I Live for the Applause
This week several "news" reports have informed me that Katy Perry's new single "Roar" is for some reason up against Lady Gaga's "Applause" in the court of public opinion. God forbid both songs exist simultaneously in the same world without colliding into each other. We need the competition to keep things spicy, so PICK! PICK NOW! WHICH ONE?
Just kidding, I don't care. I mean, the songs themselves are fine-to-good. Perry's is catchy, Gaga's a bit closer to "art," but really the only grounds for comparison is they are both performed by women. And keeping women pitted against each other is a time-honored way to keep them subjugated.
It's interesting, the last time I even thought to compare the two artists was when I wrote a blog post about the Christian imagery in "Judas" by Gaga and "Who Am I Living For?" by Perry. I lauded both women for their presentations of honest, Christian struggles, for telling the hard truth about holding onto faith in a hostile world. I gave two big thumbs up to a couple celebrities who often catch flack from conservatives, Evangelicals and hipster critics alike.
This time around Gaga (whose song I will focus in on for the purposes of this post) has again touched upon something profoundly true and human, but this time I'm a bit warier of the message, at least taken at face values.
"I live for the applause, applause, applause
I live for the applause-plause
Live for the applause-plause
Live for the way that you cheer and scream for me.
The applause, applause, applause."
Geeze, tell us how you really feel.
I've no doubt any moment now the Christian watchdogs will raise the flag on Gaga's self-centered, attention-seeking worldview. I'm sure they'll tear her apart for it. And I understand the criticism to an extent; living for the applause, for the screams and cheers, doesn't come across as noble. Not much to celebrate.
The trick is, while Lady Gaga might be the only one of us brave enough to admit it, we all live for the applause. We all go about our days in a perpetual state of performance, each trying to earn our place and prove our worth by beating out our peers for attention. In a culture of instant and persistent validation, we lose ourselves if we go too long without it.
And while it has been, of late and perhaps for some time, American Evangelicalism's self-appointed task to blame and judge the larger culture, I will try my best to skirt that tendency by offering instead a bit of solidarity: I, too, live for the applause. I feed off it. I feel like I need it, feel empty without it. It seems my worth is so inextricably enmeshed with how others, peers, relatives, friends and strangers perceive and approve of me. I need somebody to tell me I'm good at what I do, fun to be around, funny. Lord help me I need to hear I'm funny.
Not such a flattering confession, I know. But it's true, from everyone to me and Lady Gaga.
Better an ugly truth than a beautiful lie.
Better an R-rated truth than a G-rated lie. Always.
So, we live for the applause, applause, applause. It seems to me that each of us dances through life silently begging for approval, for claps, cheers and whistles. There is no real point in shaming anybody for it, least of all for being honest about it. Still, one has to wonder if there might be a better way. Maybe there's a way to experience that same sense of belonging, or perhaps a superior one, outside the context of external, utterly contingent human approval.
Maybe humans ache not for the temporary high of approval, but for the lasting embrace of love.
By some providence, a favorite author of mine Donald Miller tweeted a picture this week of the author's note to his upcoming book. See how he speaks to this same issue in a way I could only ever hope to:
Just kidding, I don't care. I mean, the songs themselves are fine-to-good. Perry's is catchy, Gaga's a bit closer to "art," but really the only grounds for comparison is they are both performed by women. And keeping women pitted against each other is a time-honored way to keep them subjugated.
It's interesting, the last time I even thought to compare the two artists was when I wrote a blog post about the Christian imagery in "Judas" by Gaga and "Who Am I Living For?" by Perry. I lauded both women for their presentations of honest, Christian struggles, for telling the hard truth about holding onto faith in a hostile world. I gave two big thumbs up to a couple celebrities who often catch flack from conservatives, Evangelicals and hipster critics alike.
This time around Gaga (whose song I will focus in on for the purposes of this post) has again touched upon something profoundly true and human, but this time I'm a bit warier of the message, at least taken at face values.
"I live for the applause, applause, applause
I live for the applause-plause
Live for the applause-plause
Live for the way that you cheer and scream for me.
The applause, applause, applause."
Geeze, tell us how you really feel.
I've no doubt any moment now the Christian watchdogs will raise the flag on Gaga's self-centered, attention-seeking worldview. I'm sure they'll tear her apart for it. And I understand the criticism to an extent; living for the applause, for the screams and cheers, doesn't come across as noble. Not much to celebrate.
The trick is, while Lady Gaga might be the only one of us brave enough to admit it, we all live for the applause. We all go about our days in a perpetual state of performance, each trying to earn our place and prove our worth by beating out our peers for attention. In a culture of instant and persistent validation, we lose ourselves if we go too long without it.
And while it has been, of late and perhaps for some time, American Evangelicalism's self-appointed task to blame and judge the larger culture, I will try my best to skirt that tendency by offering instead a bit of solidarity: I, too, live for the applause. I feed off it. I feel like I need it, feel empty without it. It seems my worth is so inextricably enmeshed with how others, peers, relatives, friends and strangers perceive and approve of me. I need somebody to tell me I'm good at what I do, fun to be around, funny. Lord help me I need to hear I'm funny.
Not such a flattering confession, I know. But it's true, from everyone to me and Lady Gaga.
Better an ugly truth than a beautiful lie.
Better an R-rated truth than a G-rated lie. Always.
So, we live for the applause, applause, applause. It seems to me that each of us dances through life silently begging for approval, for claps, cheers and whistles. There is no real point in shaming anybody for it, least of all for being honest about it. Still, one has to wonder if there might be a better way. Maybe there's a way to experience that same sense of belonging, or perhaps a superior one, outside the context of external, utterly contingent human approval.
Maybe humans ache not for the temporary high of approval, but for the lasting embrace of love.
By some providence, a favorite author of mine Donald Miller tweeted a picture this week of the author's note to his upcoming book. See how he speaks to this same issue in a way I could only ever hope to:
I think sometimes we crave God's applause too, because that's how we're used to sussing out worth in our human interactions. The trick is, listen all you want, I doubt you'll hear it. And while you are busy waiting for applause you may well miss the rich, lavish love God would rather pour into you if you would only raise up your hands up to receive it.
The applause game is a no-win situation. Fame is hollow and crumbles when you hold onto it too tightly. Celebrity is a fragile facsimile of belonging. Love, on the other hand, is stronger the more you squeeze it, and more abundant the more you stretch out your arms to give it away.
As a youth pastor one said to me, let God love you.
You're worth it.
1 John 4:7-12
Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
2 Corinthians 12:9
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
Great stuff. I wonder if the applause (or whatever it was) that Miley Cyrus got after her VMA concert was worth it. Sometimes, attention of any kind is all we want, but at the end of the day, we might have just made of fool of ourselves. Either way, it never makes us feel better about ourselves.
ReplyDeleteThe only way is via love. Great post.