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 One of the most elusive and complex artists of our generation, Lady Gaga represents not only the hedonistic, existential despair of the modern age, but also a glimmer of hope and a deep-seated, wistful longing for traditional values. Let us first consider the very nature of her as an artist. Not content with the name that her parents gave her - Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta - she has boldly made a statement of self-definition. As surely as Napoleon reinvented himself and defined his time by crowning himself Emperor of France, Ms. Germanotta has performed a similar act. Not only did she choose her own name, Gaga, but also took on the persona of a "Lady" - refined, aristocratic, from a different and more elegant age. Her corpus of work is similarly impressive. Her hit single "Just Dance" is not only a revival of modern pop, but also a stunning narrative of an innocent, confused girl thrust into the midst of a world of hedonism. It is the first step toward her inevitable corruption, fall, and ultimately, catharsis and transfiguration. As we shall see, the totality of the experience of Lady Gaga's album "The Fame" is necessarily intertwined with grand themes of music and forbidden love, and is the spiritual heir to Wagner's Tristan and Isolde as well as owing a debt to the poetic but non-musical Inferno by Dante. After being tempted into abandoning the good of the intellect and "just dancing", the heroine-Gaga is subjected to a radical assault on her view of love. In the second track, "Lovegame," we can see lyrically that love, which was something once treasured and divine, is now reduced to something pedestrian -- a mere "game". "Let's have some fun, this beat is sick," she sings, her tone mechanical and robotic - a sign, surely, of the sickness that she feels infesting her own soul. As an individual, she is beginning to be subsumed into the hedonistic masses around her. This theme is born out in the following track, "Paparazzi". It opens with a powerful statement of crowd-identity: "We are the crowd", she sings. Like the damned in Dante's Hell, she has lost her own identity and can only be understood in the context of an observer (in Hell, Dante; in The Fame, the ideal listener). The loss of identity is not total, though, not yet - her verses end plaintively with "I", that strong assertion of self, but soon degenerate back into the mass pronoun "We". Furthermore, the "I" pronoun is used most often immediately before "Paparazzi", suggesting that she is no longer defined as a human being, but instead as a social role. The choice of "Paparazzi" reminds the listener of the overall theme - as a spectator to the Gaga-heroine's corruption - and serves to shame the listener into a greater appreciation of this role. Following "Paparazzi," the mood of the piece changes dramatically. In the philosophical interlude "Poker Face", Gaga questions the act of interpretation itself. Can anyone truly understand the artist as their own self -- read their poker face? Gaga seems to think not: "like a chick in the casino, take your bank before I pay you out" brings the artist's elusiveness into a painful new light. Gaga continues her descent throughout the next few tracks. In "Eh, Eh" she expresses notions of confusion and regret (my friends keep on tellin' me that something's wrong") but does not make any apologies for her corruption. However, she also makes an attempt to shift the blame onto the nameless "Boy" in the song, subtly suggesting that she is not responsible for what she has done to herself. The next track "Starstruck" continues this trend, hinting that she has been corrupted by a charismatic, alluring Other. The title of the seventh track, "Beautiful, Dirty, Rich" suggests that Lady Gaga is beginning to come to terms with her fallen state. The choice of the word "Dirty" in the song is illustrative: despite having all worldly pleasures, she feels tainted and filthy by them. The fact that this song is the seventh is clearly an allusion to numerology - Seven is the number of the Divine, which has enabled her to begin to see the folly that she has fallen into. The following three tracks are further meditations on the nature of this corrupting "dirt" -- why else do women corrupt themselves if not for one or more of "The Fame" "Money Honey" or "Boys Boys Boys"? "Paper Gangsta" shows that Gaga has finally begun to reject the world she has fallen into. She doesn't want a "paper gangsta" that won't deliver what is promised; the hedonism and "just dancing" mentality has failed to give the "follow-through" that she craves so desperately. "Brown Eyes" is a pining song, a song of longing and redemption. It in this mysterious character's brown eyes that she has finally been redeemed. Who exactly this man is deserves further scholarly inquiry, as many interpretative themes open themselves up. In "Summerboy" there is a hint of recidivism. Gaga sings about "checking out other guys" while her martini glistens; even though she is back on her feet, she acknowledges the weakness of the flesh and the possibility of backsliding. On the UK version, there are two bonus tracks - "Disco Heaven" and "Again Again". The former is an obvious call to her ultimate success in overcoming herself. The latter, I contend, calls back to the beginning - like Nietzche, Gaga holds up the idea of eternal return as a basis for building modern philosophy, morality, and art. I hope these brief notes have helped to add to your appreciation of Lady Gaga, a true "Artist" and one of the few truly postmodern, avant-garde figures in music today. It would be of immense interpretive interest if you, too, posted your thoughts about her work and impact upon music, both "in situ as music" as well as a phenomenological experience. fantastic in plastic fucked around with this message at 23:25 on Aug 6, 2009 |
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Aug 6, 2009 22:10
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Or maybe she's just a ho. (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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Aug 6, 2009 23:01
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I wanna po o o o o o o o k 'er face. (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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Aug 6, 2009 23:13
