Music Features

YEARENDER: Lady Gaga was 2010's US leading artist

By Andy Goldberg Dec 27, 2010, 12:15 GMT

Lady Gaga Wax Figure Unveiling at Madame Tussauds in New York City on December 9, 2010 - Madame Tussauds Wax Museum - New York City, NY, USA © Janet Mayer / PR Photos

Los Angeles - In music, 2010 was the year of the Gaga. The movie industry waded through a gigantic Avatar hangover, while television was forced to come to terms with an emerging sense of irrelevance.

That's not to say that 2010 has not been a memorable year in the annals of pop and celebrity culture.

How many Americans will one day not treat their grandchildren to luridly fascinating tales about the demise into a haze of drugs and alcohol of pop-wreck Lindsay Lohan, particularly if the former Disney child-star eventually manages to complete her endless rehab programs and triumphantly put her demons behind her?

And how many of them will forget the timeless triumphs of those innumerable reality show contestants from American Idol, Dancing With The Stars or the infamous Jersey Shores - a panoply of characters who seem intent on proving Andy Warhol's famous assertion about everyone's 15 minutes of fame.

The only flaw in that logic being that if everyone is famous, then no one is.

The truth is that there are different degrees of fame. The United States has plenty of stars like Paris Hilton and Jersey Shore's Snooki, who are notorious for being famous in its celebrity-obsessed culture.

Then there are figures like Lady Gaga who, like it or not, always manage to stay in the spotlight with thought-provoking appearances. Other singers of note who emerged as major forces in 2010 were Justin Bieber and Katy Perry.

But Lady Gaga stood apart not only for her hits, but also because of her record-breaking victories at the MTV Video Music Awards, and as the first artist to register a billion views on YouTube.

Her appearance in a dress made of meat at the Video Music Awards made people think anew about fashion and vegetarianism. She also emerged as one of the most outspoken supporters for gay rights around the world.

Most importantly, in an age of dubiously talented, commercially- manufactured, lip-synching pop stars, she represented the value of an artist.

That sense of artistry was a little harder to find at the movie box office, but it certainly was there.

After the domination of Avatar last year, 2010's film champ was Toy Story 3, a well-done sequel to the popular computer-animated franchise that featured the year's hottest star, 3-D.

Second on the list, Alice in Wonderland, was a lavishly imagined 3-D take on the children's classic. Both films broke the billion- dollar barrier at the global box office.

Inception, a psychedelic thriller that was the third-most successful film of the year, featured magnificent imagery, the starpower of Leonardo DiCaprio, and the mind-boggling direction of Christopher Nolan.

As usual, the Oscar went to a small but commendable film, The Hurt Locker, the first ever best picture winner to be directed by a woman, Katherine Bigelow.

In television, reality shows continued to reign supreme over scripted dramas and comedies, with American Idol continuing to dominate, though with lower ratings than in previous years.

And many television executives became wary of cord-cutters - viewers who ditch their cable and satellite subscriptions to watch shows on the internet - and their concerns were only set to get worse in 2011.