Below is my article, which is basically a study of Lady Gaga and trying to get to the core of why we've taken her into our hearts more so than any other artist out there. The conclusion is drawn from Gaga's own themes of love and fame, and how the two are not mutually exclusive.
I'll keep passing the story around, so if Stylist isn't interested (and they may not be; they ran an article on Gaga only last week), I'll find out if someone out there is.
Fame and love: Why do we love Lady Gaga so much?
The world has gone Gaga.
Everywhere you look, everywhere you listen, you encounter a sight and sound now so familiar they could have been there forever. This time two or three years ago, if somebody had spoken to you the phrase “cigarette glasses” or “meat dress”, most likely you would have done a double take. But now, chances are there are two words that will enter your head: Lady Gaga.
The 24-year-old artist formerly known as Stefani Germanotta has, in less than three short years, transformed pop music as we know it. And not just in the style of the music itself – her whole persona, her whole energy, is redefining music and fashion for a whole new generation. Each of her singles have rocketed to number one, and her latest release, “Born This Way”, reached number one on iTunes mere hours after Gaga shared it with the world on Friday.
So how, in such a short space of time, has the world embraced this unusual creature and looked to her as the oracle of pop culture?
Her catchy songs, including hits “Bad Romance” and “Poker Face”, may very well have held their own in the music market, but there’s no doubt that without Lady Gaga’s predictably unpredictable behaviour – such as pouring blood down herself and hanging “dead”, suspended 100 feet in the air at the 2009 VMAs – and her infamously spectacular wardrobe – including the aforementioned raw meat dress and glasses fashioned out of (lit) cigarettes – she would not be nearly as identifiable as she is today.
Her personality is injected into her accompanying music videos, which she transforms into works of art, encompassing the retro, the Space Age, the noir and the contemporary, with costumes created by her design team, Haus of Gaga. These videos were the first of any artist to collectively reach 1 billion views on YouTube.
In some ways, it’s rather like an alien has landed to Earth in out midst and we simply can’t ogle her enough; she lives among us, but she isn’t one of us. Her bizarre ensembles aren’t simply stage props – this woman goes to the grocery store in Alexander McQueen leather leotards and seven-inch heels.
To put it simply – Lady Gaga is a star: she gives us everything we demand from an entertainer, and then some. She sings. She dances. She writes. She plays. She dresses up. She puts on a captivating show. She lives her life every day as though she is always on the stage, because there is always a rapt audience.
And yet, for all this mind-blowing fame and other-worldliness, few stars can claim to have as much rapport with their fans as Gaga does. She is very honest about having strived for fame: whilst other musicians may put on a modest face and claim they don’t care about being rich and famous, they just want to share their music, Gaga has openly and unabashedly admitted that fame was her destination, and that there is nothing wrong with that. She has even spun a kind of philosophy out of it, her two existing albums being named The Fame and The Fame Monster, with the recurring theme of fame versus love. However, Gaga herself has transcended both.
Gaga knows that her fans – or her “Little Monsters” – are the pillars her fame is built on. She loves us. She thanks us constantly, and tearfully, for raising her to the top. She was the first person to reach 6 million fans on Twitter, and is now nearing 8 million. She has a large tattoo on her forearm dedicated to the fans: “little monsters forever, on the arm that holds my mic”, she tweeted on 2 February 2010.
Perhaps that is the master key to her fame and adoration: we know as we watch her performances, that this isn’t one-sided. She is not up there at a distance, but embracing us into the fame with her. When we listen to her music, we are soaking up a little bit of that fame and glamour. She loves us all, she is a freak and each and every one of us is a freak in one way or another. If one freak can rise to the top, we all can.
Millions upon millions of people around the world are Little Monsters. And we feel united in that, and loved.
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