I’ve got a hot-off-the-press issue of GQ in my hands, and guess who I see? Mathangi “Maya” Arulpragasam, staring right back at me.
The article is titled “British Rule” (hmm…somehow so familiar, so soon) and it’s a style spread:
The hair, the sounds, the suits. For more than 40 years, the Brits have consistently defined the style of rock’n’roll. In this exclusive decade-spanning portfolio, photographer David Bailey proves that they’ve never looked sharper. [link]
David Bailey is, of course, an important figure in the music-fashion-celebrity matrix, seeing that a film was based on him and all. But who the hell are these musicians? Let’s see…we’ve got Pulp, and Blur. Beatles/Stones mentions: Eight. From the closest thing to a Brit OG (Paul Weller) to the youngest of the new tarts (Razorlight) everyone agrees that the Kinks were bloody marvelous and underappreciated. Sure, whatever….pleez. I could say more, but my fangs are already bloody.
Into this sea of insular uniformity they’ve thrown in the Sepia Idol herself, and she doesn’t disappoint:
DEFINING POP MOMENT: “Late ’80s Ragg and the pirate radio stations. It was great discovering music that never got played on mainstream radio.”
WANTED TO BE WHEN SHE WAS A TEEN: “Muhammad Ali.”
HER LOOK AT THE TIME: “Lace leggings, short hair shaved at the back like Sal-N-Pepa’s, and big hoop earrings.”
UNDERRATED UK ARTIST: “Gomez. I’ve always been made to feel bad about loving them.”
STYLE ICON SHE EMULATED: “Johnny Rotten - it lasted a week!”
The write-up on her, though, is nothing short of hackneyed, exoticizing, misinformed gibberish:
That awkward genre “world music” used to mean “music from a place you need shots to visit.” Globalization has changed that and the genre’s freshest star is British-passport holder Maya Arulpragasam - or M.I.A. The MC and producer epitomizes all the danger and glorious complication of the modern world. Raised in Sri Lanka, she fled that government because of the brutal government crackdown on terrorism. A minor irony is that her father is thought to be an officer in the Tamil Tiger terrorist movement, which inspired that crackdown. A few years ago, the art-school grad started performing the bouncy, grime-inspired tunes that make up her debut, Arular, which mixes unsettling references to terrorist warfare with saucy girl-tales of London street life. A thoroughly modern militant.
Glorious complication? Minor IRONY?! Modern MILITANT??!! This is exactly the sort of “I buy organic dogfood” perspective that MIA has railed against. Did this writer bother to read more than a press release about her? WTF!?
Oh, one more thing. She’s wearing a Gucci dress.
I’ll be in my room, mourning the imminent shelving of Pegasus earrings and home made jumpsuits. Please don’t come after me. I need a moment alone…yah yah heyyyyy?
