What’s the best music video you’ve seen today? Britney’s “Womanizer”? NO! It’ll soon be this.
The fabulous Lady GaGa is b-b-back with her third single everywhere in the world that isn’t the UK, “P-P-Poker Face”. And that means it is time for her to unveil her third pop promo, or as I like to call it, the music video of 2008.
GaGa is obviously a child of the frivelous 80’s and 90’s, when pop videos were big and expensive affairs with women dripping in designer gear lounging by modern pools and generally being utterly, aspirationally fabulous. Sadly, in these bleak times, most pop videos today have a budget of 25p and perhaps a hand job round the back of Lidl for any model willing to stand about and pout. But, as she continues to prove my initial reservations moot, Lady GaGa settles for nothing less than amazing - and clearly a mahussive video budget.
This is a huge deal for both GaGa and pop music in general, because GaGa has quickly established herself as the self-proclaimed savior of pop (remember kids, pop will never be low brow). And to give “Poker Face”, quite possibly the best song from her album, a fighting chance, GaGa has negotiated some hefty (if not obvious) sponsorship deals to fund the whole affair. Some people would say that a gambling website branded table is tacky, I say that it only takes the video for “Poker Face” to the next level.
Everything else is in place - outfits that will make you go cross-eyed, nearly naked models that will make your panties tingle, the pool, the fabulous people and some great danes. So without further ado, I give you Poker Face.
The latest leak that’s got me creaming my knickers is “Paparazzi”, a downtempo love song, if you can believe it. Like some of Lady GaGa’s other songs, the track mixes dirty electro verses with a big soaring pop chorus. Say what you want about here, Lady GaGa knows how to craft a pop melody.
Lady Gaga - Paparazzi
“Paparazzi” is simply gorgeous, and said to be a confirmed track for “The Fame” which is officially releases next week, apparantly. Miss GaGa will then be doing a promotional visit to Europe - free your diaries.
I have been very vocal on my continually changing opinions on Miss Lady GaGa over previous weeks, and now it is time for me to do some more, because Lady GaGa has thrown some new shit out into the world.
My main issue with Lady GaGa up until this point has been the awfully contrived way she seems to approach pop culture and pop music. She aims to mix performance art, fashion, pop culture and pop music. Well, like duh. She puts on some shoulder pads and considers herself to be avant-garde. Erm, whatevs. And to quote myself:
The point is, that there really is no problem mixing consumerism (pop) and art into something fabulous. The problem is when you whack on some glittery eye-liner and call it art. Lady GaGa is neither as original or exciting as she would like us to believe, although many people seem to have fallen under the spell of her well written press releases. But this cannot take away from some good pop music.
And good pop music it is, because many tracks from GaGa’s upcoming album, “The Fame”, have leaked onto the web. And in all honesty, “The Fame” may be the first debut dance-pop album since “Madonna” to get the mix right. Catchy, energetic, soulful, and mixing popular dance styles (crunk, electro) with pop melodies to make something modern sounding. Without a doubt, Lady GaGa has a serious talent for pop music that overshadows most of her contemporaries, so much so that I can see album 12 in the far off future.
Then we come to the curious case of the Haus Of GaGa - the production team behind Lady GaGa’s performances. Lady GaGa intends to create several “inventions” that can be used to make her shows all the more exciting. Currently, this has only manifested itself in GaGa’s “disco stick”, a staff with a diamond like light-up bulb on the end, which she waves around during dance routines. And it does, I will admit, look rather fabulous, and has led to the amazing line from the song “Love Games”: “Lets have some fun/this beat is sick/I wanna take a ride on your disco stick.” At the very least, her heart is in the right place.
Which leads me to the reason I am writing this today. Lady GaGa has released a new “mini-movie” (extended advert) for her forthcoming album, entitled “The Fame”. Whilst completely contrived and a little bit nutty, releasing an artistic video online showcasing your new album in an interesting way is something alot of other artists could learn from. It’s by no means the most entertaining 6 minutes of my life, but it is at the least interesting. It is also better than most music videos on MTV rotation at the moment aswell (Kylie I’m looking at you!)
