Lady Gaga, Pussycat Dolls and a Taxonomy of Vacuous Pop

essentially i think i was using paramore as a stand in for "this sounds like a song written by/for teens and fronted by a girl"

yeah...i mean it actually does sound like Paramore (one album track in particular it reminds me of more than the singles) so if you'd just said "sounds like Paramore" i'd have no quibbles. sorry silly number of posts to spend discussing this.

Councils get banned jargon list

Winston Churchill is an example to council workers, campaigners say
Council leaders have compiled a banned list of the 200 worst uses of jargon, with "predictors of beaconicity" and "taxonomy" among the worst horrors.

Just so's you know.

I've already had several angry letters.

My wife has been singing "Dan can't stand/Dan can't stand/Lady Gaga's butterface.../She so ugly/Oh so ugly" for weeks now; she will get much enjoyment from that link, roxy!

Brad M
Is lady gaga a man? My sister thinks so. I dont.?
Now i think she is very pretty. Why do people say she is a tranny? It dosent make much sense... She just wears alot of makeup. I love her voice. I am almost sure she is a female. No rude answers plz. if u dont know the queston then DONT ANSWER. Ok? ^^

Mariah S
Best Answer - Chosen by Asker
no shes a LADY and gAgA there are A's if she was a mand her name would be.... Man GoGo

proved by LOGIC

Do not Googlimg Man GoGo

completely bizarre

Lady Gaga Stirs Things Up By Going Pantsless'It's fashion! I'm an artist!' singer tells Chicago police after being stopped on the street.
By Jocelyn Vena

By now, Lady Gaga is known as the singer who has an affinity for not wearing pants. But apparently there are some law officials out there who may not have gotten the memo about Gaga's fashion choices. The singer was recently stopped by police in Chicago who had some objections to her hot pants.

"I guess they weren't really pants at all, but it was really funny because all you saw was this half-naked girl on the street yelling at some cop," she told the Daily Star, adding that she tried to reason with the officer." 'It's fashion! I'm an artist!' It was fun."

Lady Gaga doesn't seem to mind the attention, telling the U.K. newspaper that while she doesn't hate pants, she doesn't find them necessary either. "It's not that I don't like pants," she said, "I just choose not to wear them some days."

The singer, who is currently on her Fame Ball Tour, added that for her, going pantsless is no big deal thanks to her more salacious past. "I think no pants is sexy. I love the naked human body," she said. "I was working in strip clubs when I was 18."

These days, Lady Gaga is making headlines by wearing out-there outfits that probably cost some dough, but she told MTV News that it wasn't too long ago that she was getting people talking on a much smaller budget. "A year ago at this time, I was gluing sequins on $4 bras," she laughed. "So that should tell you how far I've come."

So sick of this chick. I like Poker Face, but Lady Gaga is a bad thing for music.

when will she discover the daring, transgressive nature of wearing paper bags over your head

'It's fashion! I'm an artist!'

Thing is, this is probably almost exactly what she said.

Metal Mike Sauders is slowly starting to convince me that Lady Gaga might not be as horrible as I thought.

Email # 1:

Lady Gaga in video/TV interviews has namechecked "i love Swedish pop" (her having been a screaming sidewalk NYC TRL-wannabe down on the street with her middle school classmates, 1999-2000) so a collaboration between her and Max is inevitable i would think.
two weeks ago the Poker Face single breaking Top 10 (no. 6) took the album up to no. 10 (american) (from no.28 the preceding week), so it is very possible that a couple weeks from now -- in a "slow release" week (like the way britney's first album was carefully targeted to be released -- after the single had hit no.1 -- on the SLOWEST week of the year, jan or feb, so that it would squeak into no. 1 with barely 125k? i recall) --

that gaga will score a no. 1 album. american's way the fuck behind the curve on her (no hit single until dec/jan, now it's a roadkill pileup with a third single hitting Top 10 just 6 weeks later, ha).

Email #2:

here's my Gaga wordpad collection of the most interesting Youtube interviews (and a couple ditto TV or club performance clips)

PAPARAZZI Album Chart Show / UK***

Billboard interview "i would die"

at 4:35 "i love swedish pop music" (german TV interview)

Jingle Ball backstage w David Archuleta

Dear Mr President

group letter Dear Mr President

paris hilton interviews GaGa

interview for Album Chart Show

GaGa loves the beatles

interview w/left cheek boltz at 1:31

australian interview / 5 min

Email #3

Jimmy Draper:

i interviewed gaga a few weeks before her cd came out, back when "just dance" was just a dance hit..she was super personable and pretty funny but i honestly don't "get" what she thinks is so Innovative about her work (she used the word literally at least 8x in our interview). then again, i dont really care either cuz the cd is amazing. she really is a trip tho--like when we talked she was comparing herself to madonna (but saying she one-ups madonna in self-reinvention = RIDIC) and bowie and art people...i left out the relaly, really obnoxious stuff from the article cuz i thought it'd make her sound super deluded and bonkers--in a bad way, and didn't want to go there. looking fwd to seeing her in detroit next week.

