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Original poster

To think Lady Gaga is actually seriously talented??!!

135 replies

Terraviva · 15/05/2011 22:18

She's always annoyed me. I found her an attention-seeking, madonna-wannabe, irritating one-trick pony, BUT.... I turned to BBC3 this eve just as her concert started, found myself watching it and, er, I'm really impressed! She's don't all this jazz and piano stuff and is brilliant.

I feel slightly Blush about this. Was I always wrong? Has she developed as an 'artist'?! Have I had one too many Wine?! What's going on??!!!

OP posts:
slug · 16/05/2011 11:52

It's not the "taking inspiration from" that bothers me, it's the shameless ripping off that I find offensive. I can't count the times I've been in a shop and a song has come over the radio. I think Hmm... Madonna/Michael jackson/Tori Amos/etc, only to find out later it's GaGa. My point is shes virtually indistinguishable from the "influences".

iridium · 16/05/2011 12:03

I agree with slug. She ran out of original ideas about halfway through the Fame Monster and I think that's around the same time she started to buy into her own hype. It seemed genuinely surprising to her and those around her that people thought Born This Way was a rip off.

She's a quite good singer, a quite good piano player, she knows what works on radio, and she is willing to experiment visually (again with massive influences from others). I don't think the whole persona amounts to something greater than the sum of its parts.

deuxpoints · 16/05/2011 12:08

Oasis ripped off the Beatles (apparently) - I thought Oasis were brilliant !
As much as I love music I'm not a musical snob, I really don't care if someone sounds like someone else - It's only music at the end of the day - fun and entertainment

HipHopOpotomus · 16/05/2011 12:15

Love the Lady Gaga!!!!

MamaMary · 16/05/2011 12:32

IMO her music isn't up to much...Not as good as Britney's best (I'm not a pop fan though). I agree she can sing, she can write songs, and she's okay on piano. But none of it is amazingly good or even that catchy.

I find her persona very disturbing. I've seen quite a few of her music videos and they disturb me... for instance 'Telephone' where she's in prison and has lit cigarettes covering her eyes - it's just a horrible image. Then she and Beyonce commit mass murder in a diner and dance over the corpses (honestly, if you haven't seen it, it's just weird and shocking). And I don't think she's anywhere near as independent as some of you seem to think.

PlanetEarth · 16/05/2011 12:34

OK she's talented, but dressing like a porn star (as on American Idol) puts me right off her.

deuxpoints · 16/05/2011 12:36

Agree MM - she relies on 'shock' value too much -

Pedallleur · 16/05/2011 12:39

Imo she is talented and knows that her role as a performance artist (NOT a pop singer) is how she looks, the songs being the vehicle to project her look. She isn't original but has took all the bits from her influences and made them her own. She poss. is the next Madonna (who ripped off her act from Cindy Lauper who didn't want to be in the fame game) but M.Jackson/Queen/Bowie/B.Midler/L.Minelli all get a look in. It's that s&m/gay thing and someone like F.Mercury/Bowie/Madonna would appreciate what she does

Sarsaparilllla · 16/05/2011 13:01

Actually, if you read a bit about her "Haus of Gaga" thing, she has surrounded herself with creative people and they do all this together

So she has stylists, so do all pop stars, they just go along the 'Lady Gaga' theme of looking for outfits/gimmicks etc, it's nothing new?

If she's still around, or perceived as some kind of influential musician in 15 years time I'll show my arse in Sainsburys - she's a pop act, she's good at what she does and yes she can sing, but I think the entire thing has been constructed for people to buy into, which they clearly do :)

It's all a bit 'try too hard' for me to buy into, I might have done when I was a teenager Grin

alizee · 16/05/2011 15:23

i never liked her before i watched this :) i don't usually watch her videos and i'm not impressed by her fashion choices but she has got a great voice and her songs are really catchy :)

springydaffs · 16/05/2011 17:25

All artists are inspired by other people - that's how the creative thing goes. It#s early days yet soI don't think her stuff has matured but I think it will. She's only 25.

As for the shocking images - all art5ists do that as well, not realising (or particularly caring) how shocking some of it can be to your average person watching the telly at home. She's exploring concepts and a lot of them are disturbing. I find novels just as disturbing, if not more so because you invest a lot of hours reading a novel (only to get your head done in).

HecateQueenOfTheNight · 16/05/2011 17:28

isn't it sad that a woman has to prostitute herself to make it as a singer these days?

You're nothing if you don't wear clothes so tight folks can actually see your clit.

TobyLerone · 16/05/2011 17:36

Prostitute herself?

I'm pretty sure nobody is paying to have sex with her Hmm

Original poster
Terraviva · 16/05/2011 17:41

Hecate I agree that too many women use sex appeal to sell records - Rhianna, Katy Perry, Britney Spears plus a zillion others, but I really don't think you can say that of Gaga! I don't know a single guy who finds her sexy. She wears revealing clothes, true, but it's more about 'art' and making a statement (whatever your take on that is!!!).

Oh hang on, I just re-read your post. You said prostitute herself as in wear revealing clothes and didn't mention sex appeal. In that case, yes you're right. It is a shame. The only female I can think of who doesn't have to do that is Adele, and she's had phenomenal success.

