by Chris Zebo
“Only a non-critical audience, nourished on the watery pap of pop music
could have fallen for such tenth-rate drivel.” –Ewan MacColl
If you want to call it party music, no harm done. It plays great in the background of dry-hump dance parties, behind the “CHUG! CHUG! CHUG!” of keg stand chants. Just don’t call it art. Don’t mythologize her rise to fame. Don’t call her an original. And don’t pretend she’s talented. There’s nothing new about her other than the sheer level of suck she’s managed to lower the standard of music.
Believe it or not, the quote above isn’t about Lady Gaga (although it could very neatly sum up one side of the fence). It was actually a gibe lodged 45 years ago against a young Minnesotan folk singer named Robert Allen Zimmerman. He had just played a booed-out set at the Newport Folk Festival. Zimmerman was a cigarette-thin, sophisticatedly scraggly, anglofroed musician that was said to look like an “undernourished cockatoo” performing on stage. One critic credited him with inventing the “arrogant, faux-cerebral posturing that has been the dominant style” of pop music since rock shook the jukebox.
But for a guy blamed for sullying the folk music tradition, Zimmerman, who changed his name to Bob Dylan early in his career, wasn’t an iconoclast just for the sake of raising eyebrows. He was naturally different. What he sang he felt, and what he felt came from what he saw happening in the world around him. There was substance to the controversy surrounding him. And whether you like him or not, he had a message, a sincere one, and he was the voice of a generation.
But this rancid reincarnation of Madonna with less clothing (and talent) would be harmless if everyone just agreed that she’s entertainment, not art. Unfortunately, the critical establishment responsible for calling this crap out has somehow become warped; they’re confused about the difference between art and entertainment.
“Think of Lady Gaga as Britney Spears with a brain,“ says Jon Bream of the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Well that’s not saying much, now is it? “GaGa is a provocatively dressed, bleached blonde who makes irresistible, mindless dance music that packs clubs and the top of the pop charts,” Bream continues. In only two sentences, Gaga went from Britney “with a brain” to “mindless” without the writer even catching his own folly. What’s so brainy about writing “irresistible, mindless dance music?” And who cares if it packs clubs? There are long lines for the toilets at those clubs, too.
Elevating her status to an artist not only confuses what MaGaga is but it also confuses what art is.
“I want to hammer it into people’s heads that pop music is legitimate art when it’s done right,” says Gaga in a recent interview by the Seattle Times. “A good pop song can be played anywhere in the world for any kind of person, and it’s gonna make them wanna get up and [expletive] dance.”
Big Macs are all over the world, too, but no one’s calling them art.
“I have a fascination with Andy Warhol,” she explains, “and the way he wanted to make commercial art that was taken as seriously as fine art,” GaGa says.
But Warhol, for as much as he celebrated the manufactured ubiquity of popular culture (like Campbell’s soup cans, Elvis, Monroe etc.), he was also putting a fork in it. The way Warhol created his art (in a factory, with workers on an assembly line pressing screen prints) and the copious reproductions he produced of just one piece of art forced some uncomfortable parallels between the art world and the world of manufactured goods. When art was put on an assembly line, the world began to ask some serious questions about what art was.
Warhol’s way of embracing popular culture drew our attention to it in new ways. He took the complacent familiarity out of everyday things we had around us and made us hold a mirror up to the crass, commercial, corporate-sponsored societies that were beginning to overtake the world. And even if that wasn’t his goal, it happened. That is his legacy.
But Gaga isn’t drawing attention to popular culture in the same way. She’s celebrating all that is wrong with it. Where Warhol could defamiliarize a product’s effect upon us, Gaga goes in the opposite direction. She tries to sell it back to us. Her videos are nothing more than product placements (in a recent video, she wears Diet Coke cans as curlers), advertisements (for products and a way of life) set to really bad music.
“Music has gotten so pretentious that now it’s almost rebellious to be a pop artist,” she says. “A lot of indie-rock bands and singer-songwriters have this middle finger up at the pop world and record labels.”
