Beautiful, Dirty, Rich... Creative Genius?

Lady Gaga. A name and a title at once, and two words that are probably synonymous with “meat dress”. It would be remiss of me not to acknowledge the infamous red-carpet dress and all its meaty glory when writing about Lady Gaga, so I thought it would be best to get it over with as soon as possible. Though I have no doubt that Gaga’s fashion moments could constitute an entire essay alone, it will not be this one. Strip away the stage name, 11 inch Alexander McQueen heels and the oversized diamond encrusted sunglasses, and you’re left with Stefani Germanotta, a 5’2” Italian woman and creative juggernaut who ra-ra-ra-ed her way into the public consciousness, and my heart.

“Stefani Germanotta you will never be famous” is the name of a Facebook group made by Lady Gaga’s peers in university, and it might be my favourite quote. I wish I could say it’s because it’s an inspiring message about how one woman rose above the haters and proved that you can do anything you set your mind to...but that wouldn’t be true. Really, I just think it’s funny that someone was able to say something that turned out to be so profoundly wrong. This group was probably just a classic case of cyberbullying, but in the spirit of Gaga’s mythology infused album ARTPOP, one could argue that it was actually a self-defeating prophecy delivered through the modern-day Oracle of Delphi that is Facebook. I wonder how many questionable references and ill-attempts at humour I have to make before Lady Gaga sends me a cheque for all of this free promo.

Anyway, divine intervention or not, the creators of this Facebook group would come to be humiliated once Stefani Germanotta assumed her stage name and debuted Just Dance in 2008. Sporting a platinum blonde wig, Bowie-esque lightning bolt makeup under her eye, and countless avant-garde outfits, the instantly recognizable and inescapable persona of Lady Gaga was born. Suddenly radio stations around the world were playing her song, and soon after Gaga released her debut album, The Fame. After reaching number one on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart, the album was nominated for five Grammy Awards and won Best Electronic/Dance Album and Best Dance Recording for "Poker Face."

It was around this time that I became exposed to Lady Gaga. I have a very distinct memory of sitting in the back seat of the minivan and listening to an illegally downloaded copy of The Fame on a blue iPod shuffle. My oldest sister was 13 at the time of Lady Gaga’s meteoric rise and promptly took to LimeWire when The Fame was released, leaving the family desktop riddled with viruses in exchange for free music. I think that was a small price to pay for the entertainment of my 8-year-old self innocently repeating lyrics I'd heard like “I wanna take a ride on your disco stick” and alarming my mother, but I'm biased.

In those first few years of her career, it seemed like no one could resist the gravitational pull of Lady Gaga. My father, who would rather listen to the Queen give a Royal address than any modern music, and my mother, who kept the radio tuned to the classic rock station as often as possible, still could not avoid becoming familiar with her. If her songs weren’t being played over the din of four children arguing on the drive to school, the radio hosts were discussing her place on the music charts, or what outrageous set piece she’d performed with on stage this time. From 2008 onward, Gaga dominated the mainstream conversation, and her career has yet to slow down.

With the success of two more albums following her debut, Born This Way and ARTPOP, by 2014 Lady Gaga had already solidified her status as pop royalty. Literally, she was crowned the Queen of Pop by Rolling Stone. Though she had been listed on Forbes influential woman list 4 times, amassed hordes of fans, affectionately dubbed “Little Monsters”, and proved herself a force to be reckoned with, some non-pop fans and plenty of internet trolls were still skeptical of her as an artist. Lady Gaga, if you’re reading this, I'm sorry for what I’m about to say and I hope we can still be friends.

In 2014, an argument could have been made that the revered Lady Gaga really wasn’t much more than a woman dining out on shocking spectacle and an intentionally strange public persona, all while singing over relatively formulaic dance beats. Sure, her music was catchy and she was hugely successful. But how much of that success was actually due to her own musical skill, and not just autotune, the people who helped write her songs, or the fashion designers behind her attention-grabbing outfits? Although it pains me to say it, I'm secure enough in my love of Lady Gaga to admit that I used to be someone who had these questions about her. Somehow, around the time that I traded in the iPod shuffle full of pirated music for a shiny new iPod touch, I became disillusioned with Lady Gaga.

If I flip through the rolodex of Gaga-oriented memories in the back of my mind, I can pull out one where I had the audacity to roll my eyes upon seeing the psychedelic Born This Way music video playing on tv. Much to my chagrin, this was just one of many instances of me expressing my general disdain for her during my anti-Gaga phase. Maybe I associated Lady Gaga with my childhood and wanted to distance myself from her, in an embarrassing attempt to convince everyone around me, and myself, that I was so grownup now. As you do at that wonderful beginning of teenagehood. Or maybe I'd just had enough of her over-exposure and I needed a break from her. It was probably a combination of both, but I think the underlying truth is that I made Lady Gaga the focus of a classic case of internalized misogyny.

