Re-thinking GaGa

I think I am going to have to be a little less dismissive of Lady GaGa.

hen she first appeared, she seemed so studied and artificial as a creation that I couldn't get a sense of any life or juice from her as an artist. She seemed to be a bit too desperately quirky, which aside from the 'bored hispter' attitude, is about my least favourite pop culture trope. I didn't actually like most of her music (I still don't as a matter of fact) and couldn't imagine that she would become the dominating force that she has become.

But slowly, in the last two months I have started to re-think my original position. It started with Paparazzi, a song I actually liked and thought had some pretty interesting lyrical ideas. It continued on to Bad Romance, and in particular the fantastic video which I thought was the first time that I could see her bringing elements of her style together in a visually interesting way. And now she has launched her new tour which the Guardian has convinced me would be something of a must see.

We constantly harp on about how homogenous pop music is, how reality TV and conglomerates spit out identikit acts at a frightening pace. I think I was too quick to judge Lady GaGa - it was an act of intellectual laziness to merely assume she was bullshit. I don't quite know if GaGa can really become the Madonna for the next generation. We don't have any other contenders. But she does seem to be aiming for some kind of pop art symbiosis of the visual and aural which Madonna achieved at her height in the late eighties/early nineties which is actually quite daring in today's market. Working within the circumscribed parameters of a mass-market pop star she is attempting to be different. I hope she continues to have that opportunity, because ultimately, pop music is more interesting with her in it.

And on the note of interesting pop music, here is a link I found on a blogger called Stalepopcornau. Its a live performance at an Aussie music awards show of three female singers who I had not heard of. I think the three sound sensational - each having their own different groove but utterly beguiling in their own right.