Lady Gaga needs her own thread

I have heard of Sasha Grey! She was in a Stephen Soderbergh movie that I did not see but read about, and maybe (probably) was in Vice Magazine? She look intersting. Anyway, yeah, Lady Gaga.

sasha meh

i've come round to lady gaga b/c:

- have managed to avoid interviews with the woman recently; if she's still going on about how not wearing parts is ~art~ i could just as easily go off her again
- "poker face" is stupidly catchy and even after months of trying to avoid it, it kept earworming me, and eventually i just gave in and put the stupid thing on my ipod. it's a weird mix of great pop rush moments - the "can't read my, can't read my" melody - and reminders of why i hated her in the first place (the singing is kinda flat and unsatisfying, and "bluffin' with my muffin" needs to go away forever)
- she's definitely moved beyond her original "performance art version of a famewhore pop star" schtick, which i found really irritating - she seems to own what she does a bit more now; the "lady gaga is satirising the idea of pop stars" concept was really limiting, especially as that wasn't even her strength. what she's doing now isn't so clear or obvious, and so it's a lot more appealing
- she's not 100% satisfying yet - "bad romance" is a monster but aargh, babytalk chorus, and i'm not keen on any of the other fame monster leaks except the beyoncé duet - and i still resent her for foisting redone on the world, but we're getting there! i'm comfortable enough w/her that i'm actually checking out these leaks. there are worse people in pop to focus my hate on.

I still feel conflicted on this one.

Have recently had some information regarding her background which have made me see her, as a person, in a different light. But I'm not sure that affects my impressions of the Media Event of Gaga.

The videos, visually, have that "wow, did that really actually just happen?!?" WTF-ness that I haven't seen since Bjork videos were at their heyday. But I couldn't actually hum you a single one of her songs. So perhaps she's succeeding as a whacked-out artist showman performance artist type event, but failing as a pop songwriter?

Don't know. But more inclined to give her a chance now.

The 'irony' stance is definitely wanting it "both ways", i.e. a sly wink to the knowledgeable that the 'pop kids' don't notice. Problem is, it doesn't take long until it's either "LOOK LOOK I'M IRONIC EVERYONE!!!" or "Ah heck, I'm enjoying this, let's go!"

Guess LGG is now the latter.

biggest problem w/ the first album was it didn't have any of the gaga 'personality' to it. it just sounded mad generic, like anyone could do it. saying 'but what if britney did pokerface' kind of proves my thinking - if she is going to act like this big special pretentious queen of pop, dont have generic 'could be done by anyone' songs. sure they were catchy, they are pop songs, most of them are.

all of the stuff from the second album sounds really good and like something i'd expect from her personlity tho, so i am coming around to it.

and whoever said her goofiness gets her a free pass upthread is otm.

Love Game is straight garbage. Thought 'The Fame' was pretty poor apart from 3 of the 4 singles.

I cannot see Britney doing Poker Face. Britney is too passive as a vocal presence (especially nowadays) to pull it off.

yeah, otm

she could do the staccato talky parts, just not the big belting melodic part

I feel like Lady Gaga is the least we should expect from pop stars now: Memorable visuals and decent hooks. I find the whole thing grating when people act like she's some kind of innovative paragon.

i mean to say "I only the whole thing grating when..."

musically she's a bit like kanye west in that her songs sort of smush up these amazing, thrilling moments and melodies with intolerably irritating KMT affectations and lyrics, so one minute you're belting along with her and the next you're flinching.

who will her Unexpected Collaborator be for her next album – Brendan O'Brien?

All her singles grow on me gradually and I think eventually I will buy The Fame, but all I really have to add is that I keep wanting her to be "Lady O'Gaga," as in Queen's "Radio Gaga." Alternately, inserting her into David Bowie's "Lady Stardust" kinda works.

inserting her into David Bowie's "Lady Stardust" kinda works.

::stuffs fist into mouth::

The only time I have knowingly heard Lady Gaga was in August, over the coliseum PA during a High School Rodeo at the Minnesota State Fair.

The only thing I wanna know is whether it's "Gaga" or "GaGa." It's the former on her official website, MySpace, and Wikipedia but the latter on AMG and IMDB. Billboard seems confused.

"paparazzi" and "bad romance" are also arguably her best songs, so that might explain the uptick in popularity on this board

― see-those-tit-ies (J0rdan S.), Friday, 13 November 2009 02:27 (17 hours ago)

mm. paparazzi is def one of the highlights of the year for me

Okay, The Fame Monster is seriously perfect.

Like, it makes her first album sound terribly amateurish in comparison.

you don't say!

no seriously.

only one I'm not getting is "So Happy I Could Die," but I'll be listening to this album for a while so I don't count out warming up to it.

i can't imagine listening to lady gaga for a while, to be perfectly honest

I love "So Happy I Could Die", it has this sort of early Pet Shop Boys, melancholic sound to it.

I thought u liked Gaga surmy

i do but the idea of putting an album on makes me kind of sick. sorry i love u

btw after hearing it once, i don't think i ever need to hear alejandro again. it's not even bad, it just doesn't sound like much

alright i'm gonna download this

I liked it better when I just assumed all of ILM hated lady gaga

Wow. Didn't know she had a Speechless in her. It's very Beatlesesque perhaps? Maybe just the guitar solo. But epic balladry and so forth are a good look for her.

Teeth is a great little vamp that has a sort of...20s jazz and/or rockabilly air to it. So Happy etc. needs more time to ruminate.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEQdrfFfawM

ZOMG

I love the drums in the chorus to "Monster," they're very HI-NRG ish

It occurs to me that "Bad Romance" is a bit of an inferior retread of Cyndi Lauper's excellent "Into The Nightlife" from the beginning of the year (or so?)... Same producer perhaps.

wow those youtube girls

those youtube girls!!!! their other covers are awesome too - check out "obsessed" and "hello" in partic

best thing i'll see this week, better than gaga

is a bit of an inferior retread of Cyndi Lauper's excellent "Into The Nightlife" from the beginning of the year (or so?)... Same producer perhaps.

late last year, not RedOne, produced by Swedes Astrom & Boback :)

youtube girls!

I didn't want to, but I'm kinda loving "Bad Romance."

http://i30.tinypic.com/20jfclw.jpg

one more resaon to not like her

I didn't want to, but I'm kinda loving "Bad Romance."

― Alex in NYC, Tuesday, November 17, 2009 2:53 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

um, did this really just happen?

seriously tho, the Ooooh's in the chorus of that song remind me of something and i can't place it.

I like the "gaga aroro lala" weirdo part of the song but the rest is draggy.

I didn't want to, but I'm kinda loving "Bad Romance."

― Alex in NYC, Monday, November 16, 2009 9:53 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

Me too. It gets played a lot where I work these days and I can't get it out of my head. I do agree with Abbott that the gaga aroro lala part is the best though.

"Dance in the Dark" is awesome.

blergh i hate the chorus in "bad romance." the whole thing is just such a frankenstein of a song, and yeah a couple parts are fun ("gaga aroro lala" and "love love love") but nothing fits together nicely and then the chorus just bursts in with that ugly eurotrash synth and those 'woah-oh-oh's.

i actually like the chorus the most, even tho i strongly believe that the "woah-oh-oh's" part is ripped off something i can't quite put my finger on

but i totally agree that the song is too "frankenstein," and the pieces sound too forcefully fitted together

fwiw, i don't really love the "ra-ra-ga-ga" part

dunno why it just doesn't really move me either way