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Ah, finally - someone else who understands the inexorable undercurrent of cultural value which literally runs through the figurative river of Lady Gaga's body of work. I see that you've already covered some of the more important aspects of her music, both in a formal and structuralist sense - but I have to wonder why you seem to have glossed over one of her most important aspects - fashion. With Lady Gaga, it's not just a matter of aurally-attractive pop'n'lock back-broken beats, or lissome-kissed labial lyrics; no, as an artist who embraces the idea of the "Total Package Persona" I find it very disturbing that a more concrete mention of her radical (one might say, après-fashion) embrasure of style was left aside. Just to make sure that we're all on the same page, here's smattering of what I think are her most stringently critical pieces:  As you can see here, Lady Gaga appears in one of her rare instances of full leg-coverage; often preferring to go pants-less because of her maternal grandmother's degenerative blindness (the high contrast between cloth-darkened torso and massive expanse of creme-brulee thigh allows her grandmother to recognize her granddaughter  ), here we see a complete inversion of her usual stylistic mien.Of particular interest is the "mirrormask" which comprises the focal piece of the outfit - perhaps reflecting (how recherche) on Tao Jones' earlier statement regarding the 'loss of the I' and the self-identification with the 'crowd', Lady Gaga's mask quite equivocally transforms the locus of visual identification (the face) into a site of symbological juxtaposition with her scopophilitic audience.  We see this trope continued in her application of the "mirrordress" - a piece which I'm afraid this sallow picture does little justice. Here, the sexualized body, transmogrified from collection of soft and shadowed curves into stark and geometric edges, is further distorted by collecting and returning the gaze which it demands with its colloquially outlandish form. It may be a project of interest to you, Tao Jones, perhaps; the parallel referent here between Dante's "circles" of Hell, and the "circles" of psycho-sexual structure discussed in Lacan's mirror-based construction of the psyche and its cultural extensions? Certainly, if one defines their relation to the 'crowd' through purely material means, the hedonistic displays of fashion which Lady Gaga tends towards may belie some sort of understanding and transcendance of "common" cultural grounds. I of course am reminded here of one of her seminal inspirations, David Bowie:  Of course, the ideogram of the face-graven lightning strike has been overdone, outplayed, one might say ruined, by its repeated and constantly re-appropriated use. However, I believe that in the hands (and highlighted cheeks) of Lady Gaga, the symbol takes on a transformed significance. It's hard to put into the right words, but for me I feel as if her application of the beloved faciocranial sigil of Ziggy Stardust stands not just as a direct visual reference to the "glam" style and vibrantly Brechtian verfremdungseffekt that Bowie's ego cultivated. . . . . .but perhaps, as I would like to posit, a reference towards his self-perpetuated androgyny and ambigenous sexual force? Lady Gaga has gone on record as saying that the sense of transsexualism that she seems to generate in the popular press is welcomed, specifically in regards to Christina Aguilera's now-infamous statement that ". . .this person [Lady Gaga] was just brought to my attention not too long ago. I’m not quite sure who this person is, to be honest. I don’t know if it is a man or a woman." - a state of affairs which Lady Gaga is more than thrilled to perpetuate as long as it continues to raise her public profile. I'd like to conclude with one of the pieces which, in this vein, has also been raising Lady Gaga's public profile, instituting a new awareness of her art - both musically and sartorially:  I'll allow this to speak mostly for itself, adding only Lady Gaga's own statement that her approach to fashion sense is meant as 'a commentary on what it means to be a lady' - a statement which certainly supports the issues that Tao Jones has already laid out for us concerning, perhaps, the ultimately deconstructive teleology behind her art. In conclusion, I would love to take her to the mall. Discuss.
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Aug 7, 2009 00:12
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I forgot what I was looking for, but I stumbled upon this earlier today. http://www.surveyradio.com/gaga/?t202id=912&t202kw=pop+music
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Aug 7, 2009 00:30
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this thread is amazing haha
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Aug 7, 2009 03:34
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You forgot her exploding tits at the Much Music Video Awards hahaha. Also, this rendition of Paparazzi is amazing. Check it! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oP8SrlbpJ5A
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Aug 7, 2009 04:55
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DAT CHICK GOT A WEINER (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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Aug 7, 2009 05:02
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I didn't forget it, in fact I was literally there. I merely elided it because it's not what I would consider a quote seminal unquote piece in her repertoire, in fact it's technically a tangential "crib" from Madonna's set-rock It's certainly explosively hot though:  I'm disappointed that there's not more discussion about her, regardless of the hot-topic cultural disenchantment (or by extension, the PHIZ-esque apotheosy) that follows most "big name" acts. Perhaps a discussion of the upcoming tour-based collaboration between Kanye West and Lady Gaga? These are important topics, people! p.s. "pirate" paparazzi is indeed an incredible rendition~
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Aug 7, 2009 05:23
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxhyoOX_um8#t=2m10s (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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Aug 7, 2009 21:12
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art (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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Aug 8, 2009 03:13
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You guys put way too much effort into a parody thread. No one's going to believe this because most NMD threads that aren't trolls are about as simplistic and idiotic as "hurr its got really good beats"
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Aug 8, 2009 07:24
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Does she really have a tiny penis in addition to a vagina? (serious post)
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Aug 8, 2009 07:30
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juicecube posted:Does she really have a tiny penis in addition to a vagina? (serious post) Don't just take my word for it, take hers from Twitter today: ladygaga Love you Japan! Pokerface just went #1! Thanku!!. My show was so good last night. I just had to go home and suck my own hermie dick, suckka about 6 hours ago from TwitterBerry
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Aug 8, 2009 07:34
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Would people actually like this poo poo if it wasn't on the radio? Really??
