I've never been one for celebrities.
And I'm not really a "music person" either.
So for a while, quite a while, this Lady Gaga was just another name, just another minor blip on my radar. Sure, I knew she was behind some of the music I was grinding to at the clubs. I would give the twinks at Campus Thursdays my best Poker Face, pretending I was gaga for Gaga just like they were as I tried to Just Dance right into their tight pants.
But I never paid much more attention than that, never gave into the hype. Rolled my eyes at the boys who gushed like crazy over her concert, and certainly didn't bother to download her whole album. Why bother, I thought. She's just another pop star who could be gone in a year.
Then one day, not along ago, my colleague BrooklynBling gave a familiar warning over the wall that separates our desks. "I'm turning on my speakers for a minute," she announced.
"Why?" I asked.
"I'm gonna watch this new Lady Gaga video."
Since I was bored, and was going to hear it playing anyway, I walked around to her desk to watch as well. The most I was expecting was to kill four minutes of my day.
"Oh-oh-oh-oh-oooh-oh-oh-oh-oooh-oh-oh-oh! Caught in a bad romance..."
Our. Jaws. Dropped.
"I DON'T WANNA BE FRIENDS!"
We stared at the screen in stunned silence, punctuated only by the occasional "What??" "Is she..." "Is that a..." "What the fuuuuuuck...."
The sparks flew from her chest as the video ended, and another moment of silence passed. Then, Brooklyn managed to perfectly convey everything we were feeling with a single thought:
"That bitch. She won me over."
Within 3 days I had every Gaga song downloaded on to my iPod, and was listening to nothing else at the gym. I didn't care what it was - Fame, Fame Monster, The Fame-ly Feud... as long as it was Gaga I had it on repeat.
I saw the youtube video of her at NYU, and was even more thrilled to find out that she does, indeed, have real talent. BrooklynBling says Gaga's voice reminds her just a touch of Cher. I think of her more as a young Madonna, with her crazy, envelope-pushing behavior and her all-press-is-good-press attitude.
Side note: I missed her performance at the AMA's, but of course caught it on video. All the talk the next day however was about Adam Lambert. He was "too shocking, too risque, to gay." I say: good for him. Madonna wouldn't be where or what she is today if she hadn't pushed the envelope: 20 years ago during the Blonde Ambition tour she was writhing on a bed, spreading her legs and simulating sex as two men rubbed her body... both she and they wearing cone breasts. And that was 1990!
I may not be a "music person," but I know this: you're goin nowhere if you play it safe. Adam Lambert knows that, and clearly, so does Lady Gaga.
Madonna - Like A Virgin (Blonde Ambition Tour)
I will be downloading The Fame-ly Feud as soon as I get home.
ReplyDeleteAs much as I can't STAND Glambert, I agree. You gotta do something to stand out amongst the intensely saturated music market.
ReplyDeleteGaga is amazing both on & off stage
David, I didn’t want you to be left out, so I thought I would reply to your post, even if it is utterly vapid. Altruism pours out of me on Tuesdays. Onward, I’d like to congratulate you on your newfound passion. In the archives of Justin Plus One— you can find my complete support of pop culture or anything considered to be corporately developed.
ReplyDeleteLady GaGa uses onomatopoeia as much as I use pronouns. Our habits warrant a good laugh, though; I do it to be funny. Really, I’m not sure if she is serious with her efforts. If she is, it presents a grim predicament. First let me preface with the fact that her aesthetic is all too common. I’d be as bold to declare that many of her outfits and “ideas” are rehashes of the houses of NYC and Chicago (see house of Ninja, Aviance, Alig, etc). Jean-Michel Basquiat suffered from the same problem, as his work consisted of a lot of “idea” hijacking. Many in the art world were content with ignoring such a violation, but the theft was still outwardly apparent. I once explained to a friend, if an island of natives had never seen a circle, and I created one for them, it would be appropriate if someone who knew of circles, then exposed my creation as typical and not special. Appreciation does not excuse ignorance.
So, back to her style of dress, if it is a representation of her character, from a psychological standpoint, she is terribly unhappy with herself (her implementation of face-covering devices and songs detailing a metaphorical poker face). There is an actuation of this unhappiness in her music. Specifically, her odes to sexual veracity, with song titles like; I Like it Rough, Disco Stick (I’m aware this is not the actual title), and Boys, Boys, Boys. There is a subtlety to rational beings, Ms. GaGa lacks nuance, and it seems that her music is a blatant declaration of pain. This can be somewhat confirmed in her NYU performance, since she is seemingly a homely-looking girl, with ballads that matched her appearance at the time. Madonna sang about a girl becoming a woman, Lady Gaga sings about an ugly girl who satisfies her insecurities with unabashed sexual acts. Yes, Madonna was sexual, but her music had historical and societal significance. Her songs dealt with loss, religion and the metaphysical. Sex was used to ask questions, not create visceral and disjointed actions.
In closing, I’d like to recommend that you use complete sentences (you are now competing with Justin), truly, it makes reading comfortable. Also, the use of so many idiomatic expressions is a tad obnoxious.
::love::