There are a lot of good reasons to hate Paris Hilton. She's had her whole life handed to her on a silver platter and acts like she was entitled to every bit of it simply because of who she is. She's a symbol of Western excess, greed and uncaring as well as the selfish egotism of good old latter-day capitalism. Furthermore, the terms of her success have been almost entirely defined by her ability to fit into male fantasy: the rich heiress, the blond bimbo, the spoiled daddy's girl. Which is not to say that her appeal is aimed entirely at men, she undoubtedly has as many female fans as male ones (though "fan" may not be quite the right word here), and she can be said to embody a kind of strong female role, in that her success has come through her skillful manipulation of these fantasies (The Simple Life would be a good example of this). In fact, it is this manipulation of image that I find so interesting about Paris; I don't really know what kind of person she is outside her mediatized image, and frankly I don't care. But Paris Hilton the image, and how that image came to be, are a lot more intriguing topics.
It's very interesting to me that Paris actually acquired the trappings of fame after she became famous, sort of as a post-hoc justification for her fame. This rearranges the supposed order of celebrity, in which fame follows as a symptom from staring in TV shows, movies and pop albums, to a new order where being a movie star or a pop singer are symptoms of being famous. It is as if, once we (the people, the big Other) accepted her as famous, we almost forced her to do these things in order to justify our belief in her fame. This is becoming more and more the case in celebrity culture--witness the number of actors or musicians branching out into as many other mediums as possible. Do these young stars feel pressured to justify their massive fame by taking on as many new projects as possible? Yet Paris stands above them as the first person to completely shortcut the whole process of becoming famous, simply just starting out being famous, showing the paradoxically self-referential nature of fame: the most important aspect of fame is being famous. And Paris the persona could only ever be famous, it's a required precondition to her being Paris. Once achieved, she is swallowed whole into the celebrity machine, slotting perfectly into the place that was already there for her. For Paris does know how to fit into the machine--either unwittingly or knowingly or both; she is able to work her celebrity image in her own favour like few others.
Paris Hilton - Fightin' Over Me ft. Jadakiss and Fat Joe
Witness her new album Paris, an expertly crafted pop music gem. Others stars have tried to step into the pop music arena and failed miserably (Jennifer Love Hewitt, anyone?), but somehow, against all odds Paris has avoided this fate. Using a similar formula for success that many others have tried (throw lots of money at all the best current-day pop producers) she nevertheless has come up with a pop album that stands competitively against the best of this year's crop of pop such as Nelly Furtado's Loose and Rihanna's A Girl Like Me (though not as good as JT's new album!). If we take the view of this excellent review on the Plan B website, we can argue that Paris represents the ultimate test for those still hung up on notions of authenticity when it comes to music--and judging from the reaction on the Plan B forum there are still a lot of them out there (Plan B's demographic is essentially run-of-the mill indie fans, btw). Her music is indeed slick and breathy, as one would expect, expertly toying with her image (as in the above track) and continuing her tabloid feedback loop (as in the below rather excellent discussion of her relationship with Nicole Ritchie).
Paris Hilton - Jealousy
Paris touches base in nearly every modern pop style around, from dance-pop to hip hop to Kelly Clarkson-style pop-rock to the pseudo reggae of her first single "Stars are Blind". For many a pop star this would be interpreted as pandering, but for Paris it's rather beyond the point. Her entire image is so devoid of authenticity that to accuse her of "just giving the people what they want" is to essentially pay her a compliment. And why shouldn't crass populism be seen as a positive feature? Why must artists always be staying true to some sort of occult "artistic vision" that endows their music with some magical true essence of Art? What's wrong with making some good tunes that people will like? To assume that we know what goes on in the artists mind when he or she creates some piece of music, and that we can sense the virtue of the effort and emotion that the artist has put into the music, is just bullshit projection of our own feelings. Hilton's music, because of both her reputation and the sound itself, deflects this hopeless search for the real meat underneath, forcing the listener to confront the song as surface only (this was the same move Glam made back in the 70's, so I understand). For some, the perceived empty heart of this music will be too much to overcome (ie., some people just can't stop hating Paris), but if you can overcome your knee-jerk reaction to her there's a lot to be found within her album.
Paris Hilton - Heartbeat
On the above track, Paris sounds like a lost child expressing dearly-held beliefs of fairy-tale love; in others she is sexy, angry, sultry, playful, but always with a curious lightness that avoids overwhelming the tracks. She does not over-emote, doesn't try too hard to prove anything, simply gliding over expertly produced beats singing in a voice barely more than necessary. It's a relief to hear music so devoid of undertow, where the meaning is up front for you to play with all you want. And the wonderful thing is that the fact that it is Paris Hilton singing only adds to this effect. Unfortunately, a singer such as Kelly Clarkson, who could have pulled this off immediately after her American Idol win, has now climbed so far up Credibility Mountain that her music has gained too much weight to pull off such a lightness of touch (which is not to say that I don't heart Kelly, because few people heart kelly like I heart kelly). Of course this does not guarantee a perfect album, and indeed the final few tracks are rather generic and bland, but the opening string of 7 or 8 tracks have enough quality to justify my (rather exorbitant?) claims.
What I love about Paris (and this also goes for many other pop stars as well) is her ability to show how musical styles so caught up in notions of authenticity can be just as easily performed without any of the bullshit backstory, just the signifiers of the backstory. Strike the pose, play the cords that the best money can provide, and watch as the same feelings are expressed, often with more skill than they were before. One of the initial thrills of Clarkson's "Since U Been Gone" was just how well she succeeded in "rocking" despite her so openly fabricated image. (Once again, after success a pop star goes about establishing post-hoc rationalizations of her new image. Though probably unplanned, I'm sure Kelly's agents/handlers couldn't be more pleased with this video that's been making the rounds on the internet of Kelly swigging whiskey and singing Guns 'N Roses songs with random metal cover band Metalskool). Paris has the same effect, showing that it was always the image that we reacted to in the first place. Paris the album is filled with a sense of how fun it is to not have to stick to one image, to try them on and throw them off at will, and that sense of enjoyment comes through in the music itself. This album could only ever be made by someone as fake as Paris Hilton, and that is one of its clear strengths.
*Postscript* This was my first attempt at serious pop music criticism in the vein of some of my more favored writers, so if it veers towards pretension more often then not and makes some pretty wild claims, well shit, it's just a bit more fun that way. I'll probably look back at this and wince at some point in time, but oh well. In other news, I'm still pissed off Pluto is no longer a planet. Also Nicole tells me she has a new pencil. Yes, Paris, Pluto and Pencils, there's a message in there somewhere, you just need to look hard enough. :)