No, Gaga. They’ve got their middle fingers up to you. It’s easy to be a pop artist, it’s not easy to be rebellious.
Jessica Simpson (not Britney) is brainless. Also the weird ‘”la la doo da Dee” she shings copies the B52′s and Britney Spears’ song ‘Radar’ off of the 2007 album Blackout. Also Stefannie isn’t naturally different, and she claims she’s insecure and normal sweet in her interviews and convinces you she’s a freakish abnormal sexual slut outside. The two sided lier is greedy. Also she claims use hates money and invests all her own into her shows for her fans? If that is so she’s being ripped off since the tour runner and promoter along with the record company pays for the concert’s budget. She’s such a dirty lier. Deep down she’s a sick and twisted greedy (woman?).
Obviously, the writer of this and the first commenter have never seen one of her shows, nor have they ever heard her sing live. People call her a mix of a pop star and a performance artist. They say her concerts are performance art, and if you’ve seen them, they are. Also to call her a less talented version of anything is being biased and just saying something to make her seem worse. Go to youtube and type in lady gaga speechless live and listen to her sing, if you still think she has no talent, you must think all women singers are talentless, because she has an amazing voice, better than most of the “legends” ever were. While yes, she does use product placement in her videos, which is annoying at times, everybody does it, EVERYBODY in some way does it, so she’s not the only one doing it. The difference with her is she uses her status as a superstar to actually try to change the world and acts for people’s rights, which is a lot more than I can say for most celebrities out there today.
Okay, sorry. I don’t see any way flaunting around like a little slut on stage and doing what could EASILY be lip synced OR OH MY GOD NO WAY POSSIBLE THEYRE USING AUTO TUNE?!!?!?!?!?!?!!! in a live setting does not make her talented, does not make her a real trendsetter, it makes her nothing but another so-called sex icon (i personally think she’s ugly as sin) that wants to get her name out there for a couple years, bank it, and sit back on it. she claims to be art, but her music is as mechanically soul-less as anything else on the radio right now, there are no artistic imperfections, it’s all auto-tuned, programmed, and mechanical. there’s absolutely no talent, feeling, inspiration, or soul to her music. LADY GAGA SUCKS and i will be MORE than pleased when her abomination of a Fad disappears. ten years, she’ll be forgotten. Hopefully sooner.
Signing off, as a true music fan.
If you want real music, listen to Paul Gilbert.
Forget Gaga. She is a warped Mind melt of Idiocy and no-talent garbage.
Although lady gaga’s music is SOULLESS, completely devoid of feeling or intellect, in other ways, lady gaga still manages to subliminally inject messages into the minds of her audience. I never knew an artist who had so little to say, could be representative of something which speaks volumes. lady gaga is a symbol of what the world has come to. of what our youth has come to. she is superficial, vain, and a total imposer. she’s a marketing machine. she’s a product that we buy, like toothpaste, or underwear. like food, we consume her vampiric energy. i can literally feel her mere existence suck the life out of me, and turn me into an auto-tuned, synthesized, robotic drone, much like gaga herself. she has told her fans in her song ‘fame’ that ‘we do it for the fame, isnt is a shame’.
everything she does is for FAME and MONEY. she also told her fans she wants their ‘souls’. i think she means that literally. she has successfully hypnotized millions of people into wearing ridiculous outfits, robotically repeating the same STUPID, NONSENSICAL LINES like ‘im a free bitch baby’, and she has also convinced people she is a musical genius. some are stupid enough to call her the ‘next michael jackson’. yuuuck! what a fucking insult. say what you will about the man, but one thing we cant deny is he was indeed a GENIUS. he had his fluffy pop songs, but they were legitimate songs that were safe enough to play on the radio.
the PAINFUL TRUTH IS that lady gaga can sing, but her voice is not remarkable like whitney houston. she has a little rhythm, but her so-called dancing is mediocre, and just BARELY good enough to do in a club at 4 am when your pissy drunk. compare it to janet jackson or paula abdul- her dancing is SHIT. her piano playing is not worth noting, she can play decently, but she is no claire de lune in an orchestra setting. she’s ugly as hell, but with decent make-up (which she rarely has a decent make-up artist that doesnt make her look more like a tranny) she can look just okay.
