bad at them). Is this fair - and is it prejudice or precedent that causes it? Has anyone actually read Madonna's children's book? Is anyone going to see Daft Punk's robot movie in the serious expectation that it will be good?

USW!

Comments

Re: Paris

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Oh and Joni Mitchell I guess. I wonder what made J-Lo's multi-branding so newsworthy? I remember it being a massive and novel thing at the time.

Re: Paris

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Well, she was a hugely successful pop star and actual Oscar nominee within a year or so of each other - so concentration and intensity of success I guess.

Re: Paris

[braisedbywolves.livejournal.com]

I think it was a surprise because it bucked the narrative - Actress gets music producer boyfriend, decides to release album, hype machines lovingly rolled into place... and then IT'S ACTUALLY QUITE GOOD?

Re: Paris

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

obv it's good but I don't think this has ever been acknowledged - I don't remember any J-Lo single getting particular critical acclaim across the board, in fact she's more often mocked (unjustifiably) for her voice and tendency towards sounding bored.

Re: Paris

[sbp.livejournal.com]

"unjustifiably"?!

Re: Paris

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Her voice isn't THAT bad, nothing a little autotune can't fix, and her songs are mostly GREAT.

Re: Paris

[blue-russian.livejournal.com]

In the US, at least, I think people take J-Lo quite seriously on both fronts. Somehow she managed to do the "In fact I always *wanted* to become a singer, the acting thing just broke for me." story believably. And although she's become incredibly tiresome after several years on the publicity circuit (anyone remember those stories about her 4ss being insured?) her first two albums were taken pretty seriously, certainly on a completely different level than Madonna ever received.