ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author considers Sia's reluctance towards fame as a point of entry for addressing matters of gender and celebrity in pop. Gendered identity in pop is experienced musically as much as visually, and he excavates this through discussions on sonic aesthetics and the processes of production that stylise the artist audiovisually. In a pop context where representational strategies that spectacularise and sensationalise naturalised ideas of gender and sexuality are conventionalised, then, one interpretation of Sia's anonymity might be that it subverts the male gaze. Likewise, the chorus's uplifting and celebratory "the author goes swing from the chandelier" lose their sense of triumph and abandon when the narrator then acknowledges her fear in the post-chorus: "but he holds on for dear life, won't look down, and won’t open his eyes". The author turns to a live version of 'Chandelier' to discuss other means through which vulnerability aligns to emotional intensity and ironic agency.
