On Lady Gaga, Extreme Metal and Shock Pop

I didn't think I would ever have anything to contribute to the ongoing mass-media dialogue surrounding the collective fascination with Lady Gaga, but here I am.  I can't say that I find her fascinating, as so many in the business of shaping opinions about music and fashion seem to do.  I, like many people who pay any attention to popular music, first became aware of her after hearing her single "Poker Face," but I first became genuinely interested in her as a subject after hearing this:

Lady Gaga/Meshuggah - Paparazzi/Bleed "Mash-up"

Discover Simple, Private Sharing at Drop.io

Now, HERE was something I could get into. While I can't say I'm a fan of Lady Gaga's OR Meshuggah's music overall, the combination of these two seemingly incompatible musical forces struck a chord with me somewhere. Here was something that was both brutal and catchy, flavors which I have come to value to varying degrees, but rarely get to savor in the same mouthful. And while neither artist had anything to do with the creation of this mash-up aside from having created the source material, it made me wonder what it was about Gaga that would lead a metal fan to create something like this using a popular artist. (It had to be a metal fan because, let's face it, what person who primarily consumes radio-friendly Pop music is even going to know who Meshuggah is?)

This led me to do some reading about Lady Gaga. I learned that she briefly attended NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, gaining entry at the age of 17 to study music. Impressive. Not what I would have expected given the brand of music she creates. I read about how she draws much of her musical influence from glam-rockers like David Bowie and Queen ("Radio Ga Ga" was the inspiration for her stage moniker). I was not surprised to learn that, artistically speaking, she was hugely influenced by the likes of Andy Warhol. I saw in interviews that she is intent on creating a pop-culture empire the likes of which Madonna could only dream. She doesn't take herself too seriously and knows that her music bears virtually no artistic relevance whatsoever.

That's all fine and good, but what's the big deal? My friend Grace over at the High Fashion Girl blog wrote about Gaga as a post-postmodern provocateur (altermodern is the word actually, but this a music blog, not an art & philosophy blog and music fans are intimately familiar with the word "post"). To quote her at length:

The only thing Lady Gaga is selling is herself (and, herself as revolution). She knows exactly what she is and she impeccably performs her duty. Because of this, she is an Altermodern Messiah. I don’t think she ever set out to be an Altermodern Messiah, nor does my heaping intellectual praise have any affect on what she says or does. However, there is intent behind Lady Gaga’s actions.  She is a post-capitalist revolutionary who is brilliantly exploiting the failings of the system and who brilliantly manipulates the media. This self-awareness and self-referential brand of marketing is changing the way we think.

Her article is a great read.  While the above paragraph isn't exactly her thesis, it mirrors a lot of what is being written about Gaga in all sorts of publications, both digital and analog.  Although I find it fascinating that a pop star is garnering all of these accolades from people who ordinarily wouldn't have anything to do with her kind, I can't bring myself to get on board with it.  Maybe I'm too cynical, maybe I'm too contrarian or maybe I just don't "get it," but it seems as though Gaga's attitude is something only new to western pop culture, but not new to pop culture on a global scale.


In Japan, there are musical performers referred to literally as "idol singers."  They began to emerge from the burgeoning J-Pop scene in recent decades and are similar in many respects to the American pop idols of the 60s and 70s.  They are literally products to be sold in as many forms as people are willing to consume.  J-Pop idols and their music aren't generally considered to be "artistically" important, even by the artists themselves, but they make a crap-ton of money.  By contrast in the US, both performers and fans have a tendency to view popular musical products as serious art.  There's a light gloss of pretense over American popular music that isn't really warranted or appropriate.


How does this relate to Lady Gaga?  Well, to quote Gaga herself "... I make soulless electronic pop music."  She is aware that she is a product and she lets her audience know that she is aware of this fact as well.  Now, again this isn't that revolutionary, but it is a breath of fresh air to someone like myself who's seen all of the corporate music garbage being pumped out by the major record labels for what it is for years.  I can only hope that the public at large will begin to view the landscape of pop music the way Gaga views her own music: "Soulless electronic pop."  Now, this is actually fairly endearing on a personal level, but again, I'm not buying into the hype just yet.  An admitted corporate shill is still a shill.  Sorry.


There's been much ado about how "strange" she is when it comes to her fashion sense and her music videos.  Her style is confrontational and it's not easy to swallow.  If I were to compare her visual style to something musical, I'd liken it to something like the piece "Alice" by Sunn O))) on their most recent album "Monoliths & Dimensions."  Within the same piece of music, one can hear very "ugly" down-tuned, distorted guitars droning on dissonant chords while moments later, a sublime, melodic free jazz trombone (played by the legendary Julian Priester for those of you who are familiar) soaring over a swirling tapestry of harp, strings and horns.


Sunn O))) - "Alice"

Discover Simple, Private Sharing at Drop.io

The general public aren't used to seeing these sorts of stark contrasts of images in their popular music performers and having this sort of juxtaposition thrust upon oneself without sufficient preparation can be striking, arresting and devastating.  It turns the recent trends in popular music on their heads.


And that is EXACTLY what needed to happen for her brand of pop music to remain viable as a means of achieving superstardom.  I'm not naive enough to think that she represents the last dying gasp of the pop star as we know it.  These things do come in cycles after all.  All of her extravagance is simply a means of survival which, by design or accident, serves to prop up and possibly save a business model which is in serious danger of collapsing altogether.  She's not really that different at the core.  Her attitude is different.  Her style is different.  Her ends are the same.  It's still style over substance.  Controversy sells.  It's worked for everyone from Elvis Presley to Alice Cooper.  From Madonna to Marilyn Manson.  It's just that simple.


Yet still, after all of this, I can't figure out why a metal head would gravitate toward her... but I did manage to get you to listen to Sunn O))) by talking about Lady Gaga, so I think that's an accomplishment.