LADY GAGA IS A FICTIONAL, AMAZING CHARACTER that people created in their minds. she is no superwoman. all of her so-called talents are MEDIOCRE at best! SHE IS RIDICULOUSLY OVERRATED.
She is no different than the last 20 teeny bopper superstars, aside from the fact that she TELLS her audience that she is unique, original and talented. Its main stream music and will hopefully fade away soon. There is real music out there where real musicians play real instruments and really sing. They stand on a stage with many speakers and wear regular clothes. These people form what are called rock bands. Thousands of shows and thousands of festivals are held in America every year where true fans who have listened to this music for 20, 30, 40 or more years come to socialize and listen to this gift. These people are friendly, kind and giving. They once were called hippies but now they just love the music that will always live on. Listen to the Grateful Dead.
I’ve posted a clip of some real music from one of my favorite BANDS. For anyone who is interested in leaving the world of today and joining the fun that was had in the 60′s and 70′s. http://www.iclips.net/watch/keller-williams-feat-moseley-droll-amp-sipe
Someone explain me the difference between “lagy gaga” and other cheesy crap dance noises like “cascada” or “eiffel 65″? There is none. So why people are so amazed about this another commercial dance music turning on the radio 24/7? Electronic music is one of my favorite genre but dance music (euro-dance for today is more apropriate) is the worst music genre ever created, Even NoiseCore is kind of way more interesting. People are really really really more and more brainless nowadays, and this consomation system of sheeps is really scary for humanity.
Lady Gaga? Hmm…. I remember back in the 80′s when it was called Bananarama. And around and around we go. Gaga isn’t really doing anything original, AT ALL. If you stripped away the technology available to her today, well, you would have a lesser version of many of the bands from the 80′s, ie. Bananarama. Sorry.
You are all, with the exception of the first Josh, complete idiots.
I LOVE this article!
LADY GAGA IS HORRIBLE! SHE HAS NO TALENT! SHE IS AN OBNOXIOUS ATTENTION WHORE OF A MESS! DONT SUPPORT HER EITHER! SHE CLAIMS THAT SHE DONATES MONEY TO CHARITIES BUT SHE DOESNT!!! FOR INSTANCE HER NEW MUSIC VIDEO FOR “JUDAS” COST OVER 10 MILLION DOLLARS$$$$$$$ TO CREATE! (AND IT SUCKS, JUST LIKE THE SONG.)
SHE DESERVES NO ATTENTION OR SUPPORT! ANTI-GAGA! GAGA IS GAGARBAGE! BRING HER DOWN!!!!!!!
She believes her own mythology; it goes with the territory of being an arch-self publicist in an age of endless hype. It’s inevitable. The instant anyone starts talking about artistic integrity you know it’s time to stick a finger in each ear. She’s a circus performer, using her time in the spotlight to milk the good old cow of financial opportunity for all its worth.
Ok watched that speechless live video for Josh #1… “better than most of the legends ever were”? Really – have you ever heard Holiday of Fitzgerald sing? Gaga’s voice is only decent and wholly forgettable. What kind of a fu*#tard thinks she’s better than any legend? And worse, why does his name have to be Josh!? I wash my hands of this Josh and this “musician”. Gaga is crap. Plain and simple.
I must be living under a rock (in the real world?) as I had no idea who she is. Now I do. Thanks everybody!
she has a good voice. she’s a diva of repetitive slut pop, if thats what you like, enjoy.
This is a decent article, but not entirely fair. Gaygay can sing and has a nice body. She’s in the entertainment… business, and that’s where her focus should be. She has some nice songs that do make your car move. She is just a star, and not a superstar… nor can she ever be while cloning Madonna’s music and others. This is an important concept. Many of her fans aren’t quite sure what a true superstar is and that upsets those who do. Her mother was right….. where are all the superstars?
