Ladies of US pop winning with wacky, weird tactics (AP)

NEW YORK – Whether it is being encased in an egg or wearing slabs of meat, there never is a question whether Lady Gaga will make a spectacle of herself at an awards show; the only question is just what kind.

So when the MTV Video Music Awards came around this year, Gaga did not disappoint. Although she dressed somewhat conservatively in short black hair, a dingy white T-shirt, a black blazer and pants, it was whom she embodied that made headlines: a man, whom she called Jo Calderone. The temporary gender switch marked yet another act in Gaga's strange pop odyssey.

What actually made the VMAs so noteworthy, however, was that Gaga was not the only oddity who graced the stage. In one corner there was Katy Perry, sporting pink hair and a giant yellow cube on top of her head. And then there was Nicki Minaj, who wore a colorful surgical mask, a rainbow-colored wig, a mini-tutu made out of cubic designs, with an attached string of stuffed toys.

It was not too long ago that pop's top ladies were likely to try to out-sex each other, from plunging necklines to gyrating stage performances.

But Gaga, Minaj and Perry are part of a group of contemporary pop stars who are finding success by defying the conventional definition of sexiness with oddball tactics and wacky outfits, recalling pop stars from the past, from Cyndi Lauper to Annie Lennox to Grace Jones.

"All three are emblematic of the millennial generation, who are constantly remixing and reshaping their identities," said MTV president Stephen Friedman, speaking about Perry, Gaga and Minaj.

"It used to be all about the jocks and the beautiful women, and now the nerd is the new jock," Friedman continued. "The currency is about being smart and funny and different, and I think that's what they're playing into: (it) is how can they be different than what you can expect the day before."

Ke$ha, who was absent from this year's VMAs, has also rebelled against the norm. She burst on the scene with her sideshow style singing about brushing her teeth with Jack Daniels; she now wears a necklace of her fans' teeth. She wears her disheveled look with pride: At last year's VMAs, Minaj sported a fitted dress and pink wig, Perry also sported a sexy dress with pink and purple highlights in her hair. Ke$ha rocked a trash bag.

"People are like, `Oh, maybe you should tone the homeless thing down?' It's just not going to happen," Ke$ha said from Council Bluffs, Iowa, where she performed her "Get $leazy Tour." "I like looking homeless sometimes. I like looking like a drunken grandma sometimes. I like looking like a tribal warrior from the future sometimes, and I'm not going to stop playing with my style for anybody."

Being the "weird" girl has definitely enhanced these ladies' platinum profiles. But Gaga, Minaj and Perry did not always appear to be oddballs.

Gaga started off with a "Jersey Shore"-esque tan and straight blonde extensions. The weirdest part of her look was oversized yet trendy sunglasses. Her music matched her style: Her debut CD, "The Fame," is filled with mostly safe-sounding pop songs that are club-friendly and radio-ready.

As Gaga became edgier (her "Paparazzi" video featured her dancing in crutches), so did her music. Her follow-up disc, "The Fame Monster" featured songs like the "Bad Romance," with bizarre lyrics like, "I want your ugly, I want your disease." The photo that graces her latest album, the top-selling "Born This Way," features her as a hybrid of a person and a motorcycle; on it, she sings of Judas, of being a government hooker, and in German.

"You look at Lady Gaga and she's reinvented herself more times in one year than Madonna did in 20 years," Friedman said.

Minaj evolved from an image as an oversexed street rapper to an animated R&B-pop singer and a bona fide pop star, with a penchant for Barbies and wild outfits and wigs that make her seem cartoonish, by design. Though Perry's first breakout hit was "I Kissed a Girl," the singer has infused her sexuality with an often silly, farcical persona that makes her an accessible, fun .

Ke$ha says their wackiness is a reflection of their confidence and individuality.

"I feel like the way I dress and the way I speak and the way I sing and the kind of music I make: it all comes from me," she said. "I'm connected to people because I'm not just parading around like I'm the sexiest thing on the planet, 'cause I'm not."

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Online:

Lady Gaga: http://www.ladygaga.com/

Nicki Minaj: http://mypinkfriday.com/

Katy Perry: http://www.katyperry.com

Ke$ha: http://www.keshasparty.com

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Mesfin Fekadu covers entertainment for The Associated Press. Follow him at http://twitter.com/musicmesfin

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Rats and recycling: Wacky Wagner at Bayreuth (AP)

BAYREUTH, Germany – Wagner fans take note: if you like your opera pure, two productions at this year's Bayreuth festival are not for you.

