Of course she isn’t, because she can’t. Her face is butt ugly. No surprise that she continually covers it up with masks.
I’m trying to think of a pop act as ugly as her (male or female) and I’m drawing a blank. Little help, anyone?
This is a picture from her before she became famous, without the costumes, headpieces, makeup, etc. That is not a butt-ugly face.
Boy George got an interesting autograph request from God.
“She was very sweet,” Boy George said. “She asked me to sign her vagina.” He opted to sign her hat instead.
To be that close to God’s vagina and not touch it!
Aside from a not-button nose, which can photograph awkwardly at some angles, I think she’s sort of generically, any-girl-at-the-mall pretty, when she’s not Gaga’d out.
But I can totally see why her obstinate refusal to submit to your standards of “pretty enough for pop” would hurt your feelings so.
You see, that’s the type of thing that makes me hate an artist. The last thing I want is to have a song in my head involuntarily.
I mean, I can hear “It’s a small world” and it’ll be stuck in my head for days. I may even sing it. Do you think that means I like it?!
You EVIL. . . $%^&
I’ve stated this over and over again on this board, but the 2000s were the decade that indie music really came to life. Critically successful bands like Death Cab for Cutie or Modest Mouse pretty much labored in obscurity until the internet made people pay attention to them. The White Stripes and the Strokes made rock and roll cool again. And the internet means that you can live literally anywhere in the world and listen to any kind of music that you want.
The White Stripes, the Arcade Fire, the Antlers, Ted Leo & the Pharmacists, Animal Collective, Band of Horses, Battles, Bloc Party, Calexico, the Decemberists, Death Cab for Cutie, DJ Shadow, The Knife, the Gossip, Grizzly Bear, the Hold Steady, Ratatat, Land of Talk, MGMT, Modest Mouse, My Morning Jacket, Neko Case, Wilco, Nick Cave, Okkervil River, Passion Pit, the Scissor Sisters, Sleator-Kinney, TV On the Radio, Vampire Weekend, Wolf Parade, Xiu Xiu, the XX, Phoenix, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Yeasayer !!!
I doubt you’ll like all of it (unless you are actually me) but if you don’t like at least some of it, something’s probably wrong with you. 
Note: Not all of these bands started in the 2000s, of course, but all of them released at least one decent album this decade (in my opinion. Probably).
PS:
I know that’s a lot, so if there’s just one thing you listen to from my list, based on the little I know about your tastes, listen to thissong. Okay, thisone too. Or this. Turns out indie music experienced a huge folk lo-fi revival recently. Seriously, everyone starting growing beards.
Or for something completely different, try this. Because it’s awesome.
PPS: Sorry for the hi-jack, but this music is the music of my generation and damn it, I like it.
I’ve heard almost all of that. I go looking for new music a lot; I just rarely find anything that I stick with. Vampire Weekend has a couple good songs, and Wilco has done an interesting thing or two, but nothing there has really caught me at all. I remember particularly hating MGMT and Animal Collective.
I think age does have a lot to do with it in a lot of ways. It’s not everything, but like you said, this is your generation’s music. And that’s fine. A whole hell of a lot of “my generation’s” music objectively sucks, but I still like it. My favorite band is 311, but I never recommend them to anyone, because I don’t really think they make great music. I love them because of an esoteric feeling I get when I listen to them and go to their concerts.
Agreed. She looks like a normal, pretty Italian girl. Which I also think goes to show that she intentionally 'uglies" herself up sometimes, so as to play to that idea about what it means to be sexy. Her body is great, she’s half naked, but she intentionally makes herself look less than sexy.
I mean, I don’t see any pop stars intentionally releasing things that are 'Shopped to actually make them look worse, like this.
That Okkervil River song sounded a lot like Beirut, which is a good thing, but all I can hear is what is missing. The problem with a lot of this music, IMO, is that it lacks any real pop accessibility. You can’t just put it on in the background and jam. It’s sitting at your computer with the headphones on, maybe good for a long drive at night. I’m a fan of maybe 1/3 of the artists you listed (particularly Arcade Fire, Wilco, and The Decemberists), but I see a lot of it as not particularly great in its own right, but paving the way experimentally for better music down the line.
Well, jeez, dude, if you had just said that you’re an old fuddy-duddy who doesn’t like any music made after you graduated high school, I wouldn’t have bothered in the first place. If you have the self-awareness to realize that music probably didn’t actually make a sudden down curve that miraculously coincided with your first real job, why whine about modern day music’s quality at all? (Especially in favor of the music of the 1990s… shudder!) 
I hope that doesn’t happen to me, but I acknowledge that I may fossilize with time. Until then, I’ll keep fighting the good fight. I’d rather be the weird old chick at the show than give up on this whole change thing . Good luck with your 311. 
What is missing? Your youth? Well, yes, undeniably. You’re not going to get it back, no matter how good the band is. Sorry. 
I listen to these bands while falling to sleeps, walking down the street, riding on the train, talking to friends, studying, drinking coffee, whatever. If you can’t do that, it might be *your *problem, not the music’s. Honestly, I find the idea that Modest Mouse or Death Cab for Cutie lacks “pop accessibility” so bizarre that I’m not even sure what to say. It’s not like I’m a music major. I can’t even play an instrument. But I know what I like. Indie music nowadays encircles both Death Cab and Xiu Xiu and I can only think that’s a good thing.
Agreed. It’s amazing how good she is at making herself butt ugly.
Oops, hope I didn’t inadvertantly hurt DianaG’s feelings again…
Whoa whoa, let’s not get out of control now :p. First of all, I’m not that old; I’m 28. I have discovered new music this decade-- and I think my tastes are quite a bit broader than yours; it just doesn’t compare to the whirlwind of new music I discovered up until about age 20. That was everything evAR until the present. Now I mostly know what I like between the time of Pachelbel and Sublime, so the newer stuff is much more limited.
After thinking a bit more, in addition to Sufjan Stevens, I discovered this decade:
Amon Amarth
Regina Spektor
Dragonforce
Fiona Apple (she was on my radar in the '90s but I didn’t like her until 2005’s Extraordinary Machine)
Coheed and Cambria
Carolina Chocolate Drops
The Flowers of Hell
Yeah. I always find it strange when people complain about today’s crappy music. If anything, there’s too much good music.
In addition to the already mentioned, I’ll add (or 2nd, I didn’t read the lists all that closely):
Air
Gotan Project
Banco de Gaia
Shpongle
Zero 7
Kaya Project
Rilo Kiley
Jenny Lewis
The Bird and the Bee
Midival Punditz
The Pretty Lights
Jose Gonzalez
Anoushka Shankar
Niyaz
Ferry Corsten
Sia
Imogen Heap
Bliss
The Ting Tings
Lily Allen
Supreme Beings of Leisure
BT
Polyphonic Spree
Swell Season
Four Tet
Let’s se…it’s catchy pop music and my drunk gay friend asked me to put her playlist on repeat… it must be evil!
OTOH her videos are cool, she wears outfits made out of Kermit corpses, and she sings about paparazzi so it must be irony…
I like her despite her popularity…
I think the catchy pop music/crazy persona is completely intentional. As she says on her website,
“I almost want to trick people into hanging with something that is really cool with a pop song. It’s almost like the spoonful of sugar and I’m the medicine.”
Like that isn’t true. 
Only by misspelling ‘inadvertently’. But then, I don’t expect genius from anyone who’s judgment of any artist’s worth is “I don’t like her, she’s ugly.”