I loosely researched Poppy during the last unit, now as I am developing the character for my film, I feel I am in the stages of planning and research where I can research this artist / online persona in more depth.
https://www.thecut.com/2018/02/poppy-just-might-be-the-warhol-of-the-youtube-era.html
Described as “David Lynch–meets–Hello Kitty” Poppy’s persona is a pop star “born on the internet”, which makes reference to Popular Culture and Celebrity Culture.
Poppy’s videos… serve micro-monologues to the camera while an eerie song plays,with this Babrie Blonde character with a childlike, monotone voice creating brilliant Performance Art. Then there are the less pointed, more Dada videos: the one where she reads the Bible for 50 minutes, or ‘Mary’ where Poppy stands with her arms in first position, a large rhinestone atop her head, singing “Mary Had a Little Lamb” with just the slightest Auto-Tune to her voice, over and over again, for two minutes. I watched the whole thing, compulsively, full of questions: Is this towheaded, saucer-eyed woman who, in another video, interviews a plant in dulcet ASMR tones, real or fake? Is she a robot, a troll, a high-concept art project, a postmodern cultural critique, a cult leader, a clever satirist? Do I get the joke? Is there a joke? What is reality, even?
Poppy also is also a real musician. One of the album’s featured tracks, “Computer Boy,”recalls Poppy’s intimate relationship with an online love. “The only thing that brings me joy is my computer boy,” she declares over pulsing electronic beats. Another track, “Let’s Make a Video,” is an upbeat ode to the YouTube channel that has built her career. But it’s also strangely melancholic, a rumination on the shallowness of social media culture. “Pop Music” rounds out the album.
Perhaps what fills people watching Poppy with a sense of dread-lite is the discomfort we still have with the medium. The way it makes us all simulacra of ourselves. The recognition that we all have a little Poppy to us now.