According to Theodore H. Cohn, “a counterhegemony is an alternative ethical view of society that poses a challenge to the dominant bourgeois-led view”
Several popular icons, specifically in the area of music have pursued this concept of breaking the effects and obstruction of hegemony. Some have spent the focus of their actual career to purposefully break the images of stereotypes, while others have simply had a reaction of counter hegemony due to their expressions.
An excellent example of this is Angela Gossow of Sweden, who could easily pursue being one of the world’s top supermodels for all of her striking beauty, but who is in fact one of the world’s most renowned female vocalists fronting the metal band Arch Enemy. In both live shows and in music videos, she is not only a counter hegemonic image but her actual fierce talent of growling and screaming lyrics is indeed paradoxical with her image of beauty and charm exhibited in interviews. One could almost say in light of what was said by Dr. Strangelove in the lecture, that she embodies the counter homogeny of Barbie. With her blonde hair, and tall statuesque figure, Angela Gossow embodies the physical image of Barbie. Her masculine attire and manner of raw expression in singing is in direct challenge to the feminine image and attitude that Barbie propagates. In fact, she has viewed it in the opposite perspective, where she with her beauty is a contradiction to a dark culture. In several interviews that Angela Gossow has done over the years, she views her appealing body as a challenge to the genre of music that she is a part of, where the cliche of a lead vocalist fronting a metal band is more often than not a not particularly attractive male who’s a hairy metalhead. This is not the norm necessarily, but the extremity of her image is indeed enticing.
Angela Gossow performing on stage
Music has historically become popular due to the extreminty of the artist. Whether it be modern shock-rockers such as Jessicka , Jimmy Urine and the ever controversial Marilyn Manson, to the founders of modern rock such as David Bowie and Siouxsie Sioux. The majority of these artists have their popularity based on the atypical images that they propogate, in addition to the alternative music that they create. The debate of whether these artists have become popular because of their groundbreaking artistic expression or their shocking images is often argued. An artist such as Madonna has certainly learnt the balance of having an ever changing image which is pushing the envelope, but is in the realm of radically altering images to be provocative, and constantly associated with master symbols such as catholic icons and americana images. This balance has enabled her to sell her self on a level that has seldom been reached. Artists such as David Bowie and Jimmy Urine have associated themselves with gender morphing images such as pink spandex and make-up, but it has been done to purposefully make a statement against conservatism, or to increase marketability is debatable. Both of these artists are now married respectively to women, and this leads to a conclusion that they were attempting to be associated with unorthodox images of experimentation, and not necessarily entirely being unconventional for artistic esthetic. What can certainly be inferred is that counter hegemony has been a driving force in the popularization of music, whether it be purposeful, or as a result of avant-garde innovation.
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Good stuff.