Why is it that the most outrageous singers always have the blandest sounding songs? Her weird outfits, green hair, etc, etc only mask the fact that she has no real talent. I guess it can`t hurt to have a large LGBT following, but anybody can court this audience if they want. After witnessing her latest butchering job of the Lady and the Tramp song with that way over the hill Tony Bennett, it only goes to show that both of them will do anything to make money. Also, Bennett should thank God that younger people are listening to his music. This is the music that my father used to play on the eight track player in his Cadillac when I was younger.Frankly, I just couldn`t listen to it then. Forty years later, the same story.
She is amaing! Her voice is heaven on earth. I love her and Ke$ha and Miley Cyrus! They are true musicians; not that loud rock crap with guitars and drums. At least she plays a real instrument (The piano) Shes the next mozart.
@lionfury HAA! Kesha, a “true musician”? You wish. Youre probably about my age too (14) …God my generation disappoints me DX
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, which I respect, but I have to disagree with several points in this article. FACT: she has a beautiful voice, and puts on fabulous shows. She literally pours her heart and soul into her shows. FACT: she is an incredible piano player, one of twenty people in the nation accepted early-admissions to the Tisch Arts School in New York. Did Kesha, Miley, Britney, do that? Just think about that. Now the outfits, the messages, and the things she represent will be percieved differently by everyone. Some of her actions and views will be similiarly called freakish by some. That is for you to decide, but REAL TALK for a moment, please look up her live acoustic performances. Before all else, the woman IS a true and talented musician. And before you call her ugly, think for three seconds how you would feel if an entire website was dedicated to insulting the way you looked. I thought so.
@Savannah You missed the point of the article by miles. At no time did the author say she wasn’t talented, she said that what she does isn’t art, and I agree.
Whether she has a voice or not is purley subjective. No, she is a very good piano player, not incredible. You want an incredible piano player? Look up Art Tatum, one of, if not the best, jazz piano players of all time who learned to play by ear and was nearly blind to boot. GaGa’s “talent’ can’t hold a candle to him.
If your argument is that GaGa is good because Ke$ha, Miley and Britney didn’t do what GaGa did, then your argument is done before it even started. At least they don’t flat-out copy other artists then try to deny that they’re doing such. GaGa actually has the audacity to honestly believe that she is original.
As for how she looks, whatever. I’m not even going to talk about appearance when she wraps up her face, walks around in public wearing nothing but panties and sunglasses three sizes too big for her head. She is a obvious attention whore which makes her being attractive or not a moot point. She demands that people pay attention to her by her own actions. To say otherwise is delusional.
GaGa is a poser. Plain and simple. She is not artistic in any way whatsoever. Her name is from Queen’s “Radio GaGa” she has copied Madonna, Grace Jones, and Elton John. GaGa claims to be a fan of Bette Midler yet directly ripped her off, then claimed she has “no idea”.
She may have millions of fans but her time is coming to a close. Her Joe Calderone act blew up in her face, her fans being more pissed than the general public. It’s only a matter of time before she screws up so badly that nothing will bring her back.
What a bunch of haters, with terrible logic to boot. So the reasons lady gaga isn’t art: once you get past the rage/insults, the articles only real argument is that lady gaga doesn’t have “substance” to her controversy like bob Dylan. Wtf. Thats your definition of art? Defining art is hard, but that definition is flat out stupid. Singing about current events doesn’t make you a goddam artist.
Other peoples arguments on why she’s not talented typically point out how there are either better singers or better pianists than her. So what? Nobody is claiming she’s the BEST singer or pianist, and I’m sure the people you mention aren’t the best either. Her unique combination of attributes as an exceptional pianist, songwriter (ALL songs self written and composed), and vocalist (who does NOT use auto tune) and social activist for the gay community makes her a legitimate artist. More so than any of you pretentious (and bigoted/homophobic, based on your comments) fucks will ever be.