So the video for Born This Way finally came out. And I have to say that I am extremely disappointed. From an artistic standpoint, it's just a mishmash of random sexual imagery that just doesn't go together. I don't understand the whole skeletons in tuxedos thing and I feel like the whole thing is kind of boring. Aside from the intro, the minimalistic type dance scenes, which take up a majority of the video just give The Ga an excuse to touch herself and have other people touch her. The art direction, costumes, and concept seem like they were all done in separate rooms and put together at the last second. The Ga has armies of workers at her expense who could create something incredible for a video and this was just a bunch of cheesy 80's graphics mixed in with crazy space stuff and not enough something extra.
I did love the Madonna reference with the gap in her front teeth round about 6:54. Overall, I love this song but I just feel let down by the potential that The Ga has to make something artistically creative.
I've heard people argue that The Ga is the most popent distillation of the IDEA of pop music. That she represents the full potentiality of pop music's ability to deconstruct cultural symbols and commitments. Pop music also has a pretty brief half-life as proven by the fact that this was a popular song at one time:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xweiQukBM_k&feature=player_embedded .
ReplyDeletePerhaps Gaga's meteoric rise is a sign of the fact that she is burning through her pop fame faster than previous super stars. Regardless of how one feels about her ability to make a statement artistically, perhaps something as potently distilled as Gaga can only maintain its structure for so long.
P.S. The soundtrack to Vertigo may be the most primal and haunting piece of music I've ever experienced....Night on Bald Mountain by Mussorgsky and Flight of The Valkyries by Wagner can't touch it.
ReplyDeleteYou know, the Lady is at her demise, I believe. The fascinating thing about her is that she has, after the last year of doing the outrageous and unexpected, made herself into an expectation of the unexpected. She can't outdo herself.
ReplyDeleteThe only way Lady Gaga can top herself now is to fake her own death successfully and re-emerge in 15 years.
As for the song, it's terrible. I feel that when you've made a career out of backhanding pop-culture, and then all of the sudden you put out a proposed hit about self-empowerment, you're done.
I truly believe that the era of Ga is over.
Both of y'all make a really good point. I just realized the other day that Alejandro happened. I totally forgot about that song! And it happened between Bad Romance and Born This Way. But no one payed nearly as much attention to it as her other singles.
ReplyDeleteAnna, I agree with you that the only way she can resurrect her career is to literally resurrect herself.