Björk

I saw her for the first time in the film Dancer in the Dark in 2000. Although I haven't seen her anywhere except some photos since then, her image imprinted in the movie was strong enough for me to remember her until today. This musical drama, which is gloomy unlike other musical movies, deals with a poor immigrant who is half blind and keeps her love for music until the last second of her life in prison. There is a story--sad one--but it is relatively forgetful in comparison to the emotional tension that she drives even to the last second of her death row. The moment when she cried out in her isolated room is extremely intense. She couldn't bear it not because she was afraid of her doomed death but because it was too quite, so came to finally find some rhythm from water pipes in the building.

After watching her music video of All is Full of Love in class, I looked through some of her photos and am currently listening to her music. She, I think, doesn't have certain qualities that can easily appeal to the main stream. Her appearance is not close to Madonna's. She has a childlike face and figure in fact. Her way of singing is not like Celine Dion's. Her voice might even irritate some folks. She, however, seems to overthrow such stereotypes by producing provocative images and music. If we take it seriously that we become who we are partly through images we see and identify with ourselves in mass media, coming across her images as alternative female/artist representations within the ocean of media cannot be overemphasized.

In blogging now, I am trying to be rational and reasonable enough to analyze her as an artist who breaks conventional banality, but feeling not succeeding. But does it matter as long as she makes us feel something different? My brain storms when I encounter something new.

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