Aaron R. Davis |
I have to say something about Lady Gaga that’s really been pissing me off.
And let me just say up front: this has nothing to do with her music. You all know me by now. I’ve talked enough in this space about the subjectivity of personal taste. You know I don’t judge you personally if you and I don’t dig the same music. In fact, I like Lady Gaga’s music. So this has nothing to do with that.
No, this has to do with the fans that are on their knees worshiping at the altar of a third generation synth pop princess. The fans that are in the pews singing her praises and looking up to her and constantly defending this soulless media construct by talking about how “genuine” she is. The fundamentalist Gaga fans. The fandamentalists.
I know a number of people, and have encountered a lot more — many of them teenagers — whose adoration of Lady Gaga is indeed this over the top. Weird people that you can’t talk to about this because they view the slightest criticism of her as an attack on their faith. They cling to her as the Patron Saint of the Marginalized, the Champion of the Disenfranchised, the Prophet of Outsiders. This says one thing to me: Lady Gaga is very smart. She knows exactly what she’s doing. She’s managed to sell herself well.
But it’s also total bullshit. And furthermore, I think Gaga knows it’s bullshit.
Here’s a telling quote from Lady Gaga: “Don’t forget to follow your dreams and always be yourself. You know what you can tell them when they tell you that you’re not right? You tell them Lady Gaga says fuck off.”
She’s a marketing whiz, I’ll say that. She’s a genius. She’s managed to sell teenagers on the idea that she’s somehow their personal friend. That she’s somehow standing up for them by being famous. And she manages to do it by dressing like an architectural nightmare, being as plastic as possible and naming herself after a Queen song. So, yeah, when someone who craves attention so badly that they wear exploding bras and don’t call themselves by their apparently mundane name of Stefani tells you to be yourself, you can take that to the bank.
Some people think that the entire Lady Gaga construct is just performance art. But the real performance art, to me, is that she has a legion of “little monsters” that actually buy her bullshit and take to their keyboards in rage every time someone says what I’m saying now. I’m actually kind of in awe of her for pulling it off when it’s phonier than Naugahyde.
Let’s be honest about Stefani Germanotta for a minute here. If she really had the kind of confidence in herself that she keeps extolling as a virtue, why does she need to give herself a lame stage name and wear the costumes? Why does she need to pretend to be this erstwhile burlesque character? Is it because this is the “reality” of who she is, or is it because it’s easier to become successful and famous being a superficial studio-produced pop star with an attention-getting gimmick?
And it really seems to be all about fame and not about anything else. A friend of mine told me she admires Lady Gaga in part because she doesn’t complain about her fame, but embraces it. Well, of course she embraces it. It’s the whole point of her act. The Fame Monster is the most apt name anyone could come up with for her last album, because that’s what Lady Gaga is: a fame monster. She’s going to have to be dragged away from the spotlight with her teeth and claw marks in it, and doubtless as she’s being pulled off she’ll still claim to be entirely disaffected by the attention. There’s no point to Lady Gaga other than to be famous. Without fame, she wouldn’t exist.
This is nothing new. She’s capitalizing on being weird by calling it daring; the way pop star after pop star after pop star has done throughout the last 40 years of music.
Seriously, stop telling me how experimental, groundbreaking, different and original she is. It’s all been done before by others. Christina Aguilera did the burlesque thing. Marilyn Manson did the “be yourself” spiel. Prince changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol. Madonna. Elton John. Cher. David Bowie. And at the height of Ziggy Stardust, Bowie never once said that the important thing in life was to express your individuality and be yourself. He knew he was doing performance art, and he didn’t pretend he wasn’t. But somehow, when Lady Gaga is called an amalgamation of earlier, better artists, her fans turn that unoriginality into one of her great virtues.
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And that’s the distasteful bit to me about Lady Gaga. She tries to justify herself by pretending to be honest and substantive, when really she’s empty and vapid and just happens to write pop music that you can dance to. But those fandamentalists don’t see it that way. They see her as their mother. Their savior and Godga. They eat it up when she says the most trite and self-praising things about how genuine people should be and don’t see the stupid irony that she says it while covered in Kermit the Frog dolls.
For those fandamentalists it’s not about the music or the fame. It’s about their own fear of expressing themselves through their style or their opinions. It’s about their own fear of being honest with the world about who they are. They’re so hungry to cast off that fear, and Lady Gaga is a cynical genius because she takes that hunger and uses it to make herself famous. And she does it by telling a generation of teenage girls that the way to strike out and be who you are inside is to cling to becoming one of the faceless mass of Lady Gaga fans because it’s the same thing as being an individual.
I’m sorry, but I’m not buying it. You can call it fine Corinthian leather all you want, but it’s just vinyl, and it’s not that deep or special. It’s just there. But at least she’s only using her power to sell records.
“You know what you can tell them when they tell you that you’re not right? You tell them Lady Gaga says fuck off.”
Same to you, Lady Gaga.
Aaron R. Davis lives in a cave at the bottom of the ocean with his eyes shut tight and his fingers in his ears. You can contact him at samuraifrog@yahoo.com.
