55 Secret Street : BREAKING: Lady Gaga Did Not Invent The Wheel

Honestly? I'm not the biggest fan of Kelis, Rihanna or Lady Gaga. However, I have been fascinated lately with the obsession some in the media seem to have for crediting Lady Gaga with just about any fashion trend that is even remotely "avant garde" since her debut - as if she were the first to do it! (There is a reason I didn't use the phrase "reinventing the wheel.") Sure, some acknowledge Madonna as an influence to her, but you would think she were the first musician to ever put on say, a lace mask, in the history of music or fashion. Um, no...

Kelis recently got slammed in The Cut for this seriously ridiculous get-up, and rightfully so. But I had a problem with this:

You are not Lady Gaga, and this attempt at avant-garde fashion doesn't compare to her get-ups.

Sorry, but Kelis has been doing "seriously ridiculous" for a minute now.

She didn't get the same amount of press because there weren't as many outlets. Today, thankfully, there is greater opportunity for exposure with the explosion of the internet and blogs especially, for artists who would get scant mainstream media attention if they had to rely on the support of print magazines ten years ago. Nowadays, there are tons of outlets, big and small, desperate for content. In the 90s and early 2000s? Not so much... I remember a big shot publicist, who handled Janet Jackson in the early/mid-90s, telling me that she could not get Janet on the cover of TV Guide! TV Guide!!! This is the same Janet Jackson who was a superstar in her own right by then and selling out stadiums worldwide with tons of #1 hits! TV Guide would not put her on the cover because she was black. I promise you that is a true story - relayed to me by an incredulous white publicist by the way.

One difference with the internet age is the new gatekeepers on influential blogs like The Cut were very likely in grade school in the 1990s and rarely know much about music and fashion history beyond Madonna in the 1980s. Hence, Rihanna getting knocked for aping Lady Gaga instead of Kelis, like she is in today's digital urban press.

Now, Kelis is only 30-years-old so, of course, she didn't "invent" anything either...

Labelle: Sarah Dash, Nona Hendryx and Patti LaBelle in the 1970s.

Betty Davis, who introduced her former husband Miles Davis to her pals Jimi Hendrix and Sly Stone and had quite a musical career of her own.

The one and only Grace Jones (pictured with the late, great artist Keith Haring). Lady Gaga does name her as one of her inspirations.

Updated: As fanofcher points out in the comment section, how can I leave out Cher! I love Cher! I even had a Cher doll as a kid - and I still kick myself for not saving it!