User:Cherfc/Sandbox/2

Legacy and public image
Cher has appeared 13 times on the cover of People magazine. She figured twice in the annual list of "25 most intriguing people" published by the magazine, in 1975 and 1987. She was also featured in the list of "100 greatest movie stars of our time" compiled by the publication. In 1992, the museum Madame Tussauds considered her one of the five most beautiful women in history. In 1999, she received the Legend Award at the World Music Awards for her "contribution to the music industry throughout her life". In 2001, the magazine Biography, of the television network A&E, rated her as the third favorite Hollywood actress of all time behind two of her idols, Katharine Hepburn and Audrey Hepburn. In 2002, she was honored with the Artist Achievement Award at Billboard music Awards for "having helped redefine popular music with huge success on the Billboard charts." In 2010, she was included in the 44th position in the list of "75 greatest women of all time" published by Esquire magazine. Cher has sold over 100 million albums worldwide. This brand is unique considering that the singer starred in two successful variety shows on television, which allowed, according to Keith Tuber, from the Orange Coast Magazine, "that people could see her and hear her without having to buy her albums. "

Since the 1960s, Cher was a fashion trendsetter, popularizing long straight hair and bell-bottom pants (which are often cited as a creation of her), and shirts that leave the belly exposed. She began working as a model in 1967 for photographer Richard Avedon, after being discovered by the then director of Vogue, Diana Vreeland. Cher was five times the cover of Vogue, between 1972 and 1975. Through her television shows in the 1970s, she became a sex symbol and defied censorship with her daring dresses and suits, usually designed by Bob Mackie. She is recognized as the first woman to show her navel in television history. According to writer Sheila Whiteley, "the influence of Bob Mackie and Cher was responsible for the success of the low-slung jeans that showed her belly in the 70s." The Los Angeles Times wrote that "they no longer make style icons like Cher. Since the beginning of her career, [...] she understood that cultivating a look was as important as cultivating a sound. Unlike today's stars, it was not a billboard for sale to the highest bidder. She was the Barbie doll of the world, a living fantasy of fashion [...] who frequented both the lists of best and worst dressed. Love her or hate her, she always keeps us interested." Her video for "Hell on Wheels" (1979) holds the distinction of being one of the first rock videos to be produced in "MTV standard", even before its existence. In 1989, she boarded the USS Missouri (BB-63), from the U.S. Navy, wearing only fishnet stockings for the video for "If I Could Turn Back Time", which was the first to be banned by MTV in history (its popularity grew after the censure, which meant that the channel agreed to display only after 9 pm). In 1989 she boarded the U.S. Navy's USS Missouri in thong and fishnets for the "If I Could Turn Back Time" music video, becoming one of the first videos by a mainstream pop artist to be banned by MTV (after the video was banned, it grew to mass popularity, causing MTV to play the video, though after 9 p.m.).

The outrageous sense of style Cher has been celebrated and hated over the years. In May 1999, after she was honored by the Council of Fashion Designers of America with a special award for her fashion influence, the Los Angeles Times reported that "instead of being portrayed in the history books as one of the major victims of fashion world, time has transformed her into a visionary. Influential stylists have evoked her name as a source of inspiration and guidance [citing, among other names, Tom Ford, Anna Sui and Dolce & Gabbana] to give the right tone to the miserable excess contemporary. The hairstyle that is her trademark - smooth and straight hair split down the middle - was one of the few nostalgic styles to make the leap from Hollywood and the runways to the city streets. [...] his sexy native american showgirl personality now seems to sum up the race in the fashion industry to celebrate loudness, ethnicity and sex appeal. " Whiteley wrote that "although Cher have become one of the greatest American icons of the 1990s, her image continues to attract as much or more attention than her ability as a singer, reinforcing the fact that a good voice (and her powerful vocals are significant in terms of delivery) is less important in the pop scene than its often questionable fashion sense. The costumes "black, like a spider, open the trunk and accompanied by a headdress of feathers" that she wore at the Oscars in 1986 was described by him as "one of the most shocking in the history of fashion. She is also known for her wigs. According to Whiteley, "in the liner notes of the album Living Proof (2001), her style ranges from rag doll brown curls, blond Brünhild and many shades of white, gray and black."

