Gaga's pretty rad yo

[Kim]

So, I really only started listening to Gaga yesterday. I'd kinda avoided her because she gets a bad rap as being awful pop online, and I'm kinda weird with my tastes so just didn't bother. Well, then I did, and I have to say she's pretty awesome.

The first music video I watched was Alejandro, which I had been told was a criticism of the military's DADT policy. There are homosexual overtones present in a military setting. Gaga, the lone female, is at times clearly representative of religion. Other times, she is engaged in sexual activity with these men, but during those times it's clear that those homosexual overtones are still present. All you need to do is look at the positions to see that.

The male-centric homosexuality present in the music video is a necessary bit of shock. Pop culture always treats lesbianism as okay so long they're hot, so the best way to avoid coming off as just more of that is to have it be primarily male. There are a couple other details that I've noticed, but some of them, like the cross on the front of Gaga's underwear being extremely phallic, might just be me reading too much into the song.


Next was Bad Romance. Bad Romance is, as the title implies, about an abusive relationship, or so I gather. The symbolism in this music video is a bit more impenetrable for me, but I get the distinct impression the whole bit where the men are sitting around and one purchases Gaga is sort of a commentary on the similarities between being a pop icon like Gaga and whoring yourself out. There's a better way to put it, I think, but that's the best I've got right now. I may come back to this one later, and analyze it some more.


The last one I'm going to talk about is Paparazzi, which is easily the best of the ones I've seen. Obviously about how pop culture works. Gaga is at the top, she falls (Literally!), and then she murders her boyfriend at the end of the video to get her attention and popularity back. It works. This is pretty much exactly how things are. Keep in mind that the only time anyone pays attention to Britney Spears anymore is when she's being a crazy person. There are also some definite parallels between Gaga when she's dying on the ground and the paparazzi are just standing there taking pictures for their magazines and the whole Princess Diana incident over a decade ago. It's hard to believe those are unintentional.


I also just gotta love the complaints people throw at her. "She's just stupid pop!" She clearly isn't. "She's a Satanist!" She's Christian. "She's a slut." This last one is especially hilarious because the people who use it are pretty much outing themselves as misogynists in the process. I also gotta love, in the loosest sense of the word, the absurd number of homophobic comments under her Youtube videos.


Plus, I mean, all her music is really damn catchy, the dances are beautifully choreographed, and her costumes, bizarre as they are, work well within the context of her music videos.


So yeah. Gaga is pretty rad, yo.

[Krylo]

Originally Posted by NonCon

ut I get the distinct impression the whole bit where the men are sitting around and one purchases Gaga is sort of a commentary on the similarities between being a pop icon like Gaga and whoring yourself out. There's a better way to put it, I think, but that's the best I've got right now. I may come back to this one later, and analyze it some more.


The last one I'm going to talk about is Paparazzi, which is easily the best of the ones I've seen. Obviously about how pop culture works. Gaga is at the top, she falls (Literally!), and then she murders her boyfriend at the end of the video to get her attention and popularity back. It works. This is pretty much exactly how things are. Keep in mind that the only time anyone pays attention to Britney Spears anymore is when she's being a crazy person.

From what I've seen of her stuff a lot of it has to do with these themes: which is to say the themes of pop culture and it's various amounts of awfulness and the dehumanizing effect it has on the artists.

They become more poignant when you look at some of her pre-Gaga stuff.

The sound and whatnot isn't really to my tastes, but I can definitely respect her as an artist, which is more than I can say about most stuff that comes out of the mainstream.

[A Zarkin' Frood]

I never cared for videos and all, but I think Lady Gaga is just about the best pop you can find right now. I'm not a fan of her and I don't listen to her or the radio much. But it's good at least. It's still pop, though (by which I mean vocalist-centric, catchy and likely repetitive stuff. More than half the buzz isn't even related to the music), so it's nothing I can listen to over and over. The occasional radio listen I get when at other places is really enough.

[Regulus Tera]

What I like about Gaga's music is that it sounds like Persona music.

Shoji Meguro + Lady Gaga collaboration = eternal bliss

[CelesJessa]

I agree with everything here, except I really love her music and listen to it... quite frequently really. She somehow manages to bring the insanity that is fine art into her videos.

I just have a lot of respect for what she does and I love her commentary in her videos, and just what she does outside of her songs too. (like defacing a $5000 purse with a sharpie marker declaring her love for her fans (which some people were just flabbergasted about her "ruining" her purse like that).)

And her music is catchy, I can't help it.

[Token]

If you liked Paparazzi, check out Telephone as well, it's the next part of that story.

[Kim]

Originally Posted by Token

If you liked Paparazzi, check out Telephone as well, it's the next part of that story.

Yeah, I watched that, but it's not nearly as catchy as the other songs to me. *shrug*

[Regulus Tera]

Paparazzi is crap.

[Julford Hajime]

Man, see, I really really really don't like the sound of her music. Like, at all. However, I have a great respect for her in just about every other aspect of her career. Her political stuff, the design of her music videos, and the point of the music itself.

So yeah. I'm a Gaga fan who hates her music. Go figure.

[Teal Mage]

Originally Posted by NonCon

I also just gotta love the complaints people throw at her. "She's just stupid pop!" She clearly isn't. "She's a Satanist!" She's Christian. "She's a slut." This last one is especially hilarious because the people who use it are pretty much outing themselves as misogynists in the process.

Fun fact! She's also celibate.

Originally Posted by Julford Hajime

So yeah. I'm a Gaga fan who hates her music. Go figure.

I don't know if this will change the opinions of any one who doesn't like Gaga's music, but here's a video of her singing one of her songs acoustically. One way or another, the fact that she can actually sing under all that autotune means that the way she sounds in her songs is an artistic choice, and I read it as a pretty stinging comment about our current music industry. Since she was pretty much an entirely unknown character in the entertainment world until she changed from her old style to, well, her Lady Gaga persona, it doesn't say good things about how we treat vocal talent.

Anyway, I personally really like Lady Gaga, both her music, what she stands for in her videos and the active stance she's been taking regarding gay rights and pop-culture commentary - its pretty rare now-a-days to see artists like her. She's even an excellent speecher! Check out the Don't Ask; Don't Tell thread if you're curious, NonCon and I posted some links to her talking about it (bottom of page 2 and 3 respectively); she's actually pretty smart.

Also got her own TV Tropes page.

So, in conclusion, I'm pretty proud to call myself a Lady Gaga fan. Seems like she's got more talent than the majority of the mainstream music industry. Plus she's a joy to analyze - did you know her costumes are symbolic?

Because they are.