There are currently two words that can send waves of thrill and titillation in the hearts and minds of music industry suits and pop music fans alike: Lady Gaga. For music execs, Lady Gaga is a shining light in an otherwise gloomy, shrinking industry. For fans, she's a pop messiah, born to entertain, excite and inspire them.
The 24-year-old pop star from New York is in the middle of her second worldwide tour and reaping the bountiful rewards of her debut album, The Fame, which was released exactly two years ago. As of this week, the album sits at #13 on the Billboard 200 albums chart after having spent an unbelievable 94 weeks on the chart. To date, Lady Gaga has sold over 13 million albums and over 51 million singles from The Fame and its EP spin-off The Fame Monster worldwide. And with Gaga talking of a new album early next year, don't expect her or her little monsters to be disappearing anytime soon.
Given all of the success, all of the acclaim and all of the attention, some might forget that Gaga's victory over pop music didn't happen overnight. As they say, it's been a long time coming.
Bustiers, fishnet stockings and New York nightclubs
Before there were disco sticks to be ridden, lightning bolts to be painted or pantsless body-hugging outfits to be worn, there was an honest passion for music that burned inside of a young girl named Stefani Germanotta. She grew up a largely privileged Catholic school girl in Manhattan, calling wealthy socialites-in-the-making like Paris Hilton classmate. But her cushy Manhattanite lifestyle didn't prevent Gaga from developing a healthy blue collar work ethic.
Writer Lisa Robinson interviewed Gaga for a recent article in Vanity Fair and she delved headfirst into the perception of Gaga as an "overnight" success.
Robinson said, "In the piece, [Gaga] said, 'I've been really struggling for a long time.' And I said, 'Struggling for a long time? You've been in clubs for a couple of years with people booing.' And she said, 'No, I've been doing this since 14 or 15.' She used to call clubs up and pretend she was the manager. So nothing happens overnight."
Before she became Lady Gaga, then-brunette Stefani Germanotta played rousing piano ballads not unlike her acoustic material and her Fame Monster song "Speechless." It wasn't until she hooked up with Lady Starlight, a free spirit performing in New York clubs, that traces of the Lady Gaga we know today began to form. Performing in bustiers, fishnet stockings and other trashy, tight, revealing garments, the foundation for Gaga's persona and style was laid here, as much of the material the two performed eventually found its way to her debut album with Interscope.
Gaga's record deal with Interscope wasn't her first time on the major label rodeo. She suffered a false start with Def Jam, where she was signed and then unceremoniously dropped 3 months later. And while The Fame is now comfortably on cruise control, certified 3X platinum in the States, its debut sales were a mere 24,000 copies the first week. Her lead single, "Just Dance," which she released in April of 2008 didn't even top the charts until January the following year. Through persistence, dedication and determination, Gaga has been able to snowball herself into the hall of fame of pop music. Constantly rebuilding, reshaping and recycling what didn't work into something that could.
Discos and poker games will never be the same again
Since Gaga got her lucky strike, she hasn't let the ball stop rolling. After "Just Dance" took off in January of 2009, Gaga quickly followed it up with the spacey "Poker Face," which saw even more success. After that came "LoveGame," then "Paparazzi." The world just kept coming back for more and more servings of Gaga's hits. Along the way, Gaga did something that her predecessors usually only did between albums: She evolved.
Perhaps it's just a by-product of the hyper-paced society that we live in today, but Gaga seemingly changed her image and style single after single. She started out a Hollywood party-kid on "Just Dance," then she became a Martian queen for "Pokerface," a Michael Jackson/Britney Spears-esque leather-loving, subway-dancing pop star for "LoveGame" and a larger-than-life celebrity contemplating the morbid intersections of celebrity and death on "Paparazzi." Most pop stars would take years to blow through these transformations, but Gaga did it all in the blink of an eye.
All the world is a stage, performance art that bleeds
While Gaga's rack of hits and album sales from The Fame have been impressive, where she has really made an indelible mark is as a live performer. Pop music thrives on performers who can electrify, inspire and captivate while onstage. Michael Jackson, Madonna and Prince were masters of the stage in their prime, and it's because of this inimitable stage prowess that Madonna and Prince can still make a killing touring today, even if their songs don't make a big splash on radio or iTunes. And so far, Lady Gaga seems poised to join their ranks.
Her two international tours, "The Fame Ball" and "The Monster Ball," have been sold out successes, but where Gaga really hits homeruns is in her televised performances. Gaga keenly understands the power of a "Did you see that?" performance on TV. Britney Spears experienced this in 2000 when she pulled a surprise strip routine to an electric guitar-tinged remix of "Oops! I Did It Again." Gaga pulled off a similar feat at the 2009 VMAs when she stunned the audience by bleeding onstage and hanging herself in a messiah death commentary on celebrity for "Paparazzi." Even when she performs ballads at the piano, Gaga hammers away theatrically at the keys, plays while standing on her tippy toes or has fire shooting out of the instrument as though it were a fire-breathing dragon. It's like Gaga is waging her own personal war against all that is dull and ordinary whenever she performs on TV. And so far, she's winning.