Here’s the video:
And here are some of my favourite leaks from “The Fame” thus far.
Beautiful Dirty Rich - The second single apparantly, a great dirty electro number. An anthem for today’s club kids.
Love Games - The aforementioned opening, and the crunk style beat make this song too fabulous.
Again Again - Soulful, melodic and showcasing a strong and beautiful voice. Proving there is more to Lady GaGa than shoulder pads and dancing to electronic synths.
Shit, she’s had me talking about her for 4 weeks and listening to her music. She must be doing something right.
I have been in numerous debates recently over whether or not Lady GaGa is any good. I was excited about her when she appeared on the scene, but as more information has to come to light, I have started to become disillusioned with ‘the Lady’.
Some plus points:
She’s young, not bad looking and blonde.
She can sing (yay).
She makes pop music (and some good stuff too, see Boys Boys Boys)
She’s unashamedly pop.
She can throw together an outfit.
The bad:
The point is, that there really is no problem mixing consumerism (pop) and art into something fabulous. The problem is when you whack on some glittery eye-liner and call it art. Lady GaGa is neither as original or exciting as she would like us to believe, although many people seem to have fallen under the spell of her well written press releases. But this cannot take away from some good pop music.
GaGa’s album, “The Fame” will be released in roughly a month. Here is the cover. Aside from the terrible font used for the album’s title, the artwork really is rather fabulous:
I wrote about Lady GaGa a few weeks ago. The megastar in the making is currently promoting her forthcoming album in the US, and examples of her stuff keep popping up all over the web. Today I bring you my favourite Lady GaGa track to date, a song which makes me feel gayer than an explosion at a glitter factory, “Boys Boys Boys”.
GaGa has been compared to early Madonna, and with this amazing electro pop track I can see the resemblance. As she says herself in the song, “Gamaphonic, electronic, disco baby“. That is the best way I can describe this. Just listen to it and fall in love:
All we want is HOT HOT BOYS! Oh god, I’m gonna be singing this alot. As a sidenote, feel free to buy me drinks in bars. :)
You may well have heard of 22 year old Lady Gaga, the very well styled ‘rebel’ who is currently making an assault on the dancefloors. Alot of early reviewers are comparing her slightly off-beat style and brash attitude to 80’s Madonna, but her own bio references, more correctly I think, Cyndi Lauper.
Apparently Miss GaGa has worked her way up from the streets via the New York club scene. Boys and girls and drugs included. However, since this came from her ‘official’ biography I would put this down to more record label intern imagination than actual fact. That said, her music does seem to be on the amazing side of mass-produced electro, down the Sam Sparro route of cool pop. She seems to have grasped that mixing music, fashion, and performance in a completely unbelievable and OTT way equals fabulousness. She reels off words like “70’s trash” and “glamour”, and creates soundbites like “And, now, I’m just trying to change the world one sequin at a time”, which is enough to have me sold.
Debut single “Just Dance” is a thumping electro rave-up, whilst the video shows a bunch of very well styled kids falling all over the place at some house party - although it doesn’t look half as exciting as you’d imagine. You can check it out below.
Whether she can throw a good party or not, I think GaGa’s album, “The Fame” will be huge this summer. And here’s a little video of her talking about it all.
Pop culture can be so dull and drab, but it can also be like an orgasm in an ice cream shop. Daneeeboy is about celebrating the stuff that makes your clit tingle, and not the other stuff. Simon Cowell is not welcome here. If you are Simon Cowell, please fuck off.
I like stuff that is independent. Stuff that speaks for itself. Stuff that makes me want to dance. Stuff that makes me want to cry. Stuff that's cheap and tacky. The glamorous, the dirty, the over the top and the insane.
Contact
Hints, criticisms, tips, and any kind of feedback is welcome to dan@daneeeboy.com.