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That’s an interesting take on Gaga, I’ve not run into those fandamentalists you mention. I think I lead a fairly pre filtered and sheltered online life.
I have a slightly different read of Lady Gaga and what she’s up to and things I like about her.
What I like about her is that there’s a sense of her being in charge of her own image and behaviour. Popular mainstream pop princess type female solo artists are usually sexualised, objectified and extremely manifactured. I think Britney Spears is probably the peak/nadir of those atm.
I think Gaga is aware of that angle and she engages with it and sort of side steps it to an extent. By dressing as she does she comes at the objectification thing from a completely different angle and pretty much makes herself into an object which cancels out a lot of the sex kitten objectification she’d otherwise be dealing with and hides the human being sitting under all this.
The important thing though is that she’s the one doing it and it’s all on her terms so she has proper agency over herself and she controls her power rather than being a puppet dancing at the ends of the pop engine strings. She’s just as manifactured as the other pop princesses but she’s doing the manifacturing herself which to me makes a difference.
However there’s definitely a tension here and the reason she’s allowed to do what she’s doing is that she’s savvy and making the ‘owners’ a lot of money but still it’s something.
I love her Bad Romance video where she basically is infantilised (with the huge eyes), plays on the collective obsession with thinness with the prominent ribs and spines built into her costumes or cgi’d into her flesh. Then she’s kidnapped, drugged and against her will made to dance, half naked for a male gaze while being sold off to the highest bidder and then dressed up in various outfits.
It’s absolutely a meta commentary on the whole industry she’s dealing with which is why the end is satisfying when she blows up the guy who’d bought her and then lies smoking a cigarette in the ashes.
Anyway I really enjoy her as an artist but I do wonder how long she’ll be able to keep the balance of sort of mocking and playing against the system she’s taking part of from the inside and to be honest propagating.
I did like what I saw in an interview with her though when the interviewer hinted that Gaga was being misrepresented and getting unjustly criticized (for being a shallow attention grabber) and Gaga basically said what you see is what you get and there is no misrepresentation going on, there can’t be because Lady Gaga is whatever you make her into aka yes absolutely she’s a shallow empty contruct.
This isn’t new at all, pop stars have been creating personas to grab attention and to an extent shelter the real human sitting underneath all that for a long time but Gaga is doing an entertaining riff on it and I’m looking forward to what she comes up with next.
To engage a bit more with the actual content of the post though, the whole: Individuality through Conformity (to a particular subculture) is nothing new and is something that teens often cling to while they’re figuring themselves out. I don’t really think it’s harmful, it’s what comes out of almost any teen culture phenomena.
wow, this is a really good article on lady gaga…i think u’ve nailed it…personaly…have studied a little bit of psychology..i think she fits the profile of someone with narcissistic personality disorder… it’s all about the image for her…the image of being unique, different, a godess of the weird. i think the reason why she keeps praising her fans in such a faux-genuine and maudlin way is because this is what is going to secure her the money…they are going to keep buying her records..and in this way she secures herself not only an audience but success as well. also, like any narcissist, she hates women, and u can see on youtube that whenever she is interviewed by a woman, she grows enraged and disdainful. lady gaga does exactly what madonna did…except for with weirder costumes…she uses other people to decorate the lady gaga alter-ego with elaborate stage-costumes and scenery, and then she goes onto the stage and claims she did it all herself.
Sica – Yours is also an interesting take with a good perspective. Regarding your last point, I don’t think the individuality through conformity thing is really harmful, either. Certainly we all engage in that as kids. But I don’t necessarily think it’s as empowering as some of her fans seem to.
I certainly remember when legions of girls dressed like Madonna and said she helps you “be an individual.”
I won’t argue either way, save that she is a talented song writer and musician. I’m not sure she denies she is a construct, but I don’t really pay much attention in that regard.
I do tend to equate her first album to N.E.R.D.’s first album (The Neptunes). They were producers who created a real mish-mash of styles on an album to show off what they were capable of. There was no defining thread, save that you could tell it was them. Gaga’s first album is full of songs for other artists. When I listen to them, I think, “that is a J Lo song,” or some other such artist who does not write their own material.
Fortunately, I don’t think pop stars are all that important, so my only tithing will be to buy her albums.
How dare you. Lady Gaga is fabulous. Who cares if pop and rock are manufactured to have a certain image. I don’t because I can think for myself and I buy and listen to music that I want to.
Aaron – yep. Individuality Through Conformity isn’t particularly empowering. And the really er.. fanatic fans can be very annoying to deal with. Reason really doesn’t enter into it when it comes to that level of investment in an idea.
Amy – thank you for illustrating my point about her fans and their inability to handle criticism.
Sica: I’ve been trying to articulate what it is about Gaga that I like, and you nailed it for me. “She’s just as manufactured as the other pop princesses but she’s doing the manufacturing herself which to me makes a difference.” Yes. And how she takes the objectification and shifts it a bit. Precisely.
