Gwen Stefani to rock Bukit Jalil next month

comments     Su Hui Hsing     Published     Updated

ASK me about Gwen Stefani and I can immediately give you 'Don't Speak' and 'L.A.M.B.' but no names of her recent hits.

It's not that her singing has deteriorated, but after graduating from primary school, I made the resolution to graduate from my teeny-booper, prepubescent days. Hence my musical affair with Gwen Stefani has been stagnant at her days with No Doubt .

No Doubt was fine but I was not really fond of how commercialised they became after being propelled to stardom by 'Don't Speak'. Now that Gwen Stefani sings mostly pop and dance-pop, I am further repelled.

Although I wanted to stay away from her songs, it was not easy to do so. They were raiding the airwaves everywhere. When I recently did a search of her hits like 'Hollaback Girl', 'Wind It Up' and 'The Sweet Escape', I found they were not all that too unfamiliar - I must have accidentally heard of her.

Career revolution

The fact that she has collaborated with prominent musicians such as Dr Dre, Nelle Hooper, Andre 3000, Akon and Tony Kanal, the bassist for No Doubt , to produce her solo albums rather impressed me though, but I was adamant about staying away from pop and maturing into other genres.

It then struck me how her musical career experienced a revolution since I stopped listening to her. In fact, everything about her has changed dramatically.

While I was still nostalgic for my younger days of 'Don't Speak' played to the point of annoyance, and watching a sweet and innocent-looking Stefani conservatively-clad in a swiss-dotted blue dress and the bindi which made a trendsetter in 1997, Stefani has outpaced me and undergone major wardrobe and image overhauls.

Let's just say that she has shifted from being in my music radar to my fashion radar.

After a complete lapse of her in my memory for eight years from 1996 to 2004, she made a comeback into my life Spring 2004, when I was first introduced to her L.A.M.B. line of bags which she had designed for LeSportsac.

L.A.M.B, which stands for Love. Angel. Music. Baby. and is used to name her debut solo album released subsequently, marked her entry into fashion. As much respect as I had for LeSportsac's "carefully-made-in-the-USA" durable rip-stop nylon bags with cute psychedelic prints, I thought 'L.A.M.B.' sounded again, teeny-booperish.

She then ventured into clothing design under the same label and recently added a fragrance to her L.A.M.B line, which is set to hit stores this September.

As if L.A.M.B. was insufficient for her to flex her imagination, she then created the Harajuku Lovers line which include "kawaii" Japanese-pop-culture-inspired apparel, accessories and stationery

Three solo years

She's just another celebrity trying to prove her versatility or capitalise on her fame to expand her empire, I suppose. Although I should give her credit for her entrepreneurial spirit, as an economics student, I should also believe in comparative advantage, specialisation and the division of labour. Hence Stefani should do what she is best at doing - whatever it is, singing or otherwise.

I will call her "the new Gwen" because she is so different from what I knew her for while growing up. But "the new Gwen" is not that apt as it has been three years since the start of her solo career in which she probably has drawn more fans than she has in No Doubt.

Gwen Stefani's (or No Doubt's) fans in Malaysia can now see her in person when she will be in Kuala Lumpur to wrap up the Asian leg of her 'The Sweet Escape' tour at the Putra Indoor Stadium in Bukit Jalil Aug 21 and perform tracks from her solo albums.

One note for the organisers though: draw lessons from the Pussycat Dolls' encounter with the government and advise Gwen to dress accordingly and probably ditch some of her costumes that make her so distinctly "Gwen Stefani" and not "Gwen Stefani of No Doubt ".

Fans of Gwen Stefani might be disappointed but fans of No Doubt (including me, a former fan) might get to reminisce her old days.


SU HUI HSING is an intern with Malaysiakini.



Malaysiakini
news and views that matter


Sign In