Why does Lady Gaga get a free pass from hipsters?

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also really don't get how gaga is supposed to be edgier/more dancefloor-oriented than britney. just about anything on blackout works better as dance music, imo. (with the added bonus of being sleazy as hell!)

but she wears cool clothes and has neat videos, yeah.

original bgm, Wednesday, 13 January 2010 19:12 (fourteen years ago) link

just about anything on blackout works better as dance music, imo.

That's kindly overlooking her other ~4 or so albums, which mostly work better as music for ten-year-olds.

I just wish he hadn't adopted the "ilxor" moniker (ilxor), Wednesday, 13 January 2010 19:52 (fourteen years ago) link

i mean i can see arguing that lady gaga is more club-friendly but you are either vastly underestimating lots of britney singles or vastly overestimating the difference between them.

call all destroyer, Wednesday, 13 January 2010 19:54 (fourteen years ago) link

i am growing to accept that i live in a world where most people like lady gaga but let's not kid ourselves here.

call all destroyer, Wednesday, 13 January 2010 19:54 (fourteen years ago) link

wtf with this false dichotomy?

Hell is other people. In an ILE film forum. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 13 January 2010 19:55 (fourteen years ago) link

That's kindly overlooking her other ~4 or so albums, which mostly work better as music for ten-year-olds.

eh, not really. "toxic" isn't even on blackout and people go nuts to that.

and honestly, who cares? why do we even have to take her whole career into account? can't we just, you know, judge her on best material instead?

call all destoryer otm.

original bgm, Wednesday, 13 January 2010 20:02 (fourteen years ago) link

I know 12-year-olds across the country went gaga for "I'm A Slave 4 U".

living like the Na'vi will never happen (HI DERE), Wednesday, 13 January 2010 20:06 (fourteen years ago) link

lol

Do you love me now? (surm), Wednesday, 13 January 2010 20:08 (fourteen years ago) link

you guys are arguing with an ilxor who chose the sn 'ilxor'

not a playa but i ilx a lot (deej), Wednesday, 13 January 2010 20:09 (fourteen years ago) link

I guess I just feel bad for brit sometimes... :-/

original bgm, Wednesday, 13 January 2010 20:17 (fourteen years ago) link

Everybody should lay off that girl. She's a saint.

Kylie is a vacant Phifer (kingkongvsgodzilla), Wednesday, 13 January 2010 20:18 (fourteen years ago) link

you guys are arguing with an ilxor who chose the sn 'ilxor'

Why is this a big deal again?

I just wish he hadn't adopted the "ilxor" moniker (ilxor), Wednesday, 13 January 2010 20:19 (fourteen years ago) link

I know 12-year-olds across the country went gaga for "I'm A Slave 4 U".

Actual huge LOL in the middle of my office workplace. Brilliant job, Dan, I'm impressed.

I just wish he hadn't adopted the "ilxor" moniker (ilxor), Wednesday, 13 January 2010 20:20 (fourteen years ago) link

serious lolz@the notion of Gaga's songs being musically edgier than britney's though

he wrote that? uhhhh

لوووووووووووووووووووول (lex pretend), Wednesday, 13 January 2010 20:54 (fourteen years ago) link

huh

Salvador Dali Parton (Turangalila), Wednesday, 13 January 2010 20:57 (fourteen years ago) link

i could understand it if he was praising gaga's sheer force of character over britney's, but britney has traded on the latest hott beats for most of her career - certainly since 2001

لوووووووووووووووووووول (lex pretend), Wednesday, 13 January 2010 21:02 (fourteen years ago) link

Who do you think I'm addressing though?

Salvador Dali Parton (Turangalila), Wednesday, 13 January 2010 21:12 (fourteen years ago) link

where did this britney stuff come from?

scottpl, Wednesday, 13 January 2010 21:14 (fourteen years ago) link

The first post and then

"poker face" and "just dance" are much much better songs (and better suited for the dancefloor, which is key) than fucking "hit me baby one more time" which is music for ten-year-olds.

Salvador Dali Parton (Turangalila), Wednesday, 13 January 2010 21:16 (fourteen years ago) link

i.e. not from Scott's review.

