It always cracks me the fuck up when someone bitches about how Lady GaGa or Marilyn Manson or whoever aren't doing anything that David Bowie or Queen or Ozzy or Alice Cooper did first. Apparently nostalgia goggles make it impossible to realize that similar things could've been said about your beloved artists of decades past. I could write a book about David Bowie's influences, but I already have one or two on my bookshelves.
That doesn't make Bowie or (insert your favorite artist you think currently popular artist ripped off here) any less awesome. It just means they didn't invent this or that. Lady GaGa and Marilyn Manson got the lightning bolt symbol from David Bowie, who got it from Elvis, who got it from someone else. Bowie, Manson, and Ozzy Osbourne all borrowed from Aleister Crowley.
I'm not going anywhere with this other than that visual/lyrical references to the past are kind of like drawing Slayer and Metallica logos on your notebooks in high school, except that they're actually exceptional. "We're all a product of our influences," or some other lazy cliche. (Accent mark missing because my computer is mad fucked up and I don't have the Character Map anymore)
Back to your regularly scheduled Super Bowl. See you in twenty years when someone is criticizing somebody for ripping off Lady GaGa.
