Gwen will we see the back of you?

Number one with a Bullet!

Like most people I get corporate spam and being counter suggestible I can’t but help but find double meanings in it. I regularly get an update from ticketmaster the title of which normally reads “Don’t miss…..add name of act I would rather gouge my eyes out with hot spoons than see ie James Blunt/Katie Melua / Justin Timberlake”. Whenever I see this spam my first reaction before deleting it unread is to add “Don’t miss el divo with a crossbow bolt/shot gun/pit full of sharpened sticks…..

Please reorder quoting code D47

So it was with a great deal of “joy” that I received another random spam from Hewlet Packard (who made but won’t repair my laptop). The missive asked me “to get creative with Gwen Stefani”. What a fantastic offer a chance to “mess up” one of music’s most annoying figures. I was crestfallen however to find it just meant I could print out some of Gwen’s terribly precious arty scribbles. (The fact they are being used to sell ink must make Gwen’s “edgy” childlike musing even more meaningful for her don’t you think?)

It’s a shame I can’t “get creative with Gwen” as I might have got chance to find out why she is so cocking popular oh and maybe she could point out in which parallel universe “No Doubt” could possible be classified as a ska band?

Jules Et Jim wasn't that what dumb and dumber was called in Belgium?

One depressing point about the dreadful Gwen came to light when I was working with some design students recently. Usually I would be happy to be made to look like an out of touch old gimmer by cutting edge aching cool 19 years olds but I was shocked to find that if anything I had more avant garde taste them .They we truly mainstream, they had never seen a French film (not even Amelie!), they hardly read or visited galleries and most tellingly they professed a love and respect for Gwen as the most out there Über cool singer around.

I don’t know fully why I can’t bear her, I think it must be that she’s the queen of “shopping pop”, music that is smoothly blended into ringtones, fashion pages, campaigns for ink cartridges but tries to pass its self off with a patina of street cool.
I’m not really complaining about her selling out it’s more about promoting the idea (in this case mainly to girls and young women) that you can only express yourself by how you spend your money.

Is it just me or does everyone else loath Gwen?

Ps. One last sad note my work spellcheck recognised “Timberlake” but not “Ska” and there my friend goes the world.