Video: Lady Gaga before she became famous

Michael Dennique

Stefani Germanotta – Lady Ga Ga is the Ultimate artist and entertainer.

I would like to take this opportunity to wish her the greatest success, and longevity in her music career.

thequickbrownfox

Lisa describes the first performance as “Norah Jones-ish music”, as though this was artifice and the Lady Gaga presentation is a true and unique aesthetic.

Perhaps if she had sung her ballads dressed in only underwear.

Anonymous

mc queen is the outfit/accessories designer

jfrancis

I see the crowned Moon Creatures from Georges MÃ©liÃ¨s’ Le Voyage dans la Lune (1902) are making another cameo here in white vinyl after their successful music video debut in Smashing Pumpkins ‘Tonight.’

ZDepthCharge

Adralien: Yes I get a Bowie vibe off Lady Gaga also. This song isn’t up to the level of Bowie at his pop best, but as far as commercial pop music goes it isn’t bad.
Hopefully this lady can keep her hold on the dragon and make it do her bidding. I’m a bit tired of the “burned out pop star” thing. I’d love to see more intelligent, creative people bending the corporate machine to their whims and vision.

adralien

ZDC: Agreed, I don’t hate the song, it just feels like music by committee.

She has to work through “cher” (almost there!) then “kylie” with a stop at “bjork” before she can approach the Bowie.

girltaristhan

I actually prefer her before this strange makeover she went through

chairface

MeFi overthought this already for you, BoingBoing.

http://www.metafilter.com/86769/Norah-Jones-Look-Out#2828979

The whole thread is interesting and worth a read. The feeling in general is there is more to Lady GaGa than a casual glance will reveal.

mjpw

Anyone else get Google ads for — no kidding — pest control services when watching the Lady Gaga video embedded here??

The first video wasn’t a complete surprise to me because I saw her on SNL and she was pretty handy with the piano there, too. It would be nice to think that if she had continued on that path she would have just as much chance of being rich and famous as with her current persona, but good marketing has proven itself more valuable than talent many times before.

And heck, a lot of it is just luck… she’s basically having Tori Amos’s career in reverse (Google “Y Kant Tori Read” if you don’t know what I’m talking about).

Anonymous

her nose is different *lol* i just noticed that. i love lady gaga…! i love the design behind her videos and the high fashion thing is kinda cool. but i think she tries too hard. really eccletic people just *are*. like Bjork. ya know? she’s trying to be the next madonna/bowie/andy warhol but they all already happened… so nothing is all that shocking.

wormbaby

To all the folks claiming the look is a product of her label or an A&R man, think again. It’s all done by Haus of Gaga, as she describes it “They’re my best friends. I’m not really sure what the world thinks … but I do hear things like, ‘Who is the Haus of Gaga?’ and, ‘Are you putting out a fashion line?’ And no one gets it. It’s not a commodity. It’s not something that’s meant to be sold.”
Get that not about selling out but about expessing the art.

Anonymous

Except that half of the things she’s wearing in the video are designed by Alexander McQueen. Those gorgeous pieces of art shoes in the ending scene and the beaded crazy proportioned dress and heels that looked like hooves are all by him.
Brandon West

Good for her for bringing some of her friends along for the likely short-lived ride on the fame train, but I promise you everything she does is rubber-stamped by the label at some point. If her friends make something that her label likes, that’s fantastic, but if it didn’t fit the image they wanted her to be I guarantee they’d axe it. She opened for the New Kids on the Block on one of their reunion tours – enough said.
- Jesse M.
  
  Brandon West wrote: “I promise you everything she does is rubber-stamped by the label at some point.”
  
  How can you be so sure? Would you say the same about any other major label act like Radiohead, or is there something about Lady Gaga that gives you special confidence?
  
  “She opened for the New Kids on the Block on one of their reunion tours – enough said.”
  
  And what does that prove, exactly? She’s a pop act, why shouldn’t she open for them? Would you feel differently if she had opened for Madonna or Michael Jackson?
  - Brandon West
    
    I would say that about every single major label artist, unless it’s explicitly stated in their contract (a la Prince) that they get to maintain complete control of the creative process. Even with such a clause, they will be asked to do things by the label — they can’t change their minds and stop after 3 albums of a 5 album deal for creative reasons without suffering huge penalties, so they are still giving up control. And complete creative control would mean control over all the artwork on show posters, all the ad campaigns, which studio/producer/mastering studio to use, etc.
    
    I’m sure she really wanted to have product placements for Philippe Stark, Nemiroff vodka, Heartbeats, HP, Nintendo, Burberry, and Safari in this video. It’s part of her creative vision.
- CarryNation
  
  “She opened for the New Kids on the Block on one of their reunion tours – enough said.”
  