her xmas tree song is one of the only xmas songs i've ever liked

More Metal Mike:

yeah if you collected all the people who were bonkers/half-nuts back in 50's rock, well, a greyhound bus wouldn't half hold them all...

half again trumped by john lennon in his ThUg early phrase, or Brian Wilson on any given day in the 60's.

maybe what she's tripping on is that bowie or maddy never put on a blonde wig...

ohhhh and MAJOR drug use/abuse in her teen years (or beyond) according to bios/background info. never underestimate the modesty level of someone who's coked up!
combined with an upper-class academic-type (NYU) background

somewhere on google i ran across an audience member's short review of a small-ish gaga club NYC gig last fall... according to the poster, she passed out onstage, her dancers attempted to get her back up and moving, whereupon she stagedived into the crowd, passed out again, and her retinue gave up, gig over after 3 songs.

the rock/pop world needs more lunatics, i always say. (her natal chart w/o rising sign has major NO IMPULSE CONTROL, a mars/uranus conj. in fire. and other things of that
nature).

the most impressive thing about the best tracks on the album (half of more of it in toto i'd say, and i haven't close to digesting the lesser half yet) is the VARIETY of great vocal sounds. starting with the sound/tone of the vocals in the first place. it's got her handprints all over it, that and the synth/keyboard sounds (which are nearly endless in their variety of tones). ohhhh and whoever is reponsible, some GREAT drum/rhythm sounds.

one cool thing about her songwriting is how well she uses words as SOUNDS, lyrically.
maybe an entire 1/2 of Poker Face is (vocally) just sounds, right.

everything i've read indicates that gaga is completely over the moon/obsessive about songwriting.

the last two britney albums are pretty neat production jobs (from the two or three main producers) but gaga's shit is just two steps beyond, sonically.

which reminds me that someone should take max martin/luke's fucking drum machine away. the current Kelly (Clarkson) hit (which is treadbare enough to begin with, as a song) HAS to have a live non-clicktrack drummer or it's just, c'mon, jeez, it's fucking annoying is what it is.

Email #4, more Jimmy Draper:

there's a LOTTA non-album stuff floating out there by her, btw--a bunch of it weirdly subpar for her, but i'd recommend :

Big Girl Now with New Kids on the block
Fashion on 'Confessions of Shopaholic' soundtrack (orig. she gave it to heidi montag and while heidi has a brilliant "heidi!" thrown in at the intro, gaga;s is better and doesn't sound like she's speaking in tongues like heidi does-- it's basically a novelty tho)
Disco Heaven itunes bonus track
Eh Eh (Pet Shop Boys remix)
Xmas Tree mp3

plus of course she co-wrote Britney's amazing Circus bonus track QUICKSAND with Intersciope producer Fernando Garibay., apparently her other track for brit didnt make it on.(She said she gave a bunch of songs to Britney's team and they claimed 2 of em for her)

and totally yes re: her use of sounds. The "Mah mah mah mah" sound that opens Poker Face is brilliant/makes every gay club ive been in lately pretty much explode

this IS convincing

chuck are you seriously

copying emails to us

This is essentially convincing me that Gaga is a horrible person and I should do everything in my power to ensure I never accidentally give her money.

hold your judgment until you've watched all ten videos, you two

i lol'd @ "makes every gay club i've been in lately pretty much explode."

oops, left out email 1 1/2, fuckfaces:

lady gaga quoting / citing her love of "Swedish Pop" (in at least two audio/TV interviews that are on Youtube) is the chickens coming to roost. her and Max Martin would probably be about 3 too many control freaks in the same mixing room, but it looks inevitable i would say. since she co-writes with everyone/anyone who's producing, Max ditto as a writer, that is probably a far less volatile combination.

the best song (and her favorite, and all my friends' favorite or 2nd favorite) on the gaga album, Papparazzi, is the pop-culture song Redd Kross were trying/hoping to write for (a) decade(s) and never got it done. and it works (lyrically) on about 3 levels (of interpretation) where the McDonald brothers had trouble just getting Level 1 to the finish line. not that Bubblegum Factory isn't a classic, tho out of place out of time for the late 80's hair-metal era.

without orig drummer Ron Reyes/Chavo though, they could never rock the early songs for shit (after the fact) (last year's gigs all over youtube, ditto) after summer 1980. (the little 12 year old drummer they had with the brief 5-piece of DEZ/gr CHET LEHRER (future wasted youth leader/lp, and Lucky circle jerks' brother)/2nd gtr, was just fine though. best fucking 12 song - 14 minute set i ever saw by a "name band" (at the Fleetwood, right after we played our 4th bill slot on the 5 band bill) (jack TSOL's first band Vicious Circle was the 5th band).

oh thanks, now im convinced

We are the crowd,
We're c-coming out
Got my flash on it's true
Need that picture of you
It's so magical
We'd be so fantastical

Leather and jeans a watch on my wrist,
Not sure what it means,
But this photo of us
It don't have a price
Ready for those flashing lights,
Cause you know that baby i

Im your biggest fan
I'll follow you until you love me
Papa-paparazzi,
Baby there's no other superstar
You know that i'll be your
Papa-paparazzi