The enduring success of Cher in various areas of entertainment had her to be nicknamed "Goddess of Pop". The writer Alan Jackson wrote: "Forget Madonna. In a culture shaped by our own fickleness and attention deficit Cher is a phenomenon. Fads come and go [...], but she resists. Hippie-chick, Vegas extravaganza, cod-metal power ballad? She's been there, done all that and more. " To journalist Lucy O'Brien, "Cher joins the American Dream of self-reinvention: 'Ageing does not mean becoming obsolete.'"She also wrote in her book She Bop II: The Definitive History of Women in Rock, Pop and Soul, "the queen of girl rockers of the 80s could only be Cher. [...] With her cascading hair, tattoo on her ass, fishnet stockings and well-publicized romances with young heroes of heavy metal [. ..], it was like she was playing the role of rock star. " The writer Craig Crawford wrote in his book The Politics of Life: 25 Rules for Survival in a Brutal and Manipulative World," Cher [ ...] is a model of flexible career management. [...] Though she cultivated the image of a competent manner of a rebel who does not care what others think, her many and varied career wins were in fact, based on constant reinvention of her image according to what people think. [...] She carefully followed the cultural demands of the market, announcing each dramatic turn style as another example of rebellion - a situation that allowed she make calculated changes while what appeared to be consistent. " Whiteley said she "has a strong appeal that is not limited to older fans. Though this may be attributed in part to a successful marketing, [...] the ability to design their youth Cher [...] is essential to maintain its status as a 'singer / actress / icon of indestructibility.' "

Cher's work has influenced various artists of various areas of entertainment, including Beyoncé, Boney M., Britney Spears, Captain & Tennille, The Carpenters, Celine Dion, Chrissie Hynde, Christina Aguilera, Drew Barrymore, Eros Ramazzotti, Eurythmics, Jennifer Lopez, Lady Gaga, Madonna, Marilyn McCoo & Billy Davis Jr., and Meat Loaf. She inspired and was mentioned in the songs "Chance to Advance" (D12), "Did It on'em" (Nicki Minaj), "Hammerhead" (David Bowie), "Lullaby" (Shawn Mullins), "Redneck" (Jerry Lee Lewis), "Rockstar" (Nickelback), "She Don't Use Jelly" (The Flaming Lips), "Snow Queen" (Elton John", and "Stuck in the Moment" (Justin Bieber).

Tattoos
Cher became known for her tattoos before they become a fashion trend among women. According to the website Vanishing Tattoo, "Cher was one of the first celebrities to embrace openly and enthusiastically tattoos and body art, and with her outrageous sense of style and fashion, played a key role in the acceptance of tattoos in mainstream popular culture." Also according to the site, "her influence can be seen in the first supermodels who have had tattoos." Among her tattoos were a large butterfly with floral design on her buttocks, a necklace on her left arm with three dangling charms: the Egyptian ankh symbol, a cross and a heart, a kanji on her right shoulder, a small group of crystals in the art deco style in her right arm, a black orchid on the right side of her groin and a chrysanthemum in her left ankle. In the late 1990s, Cher started treatments to remove some of her tattoos. The ongoing process continued into the 2000s. "When I got tattooed," she said, "just bad girls did it: me and Janis Joplin and biker girls. now it means nothing. Nobody is surprised. I got a tattoo as soon as I left Sonny [Bono] and I felt really independent. This was my badge."

Plastic surgeries
Cher's appearance has been the subject of intense discussions, both by the public and by the press. Grant David McCracken commented in his book Transformations: Identity Construction in Contemporary Culture, that she "has been called 'poster child' of plastic surgery." The writer also drew a parallel between her plastic surgeries and transformations in her career: "There is no public record of when [...] she chose to resort to plastic surgery. But it seems more or less consistent with the rest of her mutant career. Her plastic surgery is not merely aesthetic. She is hyperbolic, extreme, exaggerated. She was involved in a transformational technology that is drastic and irreversible." According to the author of Up Against Foucault: Explorations of Some Tensions Between Foucault and Feminism, Caroline Ramazanoglu, "her operations replaced bit by bit a visually strong and decidedly 'ethnic' version by a symmetrical, smooth, 'conventional' (ie Anglo-Saxon) and increasingly young female beauty. She admits she had her breasts 'made??', her nose decreased and her teeth straightened; They say she also had a rib removed, refurbished her butt and had cheeks implants. [...] her image standardized [...] now serves as a 'standard' by which other women will measure, judge, disciplinate and 'fix' themselves. " Cher denies most of the rumors about her plastic surgery and said: "I had the same cheeks throughout my life. No plastic butt. No ribs removed. [...] If I want to put my tits on my back, that would be nobody's business but mine."