What Scott does say is that Gaga draws from a variety of pop divas including Britney:

"In "Bad Romance" she alters whoever Lady Gaga the Pop Star might be into any number of female types-- at times recalling Britney Spears, Madonna, an Anime character, Angelique, Christina Aguilera, and Amy Winehouse. In that sense, she's a perfect 21st century pop icon-- a regular person willing to manipulate herself into whatever it takes at any given moment to be a star."

...

"Elsewhere on The Fame Monster, she morphs into other stars-- Freddie Mercury on "Speechless", ABBA on "Alejandro", Madonna on "Dance in the Dark", Britney Spears on "Telephone", Kylie Minogue on "Monster", and Christina Aguilera on "Teeth". Yet instead of hopelessly retro, it comes off very modern, in part because U.S. pop and hip-hop is currently drawing heavily from Europop, hi-NRG, and dance music."

Lex if you could control your nausea when clicking on a pitchfork link I reckon you'd find that your and Scott's takes on nu-Gaga are actually very close to one another. Scott's Krusty the Clown opener is basically a variant on your Trojan Horse metaphor - though of course it doesn't imply the sense of strategy which the Trojan Horse model contains.

Tim F, Wednesday, 13 January 2010 21:43 (fourteen years ago) link

where did this britney stuff come from?

Well, to quote two passages from today's Pfork review, for starters:

In "Bad Romance" she alters whoever Lady Gaga the Pop Star might be into any number of female types-- at times recalling Britney Spears, Madonna, an Anime character, Angelique, Christina Aguilera, and Amy Winehouse.

Elsewhere on The Fame Monster, she morphs into other stars-- Freddie Mercury on "Speechless", ABBA on "Alejandro", Madonna on "Dance in the Dark", Britney Spears on "Telephone", Kylie Minogue on "Monster", and Christina Aguilera on "Teeth".

(<3 u scottpl!)

I just wish he hadn't adopted the "ilxor" moniker (ilxor), Wednesday, 13 January 2010 21:45 (fourteen years ago) link

Whoops, Tim beat me to it by a minute or so!

I just wish he hadn't adopted the "ilxor" moniker (ilxor), Wednesday, 13 January 2010 21:46 (fourteen years ago) link

I think lex is probably right to at least some extent-- seems at least like a change in opportunity coupled with a need to play safe at the start. Whether she assumed from the first move it would all work out like this or pounced when the time was right are two different things, but not sure it matters much in the end. She was savvy and smart either way.

scottpl, Wednesday, 13 January 2010 21:47 (fourteen years ago) link

Don't think many of you give her debut album enough credit; it's not like The Fame Monster is a HUGE leap forward, more like a subtle and effective refining of her modus operandi per se.

I just wish he hadn't adopted the "ilxor" moniker (ilxor), Wednesday, 13 January 2010 21:48 (fourteen years ago) link

isn't the trojan horse a common interpretation at this point? i mean she went on SNL and sat at a piano improvising a bluesy thing - "i used to be a waitress look at me now i heart NYC!" - and lotsa people went oh ok she's a conventional musician, bet she's just doing this pop shit to gain a foothold before expressing herself

zvookster, Wednesday, 13 January 2010 21:54 (fourteen years ago) link

As per ilxor, I imagine she's also learning on the job, getting a better sense as time goes on of how to combine the various elements, which haven't really changed so much as become more elegantly (though not less bombastically) intertwined.

e.g. one clever aspect of "Bad Romance" vis a vis its predecessor "Pokerface" is that the lol-u-weird component (the "rah rah" bit) is deployed discretely as a kind of announcement, leaving a chorus that just shines on its own, meaning you can choose which part of the track you will allow to become yr earworm. Whereas with "Pokerface" the "p-p-p-p-p-p-p-po-pokerface" kind of retroactively bleeds into the otherwise harmlessly tuneful chorus that precedes it, making the chorus seem less memorable by comparison but also making the ostentatious (or fauxstentatious) oddness of the stuttering a more invasive proposition, its edge of annoyance made sharper through mental repetition (you can't help but hear it in your head whenever the song is mentioned).