  Jimi Hendrix opened for the Monkees–so what’s your point?

sbarnes2

Anyone else getting a Booshy vibe from that white spiky-headed outfit? Its the White Frost!

Anonymous

That pink wig made me think of Miss Piggy. once that image was in my head, I couldn’t take any of it seriously.

eagleapex

Context is king.

Anonymous

It’s a pity that she had no success while doing “real singing” so she decided to be Lady Gaga… et voilÃ

Baldhead

my thought on the new song is this: the sort of thing that Grace Jones night have done when younger. might still do really.

Jesse M.

“something in her presence seems very non-genuine to me.”

She may not be genuine, but she’s “genuinely artificial”, if you know what I mean–the weird fake persona she’s created is original and imaginative, like early Bowie in his “Ziggy Stardust” phase (or like her friend Marilyn Manson in his ‘Mechanical Animals’ phase, a resemblance pointed out by Sean Collins), rather than boring and cookie-cutter “sexy”. In much the same way that I often prefer fantasy and science fiction to novels more grounded in “real life”, I often think that artists who use their imagination to create playful fantasy personas are a lot more interesting than artists who are striving to be “genuine” (boooring…)

dougrogers

Grace Jones, Roxy Music… certainly filling the gap Madonna has opened and left empty. As others have said, there’s a huge lot of clever imagery, money and marketing here. I hope she has the talent to sustain it and refresh it, because even as its edgy, it’s almost formulaic.

Anonymous

So this was recorded when she was only 18?

Mina

To anon #7 and others who wondered about clothes and wardrobe, much of what she wears in the Bad Romance video (the amazing shoes, the gold dress, the mirrored dress and other things) are the work of the British designer Alexander McQueen, an avant garde, but very well known fashion presence. In fact, the official premiere of the Bad Romance was as the accompanying music for last section of McQueen’s Spring 2010 show. The ensemble that Gaga wears near the end when she signs “fashion, fashion,” was the last outfit down the runway and styled the same with with matching leggings and shoes.

Jesse M.

Brandon West wrote:
“I would say that about every single major label artist, unless it’s explicitly stated in their contract (a la Prince) that they get to maintain complete control of the creative process.”

Fair enough, I wasn’t aware that contracts gave labels control over the actual content of the songs the artists produced, as opposed to stuff like number of albums and touring and so forth. But do the labels exercise this control much? Plenty of artists do take major creative risks which could hurt sales–Radiohead’s Kid A, for example–and you’d think independent-minded artists would at least complain in interviews if the labels were frequently tampering with the music itself.

Michael Fredric

It’s a pop music girl group. C’mon guys (and gals), this isn’t the Met, and it isn’t intended to be such. Have a bit of fun (and walk away).

thequickbrownfox

I remember reading an interview with Chrissie Hynde of The Pretenders, about 1982.

They had just toured the US and were charting with “Brass in pocket”, you know the filmclip where she appears as a waitress in a short skirt.

She talked about being pestered by A&R types in the US, with big bags of cash and cocaine, who wanted her to leave the band and do some more videos wearing knickers, bikinis…etc.

The next year we presented with the woeful Madonna, so someone had taken the bait.

They’re basically a bunch of carnies and they know most of you are rubes.

Anonymous

I *hope* she changes it up after this contract runs its course. She’s pretty, has actual talent, and can truly sing.

It’s a pity she and/or her handlers feel a need to make such a spectacle of the persona known as Lady Gaga.

Last scene of the new video? The unfortunate lovespawn of Amy Winehouse and the Fembots.

Pantograph

So what if it isn’t real music? It is a piece of commercial performance art with background music.
Now is she an artschool kid cynically parodying the fame machine, or does she play an artschool kid cynically parodying the fame machine to sell records to disillusioned hipsters craving safe ironic subversion? Or does she think she’s the former while the record company thinks she’s the latter?

Anonymous

Last time I checked, most of Lady Gaga’s wardrobe was designed by…Lady Gaga. If you check out her video blog, she regularly shows her sketchbook.

Anonymous

I don’t see what the big deal is Peaches was doing this years ago.

Anonymous

I am impresed by her voice.. honestly, i havenÂ´t imagine that she could have had such a lovely and powerful voice…. what a pity she prefered so much fame to the real music….

Anonymous

WOW! She has talent. I love her voice. And I personally think she looks better with dark hair. Lady Gaga is cool but Stefani Germanotta is awesome ;)

Anonymous

lady gaga if u read these i love ur music but u wanna know what i love more… u !!!

mdh

Would you say the same about any other major label act like Radiohead, or is there something about Lady Gaga that gives you special confidence?

