[video=youtube;pco91kroVgQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pco91kroVgQ[/video] I'm not sure how to feel about her new stuff. I used to think she was highly original, but now she seems to be getting weirder and weirder for the sake of it and then calling it "art."
Yep. Lady GaGa's progression is looking eerily similar to Madonna's. Whether or not that means she'll have the same staying power remains to be seen. That said, I really don't want to get into the whole GaGa vs. Madonna thing; never could see the point of artistic rivalries. That, and much like my aversion to political parties, I see no point in choosing up sides between the two. As to the song itself, it's a strangely honest admission. GaGa lives for the attention and affirmation that fame has brought her. Perhaps it's also a matter of focus; concentrating on the positives instead of internalizing all of the negative criticisms that come her way. Re: the video: It immediately brought to mind Annie Lennox' "Little Bird", where her previous personas compete for space on the stage. But here I think it's more indicative of GaGa's identity crisis, whereas Lennox' "Little Bird" seemed more about taking ownership of her past. What we're perhaps seeing is an artist whose evolution has brought her to a place where she doesn't quite know who she is at the moment. Let's hope that doesn't manifest musically throughout the album. We might also wonder if it's not a sort of response (whether conscious or not) to the Weird Al Yankovic parody, "I perform this way". Of course, it's easy to speculate. Harder to know what's really going on in her mind. Musically, I like the chorus. I can't say that I'm wowed by the lyrics. Overall impression - is it the evolution of her 'genius' or the devolution thereof? I'm inclined to take the latter view. She seems to be getting weaker over time, but I should reserve judgment until I have an opportunity to see more of the body of work comprising the new album. Much as I hate to make another Madonna reference I will: There was a period where Madonna completely lost me; where the sexuality became not only more overt, but increasingly fetishistic. Then it all just got weirder with the cabalistic references. GaGa seems headed in that same direction; one wonders what will replace the highly sexualized video references in her case. Thoughts?
I completely agree with your assessment. She does seem to be in the process of channeling all forms of her personality here. I can't say that it's a bad thing, but it doesn't seem consistent. For example, even though Madonna has reinvented her image many times, each of her albums had a consistent image and theme while staying true to Madonna's overall image. The same isn't true of Gaga. It seems like she's changing her style every week with no consistency of what the image that shes expressing even means or represents. When you look back through Madonna's many images, you can easily tell what album and year it was from. With Gaga, it's almost impossible to do that. Everything about her is a blur of weirdness. As for the music of this song, I'm greatly disappointed. It sounds like a leftover track from "Born This Way," which I wasn't impressed by anyway.
All very good points. The song is growing on me, but it's not like, "Ooh, I can't wait for more!" Another thought on interpretation of the video: The one central character seems to be where she is dressed in the black body suit, covering even her hair. This would represent being a blank canvas. It brings to mind an older season of Project Runway, where they would bring the models out all dressed in black for the designers to choose from. The various other characters are the artist's 'creations', painted over that blank canvas. Meanwhile the message of the song is perhaps that this 'art' is less an expression of herself, and more about pleasing her audience so that she can be rewarded with their "Applause". But I still think it's as much about seeking herself, her identity, as the catalyst for creating her art. I thoroughly agree with your observations about her inconsistency. There is a quasi-religious theme that runs through the "Born This Way" album with songs like Judas, Electric Chapel, Black Jesus+Amen Fashion (a bonus track), Bloody Mary. (Begging for comparison again to Madonna, this time to "Like A Prayer", but I digress). The singles releases from the album don't emphasize this theme, perhaps contributing further to its disjointed feel. So, what's the message? If we have to ask, then I rather think the artist has failed to communicate it well. Or, we could take the position that the intent of such abstraction is to purposely leave open the interpretation for the individual to decide. I get that, because my own 'art' is abstract - I'm not trying to say anything in particular with it. the whole point is for the individual to assign it their own interpretation. Thing is, that kind of thing works much better for visual art. It's harder I think to pull off in a medium such as music, where the lyrics tend to get in the way.
