Line #20 Music/Cher


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3	%%Per Administrivia/CreatorPageGuidelines, only tropes associated to a creator's works are allowed on this wiki's pages, and tropes that only apply to the creator's personal life as if the creator is a fictional character are not allowed. Please do not apply tropes about the creator's personal life as if they are a fictional character.
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6	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cher.jpg]]
7	->''"I've always taken risks, and never worried what the world might really think of me."''
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9	Cher (born Cherilyn Sarkisian; May 20, 1946) is a prolific American entertainer who has gained fame as a singer, actor, presenter and philanthropist in the course of a career spanning over fifty years.
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11	She is of Armenian, Cherokee, German, English, Irish and French descent. She originally entered the spotlight in TheSixties as one half of Music/SonnyAndCher, a {{pop}}[=/=]folk duo in which she performed with her then-husband Sonny Bono. They had a major hit with "I Got You Babe" and co-presented a successful television show with ''The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour'', and even had a few new hit songs, but eventually decided to go their separate ways both personally and professionally. In TheSeventies, Cher scored solo hits and became a popular figure in the {{disco}} genre, but when that scene collapsed, her attempts to switch to a more contemporary {{AOR}} sound fell flat.
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13	She then spent TheEighties primarily establishing herself as an actor, earning an [[MediaNotes/AcademyAward Oscar]] nomination for her role in ''Film/{{Silkwood}}'' (1983) and winning the [[MediaNotes/AcademyAwardForBestActressInALeadingRole Best Actress Oscar]] for her role in ''Film/{{Moonstruck}}'' (1987). With her success in this field solidified, she returned to music, revisiting her earlier attempt at ArenaRock to great acclaim and achieving further success as a singer in TheNineties with the number-one dance hit "Believe" (credited with making AutoTune mainstream).
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15	Apart from the aforementioned Oscar, Cher's achievements include an MediaNotes/EmmyAward, a MediaNotes/GrammyAward, several MediaNotes/{{Golden Globe}}s, and four number-one singles on the American chart. She also holds a record as the artist with the longest gap between their first and most recent number-one hits.
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18	!! Selected discography:
19	* ''All I Really Want to Do'' (1965)
20	* ''The Sonny Side of Cher'' (1966)
21	* ''[[SelfTitledAlbum Cher]]'' (1966)
22	* ''With Love, Cher'' (1967)
23	* ''[[CoverAlbum Backstage]]'' (1968)
24	* ''[[CoverAlbum 3614 Jackson Highway]]'' (1969)
25	* ''Cher / Gypsies, Tramps & Thieves'' (1971)
26	* ''Foxy Lady'' (1972)
27	* ''[[CoverAlbum Bittersweet White Light]]'' (1973)
28	* ''Half-Breed'' (1973)
29	* ''Dark Lady'' (1974)
30	* ''[[CoverAlbum Stars]]'' (1975)
31	* ''I'd Rather Believe in You'' (1976)
32	* ''Cherished'' (1977)
33	* ''Music/TwoTheHardWay'' (as Allman and Woman with [[Music/TheAllmanBrothersBand Gregg Allman]]; 1977)
34	* ''Take Me Home'' (1979)
35	* ''Prisoner'' (1979)
36	* ''[[SelfTitledAlbum Black Rose]]'' (as Black Rose; 1980)
37	* ''I Paralyze'' (1982)
38	* ''Cher'' (1987)
39	* ''Heart of Stone'' (1989)
40	* ''Love Hurts'' (1991)
41	* ''It's a Man's World'' (1995)
42	* ''Believe'' (1999)
43	* ''not.com.mercial'' (2000)
44	* ''Living Proof'' (2011)
45	* ''Closer to the Truth'' (2013)
46	* ''[[CoverAlbum Dancing]] [[Music/{{ABBA}} Queen]]'' (2018)
47	----
48	!! Selected filmography:
49	* ''The Sonny and Cher Show'' (1966 -- 1967) {{as herself}} & various characters
50	* ''Film/{{Chastity}}'' (1969) as Chastity
51	* ''Film/{{Silkwood}}'' (1983) as Dolly Pelliker
52	* ''Film/{{Mask\|1985}}'' (1985) as Rusty Dennis
53	* ''Film/TheWitchesOfEastwick'' (1987) as Alexandra Medford
54	* ''Film/{{Moonstruck}}'' (1987) as Loretta Castorini
55	* ''Film/{{Suspect}}'' (1987) as Katherine Riley
56	* ''Film/{{Mermaids\|1990}}'' (1990) as Rachel Flax
57	* ''Literature/ThePlayer'' (1992) as herself
58	* ''Film/PretAPorter'' (1994) as herself
59	* ''Film/IfTheseWallsCouldTalk'' (1996) as Dr. Beth Thompson (also co-director)
60	* ''Film/StuckOnYou'' (2003) [[AdamWesting as herself]]
61	* ''Film/{{Burlesque}}'' (2010) as Tess
62	* ''Film/{{Zookeeper\|2011}}'' (2011) as Janet the Lioness (voice)
63	* ''Film/MammaMiaHereWeGoAgain'' (2018) as Ruby Sheridan
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65	!! She provides examples of:
66	* AutoTune:
67	** Probably the first artist to use it in a successful mainstream recording ("Believe"); she wasn't going to use it, but when she heard it being applied to her recorded vocals she liked it and decided to keep it in. She also deconstructed this, because her decision faced some opposition from her recording company. Unlike many artists nowadays, she wasn't using it for corrections.
