Now I don’t normally ask a lot from people, but please could you do this one thing for me: The next time you’re on a night out and see a man wearing a bowtie, hit him with the nearest blunt object you can find. I’m not even joking on this one: beer bottle, chair leg, hammer – anything capable of ending his evening early will do.
That might seem like a grand request, I’m aware, but it is a serious concern. Did you know that one in four young Britons suffer from eccentricity? What’s worse, failure to stop this sort of problem early will only lead to complications. It may start off with a bowtie or novelty thick-rimmed glasses, but that’s just the beginning. A week later they arrive wearing a beret or a fob watch, then before you know it you’re standing next to a man in nothing but a cape drinking tequila with a milk chaser.
One of the main problems with the idea of eccentricity seems to be that no-one really knows exactly what it means:
"Oh. my. God. You know that guy Dan from my Office? Yah? he like, told the funniest joke today. He’s so, like, ‘eccentric’, you know?”
“Dude! totally scored with this hot chick last night. Brought her back to mine and she had this bag full of, well, ‘equipment’. Yeah, it was awesome, she was so, like, ‘eccentric’ in bed. Quick question though bro, no chance you’ve got a hacksaw handy and about an hour free to help a friend out?”
“You know that guy who chews bricks on Croydon high Street? Yeah, the one who tried to piss into that pram while the mum sprinted away, desperately trying to save her baby’s dignity? Yea! I love that guy! He’s just so ...‘eccentric’.”
Without wanting to look like a Year 9 English essay here, I’m going to throw a little definition your way (yeah, that’s right. I own a dictionary. Don’t act like you’re not impressed):
‘Eccentric (adj.) - odd or capricious in behaviour or appearance; whimsical.’
So on a basic level, ‘eccentric’ just means anything odd or strange. The problem with the concept, however, is that in recent years people have given the word positive connotations. Eccentricity is often associated with intellectual genius or extreme creativity, where a person’s eccentricities are just an expression of their unique intelligence. In this sense an eccentric is a person working on a higher frequency: their output is clearly remarkable, but their method looks like madness to Tom, Dick and Harry because it is so far ahead of their thinking. A prime example of this would be Albert Einstein, who smoked cigarette butts off of the floor and enjoyed sailing most when there was no wind, just for the ‘challenge’. He undoubtedly had his quirks, but the man was a genius, icon and all-round scientific Mac Daddy.
Believe it or not, I’m not writing just to clarify the meaning of a word: I save that sort of thing for my Friday nights, which I spend crying hysterically while correcting stranger’s spelling mistakes on YouTube. The reason that the notion of eccentricity is important at the moment is the way that it is radically shaping the modern music industry. The world of music has always been known to test the waters of what is considered as ‘normal’: from Ozzy Osbourne’s on-stage hunger to Elvis’ swoon-inducing thrusts, setting the pulses of conservative middle America racing. However, in recent years there is one artist who hasn’t been content to just push the boundaries of normality: she’d rather barge them down with a twelve-foot phallus made of raw meat and front page headlines.
I am, of course, referring to Lady Gaga. Since entering the pop arena in 2008 with her debut single ‘Just Dance’, the singer has been involved in a constant whirlwind of headlines, controversy, praise and gender speculation. Her talents as a writer are hard to refute: aside from the eight top ten singles and lorry-load of awards that she has won in the last two years, Gaga (real name Stefani Germanotta) has also written hit songs for the likes of Pussycat Dolls, Fergie and Britney Spears. Musically, she is clearly a talented and aware artist, making catchy songs which are primed and ready for dancefloors worldwide.