OP posts:
ilovesprouts · 16/05/2011 17:46

lady gaga is fab !!

MillyR · 16/05/2011 18:02

I like her. DD loves her. I think her appearance is sexual rather than sexualised, and she is the only famous contemporary female performer I can think of to say that about. I do think she is a good role model within the limitations that she is a musician and performer rather than a human rights lawyer.

Some of her music is great. The more piano based stuff has that melancholic, autumnal quality that you generally hear from English musicians rather than remaining solely within a US pop tradition.

NetworkGuy · 16/05/2011 18:23

"As for GaGa, I think it's insulting when people compare her to Madonna"

prepare to be insulted then, because that was the immediate comparison I made when I saw her, from the somewhat peculiar dress sense to the dance troupe and 'dramatic' entrance. It's pure showbiz, and they both have done it well.

Madonna may be old hat and may not be the performer GaGa is (her musical background shone through [exactly as ReindeerBollocks wrote] and will have helped GaGa reach this point in her career more easily, and GGs performance has that polish that comes from being in the jazz group at high school). Madonna was at her height some 20 years ago and the last 10 might be classed as coasting towards retirement.

I'm no special fan of GaGa, but happened to see it was a live concert and decided that it was worth a half hour, even if I didn't like all the music. The opening pieces were exactly as one might have had from Madonna 20 years ago, but nonetheless, considering this was being put on for a Carlisle audience, was done with the same attention to detail as if she had been playing New York, Sydney or London, so good on her and her troupe.

HecateQueenOfTheNight · 16/05/2011 19:15

"to prostitute yourself" in the context of my post has got nothing to do with protitution in terms of selling your body for interourse.

prostitute yourself

prostitute yourself

prostitute yourself

to prostitute yourself

If you are going to pull the humpty face at me, first make sure you don't make a tit of yourself by doing so.

By all means disagree with what I say. I have my big girl pants on. I can take a different opinion. I can take being told I'm wrong. I can respect that.

If you feel that thrusting yourself about half naked while 'singing' even though you actually have rather a good voice, is not in fact, prostituting yourself as in "using your abilities or beliefs in a way which does not deserve respect, especially in order to get money" then by all means tell me that you disagree with that. I will respect that.

But first actually understand my point.

Then comment.

Slubberdegullion · 16/05/2011 20:21

Can someone tell me what she had stuffed up her PVC cardi at her big weekend set?

I had it on BBC3 about an hour ago and missed the big reveal.

I'm in the 'leaves me cold & tries too hard' camp. Katy B was on before her, what a voice! And Shock she seemed to be capable of an excellent performance in jeans and a top and no groin grabbing or faux piano humping.

NetworkGuy · 16/05/2011 21:26

must have been a baby 'space hopper' but we never saw a big reveal, as she just took had the buttons/zip undone by a helped and two of the guys helped her take the bulge off...

imagine a fleece put on backwards with some balloon stuck inside it, so the sleeves went on and held the bulge in front of her... no idea what was actually there and a bit of a let-down when she was freeing herself of it...

TobyLerone · 16/05/2011 21:36

Goodness, Hecate, I didn't mean to offend you. I don't think she is prostituting herself by any definition. I genuinely believe that she wears what she does because she wants to. I don't think she wears it to sell records. The 'art' definition was closest to the truth, IMO.

By all means attempt to educate me if you don't think I've understood what you said. I usually agree with most things you say anyway. But please don't try to patronise me.

HecateQueenOfTheNight · 16/05/2011 21:48

Yes, I did react badly, I admit. From my pov, there was no need for you to pull the Hmm face at me at the end of what really came across as a rather rudely worded sentence that didn't even get what I was saying.

Two things that release my inner bitch / tantrumming child / whatever - the humpy face at me and people who take what I said and turn it into something I didn't say.

People telling me that they disagree with me - fine. I have no problem at all with people disagreeing with me. Tell me you think my point is shit and I'll chat happily about it all night. You may even convince me you're right and I'm wrong and if you do, I'll give you full credit.

Take what I said, make it something else entirely and be nasty to me about it, otoh, is not fair at all and it is what I felt you did and I felt I really didn't deserve it.

TobyLerone · 16/05/2011 22:03

I didn't pull the Hmm face at you. As others have said, she's not the most attractive of women. My point was that nobody I know would be likely to pay her for sex.

But hey, we all have tantrummy oversensitive days. I wasn't being nasty to you. Not at all. I don't deserve that accusation.

Never mind. It's already forgotten.

HecateQueenOfTheNight · 16/05/2011 22:10

Ah! I see what happened now then.

I said that she was prostituting herself

you said "prostituting herself? I'm fairly sure nobody is paying to have sex with her Hmm "

I took that to be a rude remark to me, complete with humpty face, assuming that I meant that she was a prostitute.

You meant that she is ugly and nobody would want to pay her for sex, with humpty face for emphasis.

I see the miscommunication and confusion now. I misunderstood your remark to me, so sorry for that.

maddy68 · 16/05/2011 22:12

I was there at the radio1 one festival and lady GaGa is REALLY talented and I have to be honest didnt really think she would be so good!

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