68	** This was awesomely referenced in an appearance on ''Series/TheGrahamNortonShow'' where Graham and then Dawn French sang a bit of the song into an autotune mic, followed by Cher herself with ''zero'' distortion.
69	* CoverVersion:
70	** "A World Without Heroes" by {{Music/KISS}} on her album ''Love Hurts'', along with the title track by the Everly Brothers.
71	** Reversed, as several of her songs with Sonny have become big country hits. These include "When You Say Love" (covered by Bob Luman in 1972, the same year it was a pop hit for Sonny and Cher) and "All I Ever Need is You" (a No. 1 country hit in 1979 by Music/KennyRogers and Dottie West).
72	** One oddball example was Dr. John's eerie Swamp Rock classic "I Walk on Guilded Splinters" on the ''3614 Jackson Highway'' album in 1969, which many people think actually holds up pretty well against the original. Cher doing the song doesn't seem so strange after you learn that, before he adopted the Dr. John persona, Mac Rebennack had been part of Sonny & Cher's touring band.
73	** "Walking in Memphis", originally by Marc Cohn on ''It's a Man's World''
74	** "I Found Someone" was originally written for and released by Music/LauraBranigan. Music/MichaelBolton, who wrote the song, would go on to record his own version for his 1995 album ''Greatest Hits (1985–1995).''
75	* CowboysAndIndians: Referenced in "Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)":
76	-->''I was five and he was six\
77	We rode on horses made of sticks\
78	He wore black and I wore white\
79	He would always win the fight''
80	* CrossCastRole: Her 1967 solo hit "You Better Sit Down Kids" is narrated by a parent telling their children that they're separating from their spouse, but it's Cher singing the role of the ''father''.
81	* DidntThinkThisThrough: The title character in "Dark Lady" has an affair with the protagonist's lover... ''in her house''. She recognizes the fortune teller's perfume, tracks them both down in her lair and [[DeathByWomanScorned shoots them]].
82	* TheFashionista: Cher's stylish ensembles are as much a part of her image as her singing and acting. She's best known for her longtime collaboration with [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Mackie Bob Mackie]], the "Sultan of Sequins," who has personally designed her dresses and costumes for decades.
83	* HelloSailor: The video for "If I Could Turn Back Time" has her performing on the USS Missouri for some 500 sailors. One of them even briefly hugs her from behind before running back to his shipmates, who all high-five him.
84	* IconicOutfit: Cher's had a lot of stunning ensembles, but the most memorable by far is the the [[http://chernews.blogspot.com/2011/11/chers-unforgettable-oscar-dresses-part_25.html outfit she wore]] to the 1986 Oscars, created by her longtime friend and personal designer Bob Mackie. As The Other Wiki puts it, the look consisted of "black stretch pants, a bejeweled loincloth, knee-high boots, a black chainlink top, and a huge feathered Mohawk headdress that was one and half times taller than her head." If someone is lampooning Cher, odds are some element of that outfit will make an appearance.
85	* LyricalDissonance: The {{Melodrama}}-laden lyrics of "Gypsys, Tramps, and Thieves" are paired with bouncy music (with some vaguely exotic little flourishes). It clocks in 170 BPM, one of the fastest-paced songs to ever hit #1 (alot of PunkRock and HeavyMetal songs don't ever hit that high of a BPM measure).
86	* MrsRobinson: She briefly acquired this image in the late 1980s -- when her career declined for the third time -- as she dated several men (including a young Creator/TomCruise) who are all more than a decade younger than her. Years later, [[SelfDeprecation she poked fun at this]] in ''Film/StuckOnYou'', where she appeared in bed with Creator/FrankieMuniz (who was 18 at the time of filming).
87	* MsFanservice: While her sex symbol status during the '70s and '80s has been firmly established, the cover photos of her on her 1979 album 'Prisoner', almost completely nude, cemented this status.
88	* NewSoundAlbum: In the past, she modified her sound to accommodate changing trends (Folk in the sixties, Disco in the seventies, Rock in the eighties and Contemporary R&B[=/=]Dance in the nineties).
89	* RavenHairIvorySkin: Another trait of hers. She recalled difficulties in emulating female artists growing up, as none of them had long black hair like hers.
90	* RoguishRomani: "Gypsys, Tramps, and Thieves" is about a woman who has born in a traveling family. The chorus is about how other people would call her family "gypsies, tramps, and thieves".
91	* {{Stripperiffic}}: Her infamous leather-and-fishnets outfit from the video for "If I Could Turn Back Time."
92	* TropeCodifier: AutoTune existed before "Believe," mostly being used for its original intention of minor pitch correction; however, she liked the otherworldly sound it gave to the song and decided to keep it. After that, it spread like wildfire.

Context Music / Cher