I’ll never whisper these words in public, but when Gaga first released her debut album, ‘Fame’, I was a closet fan. The songs were danceable, well produced affairs and it was hard not to admire her achievements. However, after two years of constant controversy, I reached my breaking point. It came at a house party, and I’ll admit there was a Shirley Temple or two in my system. Some berk had left the TV on a music channel and the extended video for Gaga’s ‘Telephone’ came on the screen. If you haven’t seen it yet, please feel free to enjoy the nine and a half minute mindfuck right now:
So I stood there with a friend, transfixed by the distinct images thrown around throughout the Tarantino-inspired video. As cigarette sunglasses and Beer can hair-rollers flashed past my drunken eyes, I wondered what had become of my brain. There were clearly hidden messages, metaphors and social symbols being flashed in bright Technicolor, but I couldn’t grasp the connections: it was like Stephen Fry had just been outsmarted by the chubby girl from Jersey Shore. With two degrees between us, my friend and I were still baffled and unable to see the hidden meaning clearly lurking just underneath the surface, so I went home and did what any self-respecting graduate would have done: Googled it.
There are many various and contradicting theories on the images in Gaga’s ‘Telephone’ video, and some clearly intelligent people have spent hours deconstructing her complex system of symbols. Interpretations differ greatly: Some believe that it is a remark on postmodernism, some see it as a comment on materialism and the American consumerist society, while one man (clearly Dan Brown fan) goes into a LOT of depth declaring that the video is a comment on mind control, where Gaga uses secret signs to show her allegiance the illuminati. But I still wasn’t convinced: I continued searching until I came across Gaga’s own comment on her intentions behind the highly controversial video:“I really believe in the power of visuals and sometimes visions come to me and I know I have to do them. It doesn’t really matter if it makes sense or if it doesn’t make sense.”
Glad we cleared that one up then. Here was me, worrying that actions, ideas and images had some sort of consequences in the real world, but apparently I was wrong. “Oh look there’s a red light. Oh, it doesn’t matter, it’s just a distinct visual with no real meaning, keep driving. That blood on the windshield? Nope, it’s not important, just a meaningless image...don’t you just love it?” In the words of Peep Show’s Mark Corrigan: “That’s the way things are these days. Let’s just put a zip here, a swastika there, why not? Who knows what these things were used for? More importantly, who cares?”.
Lady Gaga didn’t get to seven million followers on Twittter by being completely naive about her public image. As a performer she is incredibly self-aware and undoubtedly knows the true potential of the absurd. By adopting the persona which works on the social extremes (especially in terms of fashion), Gaga is pushing her audience towards making a choice: they must decide if they perceive her as a hyper-creative eccentric, working at a level of genius which is incomprehensible to their tiny minds, or if she’s just mental in the face. It is no doubt attention-grabbing stuff, and while it should be stated that many, many people see through the veil, Gaga is successfully adopting the eccentric’s mantra: by exceeding social normalities, normal people are being perceived as incomprehensible and therefore assumed to be working on a genius level.
With her immense success over the past few years, Gaga has also inevitably spawned another generation of female artists who, instead of relying on talent alone, are relying on forced eccentricities to push them above the crowd. A quick look at the likes of Paloma Faith, Ilia Darlin, Ke$ha and Jessie J will show that the culture of being intentionally anomalous will in no way die out soon. However, these artists are within the safe confines of a television screen or computer monitor. The real problem starts when the concept bleeds down into high streets, pubs and bars, like when your mate Dave orders his pint and sits down wearing a beret and a monocle. Now you know Dave well: he’s got a GNVQ in banana-peeling and once ate fox poo for $4.76, but suddenly your friends treat him like Stephen Hawking just because he dresses like a maniac.
Don’t be fooled: next time you see a man wearing a bow-tie, please clobber him for me.
Despite the complaints, it’s not possible to oppose eccentricity on the whole. The world would be a sadder place if it hadn’t been for the genuine intellect hiding behind the quirky personas of Dylan Moran, Prince, Michael Jackson, David Bowie, and Oscar Wilde, for example. I’ll end this piece with one of the most eccentric pop artists of the last twenty years, and a woman who is (in all probability) the inspiration for the way Lady Gaga lives. Bjork is perceived by many as an out-and–out mentalist, telling people to be quiet while looking like a librarian on acid. In this haunting and brilliant rendition of ‘'Jóga', a track from her 1997 album 'Homogenic', Bjork proves that it is possible to hide true talent behind an eccentric mask.
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