In "Hollywood" (2003), Madonna (in a somewhat hypocritical fashion) examined the empty promises and delusions that the California dream factory implants in the brains of naive young people hoping for fame, celebrity and wealth: 'Everybody comes to Hollywood/ They want to make it in the neighborhood/ They like the smell of it in Hollywood/ How could it hurt you when it looks so good'.
In 2017, you don't need to be on a Hollywood film set to milk your 15 minutes of fame. With social media and a phone camera, everyone can aim to be an online sensation on a relatively shoestring budget. Enter LA dream pop duo Tashaki Miyaki (who are not Japanese, and whose choice of band name may have been inspired by a mispronunciation of Japanese director Takashi Miike’s name), with “Girls on T.V.”, a less abrasive and gentler take on the prevailing contemporary obsession:
'I don't want anything
Just the world to love me
I don't believe in anything
Won't you please adore me?
All I want's your praise
Oh and I want fame
I didn't hear a word you said
But I love Kurt Cobain
I'll be the girl you made up in your head
I'll do whatever it takes'
The song is featured on their upcoming debut LP The Dream, and was inspired by vocalist Paige Stark's fears of what screen culture was doing to the lives of everyone, and how this affects the outcomes of the democratic process: "We are living in an Andy Warhol meets Orwellian vision of the future and I find it terrifying. It's all about ‘likes' and numbers and now our country is being run by a monster who was created by this very machine" (Interview Magazine). Stark's vocals and tone are honey-sweet, but her lyrical take on narcissism and the hunger for fame are razor-sharp.
Actress Juno Temple stars as the 'media-brainswashed' girl that the song examines in the appropriately surreal neon cityspace of Hollywood Boulevard in the accompanying James Franco-directed music video.