Jesse, Radiohead runs their own their own label.

Anonymous

She does seem to be having fun playing Madonna in red.

Jesse M.

“Jesse, Radiohead runs their own their own label.”

Ah, I didn’t know that. But I see they were on EMI up through Hail to the Thief, so my basic point still stands…would Brandon say the same thing about pre 2004 Radiohead that he said about Lady Gaga?

mdh

Jesse, for their first couple albums even Radiohead had to placate the label. I say this as someone who has been a serious Radiohead fan since 1991.

The difference is that when Radiohead was new, they were marketed to the ‘alternative’ market, but had a top 40 hit. Eventually they (with a few other bands (Smashing P, Nirvana, et al.) brought the mainstream to them. This is why Radiohead gets compared to Pink Floyd. Game changing.

LG is still being marketed to an existing mainstream. I don’t see her changing the game just yet. Maybe she will?

Anonymous

you have to keep in mind that the first video was when she was 19 years old, she had started going to a great music school at age 17 and had gone to catholic school. maybe she didn’t have the best time growing up. i believe that she had who she is bottled up for so long, that when she was finally able to express all she is, no longer having to hold anything back, she didn’t. and more power to her. we all know she’s talented (unlike some pop “singers” who always need effects on their voices) and no matter who dresses her or advises her on anything for a “shock value”, or whatever anyone wants to call it – good for her! but i believe a lot of it IS her and she’s just doing whatever she wants because she can. i know she’s said she’s always felt famous inside, but (and don’t quote me on this, but) i maybe she wanted the external fame too. (some people DO like celebrity). and more power to her for having what it takes to wear and do the things she does and go all out and using celebrity. someone needs to! i sure as hell could never be able to do that.but if i COULD i would! how many pop “singers” have come and gone in the past 5-10 years? could you name 10 them from between 2000 and now? she’s going to be remembered, somehow, someway, for one reason or another, by most people. and maybe that’s another reason why she does what she does- to leave her impact. MADONNA EVEN TOLD HER SHE HAS THE “IT” FACTOR!! come on! that is the only other idolized pop singer, in my eyes anyway, and she’s STILL rockin’ it out- nearly 30 years later! and you know 30 years from now (if you’re not a huge fan, like me) you’ll remember the shoes, the ensembles, the hair, the friggin’ crystal-encrusted, low-rider wheelchair, and the list goes on…) maybe she doesn’t show ALL of herself in interviews or whatnot because some things do still need to be your own, so certain walls have to be put up-but that’s not my opinion, someone in an earlier post said something along the lines of “now knowing which persona is her true self” and all these things that said person doesn’t know what “persona” to take seriously, take it as it is: self-expression, no matter how many forms it takes. (okay, i’ve gone on long enough…sorry…)

Jeff9821

That was the most gimmicky video I have ever seen in my life. Gimmicky, gimmicky, gimmicky!

I didn’t pay anything to view it but I still feel somehow robbed.

Anonymous

Having seen her live, even if she only did have one album at that point, it was nevertheless an entertaining spectacle of kitsch, fashion, and really great piano playing (she played with her feet at one point…Like Hendrix playing the Strat with his teeth).

Pple might say she sold out or whatever. But so what. It’s a fun ride.

adamnvillani

Let me cast another vote against the concept that the piano-playing singer-songwriter version is more “genuine.”

ili

Silly Boingers, don’t you know mind control when you see it? http://vigilantcitizen.com/?p=1676

Anonymous

I already love Lady Gaga, but this really gives me even more respect for her.
When I first heard of her, I thought she was just going to be an annoying, cookie-cutter, blonde sexy-girl act, but the more I listened to her voice and the actual lyrics, I realized she had some actual talent. I love her voice, her style, everything.
Lady Gaga (though you won’t read this), never change. Let people talk, but most of them couldn’t do a sixth of what you can do.

Chentzilla

Wii nunchuck at 2:44!

JRZGRL1

I was a big Tori Amos fan back in her earlier days (Boys from Pele era) then just sort of drifted away. I did not really know who Lady Gaga was until the Bad Romance video. So obviously I have not been a fan for long. But I think there is incredible substance here. It’s not all about gimmicks. This is someone who can play the piano well, sing well, act well (look at the VMA “bloody” Paparazzi performance). I am looking to Lady Gaga, to some extent anyway, to keep me interested vs. what happened with me & Tori Amos. I’m optimistic. And I love the fact that Lady Gaga has such an enormous European and Latin American following. It’s all good. If you don’t like her, there are lots of other musicians to watch.