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Aug 8, 2009 07:35
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Rotten rear end Joe posted:Would people actually like this poo poo if it wasn't on the radio? Really??
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Aug 8, 2009 08:05
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I was being 100% serious, for the record would this avatar lie????
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Aug 8, 2009 08:48
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Thought you were serious till you mentioned Dante's Inferno.
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Aug 8, 2009 16:22
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Final Fantasy Baseball posted:Don't just take my word for it, take hers from Twitter today: I thought this was joking, but then I looked at her twitter. Was it hacked, or is it just a running joke that she loves playing up? 
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Aug 8, 2009 16:48
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SgtScruffy posted:I thought this was joking, but then I looked at her twitter. Was it hacked, or is it just a running joke that she loves playing up? Apparently the latter, this article explains it. http://newsroom.mtv.com/2009/08/07/is-lady-gaga-really-a-hermaphrodite-probably-not/ It's also fun to type "Is Lady Gaga" into Google and see the autocomplete results.
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Aug 8, 2009 17:01
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het posted:Yes. That makes me so 
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Aug 9, 2009 05:16
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Final Fantasy Baseball posted:ladygaga Love you Japan! Pokerface just went #1! Thanku!!. My show was so good last night. I just had to go home and suck my own hermie dick, suckka about 6 hours ago from TwitterBerry The most brilliant performance artist of our age, without a doubt.
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Aug 9, 2009 06:41
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"I make souless eurotrash music to dance to" - Lady gAGA [bLENDER] truer words never spoken...
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Aug 9, 2009 07:02
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Illandir posted:I'd like to conclude with one of the pieces which, in this vein, has also been raising Lady Gaga's public profile, instituting a new awareness of her art - both musically and sartorially: This outfit is particularly apropos given that her appearance and style seems to draw a lot of inspiration from the following image: 
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Aug 9, 2009 07:13
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Yeah I think she's a talented artist and I enjoy her eccentric spirit.
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Aug 9, 2009 19:31
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i like lady gaga because she makes music that normally only old queens listen to. and somehow, it caught on and became a massive hit
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Aug 9, 2009 22:49
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I like lady gaga because even though she's a pop artist, she at least tries to push people's buttons by being weird.
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Aug 9, 2009 23:14
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I genuinely like Lady Gaga. Does that make me cool or not? I'm never sure these days.
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Aug 9, 2009 23:29
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I ate out Lady Gaga's pussy it tasted like cold, unfeeling steel
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Aug 9, 2009 23:40
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its got really good beats (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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Aug 9, 2009 23:57
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her rear end is great, really (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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Aug 10, 2009 00:01
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Rotten rear end Joe posted:Would people actually like this poo poo if it wasn't on the radio? Really?? people like death metal and that's not on the radio
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Aug 10, 2009 00:07
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I got put on probation for telling the truth about her. (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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Aug 10, 2009 03:56
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LE0N posted:people like death metal and that's not on the radio Right but the point is that most pop lives and flourishes exclusively through the radio
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Aug 10, 2009 04:17
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Illandir posted:This is awesome because she looks like a Thundercat, and Thundercats are rad.
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Aug 10, 2009 08:13
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d0grent posted:Right but the point is that most pop lives and flourishes exclusively through the radio yeah except her singles were huge club hits before they were even on the radio
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Aug 10, 2009 09:36
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Vintage Condom posted:yeah except her singles were huge club hits before they were even on the radio Out of curiosity, how does one define a 'club hit'?
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Aug 10, 2009 09:48
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LuckySevens posted:Out of curiosity, how does one define a 'club hit'? That it gets spun by djs a lot and people love it, so they spin it more and more.
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Aug 10, 2009 10:07
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LuckySevens posted:Out of curiosity, how does one define a 'club hit'?
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Aug 10, 2009 19:42
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S/he's a hermaphrodite according to some news sources: http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/en...r-1225759835796 quote:"Its not something that I'm ashamed of, just isn't something that i go around telling everyone. Yes. I have both male and female genitalia, but i consider myself a female," she reportedly wrote in a blog back in December 2008.
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Aug 10, 2009 22:35
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