I certainly wasn't aware of any of this at the time, but looking back now, I'd wager that part of the reason why I began to resent Gaga was that she represented everything I wasn't. Or rather, what I was but wasn't willing to accept about myself. For several years of her career, the easiest word to describe Lady Gaga was "weird". And weird she was, but more on that later.

I've never really fit inside any one box that society could've tried to put me in, from the music I like, to the friends I keep, to my taste in fashion. As someone with Tourette's and a severe case of anxiety, I spent most of my childhood feeling out of place and like a freak. And I kind of was one. I was never like the other kids at school, and I never would've been. So when I saw this woman taking the world by storm with increasingly oddball behaviour, and becoming quite successful because of it, it felt wrong. It felt unfair that someone could profit off of public displays of absurdity, and all of the things I'd learnt to believe were bad about myself.

Instead of championing this woman and realizing she was carving a space for people like me who needed it the most, I took it upon myself to hate her and condemn her behaviour. I saw her as a threat to my own identity and worldview. Why did Lady Gaga get to be celebrated and accepted, but not me? I hadn't yet discovered that one woman's success isn't another's failure, and that there's room for us all. Surely I had my head set on straight and I was "normal" now if I could recognize that Lady Gaga's strange antics were BAD and SCARY and GROTESQUE. Surely this artist wasn't really as qualified or as sensational as everyone claimed she was, it was all an elaborate scheme that only I, in my infinite 11 year old wisdom, was smart enough to see through. Right? Evidently, I was just as wrong as the people who claimed that Stefani Germanotta would never be famous.

With the release of Cheek To Cheek in September 2014, Gaga underwent a shocking rebrand and showed the first sign of just how versatile an artist she is. This was around the time that I outgrew my Gaga hate, and embraced her again. The album was a collaboration with jazz legend, Tony Bennett himself. After having just released the weird and wonderful ARTPOP, an experimental homage to the flashy plastic world of the rich and famous, I certainly didn’t expect to see Lady Gaga singing along to classic jazz songs with an 88-year-old man, but there she was. Still unmistakably glamourous, this Lady Gaga was a drastic change from the popstar who spent her career doing things like rocking prosthetic bone structure, and giving birth to herself on stage through a giant set piece. Stripped of the intrigue she had spent years crafting, Gaga did not have gaudy makeup or distorted voice effects to hide behind, and Cheek to Cheek proved once and for all that gimmicky or not, she is an incredibly talented artist with an enviable vocal range.

Global pop domination and collaborating with one of the most respected jazz artists in history wasn’t enough for her, in 2015 Lady Gaga decided to take her talents to the small screen. Playing The Countess in American Horror Story’s fifth season, Gaga used her years of putting on unsettling personas to portray a glamorously sadistic sex-obsessed vampire, and won a Golden Globe for the performance. After taking in this new-found respect from Hollywood, Lady Gaga returned to pop music and expanded her sound even further with the release of 2016’s Joanne. A controversial album among her fans, Joanne saw Gaga trading in the techno pop sound for piano and guitar, and showcasing her vocals more than her previous solo albums. For the record, I think Joanne was a welcome change from Gaga’s usual dance beats to a more intimate, country-rock inspired sound, though many dislike the album for that very reason. I don’t understand how anyone could disrespect the album that gave us the masterpiece that is Diamond Heart, but to each their own. Joanne was a predictable success, topping the Billboard charts and going Platinum, nothing new for Lady Gaga. Surely she’d done it all by now, she couldn’t possibly prove her creative chops any further.... until Bradley Cooper gave her a call.

It’s time to talk about A Star Is Born, the 2018 movie that broke the hearts of millions and gave us the iconic Shallow Wail. “Oscar-nominated actress Lady Gaga” is not a sentence the 8-year-old version of myself listening to Lovegame in the back of the car would ever have expected to hear, if only I knew that in 10 years A Star Is Born would come out. As someone whose favourite seasons are winter and Awards, watching the meat dress woman make her way through the campaign circuit and get nominated for a handful of prestigious acting awards was surreal, to say the least. Among other accolades that are too numerous to list, Gaga took home the Oscar for Best Original Song for Shallow, and secured a nomination for Best Actress.

I'm not blinded by my admiration of her quite enough to ignore that her pre-existing star power was certainly helpful for her campaign, but Gaga receiving an acting nomination alone is a tremendous achievement, one that many worthy actors go their whole careers without. The success of A Star Is Born, a film concept that would have been laughable if it had been suggested in the first few years of Lady Gaga’s career, and the strength of her performance in particular, was the last straw for me. After her sustained musical success and versatility, and then seeing her do all of THAT in a feature length film, any doubt I ever had about Lady Gaga’s position as one of the most talented creatives alive was crushed. Just like my heart is whenever I remember that Bradley Cooper didn’t win an Oscar for A Star Is Born.