Anonymous

Tori Amos, David Bowie, Grace Jones, even the Marilyn Manson comparisons made me wince… she might be a gifted pianist but her music is shallow and lyrics laughable. She’s exploiting iconic images from countless ‘shocking’ performace acts and ‘occult’ traditons, and marketing them in an ‘ironic’ way. ‘OH HAI look at me I’m an industry slave but I use them they don’t use me LOL’.
Yes, if she relies so much on gimmicks and shock, sooner than later she’ll run out of gas.

Anonymous

thequickbrownfox – so you’re saying that Madonna didn’t want to do videos in knickers or bikinis, she had to be pressured by her label?

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHHAHA please, give us more wisdom about how the entertainment world works…

Anonymous

“but the end game of what she wears and does is absolutely tied to trying to move units. If it weren’t, she’d be an independent artist.”

Huh? As an independent artist, how many people would see her dress-up creations? She wants exposure and attention, and a major label gives her that.

As for your “promise” that everything is rubber stamped by her label–yeah, I’m sure they wanted to spend the kind of money on this video that they did. They’d much rather she pick one or two outfits I’m sure. They didn’t tell her “we’ve got this idea for you to change costumes 10 times in this video…”

Hawley

meth, not even once

PeaceLove

Really, she came in third? I kind of wonder that there were two other acts better than that. If nothing else, the early video shows Gaga has an unusual heaping of raw talent.

I agree the song’s kind of a bore, more sub-Fiona Apple than Tori Amos, imo. But that was a pretty spectacular performance for an NYU talent show. I was also impressed by her live, jazzy performance on SNL a while back.

Count me an interested new fan, naysayers be damned.

friendpuppy

Is there autotune in that song up there? I don’t think I heard any.

Also, it isn’t THAT easy to come up with a really killing groove in a song. Humdrum stuff is easy. Getting something where every instrument is sitting in the pocket and contributing to the whole is difficult. Of course…protools exists as well.

Tdawwg

We need a maker how-to video for that flamethrower bra, stat.

Anonymous

She’s the product of the marketing machine alright, the music is bog-standard formulaic fluff designed for maximum generic appeal – the genius here is that she has such an outrÃ© image, distinguishing herself from all the other cookie-cutter wannabes that pollute the charts. I hope she can keep this up while working ‘from the inside’ with her skill and talent to improve the standard of her music output.

Jesse M.

By the way, for those who haven’t seen Lady Gaga videos before watching the one in the post, I also recommend the full-length video for ‘Paparazzi’ (slightly better quality version on her site here), if you’re not convinced by the first video that she’s going for something more interesting and creative than a generic “sexy pop singer” style, maybe this one will change your mind…(check out the bizarro minnie mouse look she sports around 5:56!)

Anonymous

Hrm, I see pastiches of Mirrormask, Fire In The Sky, and 5th Element in that video. Any that I’m missing?

smammers

Wow, it’s crazy to think how she went from that to the crazy persona she has now. But girl is talented! I thought she was just your run-of-the-mill blonde making weird pop music until I saw her perform at the VMAs this year and realized she was singing live and playing piano. I’m just kind of fascinated by her now.

PixelFish

Wormbaby beat me to it: Haus of Gaga–her collective of friends and artists–comes up with a lot of her look and feel. (Although as noted, the shoes in Bad Romance come from Alexander McQueen.)

What’s wrong with spectacle? I see this as a David Bowie-esque sort of thing, not something externally imposed by the labels.

misterjuju

What smammers said.
I kinda thought she was britney/christina/meh meh meh carbon copy, but its great that she’s actually talented! I wonder if Lady GaGa is actually HER or just some record company’s collage of past successful images?

Anonymous

Allot of the criticism about Lady Gaga being manufactured and synthetic seem true – but what’s unique is that these facades are self created. She’s beyond frankensteins monster – she’s making herself..

Her videos – (paparazzi is amazing) show a postmodern & referential visual style that puts her in league with her idols. Paparazzi shows several Bauhaus/Dada theatrical costume styles – which is a quick way to charm me.

All this design sense doesn’t make the music much better then Spears/Agularia – but it’s is better from the start and she seems to have allot of talent & smarts to grow into…

jackie31337

That certainly is a striking difference! I also have a newfound appreciation for Lady Gaga now that I’ve seen her as more than a weird-but-hot blonde singer who dances around in her underwear.

Seeing her as a singer-songwriter-girl-with-piano made me think about Tori Amos, and how much her style (and especially her performance style!) has changed over the years. Not too long ago, I listened to one of her really old albums (Under the Pink, I think) back to back with American Doll Posse. A person could be forgiven for thinking it was two different artists.