But come, if you have a love of the experimental. While Tannhaeuser fails in attempts to move from the traditional to the trendy, Lohengrin makes that leap of faith. And both productions reflect directing and staging audacity, even if only Lohengrin succeeds in being both bold and believable.

Tannhaeuser is the bigger buzz this year — less because it's a new production, more because of its audacious directing and stage effects that relegate the opera to a supporting role.

Already torn between the quest for carnal pleasure and platonic love that will prove his undoing, the bard Tannhaeuser must deal this year with the additional challenge of his backdrop, compliments of director Sebastian Baumgarten and stage designer Joep van Lieshout.

Instead of the serene pasture or noble hall, the production seen Monday plays out on a factory floor of tanks and connecting pipes depicting a closed cycle of sustenance at its most banal; food, alcohol — and the excrement produced which then is used to fuel the system.

It's enough to drive a person to drink — and extras dressed as factory workers do, occasionally tapping the big red alcohol tank. Some of them earn their keep in the performance seen Monday as members of the choir.

The others just clutter an already messy stage.

In a further challenge to the audience, the love nest where Tannhaeuser trysts with Venus between excursions to the "other woman" — the virginal Elisabeth — is bedlam in a cage that occasionally rises from the factory floor.

Tannhaeuser and Venus rub shoulders with mating ape-like creatures, and giant tadpoles spawned in their cesspool slither and wiggle across the stage. The point seems clear — yuck!

But at the end, Venus bears Tannhaeuser's child, muddying Wagner's original message that virtue triumphs over vice.

All in all, "too much, too much!" — Tannhaeuser's words reflecting his disgust at this orgiastic lifestyle also apply to the oversize liberties taken by Baumgarten and van Lieshout that scuttle this production.

But not all that is modern is maudlin this year at Bayreuth.

Lohengrin, another Wagnerian tale of medieval tragic love, gets yanked into the 21st century by director Hans Neuenfels and stage designer Reinhard von der Thannen — and is more interesting for it.

Instead of knights in armor, man-size rats with glowing red eyes populate the stage, an experimental laboratory where minders in scrubs and face masks prod and push characters on and off stage.

Irritating at first, the conceit works by meshing with Wagner's opera instead of conflicting with it. The rodents are a rat-eat-rat horde — like the medieval men at arms in the original version whose loyalties shift with every development.

And instead of muddying the plot, like Baumgarten, Neuenfels advances it. Over the more than three-hour staging, the rats slowly turn into humans, transformed perhaps by the aura of Lohengrin, the knight blessed by god, who defeats evil, but is ultimately defeated by the inconstancy of Elsa, his beloved.

A visual and intellectual pleasure — accompanied Tuesday by singing that ranged from sub-par to superb.

Astrid Weber, a last-minute stand in for Annette Dasch, failed to convince as Elsa, Lohengrin's paramour. While powerful, her voice had no center and lacked in range, forcing Weber to glide into the top notes. Her vibrato was irritating and her enunciation fuzzy.

Klaus Florian Vogt was in brilliant contrast as Lohengrin, effortless in delivery and diction, his voice so fluid and natural that it almost seemed untrained — no overreaching, no straining.

Petra Lang as Ortrud was another highlight, using her powerful mezzo and considerable dramatic skills to convincingly portray Elsa's evil counterpart, whose scheming ways lead to Elsa's doom. Also good: Georg Zeppenfeld as King Heinrich; Tomas Tomasson as Telramund and Samuel Youn as the Herald.

Conductor Andris Nelsons and choir leader Eberhard Friedrich provided powerful orchestral and choral backing to the soloists, masterfully balancing Wagner's imperatives of musical totality.

For Tannhaeuser, best were Camilia Nylund, a vocally and visually striking Elisabeth and Guenther Groissboeck as her father, Hermann, whose demeanor and supple bass were ideal for the gravitas called for in this role.

Michael Nagy was convincing as Wolfram von Eschenbach, as were Lothar Odinius as Walther von der Vogelweide and Thomas Jesatko as Biterolf. Lars Cleveman as Tannhaeuser shone dramatically but occasionally struggled to make himself heard.

For the most part seamlessly blending or carrying the voices as called for by the score, the orchestra, under Thomas Hengelbrock, sometimes lagged in tempo, unnecessarily slowing the pace of already languid musical sequences.

But even the generally satisfying musical renderings cannot redeem the visual transgressions of this Tannhaeuser.

The opera was booed at its first Paris performance, prompting composer Charles Gounod to proclaim: "God grant me a failure like that!"

He did not see this year's production.

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George Jahn can be reached at http://twitter.com/georgejahn

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