David Byrne

Say what you will about Lady Gaga (she's important for feminists, she's anti-feminist, she's just downright confusing, etc.) but you have to admit that she knows how to put it out there. Her whole existence in the public sphere reads as a giant performance piece (the costumes! the bizarre behavior! the rumors! the extravagant videos!) so it's no surprise that she considers herself a performance artist. Well, Klaus Biesenbach, MOMA and P.S. 1 curator, has news for her: She isn't one. (Yes, apparently it is up to him to decide.)

Update! Margaret Doyle at MOMA sent me an email titled, "correction on Lady Gaga story"! Read on for the rest.

The underground rock scene used to be something of a "boys only" club, despite the efforts and talents of a great many amazing female musicians. Even as late as the mid-nineties, the all-female Lilith Fair rock festival seemed necessary as a showcase for the women who managed to shred their way through the flannel-swaddled man-zone of grunge. But after attending Sunday night's Dark Was the Night show at Radio City Music Hall, it seems to me that maybe women are approaching parity at the top of the indie rock scene. (More, plus a video of the amazing finale, after the jump.)