Anonymous

(this is the same person who posted above- at 13:00 april 1st -how cool is that?)… i just wanted to add a few things. first off, i can’t exactly call myself a huge fan of lady gaga- ONLY in that i have only just heard her music for the first time about 3 weeks ago. and before you think ‘where have you been? under a rock?’ (although that’s pretty close- no job, no car, it’s just been me, these 4 walls and my thoughts…scary. so, i guess we could say that i’ve been in a cave.) ANYWAY, i HAVE heard OF her and seen her on t.v. of course, but honestly, i didn’t normally listen to that kind of music -or ANY kind, really- unless out dancing, and i haven’t done that in YEARS. but i’m sure i’ve heard bits and pieces of her songs being played at the bar i used to go to (maybe), but i didn’t know it. so, after seeing her a few times on t.v., wearing the most bizzare things i have ever seen, i had to finally give into my intrigue and see what she was all about and saw there was that interview coming up on fuse a couple of days later. but i have to be totally honest, the VERY first time i saw her, i thought ‘okay who is this chick and what the heck…?’ but left it at that. so then a while later, after seeing more photos of her and the things she wore, the shoes, i hear a song and i like it. and low and behold, it was lady gaga…. i had to learn more, so i googled and imbd’d her. and i think now i’ve heard most of her hits. and find myself waiting to see what’s next. so that’s that. i mean, how can someone NOT be fascinated by some of these things? i mean, 10-inch crazy claw heels? and those dragon ones? and wearing a solar system (or planet or whatever that was)? come on! and i am SO not one of those girls who is crazy about shoes or fashion in ANY way! but i still wanted to learn more and i found that, at the age of 21, she had originally written songs for brittney spears- (‘telephone’ was originally written for her), fergie, the pussycat dolls and new kids on the block. and akon heard her singing, found out she was talented beyond her voice, and as they say, the rest is history! and that’s just it…. she is now a part of history. like i said before, how many pop stars last? and if for some reason she doesn’t last beyond a few more years, she will always be known. oh. and another thing i wanted to say was that, honestly, i didn’t really get the message in some of her songs and sometimes thought they weren’t SUPPOSE TO have some deep, meaningful message, but i was wrong. for instance, before i really LISTENED to ‘bad romance’ i could only pick up certain parts. like where she says ‘you and me could write a bad romance’ and ‘caught in a bad romance’, it could sound like she’s in a bad situation, but in her interview she said that the message in the song is that she wants ‘your’ fears, ‘your’ psycho, ‘your’ ugly and the most disgusting parts of ‘you’ that ‘you’ think nobody will ever love, and goes on to say that whatever baggage ‘they’ have, she’s got it too. -and that’s not an exact quote, and there’s a bit more to it, but once she said that, i GOT it and can TOTALLY relate because i have some baggage -i AM the baggage- and feel like no one could ever love me because i have ‘health issues’ and could never expect anyone to want to spend their life with me, but was lead to beleive otherwise for 3 years. up until last month, so i couln’t help but cry when ahe said this because i felt that way towards him, and for the first time felt TRUE love, i realized 2 1/2 years too late that it was unrequited. i would LOVE for someone to say her words to me. and really, it sucks to be turned away from for me being who i am and coming with the package that i do. ….okay. i’m really sorry for going on like that. but it’s obvious that i don’t get out much just from the fact i’ve only just heard a lady gaga song a month ago! and i’m not going to delete my little vent there because it just had to be done. so if you’re gonna think to yourself that i should ‘think before i post and also proofread’, sorry. not gonna happen. i know i always end up writing books when i start typing, but you DID see how long it was before even reading it, so not my fault you decided to go ahead read it. …alright. i’ve said my peace. i’ll try and do better next time – i swear!

