The Lady Gaga Thread

[Sylph]

I'm intrigued by this Madonna had a message. Really? I can only laugh at that. And her "message".

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Oh I agree, but I agree with bellcurve's assertion that Gaga's outfits don't signify any type of "reinvention." They basically blend together in her signature shtick.

Madonna recently admitted to Rolling Stone that her "reinventions" had more to do with accumulating money and begin exposed to top designers and photographers as her career went on and on. There wasn't much of a style difference between Madonna's debut and Like A Virgin, though the music on the albums themselves are quite different. The debut was of course a reflection of her early 80's New York dance roots. Like a Virgin was a calculated pop effort to progress her career onto a more mainstream and international stage, which worked.

Though from True Blue onward, there was definitely a synergy between the music and the personal style "reinventions."

I never took any of those Britney comparisons seriously. She's always been a puppet.

Though, I do think Madonna was definitely in control of who she was and what she wanted to do from almost the beginning. It definitely helped that she had someone like Freddy Demann as her manager from Like A Virgin to Evita though, someone who had the business experience to help her do all the things she wanted to do. I don't think many women in pop before Madonna had the kind of control of their careers to the extent Madonna had.

While Gaga is definitely less than puppet and more of an artist than Britney, it's still far too early to ever make a comparison between her and someone as established as Madonna. Thanks to the over-commercialization of the music industry these days, she's probably a lot richer than Madonna was when she started out. We'll have to see if Gaga can reinvent both her music and her image style come the next album.

Eventually, the RedOne collaborations are going to wear thin, and even though she's worked with other people, we're going to wonder if she can do something major away from the type of sound, while staying true to her dance-pop market.

Hell, I don't think Gaga knew what the hell Radio Gaga was until the ex-boyfriend that's suing her now introduced her to it and to Queen. As much as I find some of the content in his suit to be hilarious, I do think he played a major role in shaping Gaga for the dance-pop market, because I don't think she'd be doing this type of music had she not met him.

She'd be doing this less marketable stuff and looking like this:

Gaga's "club roots" are a lot different from Madonna's "club roots." Though Madonna was in some punk-oriented bands, most of her New York club experience in the early days was always in the dance vein.

Edited March 26, 2010 by Y&RWorldTurner

[Y&RWorldTurner]

I think there's a clear feminist theme throughout much of her earlier work and videos.

Many mainstream women in pop weren't exploring themes regarding sex, religion, and unapologetic abrasiveness before her, or at least they didn't have the type of commercial success she had doing it.

Prior to Madonna, female artists weren't selling very many albums. In fact, Like A Virgin was the first album by a female act to have a certification of over 5 million by the RIAA. She may have gotten too snobby in recent years, but I don't think we can deny the impact she's had on the music industry. Whether you're a fan or not, she had an impact on both pop music and pop culture that other acts that came from that era just don't have, and she did it by being a essentially a self-made woman. She didn't get her foot in the door by being in a successful group like Michael Jackson, she didn't have the Clive Davis/Tommy Mottola mentor that Whitney and Mariah had, and she wasn't the product of a successful writing/producing team like many others were.

Edited March 26, 2010 by Y&RWorldTurner

[EricMontreal22]

Well a lot of that is cuz Madonna broke into New York as a dancer--that's what brought hero the city. Gaga broke into clubs as a singer/songwriter. It's a very different foundation really

I agree about her message, etc, though I think it was never quite as clear as some fans (and don't get me wrong--I'm a fan--I have like 80 cds lol) claim.

I know Madonna was one of the first mega selling chicas, but not the first--I mean Diana Ross' sales in the 70s were through the roof, Donna Summer's bad Girls double LP sold over 2.5 mill, etc.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

We'll never quite know how much many of those Motown albums sold in the 60's and 70's. Berry Gordy hated the RIAA and refused to pay fees to gets the albums from his acts certified.

But Like A Virgin was the first female album that was certified for sales of over 5 million. By the end of the 80's, Like A Virgin and True Blue, along with Whitney Houston's first two albums were the best selling albums by females acts. Though many albums by females have come close or even surpassed them over the years, it was very telling. Madonna was the first in a line of female artists in pop music who broke a glass ceiling in terms of consistent album sales for female artists, or at least sold comparably and consistently to male artists at the time.

