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

[Terraviva]

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

"My point was that nobody I know would be likely to pay her for sex."

Wow, TobyLerone, can't let this one slide now can I.

Men who pay for sex don'T fucking care what the prostitute looks like !?!?! All they care about is how vulnerable she is and how much she needs the money, and what she'll do. That's about it,really. Looking good has never been part of prostitution (although prostitution has been romanticized a lot recently in the media);. being vulnerable is all that counts.

Right. I'd lived abroad when she popped up and have never really paid attention so I watched this, expecting to see something special.

I also have an interest as I am friends with someone who is responsible for her style, and who finds her constant 'nicking' of other people's ideas, rather enervating and a disappointment, frankly.

I have also heard a couple of her records out and about and thought that it sounded like the kind of dated, leaden music they would have played in a Macedonian disco in the early 90s.

I don't especially mind that her look is a hackneyed version of Philip Salon, with a bit of Toyah, club kid etc.

Regardless, I thought she'd put on a good show at least.

I was very disappointed. She can't dance, stumbled, made many missteps, had no engaging charisma, dead eyes, looked pissed or on drugs, frankly, and the whole thing was woeful, in my opinion. Especially when you compare it to performers who could perform, such as Madonna (I'm not a fan, but by Christ, she gives it some welly and her shows are slick) and Michael Jackson. Oh, and she can't sing live at all. She sang sharp, ran out of stamina about 2 songs in.

3 out of 10.

But good luck to her, she's tapped into something and it's made her rich beyond Croesus.

"Yes, her image is manufactured - by herself, that makes a huge difference"

No it's not, my friend is one of several who manufacturers her image. She's even nicked her hairstyle!

The Caitlin Moran interview with her in the Times last year is truly amazing.

saiditbest.wordpress.com/2010/05/22/come-party-with-lady-gaga-caitlin-morans-times-interview/ce

the Times has a paywall so this the saiditbest copy. Enjoy!

oh no, its not that interview - maybe this will work?

I bet you can't access either of those, because of the jeffing paywall

I would be willing to c&p the whole article if anyone is interested...it IS very long - completely worth it, though!

It is a brilliant article. I read it once when the paywall went down and she tweeted a link to it so everyone could see it for free :)

I'd seen her in the papers but not heard any of her music (XFM listener).

We were on holiday 2 years ago in Spain and a song was being played in most of the cafes and bars which sounded very much like a standard Euro-pop/one hit wonder bouncy holiday song. Pleasant, but not earth-shattering.

Ffwd to our office Christmas do and this same bouncy slightly germanic sounding Eurotrash hit comes on and everyone goes "Ooh! Lady Gaga!" and rushes to the dancefloor....

So I'm afraid every time I hear Poker Face (or indeed any other song she's done) I just think EuroDisco - seriously, listen to her music without looking at her and she's indistinguishable from any other holiday disco floor-filler. I'm not denying she's a talented musician, but her hits are... well, given her image (which I quite like when she's not flashing her minge to the world), I was expecting something far more interesting than Europap!

I thought she was crap, then there was a ding dong on here a while ago, about the video for Telephone, so I watched the link

I thought she was brilliant. I know she nicks things, and I know her songs sound like europopnonsense, but I love her. I excuse my love for her by compartmentalising her as a performance artist

...you would too, if you had 7 year old twin daughters. I would much rather they listen to Gaga than any of the pop princesses by about a million miles...

There is nothing wrong with Eurodisco! Nothing!

YABU. She's a Madonna copycat who doesn't really add anything new to what Madonna did in the 80s. Some of the songs are almost identical without any extra originality. The style was so fresh and edgy when Madonna did these things, but no longer.

I'll definitely be in the minority for this, but I think she is a really good role model. She works incredibly hard, and has always done so even though she hasn't always been at the forefront. She's written some really great songs for other people and wrote her first song when she was 4. She's a classically trained musician. She got where she is through hard work and determination and a huge amount of self-belief. It's no wonder she's a bit eccentric!

