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.