I feel as though I’ve been called out. The power of the Church of Gaga compels you!
Dogmatism in any form is damaging and confining to those who practice it.
Not to mention, they’re usually annoying as hell to everyone except their fellow worshipers.
James – That should be on a pillar or at least a pillow.
bey, this made me laugh:
“also, like any narcissist, she hates women, and u can see on youtube that whenever she is interviewed by a woman, she grows enraged and disdainful.”
You obviously have no idea what the fuck you’re talking about. I’ll handle all criticism you can give, but please do your homework before dishing it out.
I am a fan of Gaga, but I am not one of these fans you speak of. I am drawn to Gaga because she is passionate, and it is clear to me. Is it that absurd for artists to adore their fans? Are you aware of where she started? The people who love Gaga are not the same people who love Paris Hilton and The Hills. I do agree it’s a bit odd to say that Gaga is your God, or Goddess, because I’m not sure how’d she feel about it, especially because she is a Christian. But what I’m trying to say is, little teeny bopper girls just listen to her songs on the radio. The people who adore her and find shelter in her music and performances and words are gay boys, girls who are actually into vampirism NOT because of twilight, and people like me. People who wear normal every day clothes and have a lot of passion for things that may seem out of the ordinary.
I don’t really agree with what you’ve said about her, though. It goes against much of what she says about herself, which is what she’s always said. I think she is actually a very driven and honest person, one reason why is because she has always said the same things. You can tell it’s true. And if it isn’t, well, a lot of people would be let down. But you don’t see her living the glamourous life. That’s not what she’s after. She puts most of her earnings into her art, she doesn’t spend it on cars and stupid things, because they don’t matter to her.
Anyway, that’s just my opinion.
And to whoever she said she hates women… what the fuck are you talking about? The chick is as feminine as it gets, and she’s bisexual. Really now.
She is amazing, creative and so talented ! I love her !
Love this talented girl – WIERD and CREATIVE and more!
I love this insane beauty. I buy all her CDs. I very much want to get to the concert. I loved Lady Gaga!
I like her dress ))
Lady GaGa is so amazing, she looks very hot and sexy!!! I love her voice and the way she dance on the scene. Very talented girl!
I think its amazing she looks very ordinary without makeup. She is of course still gorgeous.
Timeless beauty.
i think that i just waisted 5 minutes of my life reading things about lady gaga that are complete bullshit.she is infatuated with her fans and everything else,the music,the dancing,the fashion,the performances..she loves it all.and yu may not ”buy” what shes ”doing”,but yur a fucking loser apparently that has nothing better to do than wright paragraph upon paragraph of how terrible the biggest evr popstar is.i think yur terribly jellous,jellous of it all,the uniqueness,the fame,the money shes made,the amount of videos peple have watchd because shes in them..all of it.yur jellous,and obveously have no life.yur a loser,seriously.y dnt yu back the fuck off of gaga,she may not care wht yu think,and i kno she doesnt..but us monsters do,tht is our mother monster yu are talking about,and evrything..evry word of that was complete and total bullshit.so why dnt yu find a lame unordinary artist tht yu truely like..and waiste yur time wrighting a shitload of nonsense about thm,because whoevr yur obsessed with..and ther is someone,evryone is obsessed with someone..but whoevr it is they will be way more worth yur time because nothing yu say makes sense or is true so do it to someone tht is should go twards yu fucking retard..oh btw lady gaga says fuck off! <3
Wow. I hate to feed the troll, but I just “waisted” five minutes deciphering that.
That was a very interesting bit of literature. I am also a massive Fan of Gaga, not as massive as they come but i do love the Lady. I think the main reason for peoples infatuation with Gaga is the passion she shows for everything she does. It inspires people to project that same passion into their own lives…lol and make maccaroni pictures of her face and shit. She puts all her money into her shows and performances so I really dont see how she is a “marketing whiz” but everyone is entitled to their opinion.
Peace.
I can understand your frustration with the hype about her, but don’t let it blind your thoughts about the girl.
You can name everything that has already been done by other artists and yet she still being somewhat of unique.
She’s some kind of a “multi-media” artist, because her art touches every aspect from music to fashion, performance and etc. Her music can be a huge electronic pop hit or an beautiful acoustic with piano or even both of them together. Her style can be vintage and futuristic at the same time, her influences passes from Beatles to Black Sabbath, Salvador Dali to Andy Warhol or Frida Kahlo, from Madonna to David Bowie… She can even be a very “plastic” and superficial being or a simple human being overflowing love with every fiber of her heart.
She really knows what POP should be, she knows about art and have talent, but the most important, she have PASSION. She loves what she does and her endless agenda of work and amazing performances proves it.
We don’t see GaGa wasting her money on stupid things too, she spend it on her art and activism.
That’s why shes earning respect from people like Yoko Ono, Elton John, Cindy Lauper and a lot of great personalities.
She’s not a GODDES or anything like that, neither anyone IMO. But I really respect her and I can proudly say that I am a big fan of her work and the lovely person that she is.