The Thing About the Gaga

Ok, so I've heard it a lot. My friend Jamie summed it up when I saw her last...she told me, "I wasn't sure if all your Facebooking and tweeting about Lady Gaga was true fandom or if you were being snarky and sarcastic...but I think you're really a fan." Yeah, it's true. The diehard folkie likes the Gaga. I've always had an ear for some pop goodness, but I usually successfully ignore and/or ridicule most of who and what is put out there into the mainstream and set up to be labeled as having "viable artistic credibility." I get it. It's manufactured. There is the road to performing which takes you to 4-hour gigs in front of the grocery store check out line (done), being the wandering minstrel in 100 degree heat for an outdoor market (done), playing in dive bars from Socorro, NM to Winston-Salem, NC (done). That is a path that one can argue with some hubris and annoying attitude that is hard earned and respectable. Then there are a lot of people these days that look good and sing okay, and either through the virtues of American Idol or their mom being on Wife Swap (you know who you are), they can get noticed enough to where the big label machine sucks them in and starts making them a pop star. Most of us can see through it, and I think that it's fine. I've been known to rock out to a Ke$ha tune, but I've also seen her SNL performance where she is clearly questioning every decision her label handlers made from the the astronaut dancers to the U.S. flag cape. Weird. Anyway, I find Gaga to be the opposite of all of this. Some stealth Youtubing (and I won't do it for you) will reveal pre-Gaga playing in NYC clubs back in the day (which probably means 4 years ago because she's only 23). There's some recital footage of her rocking out on a grand piano, too. So she has the musical goods. The fact that my friends and I have horrifically long conversations about what sucks us in to the Lady Gaga phenomenon means she is doing something right. I'm kind of up on pop culture but I don't watch TV. I have to seek things out to see them, and what made me seek out Lady Gaga at first was just that she dressed weirdly. It was the double whammy of a coffee filter type dress followed by a glittered crustacean tiara that got me hooked. This was crazy. And I read a little more, and Gaga is about building her community of fans. Not just building up fans to adore HER, but to build a community that people can be a part of and interact with. Not everyone's hanging out with Lady Gaga, but I would bet my lobster tiara that friendships and relationships and networking contacts have been born among her "little monsters" as she calls them that might not have existed otherwise. She promotes that community, and it makes sense. Is THAT part manufactured too? Doesn't matter because it filters down to something that actually works, as opposed to something that makes people go, "huh?" and not do anything. Lastly, it's more about the whole performance art thing than just the music. I don't think we're used to a pop artist that lives and breathes her persona 24/7. I think these type of rock stars used to exist, but I've seen way too many tabloid photos of Britney dressed in sweat pants in line at the gas station to have any illusions about "real" pop stars. The Gaga, though? I don't really know what she looks like these days. I don't really care. I want to know what she will be wearing next, and what will happen on her next TV show. She makes me think about the role of a performer and an artist. And when it's all backed up by good pop that sounds awesome cranked up in the car? That makes me a fan.