Comments on: Is Lady Gaga The American KLF?*

By: DV

DV — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 13:17:21 +0000

I’ve decided I like her, though she might want to put it away before she has someone’s eye out.

By: Mark M

Mark M — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 10:18:48 +0000

I genuinely can’t see anything there, I get no sense of any ideas at work and I feel that I’m fairly exposed to her oeuvre as her videos are on the music channels almost constantly. If there’s any connection with Warhol, it seems to be the notion that a wig will distract from the fact that you’re pudgy and plain.

By: Steve Mannion

Steve Mannion — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 12:23:06 +0000

^ beat me to it

By: a tanned rested and unlogged lørd sükråt wötsît

a tanned rested and unlogged lørd sükråt wötsît — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 11:50:34 +0000

Lady O’Gaga

By: koganbot

koganbot — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 11:42:00 +0000

Singer “Lady GaGa” took her stage name from the song “Radio Ga Ga” as her vocal style had been compared to that of Freddie Mercury, says the not-necessarily reliable Wiki.

By: wichita lineman

wichita lineman — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 15:33:39 +0000

Yes, I thought it was a nod to Queen, though I quite like the idea it’s pronounced in the same way as Lemar.

I don’t hate her songs either, Steve. Poker Face reminded me of Carole Bayer Sager’s You’re Moving Out Today somehow.

By: ace inhibitor

ace inhibitor — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 15:22:51 +0000

isnit GaGa as in Radio…?

By: Steve Mannion

Steve Mannion — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 13:50:01 +0000

I actually love the bit in the Paparazzi video where she’s “dancing” with the crutches. It’s both amusing and unnerving. Unlike many I don’t hate her songs but I do hate her image and vaguely look forward to her changing her hair and wearing denim dungarees or whatever’s next.

By: koganbot

koganbot — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 12:53:11 +0000

(Of course, maybe her name uses open source spelling.)

By: koganbot

koganbot — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 12:41:37 +0000

(Btw, I’ve never definitively determined if it’s “Gaga” or “GaGa,” and since the album cover is in all caps, I can’t use that as my authority. I assume “GaGa” is correct though, since if it weren’t why would it exist at all?)

By: koganbot

koganbot — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 12:02:09 +0000

OK, now of course I have thought of something to say. What’s wrong with this piece is that it neither conveys nor generates any excitement or interest in what it’s talking about. E.g., suppose someone noticed that there seemed to be a trend in critics using subordinate clauses in their writing. Then suppose that person devoted an article to saying, “This critic uses subordinate clauses, and this other critic uses subordinate clauses,” and on and on with a whole list, but making no mention of what any critic uses the subordinate clause to say, or how the use of subordinate clauses affects what is being said.

The only part of this piece I gave a damn about was the couple of sentences about Courtney Love; possibly it was the only part that Ann gave a damn about either. The rest was her getting copy in by deadline.

By: lonepilgrim

lonepilgrim — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 11:54:40 +0000

The original article is too equivocal and half-baked.
‘Stop Press -Artistes aren’t really like their onstage image – or are they? – They’re not as original as you might think – they borrow from others – Shock! Horror!’
Quotes like: ‘Bowie pioneered the idea of rock as theater, incorporating influences like mime and Kabuki into an act that stressed the dreamlike quality of his work. But he still made a distinction between that dream life and his real one.” show both ignorance of Bowie and a naive idea of ‘real life’.
Her failure to mention Michael Jackson may well be because she is aware that he was someone for whom the distinction between ‘dream’ and ‘reality’ was blurred to say the least.

By: wichitalineman

wichitalineman — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 11:46:36 +0000

I think the Kings Of Leon fit her story; Sex On Fire sounds so processed for a rock song. Maybe she’s trying to cover too much ground, but the ‘computer is king’ angle works for me, whether in the studio or in building your persona.*

Lady Gaga’s ‘she’s so unusual’ wackiness grates with me, her pop star persona has no core. Madonna had the core of success-at-all-costs, Michael Jackson had the Peter Pan eternal youth deathwish, Grace Jones was, fundamentally, a clothes horse. Laroux is snotty and suburban, Little Boots is Coronation Street in space. Gaga doesn’t seem to have anything beyond a thrown together bunch of quotes and signifiers; there’s more to being a pop star than simply saying I’m weird’ – or ‘I’m not weird’ as Gaga would put it.

*sorry if I sound a little naive here, but my day-to-day has only fairly recently been massively affected by the computer age – so if it’s happened to me I guess it’s happened to everyone. Except Bon Iver of course.

By: koganbot

koganbot — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 11:43:06 +0000

I hate trend pieces. I suppose that that’s not very insightful commentary on my part, but that’s all I can think of to say.

Headline two years from now in the Los Angeles Times:

THE NEW AUTHENTICITY

(By the way, I pretty much consider Bowie a singer-songwriter, though that’s not all he is, obviously.)

By: ace inhibitor

ace inhibitor — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 11:01:43 +0000

what seems perverse is that powers has written this and managed not to mention michael jackson

By: Tom

Tom — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 09:32:33 +0000

(Apologies also if you just read this on my tumblr – I realised it was basically a blog post anyway)