MetaChat - Please explain "Lady Gaga" to me and my elderly wife

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04 October 2009

Please explain "Lady Gaga" to me and my elderly wife →[More:]We just finished watching "Lady GaGa's" SNL performance from last night (on Tivo, of course, because who can stay up that late?) and we're really, really confused. Is she a performance artist? Some Meta-inside joke? We're not supposed to take her at face value, are we? Does "Poker Face" mean what I think it does? Please...to the youth of America and the world...explain this person to us. Also...she's not a dude, is she?

post by: ColdChef at: 10:58 | 36 comments

Wait. Was that really Madonna on Deep House Dish? Really?

posted by ColdChef 04 October | 11:00

Here is the explanation: Lady Gaga is someone who has a suitable combination of performance talent, charisma, and songwriters to guarantee that people will not be able to look away and will feel compelled to discuss whatever she's doing, whenever she does it. You and I are, at the moment, exhibits A and B. Poker Face is, like many pop songs, largely on the theme of "these words sound good together when placed in this order, and they fit the beat". It is also about using card- and casino-related terms as metaphors for sex, which is a tradition that probably runs back a couple of thousand years in popular music. Beyond that, what, exactly, is there to explain?

posted by Wolfdog 04 October | 11:16

We don't "get" irony this far south.

posted by ColdChef 04 October | 11:22

Mostly a performance artist. Which I approve of, actually, but I really can't get into her music.

posted by BoringPostcards 04 October | 11:24

She is a brilliant marketer, and shameless thief. I think the music is vastly secondary to the image. And she works tirelessly.

posted by pinky.p 04 October | 11:36

Yeah her lyrics are... well, take Poker Face; "bluffin' with my muffin" is a metaphor for her vagina. In case that wasn't clear.

Oh and Lovegame. The first time I heard that I was in my kitchen and the radio was on because I'm too lazy to turn it off, and Lovegame comes on. And I hear this:

Let's have some fun, this beat is sick
I wanna take a ride on your disco stick

....
Really?? Discostick??

"It's another of my very thoughtful metaphors for a cock."

posted by CitrusFreak12 04 October | 11:37

According to some she's an Illuminati mind control puppet

You ever read American Gods Coldchef? It's a good book, anyway one of the conceits is that the "New Gods" of America are taking the place of the old ones, the Gods of Television and Media And Automobile. They're all represented in neat ways, Media can't stop smiling and has a phosphor-dot glow, Computers is a pudgy arrogant jackhole, etc. I think Lady Gaga is the shape of the current incarnation of Fame or Maybe Spectacle or Pop. Of course you take it at face value, it's all about face value. There is no need for a "media narrative" about her act, she's not a good-girl-gone-bad or just-like-you! She's an act, a show, a spectcle, and a damned good one at that.

Not the music mind you (it's actually well made, just not my thing) but I'm kinda in love with whole Art Student-Meets-Party Monster huge grab-bag-o-influences look. She actually looks like a lot of the club kids I knew in college, so it's neat to see that look and whole over-the-top stage craft go national.

Of course, now that means it's "so over" and the Cool Kids are scrambling to find the next thing.

posted by The Whelk 04 October | 11:47

Or, Madonna 2.0. Whatevers.

posted by The Whelk 04 October | 11:48

Disco Stick is such a bad euphemism that you might as well just say penis.

posted by drezdn 04 October | 11:51

"Disco Penis" sounds like a euphemism for being too cranked to screw.

Or a penis covered in mirrors.

posted by The Whelk 04 October | 11:53

By the by, Coldchef, what did you decide to name the spawn?

posted by msali 04 October | 12:52

After she coated herself in blood at the VMAs, I decided I love her. She's RIDICULOUS. Not super-self-important ridiculous like Madonna or uber-cutesy ridiculous like Katy Perry, more like Elton John in his Donald Duck suit or Alice Cooper using a guillotine. She's all sexed up one minute, and wearing a dress made of Muppets the next. I think she's fun.

posted by jrossi4r 04 October | 12:53

She's in a zone of dance-pop that I appreciate, but nothing she's done yet has really wowed me.

posted by dhartung 04 October | 13:29

Please explain "Lady Gaga" to me and my elderly wife

Horrible pop music. You've seen it before.

posted by jonmc 04 October | 13:33

I find all of this fascinating. Plus, I haven't been able to get "Paparazzi" and "Poker Face" out of my mind all morning, much to my ailing wife's consternation.