Anonymous

(this is the same person who posted above- at 13:00 april 1st -how cool is that?)… i just wanted to add a few things. first off, i can’t exactly call myself a huge fan of lady gaga- ONLY in that i have only just heard her music for the first time about 3 weeks ago. and before you think ‘where have you been? under a rock?’ (although that’s pretty close- no job, no car, it’s just been me, these 4 walls and my thoughts…scary. so, i guess we could say that i’ve been in a cave.) ANYWAY, i HAVE heard OF her and seen her on t.v. of course, but honestly, i didn’t normally listen to that kind of music -or ANY kind, really- unless out dancing, and i haven’t done that in YEARS. but i’m sure i’ve heard bits and pieces of her songs being played at the bar i used to go to (maybe), but i didn’t know it. so, after seeing her a few times on t.v., wearing the most bizzare things i have ever seen, i had to finally give into my intrigue and see what she was all about and saw there was that interview coming up on fuse a couple of days later. but i have to be totally honest, the VERY first time i saw her, i thought ‘okay who is this chick and what the heck…?’ but left it at that. so then a while later, after seeing more photos of her and the things she wore, the shoes, i hear a song and i like it. and low and behold, it was lady gaga…. i had to learn more, so i googled and imbd’d her. and i think now i’ve heard most of her hits. and find myself waiting to see what’s next. so that’s that. i mean, how can someone NOT be fascinated by some of these things? i mean, 10-inch crazy claw heels? and those dragon ones? and wearing a solar system (or planet or whatever that was)? come on! and i am SO not one of those girls who is crazy about shoes or fashion in ANY way! but i still wanted to learn more and i found that, at the age of 21, she had originally written songs for brittney spears- (‘telephone’ was originally written for her), fergie, the pussycat dolls and new kids on the block. and akon heard her singing, found out she was talented beyond her voice, and as they say, the rest is history! and that’s just it…. she is now a part of history. like i said before, how many pop stars last? and if for some reason she doesn’t last beyond a few more years, she will always be known. oh. and another thing i wanted to say was that, honestly, i didn’t really get the message in some of her songs and sometimes thought they weren’t SUPPOSE TO have some deep, meaningful message, but i was wrong. for instance, before i really LISTENED to ‘bad romance’ i could only pick up certain parts. like where she says ‘you and me could write a bad romance’ and ‘caught in a bad romance’, it could sound like she’s in a bad situation, but in her interview she said that the message in the song is that she wants ‘your’ fears, ‘your’ psycho, ‘your’ ugly and the most disgusting parts of ‘you’ that ‘you’ think nobody will ever love, and goes on to say that whatever baggage ‘they’ have, she’s got it too. -and that’s not an exact quote, and there’s a bit more to it, but once she said that, i GOT it and can TOTALLY relate because i have some baggage -i AM the baggage- and feel like no one could ever love me because i have ‘health issues’ and could never expect anyone to want to spend their life with me, but was lead to beleive otherwise for 3 years. up until last month, so i couln’t help but cry when ahe said this because i felt that way towards him, and for the first time felt TRUE love, i realized 2 1/2 years too late that it was unrequited. i would LOVE for someone to say her words to me. and really, it sucks to be turned away from for me being who i am and coming with the package that i do. ….okay. i’m really sorry for going on like that. but it’s obvious that i don’t get out much just from the fact i’ve only just heard a lady gaga song a month ago! and i’m not going to delete my little vent there because it just had to be done. so if you’re gonna think to yourself that i should ‘think before i post and also proofread’, sorry. not gonna happen. i know i always end up writing books when i start typing, but you DID see how long it was before even reading it, so not my fault you decided to go ahead read it. …alright. i’ve said my peace. i’ll try and do better next time – i swear!

akamarkman

Anyone else getting a Mathew Barney vibe from the second video?

Anonymous

yeah, that reminds me of Mathew Barney as well. i really want to know who the wardrobe artist was, that’s was an awesome and bizarre collection of clothes and accessories.

octopod

she’s awesome.

D2S

gotta love the Gaga.. all these haters are just technicians .. never created anything in their lives

Anonymous

Looks like she’s enjoying a bad romance with corporate sponsors.

smonkey

@akamarkman

oh yea,
cremaster all the way.

tho lady gaga has TOO MANY LEGS!!!

unruly katy

Not just Matthew Barney in there, but lots of Leigh Bowery too. That red strappy gartery thing at the end screams “Cher in the ‘If I Could Turn Back Time’ video”.

Truly, I find listening to this “music” almost unbearable. But damn! this vid has some sweet visuals. I’m a suckah for killer costume design.

Tzctlp

Welcome to the 21st century.

Those of you looking for choruses and honesty and I don’t know what other nonsense in a modern pop artist are beyond redemption.

And as for self promotion, it has been happening since Mozart, that there are still people out there surprised (or even more stupidly, outraged) about an artist promoting herself is a complete anachronism.

The video I just watched goes beyond post-modern, which is a good thing in my book (and if you think major labels can produce that kind of artistry, clearly you have not been watching videos the last 15 or 20 years).

Anonymous

(it’s me again- anon. 13:00 on april 1st. and i’ll make it short this time!…) i DID think of someone else who is sill around -from more than 10 years ago, too- kylie minougue.

fellwalker

Amid all the spectacle, in that second song on SNL, she threw in a little reference to when she was working as a waitress on Carmine Street. One for us New Yorkers. I really liked that.

