Curiouser and Curiouser.
Alice is back in Wonderland, all grown up and bursting out of her traditional blue and white smock. Once a symbol of the straight laced innocence of the Victorian child, Alice, style icon that she is, has transformed it into a slutty little steam-punk number any Harajuku girl would die for. With her blinding blonde hair and blood red lips, she belts out her hopes and fears as she wonders through a montage of bizarre imagery, all the while dancing madly to a pumping, hysterical beat.
The music video for "What You Waiting For" is Gwen Stefani's ultimate expression of her doubts and insecurities as she enters the Music Industry as a solo artist. One moment she's overwhelmed by the immensity of this bright new world, lost and alone as she moans in a hedge maze. The next she's an awkward, overly sexualized giant in a fish bowl, drowning in her own tears. But beneath the apprehension and self doubt, she knows in the end that she's the Queen of Hearts.
Since parting with ska band No Doubt, Gwen Stefani has moved into the treacherous depths of pop-music, re-visiting the electro New Wave sounds of the 80s and early 90s. Her solo debut album "Love. Angel. Music. Baby", released in 2004, was an instant success. A package of intense energy and graphic stimulation, it was the coming out of a superstar. LAMB sold over 309,000 copies in its first week and reached worldwide status as platinum as Gwen's hair-color.
Speaking of image, Gwen is just as equally famous for her gutsy, eclectic fashion sense as she is for her music. Around the same time as LAMB was released, she fell madly in love with the street fashion of Japan and launched her own label of haute-couture fashion, also named LAMB, inspired by the Gothic Lolita street fashion of Harajuku, Tokyo.
During that year, she could be seen flanked by an entourage of four doll-faced Japanese back-up dancers, giggling playfully in matching LAMB outfits. They haunted her video clips, followed her down the red carpet, danced behind her on her stage during the tour for the album. Gwen turned these girls into the ultimate pop-star accessory and made a name for herself as a high profile designer and fashion icon to the masses.
It wasn't until 2006 that she squeezed out a follow up album, "The Sweet Escape", which didn't do quite as well. Moody, and lightly autobiographical, critics have dubbed it a hasty repeat of L.O.V.E., lacking the energy that made her debut so riveting. Gwen herself admitted that the album was uninspired.
Nonetheless, she has made a name for herself in the strange wonderland that is the music biz, and here's hoping Alice can get back on her feet and draw influences and inspiration from the weird world around her to once again blow the charts away.
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