Promise i'll be kind,
But i won't stop until that boy is mine
Baby you'll be famous
Chase you down until you love me
Papa-paparazzi

I'll be your girl
Backstage at your show,
Velvet ropes and guitars,
Yeah cause you'll know
I'm staring between the sets
Eyeliner and cigarettes

Shadow is burnt
Yellow dance and return
My lashes are dry
But with teardrops I cry
It don't have a price
Loving you is cherry pie
'Cause you know that baby I

Im your biggest fan
I'll follow you until you love me
Papa-paparazzi,
Baby there's no other superstar
You know that i'll be your
Papa-paparazzi

Promise i'll be kind,
But i won't stop until that boy is mine
Baby you'll be famous
Chase you down until you love me
Papa-paparazzi

Real good
(We dance in the studio)
Snap, snapped
(That xxxx on the radio)

Don't stop boy, rewind
We'll blast it but we'll still have fun!

Im your biggest fan
I'll follow you until you love me
Papa-paparazzi,
Baby there's no other superstar
You know that i'll be your
Papa-paparazzi

Promise i'll be kind,
But i won't stop until that boy is mine
Baby you'll be famous
Chase you down until you love me
Papa-paparazzi

lol

Had she been taking Kanye-pills when this was written?

i believe that is the song redd kross were writing for 1. years and 2. never got it 3. done

fuckfaces

(that said, I never liked Redd Kross so yeah, maybe this is 3 times as deep as anything they came up with, I wouldn't know)

This is essentially convincing me that Gaga is a horrible person and I should do everything in my power to ensure I never accidentally give her money.

― Wes HI DEREson (HI DERE), Wednesday, March 18, 2009 3:52 PM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark

completely otm

re-edited 'just dance' vid based on sequence from my 08 mix - 2nd half with the Moby/Kris Menace is best (and made me like her/this track's vocals much more)

i was just reading an old metal mike saunders review of demons and wizards by uriah heep and he called them PUNK rock

i dont get it — we're supposed to celebrate her for being an ex cokehead who can't get thru a show? she's just as subversive as 'this one time i kissed a girl' katy perry, which is to say, not subversive at all. and the fact, like perry, that she plays up her DARING image makes it even worse

also all her songs sound exactly the same. idk why anyone would need anything from her beyond "just dance"

yes, but at 4:35 "i love swedish pop music" (german TV interview)

this does have the ring of truth tho:
the most impressive thing about the best tracks on the album (half of more of it in toto i'd say, and i haven't close to digesting the lesser half yet) is the VARIETY of great vocal sounds. starting with the sound/tone of the vocals in the first place. it's got her handprints all over it, that and the synth/keyboard sounds (which are nearly endless in their variety of tones). ohhhh and whoever is reponsible, some GREAT drum/rhythm sounds.

one cool thing about her songwriting is how well she uses words as SOUNDS, lyrically.
maybe an entire 1/2 of Poker Face is (vocally) just sounds, right.

maybe an entire 1/2 of Poker Face is (vocally) just sounds, right.

the thing is, this is exactly what I hate about "Poker Face"

oh that's actually what i love about it.

and i think if she kept her trap shut, people wouldn't find her so obnoxious. just some basement production dance trax, is all i hear.

i've still never heard her speak. maybe i should keep it that way?

the uriah heep review was from like 72! or maybe even 71 but yeah i didn't know ppl used that term that early on.

i am talking about uriah heep in a lady gaga thread, what happened to me?

xp -- yeah. seems like her whole "i'm an artist" routine is excrutiating and embarrassing

i am talking about uriah heep in a lady gaga thread, what happened to me?

It means you're on ILM, what else did you expect?

Yeah my big mistake re Lady Gaga was to read her press release before I listened to "Just Dance" - it put me of her from the very start.

Same mistake I made with Vivian Girls. I saw that awful, awful bathtub interview and immediately wrote them off. Heard the album at a friend's over the weekend and actually liked it!

i am talking about uriah heep in a lady gaga thread, what happened to me?

It means you're on ILM, what else did you expect?

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, March 18, 2009 9:25 PM (29 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

you can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave etc etc

First time I saw Lady Gaga I thought she was some Russian Eurovision type and was thinking "well, good for you".
When I realised she was yer bog standard American popstar with shitloads of cash behind her I lost interest. I really try not to let marketing etc of an act affect how I hear it, but this is SO MUCH marketing it dictates the style of the music, the bored singing style, everything.

and i think if she kept her trap shut, people wouldn't find her so obnoxious. just some basement production dance trax, is all i hear.

Basically this otm.

Gaga's schtick basically seems to be that she is smarter than the eurodisco she's peddling which makes it ironic which makes it popart and not pop. What do I mean when I say she is smarter? I mean she keeps fucking telling us that she is smarter. This is the only distinction between Lady Gaga and Basshunter.

xp -- yeah. seems like her whole "i'm an artist" routine is excrutiating and embarrassing

and so unsubtle - like, she doesn't even pretend to say "arty" things, she just comes out and literally says things like "THIS IS ART I'M AN ARTIST".

also her music sux too - not plumbing any particular depths or anything, but just blah reheated electro of no consequence whatsoever