I'm not sure if I've said this on here before, but a friend of mine, Kelz, observed that Lady Gaga's weird avant garde wasn't at all congruent with how mainstream her music is. How does no one see this as a problem?! Well--probably because what we 'see' doesn't matter...But that's what makes her so good. Even if she walked around in the Michelin Man suit with deer antlers over her head and shoes made of 2x4s, her music would still be hypnotically addictive. Hell, her persona could be that of 1-ply toilet paper and I still wouldn't be able to NOT tell people to quiet down so that I could let the build to the chorus of "Just Dance" hit just right.
But that brings me to thesis. Her brilliance lies in the fact that she can get away with and do, in theory, whatever she wants because her music is not a sole product of her fixed creation; rather, she is a byproduct of/and outlet for, the music that she represents.
Allow me to tease out that run-on sentence...
To be clear, I would argue that Lady Gaga is not a star because she's talented; instead, her talent was merely the asset which got her noticed. Sure she can play piano, she can sing, (I guess) she can dance, but how often do we see that? How often do we see her stripped down without the studio, sythesizers, and auto-tune? Shamefully, we don't (and music videos don't count). She, like all of the other pop stars who preceded her, are products of production.
Consider any of the following songs, if given to an attractive and consumable up-and-coming singer, would've produced similar pop-stardom:
1) Hit Me Baby One More Time
2) Since You've Been Gone
3) Promiscuous Girl
4) Party In The U.S.A.
5) I Kissed A Girl
Funny that you could likely name at least 4 of the associated artists with these songs...
AND THAT'S MY POINT!
At this juncture, I'm simply enjoying music that's made in a lab with a genetically engineered sound which naturally appeals to the pleasure centers of my brain. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about it because I'll gleefully sing along to any of the aforementioned songs like I wrote those suckers myself. I just want to make sure that we're all clear on where exactly our affection is originating from. I'm pretty sure if Gaga had her hits produced by my 10 year old cousin on a 1989 Casio Keyboard and still dressed the way she does, her relevance would be completely disqualified in all of our eyes.
Buuuuuuuut in the meantime...
"Just Dance! (Gonna be ok!) Da-doo-doot Just Dance! (Spin that record baaabe)..."
I think she is her own production. She said in an interview that her life is art, and she tries everyday to make it so. And have you heard "speechless", its pretty raw and I love it!
ReplyDeleteAgreed Brandon. We talk about it all the time, the people who get the best beats get the biggest hits. Another example for Britney is '3' - there are 10 singers who easily could have done that song (i mean 10 well known singers, probably hundreds of unknowns). Gaga likes to pretend she is so artistic, but I've heard the same speech from countless other people, face it - you are a performer NOT an artist. I have heard Gaga's artistic stuff, but that's not what gets her airtime, so I should rephrase - you are an unsuccessful artist and a successful formulaic mainstream pop-star performer.
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