Posted by Katherine St Asaph on 07/17/2011 at 2:20 PM News

The Popdust Files: Beef, feuds, lady gaga, madonna

Ugh, it pains us even to use the scare quotes on “feuds,” or to write yet another post about the outrage, OUTRAGE! over one famous person saying something about another famous person that isn’t “Why, this person is famous and quite good at it! I’d say more, but I am also famous and want to be quite good at it, so how is that ninety-degree weather, anyway?”

Sigh, here we go. Lady Gaga is now the target of sporadic negative-ish comments as well as eggs.

MORRISSEY:
Look, the lengthy Billboard interview starts out “Unsurprisingly, Steven Patrick Morrissey has a bone to pick.” There are a lot of feudees. They include record labels, the music business in general, the touring business and himself, which you can read about at Billboard‘s site. Our site cares about this one question:

There are dramatic figures like Lady Gaga reigning in pop music, but do you think it’s anything new or different from what you’ve seen throughout your tenure in this world?

I say without bitterness that it is nothing new. I like the idea of women who are in full control, but I am tired of seeing singers who cannot deliver a song without the aide of seven hundred and fifty frenzied dancers assuming the erotic. It is actually fraudulent, and the exact opposite of erotic. Edith Piaf was seven inches high, always wore a modest black dress, and sang without stage sets or lights, and her voice roared above the wind, with the most incredible powers of communication. I’d like to see McDonna [Madonna] attempt that.

Here you go, Morrissey:

BETTE MIDLER:
Let’s give Bette Midler some credit, too. She’s a living legend, and she had a point about the whole wheelchair-mermaid thing. This is her point:

I’m not sure @ladygaga knows that I’ve performed my mermaid in a wheelchair for millions of people — and many of them are still alive…..
Dear @ladygaga if you think a mermaid in a wheelchair seems familiar-it’s because it is!You can see it on youtube 24/7-with ME performing it
Dear @ladygaga Ive been doing singing mermaid in a wheelchair since 1980-You can keep the meat dress and the firecracker tits-mermaid’s mine

It’s sad how she had to @include Lady Gaga three times; the subtext is so clearly “please read this. Lady Gaga.” Which she should! It’s good to respect your predecessors, especially when you’re doing homages to them that people kind of just have to assume are homages. And if that respect has to be gotten via @mention, well, how would she hear? When would she learn? How would she know?