Anonymous

I think it’s the super short roof that gives it that cremaster feel. Figures are disproportionately large relative to the ceilings we’re used to.

thebelgianpanda

It’s really only the autotune aesthetic that turns me off to her, and even though that is a small part, it is a deal breaker. Her natural voice is spectacular.

Anonymous

I didn’t have much of an opinion of her and her goings on until I listened to her first album, and found that I like it (I’m a 70′s rock’n'roller, mostly, although I tend to like a lot of the girl groups).

Her fashion sense, while not appealing to me, is intriguing. It’s like a lot of Paris fashions and haute couture: real people won’t ever be seen in it.

Unfortunately, in the second video, the music sounds very reminiscent of a track on the first album. I’d like to hope she’s expanding a little, rather than having a recurring theme about brown eyes (‘brown eyes’ is used in 3 tracks on the ‘Fame’ album).

If she gets in a rut, she’s doomed. If she can keep in fresh, she’ll continue to have an audience.

jmnugent

Maybe it’s just me.. but I don’t understand the idolization of this woman. Sure, she can sing and perform, which is more than I can do.. but something in her presence seems very non-genuine to me. (in both the before and after videos). It’s like that person at the party who’s trying to hard to get attention. I have yet to see a single performance by her.. where she reveals anything I would call “simplistic-honesty”. For comparison, if you look at any video by Ray LaMontagne.. its pretty obvious he’s talented and the singing and emotion is coming out of a very personal and genuine place. He’s “real”. There’s no hand flourishes, over-dramatic eye contact or crazy outfits. And all of that stuff is fine, if that’s her strategy to get rich.. hey, cant fault someone for playing to her audience. But doing so doesn’t give one talent. Come to think of it, she reminds me a little of Captain Kirk (over-acting).

Brandon West

The finished product reeks with the unmistakable stench of an A&R department. She’s on a major label and has never not been on a major label as far as her career after being a student. Nothing genuine about it. She’s simply the latest successful mouthpiece cast in a mold someone else made for her. The fact that she had potential and talent outside of that makes it even sadder.

Anonymous

To all the people saying it’s all the music labels’ A&R , somehow geniusly crafting and styling Gaga’s style, music and persona, I have to laugh.

The recording industry has been decimated, they work on skeletal staffs, this old-fashioned idea that they could somehow invent Gaga- who is authentically popular- is just not how it’s done today. Artists are on their own.

And Lady Gaga works her ass off. It’s not the record company, it’s an artist wo really is talented , and she’s just getting started. But it really is her coming through, believe me, the record biz is in such bad shape, the Svengali fantasies some people talk about are a thing of the distant past.

brunogaliza

Yeah. She became a product, that’s all. That’s what happens when talented people get into the capitalistic chain. And I’m not judging. It’s a fact.

amuderick

Lady Gaga is very talented and a lot of fun. I would say that the Tori Amos comparison is apt. The ‘girl and a piano’ thing is a very inexpensive way for someone to express themself. Once you have money then you can afford the art directors, makeup artists, fashion designers, etc you can expand your artistic vision considerably.

Brandon West

It doesn’t work that way. She isn’t the one picking the art directors and makeup artists and the fashion designers. It’s the label. Besides, she didn’t make money doing the “girl and a piano” thing, so I’m sure why you’d think she would have money to make those decisions. Even after she got signed to Interscope or whatever, I’m sure she didn’t have money. I recommend reading Steve Albini’s article “The Problem with Music,” it sounds like you need to be disillusioned a bit.
- amuderick
  
  While I find it interesting to deconstruct a work of art, I have a personal rule to judge it only as a final product and only as to how it connects with me. I’ve no doubt that there are layers of [evil, souless, corporate] management pulling the strings…but whatever it is, it works and I like it. So, I kind of don’t care.
  
  It is like saying that 1950′s studio-system musicals can’t be considered as great art because they required the staff of thousands and were created solely for commercial gain.
  - Brandon West
    
    If that’s how you want to judge it, that’s fine by me. But you can’t make assumptions about the process (everything you said about expanding your vision once you’re on a major label) in order to feel better about how you judge the end result. The big 4 record labels are a cartel that control most of the music distribution channels (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_industry#Statistics), and they employ tons of very nasty tactics to make sure it stays that way – payola and RIAA lawsuits are just the beginning. The end result of this is pretty much the opposite of expanding creative vision, but on a massive scale. If you like the song, that’s fine by me. To make a weak analogy, some people shop at Walmart because they like the low prices and don’t realize all the things that were sacrificed in order to keep those prices low.

Chocolatey Shatner

So, am I the only one who thought “Show him the battleship, Janet!” when I saw the tattoo on her arm?