Tim F, Wednesday, 13 January 2010 21:58 (fourteen years ago) link

Tim F you always manage to make songs I hate sound so appealing. :P

Salvador Dali Parton (Turangalila), Wednesday, 13 January 2010 22:04 (fourteen years ago) link

Ha, I think "Bad Romance" is one of those songs that would for most people teeter on the edge between liking and hating, and then once it falls on either side you either really like it or really hate it.

Tim F, Wednesday, 13 January 2010 22:25 (fourteen years ago) link

i'd be hard pressed to think of a current female artist who sounded *less* like kate bush than gaga

but they both crimp their hair!

the girl from spirea x (f. hazel), Wednesday, 13 January 2010 22:51 (fourteen years ago) link

Her music videos look like something that should be on a giant billboard screen in Back to the Future II.

pithfork (Hurting 2), Wednesday, 13 January 2010 22:55 (fourteen years ago) link

http://raraahahahromaromamagagaoohlala.com/

Sean Carruthers, Thursday, 14 January 2010 17:13 (fourteen years ago) link

lol

♖♕♖ (am0n), Thursday, 14 January 2010 17:45 (fourteen years ago) link

(RAH)² (AH)³ + [ROMA (1+MA)] + (GA)² + (OOH) (LA)²

I just wish he hadn't adopted the "ilxor" moniker (ilxor), Thursday, 14 January 2010 18:56 (fourteen years ago) link

three weeks pass...

this gaga/herc&love affair rmx is kinda boring :-/

average gangsta rap from average gangstas (deej), Thursday, 11 February 2010 03:35 (fourteen years ago) link

Why does Taylor Swift get a free pass from ILX?

Emily's Cheese, Thursday, 11 February 2010 03:57 (fourteen years ago) link

Why do people not understand what "free pass" means?

some dude, Thursday, 11 February 2010 04:07 (fourteen years ago) link

Don't play innocent. ILX is basically the Neville Chamberlain of Taylor Swift evaluation.

pithfork (Hurting 2), Thursday, 11 February 2010 04:12 (fourteen years ago) link

Wouldn't free pass imply universal approval and not constant debate and controversy over people liking her?

some dude, Thursday, 11 February 2010 04:15 (fourteen years ago) link

Why does Taylor Swift get a free pass from ILX?

lulz

Kat Bee, Thursday, 11 February 2010 09:11 (fourteen years ago) link

I guess popists are scared of Lady Gaga because

1. She isn't R&B or hip-hop
2. She appeals to the same kinds of audiences that have made R&B/hip-hop very huge the past 10 years.

Tied Up In Geir (Geir Hongro), Thursday, 11 February 2010 12:41 (fourteen years ago) link

Why does Taylor Swift get a free pass from ILX?

New ILM board description?

I just wish he hadn't adopted the "ilxor" moniker (ilxor), Thursday, 11 February 2010 12:49 (fourteen years ago) link

2. She appeals to the same kinds of audiences that have made R&B/hip-hop very huge the past 10 years.

would you say that she has a "hood pass"?

V-E-R-Y (history mayne), Thursday, 11 February 2010 13:01 (fourteen years ago) link

I guess popists are scared of Lady Gaga because

most popists are generally pro her (and R&B), what are you talking about?

mdskltr (blueski), Thursday, 11 February 2010 13:13 (fourteen years ago) link

she has a hood pass AND a hongro pass

da Condom FATHER (some dude), Thursday, 11 February 2010 16:27 (fourteen years ago) link

lol history mayne

also if it makes anyone feel better i think taylor swift is pretty shitty

the dong remains the same (M@tt He1ges0n), Thursday, 11 February 2010 16:30 (fourteen years ago) link

he1go pass REVOKED

da Condom FATHER (some dude), Thursday, 11 February 2010 16:34 (fourteen years ago) link

how will she go on??? ;_;

El GarBage (M@tt He1ges0n), Thursday, 11 February 2010 16:39 (fourteen years ago) link

there's a perfectly good lady gaga thread at

Lady Gaga needs her own thread

ppl could bump that one with gaga news since it doesn't have a stupid Q in the title

zvookster, Thursday, 11 February 2010 16:44 (fourteen years ago) link


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