Though, aside from a few mega selling albums, albums weren't selling as much in 70's as they were in the 80's and much of the 90's, when Madonna was at her peak.

Yes, which is why I think Gaga doing "dance music" was more marketing genius on her mentor's part than her's.

Edited March 26, 2010 by Y&RWorldTurner

[EricMontreal22]

Right. (Among Donna Summer fans that's a hot issue--Donna would be near tied with Strisand as top selling female vocalist of the 70s, but we don't know Diana's sales and I'm sure she sold more. Donna was, until Madonna, the only female to have four double albums go gold though.). But yeah sales peaked in general in the late 80s, early 90s.

I can agree there, though many of her musical influences were from that genre. (She did come right at the right time, as Sasha Frere Johns from New Yorker pointed out even rap music now is stealing from dance music--which suits me fine.)

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Well, at least someone came out and said it in print.

http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2010/04/08/m-i-a-blasts-lady-gaga-shes-a-good-mimic/

Edited April 9, 2010 by Y&RWorldTurner

[EricMontreal22]

The thing is. MIA isn't mainstream the way GAGA is. This is why Gaga is in some ways like Madonna--she takes a tiny bit of underground culture, adds it to the mainstream status quo and forces an image over it--POP HIT! Of course MIA doesn't have the same success--she never will. They're not really comparable.

Edited April 14, 2010 by EricMontreal22

[JackPeyton]

I do not understand the gaga is the new madonna. gaga has had one album that she rereleased once and is about to rererelease with yet more songs. same gimmick, same game.

i would be surprised if 10 years from now gaga is still around and relevent and turning out hits. shes a fad of the moment who is surrounded with talented people due to her past in the music genre.

Not to say she is untalented, she is talented. and to succeed today you must have a star factor and be over produced. its whats in, its what people want. gaga knows that. im just saying shes like a shiny new toy. it will last for a while, but eventually people will outgrow it and i doubt she will grow and change and keep her audience.

Then there is britney, who is far from a great singer but has the it factor and has kept her self relevant for good or bad. she proved that she can still bring it because she had her first #1 hit in 10 years last year and had a very successful tour. she doesnt so much reinvent herself like madonaa does, but she got the comparison because neither have a steller voice but have a star power about them and because she evolved from album to album. the comparisons came really at the third album and then hit a high at the fourth when madonna did a song with her and they were bffs. what the media failed to see was Britney wasnt reinventing herself from sweet and innocent to kinda naughty to sex bomb to clubber as much as she was just growing and doing what normal girls her age were also doing with her look and her body. after that fourth album she pretty much crashed and burned and the world hated her until she a hit a low where people just needed her to comeback because the one thing America tends to like more than a crash and burn is a rise from the ashes and she did that. But its still not fair to say because of that shes like madonna because britney didnt chose this, it happened to her. her real test came with Circus, a moderate well review album (for her) that sold well and had a few hits. Her real test will come with the next album.

But britney isnt the next madonna, and christina isnt either nor is gaga. Nobody is. britney is britney, gaga is gaga, madonna is madonna.

[EricMontreal22]

Gaga's reissuing Fame Monster again?

[Y&RWorldTurner]

It's supposedly a remix album with remixes of her singles plus a few new songs...

But yeah, at this point, why? Just focus on putting an album of new material out. She's setting herself up for overexposure, which could backfire on her.

[Sylph]

So we're going to see two releases this year? The USB re-release + new album she's recording in the bus, as per Akon?

[EricMontreal22]

Oh I knew about the remix album--it doesn't count as a reissue IMHO.

[Sylph]

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/article7129672.ece

[Sylph]

Sneak peek:

<embed src="http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:uma:video:mtv.com:523507" width="512" height="319" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" flashVars="configParams=vid%3D523507%26uri%3Dmgid%3Auma%3Avideo%3Amtv.com%3A523507" allowFullScreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" base="."></embed><div style="margin:0;text-align:center;width:500px;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:12px;"><a href="http://www.mtv.com/music/artist/lady_gaga/artist.jhtml" style="color:#439CD8;" target="_blank">Lady Gaga</a> - <a href="http://www.mtv.com/ontv/" style="color:#439CD8;" target="_blank">MTV Shows</a></div>