And I think the shoes were actually inspired by Him.

Daemon

Actually, about the only thing I like about Lady Gaga is the full-on fashion magazine haute couture imagery brought into the videos.

ryanrafferty

Drag queens around the globe are rejoicing over the new material, and dance routines.

Michael_GR

I am totally dumbstruck. I was sure, with all the heavy makeup, funky eyewear, outlandish clothes and wigs, that there was something horribly wrong with her face that she was trying to hide. This is the first time I saw Lady Gaga’s face without obstruction… and she looks just fine.

Also, her voice sounds so much better in the four year old video! I didn’t know she could really sing. She is talented and beautiful and why she chooses to dress like a rodeo clown and totally steal Anastacia’s (search her on youtube if you don’t know who that is) act escapes me.

Anonymous

@Caroline (Comment#20):

I’m not seeing the “self-aware” part. (self-absorbed, maybe). She’s definitely completely over the top, ostentatious and overboard, but it feels to me like she’s projecting those qualities simply to be projecting that. (not because of any underlying substance). (she may indeed have some underlying substance, but the crazy persona(s) she exudes makes it difficult to ascertain: 1.) which, if any of them, are really “her”.. and 2.) which, if any of them, are we to take seriously. I (personally) wouldn’t classify what she does as “showmanship”. (Yes, she “puts on a show” but that’s not “showmanship”.)

I’m trying to keep an open mind on her… Are there any interviews with her where she describes exactly what her act is about?… What her message/point/image is supposed to mean? The impression I get is that she’s the pop equivalent to all the hipster bands (Animal Collective, Grizzly Bear,etc) who think by avoiding defining themselves, helps them be mysterious and abstract and —-”oh man, only the cool, avant garde people really understand us.”

dragonfrog

Maybe I’d be more jaded to this if I watched more music videos, but Oh my Gawd! That is amazingly designed. Costumes, lights, set, camerawork – Wow!

The song itself is completely uninteresting to me, sure, but hey, at least the agonizingly heavy overuse of autotune that absolutely every frigging song on lame pop radio was using last year seems to have fallen out of fashion…

Brandon West

And as far as “not something that’s meant to be sold” – yeah, right. Her shoes or her glasses or her flashing walking stick won’t be sold, that’s true, but the end game of what she wears and does is absolutely tied to trying to move units. If it weren’t, she’d be an independent artist.

Anonymous

Annie Lennox minus the voice that expressed some actual soul. Disco didn’t die; it just waited for the technology to catch up so it could be resurrected as techno. If you make photocopies of enough divas and copy the copies, you eventually get Lady GaGa. She’s not BAD at what she does, but she sure makes “girl power” look even more foolish. Ho bleeping repetitious hum! Heh!

Anonymous

What health issues? You don’t sound like you have any. And why would you say that in front of everyone? Not trying to be mean though. And you don’t want a love of your life or you just don’t have one, because they are totally different? And try to listen to more of Lady Gaga stuff, trust me you’ll like it.

PEACE!

Caroline

I kind of love Lady Gaga, actually. She’s completely over the top, in a very self-aware way, and there’s something I find really fun about that.

jmnugent, “simplistic honesty” isn’t what she does. She does showmanship. Putting on a really crazy-good show is something I respect and enjoy. It’s a different thing from a highly personal, emotionally vulnerable performance — but it’s still valid.

Anonymous

I dont know if this her old photobucket or not but there is some good old stuff here.

http://media.photobucket.com/image/Stefani%20Germanotta/ladygaga/gaga.jpg

JeffinMontreal

this woman and her gang of art school friends are one million percent awesome. makes me feel like I am living in the 21st century for real. how can anyone posting not love the wire mesh fingernails, the sparking flamethrower breasts, the whole over the top pop-mockery?

IshmaeLeaver

21st Century is right.

Anonymous

i like lady Gaga so i guess that i am one of her fans.and i wanna be a singing star.and i know i will.

adralien

Autotune must die now… obviously she can sing, and sing in tune. Just let her.

The new song is devoid of any real musical talent in terms of hooks or chorus etc… “ohohohohoh” once you’ve heard 20 seconds that’s going the be the rest of it, and that 20 seconds isn’t interesting enough to hold it.

Same for the art direction… it’s interesting, but I had a laugh watching her climb out of a car roof box laid on the floor. I can picture some poor lackey going to REI or somewhere, “we need 8 white ski-carriers that’ll fit a person, can we return these Monday?”.

I figure she’ll get bored with all this once she has enough money and she’ll pull a Bowie and change it up. Since she appears to have actual talent, this may be interesting!

Video: Lady Gaga before she became famous

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