Don't think for a minute that any of this is uncalculated by Gaga and her team. When asked by Newsweek if she thought her performance at the VMAs would be memorable Lady Gaga said, "I know it will. I sort of have this philosophy about things: there's never a reason to do something unless it's going to be memorable, unless it's going to change things, unless it's going to inspire a movement. With the song and with the performance, I hope to say something very grave about fame and the price of it."
Keep the ball rolling, turn it up a notch
After the wild success of her VMAs performance, "Paparazzi" shot up to the top of the charts becoming Gaga's 4th consecutive top ten hit. At this point, the label was interested in a re-release to squeeze more juice out of the growing momentum The Fame had behind it. But being the prolific artist that she is, Gaga came up with 8 songs rather than the usual 2-4 songs that is customary for an album re-release. So she decided to make The Fame Monster album 1.5, if you will. It was repackaged with the original The Fame album in a deluxe form and also distributed as a standalone EP.
The first single from The Fame Monster, "Bad Romance," was an instant smash of monstrous proportions. Not only did it dominate radio effortlessly, but it's four-minute, action-packed, high-gloss music video broke records on YouTube for viewership and remains one of the most viewed videos on the mega popular video site today. With "Bad Romance," people began to herald Lady Gaga as the savior of music videos. She has remarkably infused music videos with an excitement that hasn't been seen in the medium in years, making their premieres must-see events, even if you end up disliking the final product.
She followed up "Bad Romance" with an even more epic video for her collaboration with Beyonce on "Telephone," crafting a Thelma & Louise meets Quentin Tarantino, 8-minute pop extravaganza. These two videos alone have garnered Lady Gaga 13 nominations at this year's VMAs, cementing her role as pop music's premier music video innovator.
Like everything else having to do with Lady Gaga, what she enjoys most about the music video is keeping people on their toes. "There's certainly always a hidden message in my music videos," Gaga told E! News. "But I would say most predominately, I'm always trying to convolute everyone's idea of what a pop music video should be."
Building the little monster army one by one
The most important thing an artist can do for the longevity of his or her career is build a strong, loyal fan base. Hit songs are meaningless if no one feels a lasting attachment to the artist. Dedicated fans offer unwavering support, free advertising and valuable testimonials to people who may not start out as fans, but become converted thanks to the infectious enthusiasm of supporters. As she has repeated time and time again, Lady Gaga is committed to nothing above her fans. She's branded them her "little monsters," in honor of The Fame Monster, and her little monsters pour return the love to their "mother monster" in droves. But the reasons for loving Lady Gaga span across the personal and impersonal.
For Sam B, the owner and administrator of the largest Lady Gaga image gallery on the web at the-fame.org, Gaga is a form of escapism from the mundane or wearing challenges of everyday life. "She makes fun, pop and dance music, and while her songs are definitely relatable, what I love most about her music is that it's easily an escape from "life" and isn't anything serious," said Sam.
More casual fans appreciate Lady Gaga for her charming storytelling and theatricality. "My favorite song on 'The Fame' is Paparazzi, because it's kinda like a very adorable stalker theme song. It kinda seems like a crazy girl's obsession with someone and how she thinks her psycho ways are really sweet. Oh, and the song makes me jiggle. I like that," said blogger Kid Fury of SoFurious.com.
Casual observers might be tempted to label Gaga as nothing more than a gimmick, entirely reliant on costumes and outlandish get-ups for success. Her fans will argue that even when stripped of her costumes, Gaga is capable of sitting down at a piano and belting with the best of them.
Sam, however, doesn't see the two as being mutually exclusive things at all. To him, Gaga is successful because she marries her talent with an exciting, ever-changing presentation. "It would be kind of foolish to say that good music alone gets the recognition it deserves, because there are many artists that have talent but not 'the look.' Gaga is genius in the fact that she uses her image and her fashion to draw the attention that her brilliant songs need to get the recognition they deserve," said Sam.
And fans aren't the only ones who've been taking notice of Lady Gaga's genius either. Christina Aguilera, in particular, has been pelted with figurative stones for "stealing" from the singer ever since she geared up to release her latest album, Bionic. The cries of copycat were so deafening that Christina was forced to respond to it on her official site, but it was too late. For many, the Gaga vs. Christina war was in full swing, and the public walked away staunchly Team Gaga.
Kid Fury thinks trying to do what Gaga does is a fatal bear trap for any pop star. "I think other artists see the praise that Lady Gaga is getting from her style and maybe wish they had thought of it first. Gaga is so weird and constantly pushing the envelope, but not many artists are as bold as she is with their images. Now that they see the fans' reactions, everybody wants to be avant-garde and wear panties on their face. I say stick to whatever is true to you. Everybody can't be a 'monster,'" said Fury.
