BY MIKEY MIGO
Every year, without hesitation, a musician or celebrity will do everything in their power to get people talking about them. Their musical talents will get them in the limelight, but they become "famous" by pulling premeditated publicity stunts, causing premeditated controversy, and pretty much pulling the "look at me! look at me!" card whenever they get lonely or the chance.
Are they trying to stay relevant? Become relevant? Who knows? In a TMZ world, you can be a house hold name just by capitalizing on the moment MORE SO than putting out a quality body of work. With each year that passes in this new free form of social networking, paparazzi media, and abundance of meaningless award shows musicians of mild relevance can EASILY "get their name out there". It's almost as if talent need not apply anymore.
The year 2009 was pretty big for situations like this. Let's take a look at the biggest camera hogging, publicity stunting attention whores of the year…
Honorable Mentions
Lil Wayne, Amy Winehouse, Rihanna, etc…
Out of the three names I listed, only one would most likely be on everyone's list. Amy Winehouse had a great album and got her proper respect for it, but from there it all went downhill. She has completely overshadowed her talent with drug and booze antics. She's still in the news and hasn't put out a new album since. I go with Lil Wayne because he's a caricature of a rapper. He is an embarrassment to hip hop, art in general, and humanity. Lil Wayne is pretty much a cross between a Muppet and Master P (circa early 90s) and suburbanite "thugs" can't get enough of him. The more controversial pick of the bunch is Rihanna. It sucks what happened to her and no matter how much I dislike her and her music, she didn't deserve that. That doesn't change the fact that she's an attention whore. With her emo boy hair cut, gothy looking videos, and her oodles of appearances after the "incident" you shouldn't take her serious. If the said "incident" didn't happen she'd of not been a household name and would still be locked in Jay Z's cellar with Lil Mama, Beanie Sigel, and Memphis Bleek. I love music, but I still can't tell you any of her hit singles besides "Umbrella".
Number Five
Katy Perry
Katy Perry has become some sort of "anti-hero" when it comes to publicity. She'll talk about anything and everyone and throw her two cents in, but when the day is over she's using reverse psycho-ology to utilize this shit for her own spotlight gain. Outside of the "I kissed a girl and I liked it", I couldn't name one other Katy Perry song. I know other singles exists, but for the most part she's currently a glorified one hit wonder. She does seem fun and has potential to be more than a blip on the history of pops radar. Right now, most people know her because of that ONE hit single, her rumors, and the fact that she's with Russell Brand right now. She went from being a good girl Christian singer and then out of nowhere upped her "risqué" appeal. It seems like she shows off her body more than her talents these days. That's what getting her attention.
Number Four
Adam Lambert
I applaud Lambert being open about his sexuality, but to me he's using it as a gimmick. He basically "pulled a Kayne", but worked it precisely to where he could be portrayed as a victim. This country is so out of whack when it comes to sexuality that doing what he did would SURELY cause a "buzz". Do you honestly think there'd not be people bitching and talking about the guy after his openly sexual performance? In a country where the mass won't even let homosexuals marry? Really? I'd like to assume that Adam isn't that naive. This is why I do believe that his actions were calculated. He rips off Bowie's Ziggy make up, hasn't sold more albums than Susan Boyle or David Cool, and has pretty much done nothing but appear on talk shows complaining about not being accepted.
Number Three
The Jackson Family (well, most of them anyway)
The death of Michael Jackson was a sad day in music history and will go down as the biggest music news story of the year on many people's lists. Before Michael tore it up with "Thriller" and the other truckload of smash singles he was part of the group "The Jackson 5". They too provided a truckload of smash singles in their time, but their time never came again. For years before MJ's death, rumors of a Jackson 5 reunion lingered but never bared any fruit. Then once he died, it seemed the Jackson family (well, most of them) sought out ways to capitalize on their brother's death. Hell, even in their home town of Gary, IN, it was rumored that father Joe Jackson was paid five grand plus trans and accommodations to show up to his own son's memorial. Then we tag on the upcoming Jackson reality show. It's petty and sad, but that's just how it is. Once MJ's death news has settled and his memory fades from the media's eye, these sad individuals will be right where they were a few years ago; completely forgotten.
Number Two
Lady GaGa
If you know who Lady GaGa is then you know what I'm talking about. While she's praised by a lot of people as being an "visual artist", she's pretty much a PG Marilyn Manson with a dance beat. Back when Manson was pop-relevant he rode the "sexuality" and "controversy" wagon all the way to the bank. GaGa is doing the SAME exact thing, but not even pretending to have one ounce of substance. Remember the hermaphrodite rumors? That doesn't do ANYTHING for her "artistic vision" or "music". It was blatantly set up to get people talking. Thanks to the mindless masses who spout their opinions of "What does it matter?" or "Eww! She does!", she accomplished her mission tenfold. Whenever she shows up somewhere "news" worthy, it's always the same thing… "oh! She's at it again!" or "look at what she's wearing!" She's a rich kid playing dress up. She went to the same high school as the Hilton sisters and Caroline Kennedy. Seriously!
Number One
Kayne West
This one felt a little obvious, but it is so for a reason. We all know what he did. He jumped on stage and interrupted Taylor Swift's acceptance speech at a sham MTV award show. Some say it was a plan between West and MTV, but regardless Kayne West exhibited the biggest attention whore move of the entire year. It's not like it's an isolated incident. He's thrown tantrums, made empty threats, and has basically created the biggest non-molester heel persona in recent music history.
Who do you think the biggest attention whore in music was in 2009?
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