http://music-mix.ew.com/2013/08/24/lady-gaga-vmas-katy-perry/ This is an interesting article about her. It seems she's begging her fans to buy multiple copies of her new song and to constantly refresh her YouTube videos to bump her sales numbers up. She seems to be getting pathetically desperate now, especially with Katy Perry's new song selling double the amount of digital copies in the same week. If I were in her position, I'd take the free market approach and just release the song and see if the fans like it or not. Begging is just too pathetic and shows that she knows she's becoming irrelevant and is doing everything in her power to delay that from happening.
I read somewhere else about that. I agree, pretty pathetic. Certainly does nothing positive for her reputation.
And now that I pause to think about it, this is actually a good question when taken in a philosophical context. Just who is she? Is she her public persona? Or is that persona all for show? I think a lot of what we know about her as a person comes from outside her art; things like her activism, although there have been accusations that this is also part of a fake public persona. Similar to actors, we may well ask where does the 'act' end and the real person begin? It's certainly not unheard of for artists to try to increase their appeal by presenting a well-orchestrated interview piece that is supposedly an 'intimate portrait' of the person behind the performances, while still being a performance in and of itself. So who Lady Gaga is may be something that only she knows. And as my earlier posts note, I'm not sure that even she knows at this point.
I think the shock factor of Lady Gaga is over with. Yeah, she's weird...is it really original? Not really. I guess your day is done when Miley Cyrus gets more critique than you at the VMAs. Sort of glad the Gaga reign is over though.
Her performance at the VMA's wasn't bad. It's a shame that it was overshadowed by Miley's slutty performance. [video=youtube;9gPpLRgMYqQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gPpLRgMYqQ[/video]
All music is art but I kind of feel how you feel for the whole of her oeuvre. - - - Updated - - - No she isn't. - - - Updated - - - Prude. Miley's trying to show a little individuality.
Artpop was great. I thought it was her best album to date. Which surprised me because I previously thought she was past her prime. Born This Way had a couple of standout tracks, but as a whole it was quite disappointing. Not as good as the Fame or the Fame Monster.
Agreed. The lower than average sales for Artpop is what really hurt the album, plus her image was really overdone at that point. But the music was fantastic. The Fame Monster is still my favorite release from her. I find that all of her other albums have a couple tracks too many, which end up dragging down what could be a perfect album, but that EP was flawless. The Fame had a lot of silly tracks glorifying the vapid obsession with fame, and Born This Way had way too much political pandering for me to take seriously. Not to mention that god-awful album cover. That whole era was a mess with a few decent tracks here and there.
So, Artpop was 2 years ago. I honestly have no idea what Lady Gaga is up to now. Her name occasionally surfaces in various places online, but I haven't heard a song by her on the radio - not even an older one - in quite some time. Maybe that's a regional thing, maybe not. But it creates the perception that she is fading into oblivion.
She's starring in the current season of American Horror Story, but other than that, her career is practically non-existent. She's announced that she's working on her next album, but she has a history of announcing things way too early anyway, so I wouldn't be surprised if it comes out late next year or in 2017.
Lady Gaga's amazingly talented heels: [video=youtube;LmEZSnN4yK8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmEZSnN4yK8[/video]
Lady Gaga doesn't make music - she makes trash noise, and this is coming from someone that likes all genre's music... She is so undeserving of her status it's not funny... That dummy is only where she is at because she is eccentric and controversial... I can promise anyone there are 1,000 + artists out there that are 10x more talented than she is... No one would buy her (*)(*)(*)(*) if she was selling her nonsense out of her trunk if she wasn't already famous..... I know for a fact I could sell more of my music out of my trunk than she could out of her trunk if she took the (*)(*)(*)(*)ing wig off and put her real name on her product.. It's all show...
