Addressing Lady Gaga: Born This Way

I think it’s about time to address the Lady Gaga in the room. (Is a moderate hipster with a passion for the fiddle and sweet jazz riffs allowed to admit love for Lady Gaga?)

I’ve been a long time fan of the Gaga, having stumbled upon her years ago when she was peddling her first album, Fame (before actually garnering much of it). Before all the freaks and ‘mosters,’ she was just a pop singer with a killer voice who didn’t like to wear pants (and really, who does?). I immediately fell in love with her album about getting drunk, having sex and maybe there would even be paparazzi watching and chasing. Or was I watching and chasing the paparazzi? I never could exactly tell. She threw around seemingly obvious fun pop words like “glamorous” “glitter” “disco stick” and yet I was never entirely sure what her songs were about. Did it have meaning, was it frivolous fun, was it brilliant? Maybe her album was one giant poker face and that was the big joke on me. But it was dance pop music that I loved to love and I didn’t care if I didn’t get it or if she didn’t wear pants. Sometimes a hipster, fiddle loving girl’s just gotta dance to awesome pop and know it’s gonna be ok, right?

Then things started to getting a little weirder than lack of pants and fun pop beats. Suddenly it was parkas made out of Kermit the Frogs or raw meat, weird interviews, religious imagery, egg arrivals, and a whole culture of “mosters” was born. As a moderate hipster I could appreciate her going against the norm. Hell, I love that she is a total freak artist!

But she has lost me a little bit with her newest album, Born This Way. She’s become a moster priestess with a message a lot deeper than “just dance.” No more poker face, there’s no mistaking her message this time and that loses some of the mystique for me. It’s also just a whole lot crazier. I applaud her for being a voice to so many that feel like they don’t have one. I spent many of my formative adolescent years on the unfortunate side of bullying and feeling like I would never overcome all of my awkwardness. My teenage self would have loved this album and I can see why it is embraced by so many. My self-confident adult self doesn’t quite connect with all of it.

Musically, this album is ok. The beats are well constructed, there are more instrumentals (including a pretty sweet saxophone) and You and I is a pretty killer piano power ballad. A lot of the songs all seem to be in a slightly higher register, lacking the deep beat that was the consistent syncopated heartbeat of Fame. I miss that low anchor.

I still love Gaga for being the wonderful freak that she is and for making instant dance party music. I will see her live any day because girl seems like she kills it in concert. Still, I can’t help but miss when she was singing about fashion, fame, and was humping a blow up orka whale in her video. But that’s just me.