MUSIC
Flop to the Top: Gaga’s Grand Plan and Why We're a Part of It, Whether We Like It or Not
Gaga. If you listen closely, you will hear one of two things when you utter the global pop phenomenon’s name: either a chorus of “YASSS,” or a millennial gay boy’s cri du coeur whose allegiance lies with Katy Perry. This is the typical reaction in response to Our Lady of Ostentatious Red Carpet Arrivals. And that’s just how she likes it.
September 1, 2014
USE ARROWS TO MOVE THROUGH IMAGES
By Greg Mania
Lady Gaga’s global pop impetus has transcended past the Top 40 landscape and into other vistas—mainly the art world—subsequent to her latest studio effort, ARTPOP. But this is merely the surface. Since bursting onto the mainstream scene in 2008, Stefani Germanotta’s insatiable appetite for eyebrow raising began long before meat dresses and other over-the-top regalia. After ditching her Upper West Side upbringing for the streets below 14th doused in neon lighting, Germanotta’s raison d’être was already established long before she was coroneted as Mother Monster.
Prior to amassing her message and gospel into a powerful apex called “Born This Way,” Gaga already planted the seeds of her pop cultural coup with her debut single “Just Dance.” The infectious, sonically succulent 2008 single opened the doors to shift the paradigm of pop music as we know it. With that came the incomparable “Poker Face,” the electronically sultry “LoveGame,” and finally, “Paparazzi”—yielding four number one singles off her debut album, The Fame. But it did something more than that: it opened the gates for Gaga to incorporate her affinity for performance art, as demonstrated with her 2009 blood-drenched VMA performance of “Paparazzi.” It was that performance that heralded her true public birth, and only a modest foreshadow in regards to what’s to come.
Following a formula that catered to her brand of pop music delivered her a slew of number one singles and unequivocal ubiquity in pop culture, ergo giving her the platform necessary to put her grand plan into place. Attaining media scrutiny by virtue of her outlandish attire and ear worming dance music was necessary to make the release of her sophomore effort The Fame Monster successful. With the eight track EP came imagery antithetical to her contemporaries; no longer donning her beloved platinum hair bow and signature sunglasses but a dark, almost unrecognizable Lady Gaga introduced herself to the world. This new era was ushered in by lead single, “Bad Romance,” chaperoned by a video that broke the world record for most YouTube views in 2010. With an industry propelled by frivolous club-friendly singles and image-driven record sales, Gaga had sequestered herself into territory unfamiliar to a coterie of pop stars who refuse to shy away from lackluster, archetypal dance anthems.
“That’s the thing that poisoned me—“we just want you to look beautiful”—over and over and over in my head, until I just wanted to look ugly all the time,” admitted Gaga at this year’s SXSW Keynote Address. Altering her appearance with an array of wigs, outfits, and make-up fueled the world’s curiosity about the woman arriving to the 2011 Grammy’s in an egg-like vessel. Numerically, her 2011 studio release Born This Way’s sales appear less-than-impressive; however, its release garnered a loyal following affectionately dubbed by the songstress as “little monsters,” and social media clout culminating with over 42 million Twitter followers and counting. As singles like “Judas” and the most recent “G.U.Y” sonically deviated more and more from her classics, reduced airplay and decreasing record sales invited critics to hone in on ARTPOP’s chance of success and the general trajectory of her career. And thus was born the derogatory nickname, “Artflop.” It seems as though two million sales worldwide qualifies a record as a “flop,” however the latest album by the flamboyant performer is anything but.
“I don’t want to be an icon in just one form. I want to be an icon in many forms. So that’s where [Artpop] began,” Gaga tells Marina Abramović in her interview for V Magazine, “I thought about the cultural implication of the words; what the words mean.” Negative reviews and speculations regarding her career’s imminent doom flooded the Internet and social media. It seems as though no one is paying attention anymore to the self-proclaimed exhibitionist, yet no one can take their eyes off of her. The truth is, she’s been pulling the strings all along. One tweet earns her a spot as a trending topic. One head-turning ensemble she’s photographed in leaving her apartment is splashed all over the Yahoo! front page. The only buzz she needs to generate to release another album is to release another album.
Despite her recent absence on radio and TV, the Patron Saint of Teens in Teal Hair has already embarked on her fourth sold out world tour in support of ARTPOP, making her stop in Denver on August 6th. Her Born This Way Foundation concurrently grows exponentially as a sanctuary for social anomalies, outliers of society, and anyone who seeks counseling. Her anti-bullying crusade and fervid devotion to the LGBT community has taken the cultural zeitgeist by storm, empowering youths all over the world to take a stand and fight for themselves. No longer is it about record sales or being number one. Lady Gaga is merely executing the mission she’s had all along: to influence cultural shift and promote social change. Artistically, her amalgamation of art and pop in the mainstream spectrum will fan the flames of admiration and hatred. Because for someone to be deemed a flop, that implies people noticing. May she forever flop—because we’ll all still be watching when she does.
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