By the by, Coldchef, what did you decide to name the spawn?

I'm leaning towards "GaGa."

posted by ColdChef 04 October | 14:16

Mememic Audio Virus. You have been compromised.

posted by The Whelk 04 October | 14:24

Her songs are catchy, catchy like the clap is catchy.

posted by drezdn 04 October | 14:39

Hello, 21st Century Kids!

The Lady Gaga contraption you're going crazy for right now was first introduced into your consciousness back in the early 80's by a band named Missing Persons. Back then, we had named it Dale Bozzio.

Stay tuned for next year's contraption! Here's a preview: She/he is a 7-foot albino with the flexibility of a Cirque Du Soleil performer combined with the musculature of a body-builder on the pro circuit.

It's name is Jackinjill, and it's first single will be Carpet Razor Burnz.

We love you!

posted by Lipstick Thespian 04 October | 14:46

My wife and I just watched it on Hulu; sadly if I hadn't read this thread before, I would have assumed that Lady Gaga was being played by a cast member. I haven't seen her enough to recognize her and I haven't watched SNL in years so I don't know the cast.

Good thing it was a fake fight, Madonna looks like she could pick up Gaga one handed.

posted by octothorpe 04 October | 16:27

I've only heard one of her songs, and I didn't really take to it (that's not really a dis--I don't really listen to that kind of stuff, and, even if she was the greatest thing in the history of dance-pop, I probably still wouldn't really dig it). Her persona or shtick or whatever is much more interesting than most musicians', I think.

Yeah, she's mostly a performance artist (though perhaps the most commercial one that's ever lived), and that's the part that interests me.

posted by box 04 October | 16:41

Whelk, I could smack you for posting that link to the Illuminati/conspiracy article. I've just lost an hour and a half reading that crazy site! I LOVE paranoid conspiracy stuff. It's like going through the looking glass.

posted by BoringPostcards 04 October | 16:52

She's like Bjork only taller and not so foreign looking. At some point I decided I like her too, though I don't really listen to pop music much so that may make it easier.

posted by jessamyn 04 October | 21:52

I really appreciate her as a business person. Art and music wise I just find her OK. Sort of recycled KISS, Talking Heads, Missing Persons and any 80's pop dance group.

posted by arse_hat 04 October | 23:02

To explain the joke would be to suck all the funny out of the joke. Best just to laugh politely and excuse yourself to the bathroom.

(I hated the first song, was charmed by the second song.)

posted by not_on_display 05 October | 06:32

S/he's inexplicable.

posted by dg 05 October | 06:39

Lady Gaga's musical style is perfectly ordinary in Europe, and actually a pretty bloody good example of it. Americans don't seem to have quite so much context and therefore focus a little too much on the merits of the style rather than the merits of the music.

Horrible pop music. You've seen it before.

"This vaguely reminds me of something I was against in my youth, therefore you kids aren't allowed to enjoy it"

posted by cillit bang 05 October | 07:00

not 'allowed' to like it? did you just type that with a straight face?

That's hilarious.

posted by jonmc 05 October | 07:40

Well, jon, it is kind of cute (or even hilarious) when you pretend that your favorite fashion-posing three chord pop music is in some way superior to three chord pop music wearing slightly different clothing.

posted by Wolfdog 05 October | 08:23

She's like Bjork

*gasps*

posted by dhartung 05 October | 10:46

"Don't compare Bjork to ANYONE! She's off limits! No linking her, no comparing Bjork!"

posted by Juliet Banana 05 October | 15:18

She's the best thing to happen to pop music this decade.

posted by kyleg 05 October | 15:46

In a previous incarnation.

posted by theora55 05 October | 17:20

Huh, she's from New York? I was sure she was British for some reason.

posted by octothorpe 05 October | 18:36

This thread and a couple of live videos have prompted me to undelete her MP3s that a friend gave me, to give them a second chance. I think what puts me off about her music is the over-processed vocals, the curse of every pop-tart in the modern era since at least Britney. They always sound multi-tracked and auto-tuned till it's like the same voice, singing through a fan.

But her live clips show she actually CAN sing fairly well, so maybe she'll steer clear of some of the vocal mangling for her next album. She should take a few pointers from Alison Goldfrapp.

posted by BoringPostcards 05 October | 20:05

Oh dear God, he's going to call the baby Lady Gaga.

posted by essexjan 06 October | 16:52

I had never heard of her until jessamyn mentioned her the other night at the pizza place.

posted by terrapin 06 October | 17:36

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