

The economics of Lady Gaga - anigbrowl
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704094304575029621644867154.html?mod=rss_Todays_Most_Popular

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Towle_
Lady Gaga is such a uniquely positioned figure in music, and you have to give
her all the credit for that. What she has been able to do with her image would
be a remarkable accomplishment for a career of effort; to do the same in such
a short span of time with really just one album (counting _The Fame Monster_
as part of _The Fame_ ) is goddamn ridiculous. Hell, just look at her Google
trending: <http://www.google.com/trends?q=lady+gaga>

She just really is that different from anyone we've seen before, so much so
that she's remarkably undefinable-- an extremely difficult quality to obtain,
convince, and especially to exude, yet she made it look more than effortless.
She made it look _natural_.

To attempt to sort through her persona, list and categorize everything about
her, and draw a concrete explanation for how exactly she did it
seems...strangely pointless. You just get the feeling your chosen descriptors
would always be slightly off the mark, that the right words would always be on
the tip of your tongue but never appear, that you'd always be missing
something about her.

So I'll just end like this: Maybe you're not the hugest fan of Gaga or her
genre, maybe you think her lyrics are too severely lacking in depth to take
her music seriously, maybe you don't find her to be all that noteworthy, maybe
you even think she's just a passing fad and don't understand what all the hype
is about. I couldn't completely dismiss any one of those sentiments. But let
me ask you this: the last time you heard one of her songs the whole way
through...was your foot tapping? _That's what all the hype is about._ That's
why she can go anywhere she wants with this.

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ojbyrne
Frankly, the answer to the question you pose is "no." But I'm fascinated with
the "Bad Romance" video. Can't stop watching it.

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pronoiac
It's really amusingly clunky.

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faragon
In my opinion She sings very well (live, avoiding lypsyncing), plays the
piano, is original, provocative, good looking, a bit freak, genius, looking
mad/insane sometimes... I love Lady Gaga!

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axod
Maybe it's only in the UK, but here she's constantly joked about as being a
man by comedians/comedy TV shows etc. Cruel, but quite funny really :/

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JacobAldridge
Not just in the UK, though it has been refuted fairly convincingly -
<http://www.snopes.com/music/artists/ladygaga.asp>

One of my favourite radio quotes of all time was from Lady Gaga when asked
about "the tiny penis issue". She said "I'm not offended. My vagina is
offended."

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brc
The article mentions the Madonna similarities. When I first saw Lady Gaga
doing talk show interviews, media appearances, I thought; this woman knows
Madonna is a spent force and is stepping into her shoes. Madonna has proven
conclusively that there is a market for a global controversial female solo
artist, provided the talent is there. So she's taken Madonnas trademarks
(controversy, stunts, outfit changes, catchy tunes, simple stage name) and
turned the volume up for a new generation. And the success has followed. Good
luck to her.

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koanarc
Less than a month ago, I had never even heard of Lady Gaga before. Ever.

Then I read a nearly obsessive review of her on a social networking site. Then
I noticed her showing up on last.fm profiles and other music websites. Then I
started seeing her name in every other blog I came across. Then I saw her all
over the front pages of mainstream news sites.

Now I'm reading about her on a TECHNOLOGY/STARTUP news aggregator, of all
places.

I still haven't taken the time to listen to her music, but I'm already
impressed. I'm sure I just wasn't paying attention, but Lady Gaga went from
occupying absolutely zero braincycles in December to becoming a name that I
have heard literally every other day from every other outlet for the past four
weeks. I've been crossing more hype about her than for the iPad.

Like TFA, I couldn't hazard to say whether or not she's just "another fleeting
pop novelty," but she's obviously doing something right.

~~~
electromagnetic
I was personally surprised how much of her music I'd heard simply passively
listening to the radio; short car rides, coffee shops, stores, etc. I'm not
exactly her target demographic, I generally hold a strong dislike for
pop/dance music. However, she's a talented singer (doesn't lipsync), a great
writer and she's a talented pianist, so I have to give her credit for that (or
rather, she doesn't lose any credit for being talented, unlike the thousands
of other craptastic musicians making millions). I'd even go as far as
recommending her music.

She's certainly a prodigy, but the question is whether she'll burn out or not.

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rms
[http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/alf6y/i_am_a_music_vid...](http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/alf6y/i_am_a_music_video_director_and_producer_who/)

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patrickgzill
I offer this link in jest: <http://vigilantcitizen.com/?p=1676>

Edited to add: "fnord" .

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chipsy
I didn't know or care about Lady Gaga until I heard this mashup:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEx-JW49mNg>

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revoltingx
Heh, I find it funny how the media jumped into lady gaga and her 'european
electro vibe' within the last year. Any music enthusiast should have known
about her long before that.

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malkia
There is a rumour that she was in a car accident, and did not survived.