She plays several musical instruments to a high grade, she writes her own stuff.

She's streets ahead of most of the other manufactured caterwaulers out there.

She may play several instruments. So do I to Grade 8, and so do many others in the music business. She may work hard, that is undeniable. She may even write songs (erm, she's a singer, many singers do write their own work)

This is indisputable.

But she can't sing well, especially live
She cannot dance and sing at the same time. She stumbles. I've seen much more skilful lapdancing.
Her image is hackneyed 1980s club kid/fetish. Again, everything is recycled.
Her music, while inoffensive and catchy-ish, is old schtick. Perhaps that's the point, but it still makes it deeply uninteresting
The kids are being done up a kipper being sold this stuff.

Nothing in and of itself bad and harmful. But when you look back to a true star of popular music with performing chops say Michael Jackson, Elvis, EVEN Madonna (and I don't like her) you see this for what it is. Ersatz, cliched, pap, served up in a recycled paper box like a burger. With a fancy design on the front.

She will not be around in a few years.

I like the fact she doesn't care whether she looks 'pretty' or not. Almost everyone else I can think of, including women with the grundgy/rock look, are very very concerned about looking sexy and fuckable. Madonna was all about milking the whore look for what it was worth. For other singers it's the 'girl next door' image.

I just don't get the same feeling with lady Gaga. A lot of men hate her, I read the comments on website and it was basically pure abuse from men about her. (similar to the person on here earlier saying none of the men they knew would pay to fuck her).

I have a lot of respect for a woman in this industry　who is willing to stick her neck out like this.

Looking fuckable is not her aim; being taken seriously as an artist is AFAICS

Looking fuckable is not her aim; being taken seriously as an artist is AFAICS

Exactly, and it was me who said I don't know anyone who would pay to fuck her.

She will not be around in a few years.

I remember my mum saying the same about Madonna, and Kylie Minogue in the 80s. She might burn herself out, she might adapt with the times, who knows? I think Madonnna did try to be more overtly sexually attractive but she also did the "scare the crap out of people" and could be equally aggressive in the context of the time in her videos.

Interesting that so many men get so angry that she deigns not to present herself as appealing to them. Some men seem to think women's purpose in life is to be appealing to them, personally. Says a lot really about why feminism is still required. Thank god all men aren't like that - if they were I'd rather be a nun. :)

WTF does that mean Tobylerone? I don't get it. Are you seriously suggesting that men who pay to rape fuck women care what they look like?!?!?!
Or are you saying LadyGaga is there because she's good, and we know this because she's not fuckable? (implying that whatever a woman achieves, however talented she is matters not a jot as all that matters is how fuckable she is to men?)

Oh give over, sakura. The 'prostitution as rape' line is old, untrue and not relevant here. I'm not even going there.

Perhaps you should read the whole thread for explanation.

She's a third-rate Madonna (if even that)... a poor singer who depends just too heavily on gimmicks and 'shock' tactics (I don't find the tactics in the least shocking - but can't fail to be aware of the interest and debate they generate in the press!). A singer who needs to rely on gimmicks and costumes etc to generate interest is a failure as a singer. Is she a 'seer'; making profound 'statements' with her costumes? No. She doesn't even have that as a redeeming factor.
Sorry - she comes across as a fake; a pretend bubble-gum Madonna-type who takes herself way too seriously. Laughable. Risible. Yeuch.

urgh all I can do is shudder at your last post TobyLerone.

Ok, drama queen. Careful you don't injure yourself.

Sakura - ladygaga would not be the success she is today if she was fat and ugly.

She's extremely sexually attractive - and she works damn hard at it.

Whatever I think of her music and performing skills (3/10) I do think it is heartening to see a woman with a normal body (short stature, actual proper thighs and natural breasts) and who is not commercially beautiful do well in the music business.

I'm a new convert. I'm an old fart and not at all into 'modern rubbish' so have always tutted at her with her daft outfits, but saw her on Graham Norton and was surpised and impressed by her maturity for a 25 year old and although the outfit WAS daft I actually liked the song.