Top 5 Underrated Lady Gaga Songs

Lady Gaga has been a staple for changing the spectrum of music by creating music in the evolution of music as well as her self-evolution of the way she's changed music for herself. She's gone through multiple phases of her styles and songs. She has created pieces of music that will forever be immortalized for creativity, pieces such as Poker Face, Bad Romance, Just Dance, and the song Shallow, which won her the Grammy for the movie A Star Is Born.

But there is more on a discography that went overlooked. When I was in my angst teen days, I listened to the beat and a couple of stand-out lyrics, but I never took the time to understand Lady Gaga's artistry that she conveys. As I have been collecting her albums from second-hand stores, I wanted to listen to her music with an adult mindset to understand her songs.

If you have these albums, you might want to pull them out and listen to them for a second opinion of what you may have skipped over.

These selections are by no means from favorite to least favorite. The list serves the purpose to highlight the wonders of the one-woman show.

1. Hair (From Born This Way: Track 6)

This one took me a while to appreciate the song for what it does as a message. That message is the anthem for the rebels to have on the days they are demeaned by the ones that don't take the time to understand them.

We all have an image of who we want to be, we groom ourselves to the image we want to be or are meant to be. Then the peers or family in our life try to change who we are, not knowing we have always been who we want to be.

The album, Born This Way, is the first insight to getting the personal part to see who Lady Gaga is. Most of the songs from the original were powerful and prominent and she has shown to have versatility, but it didn't feel like we were starting to see a personal side to her songs. Hair is that song that I see as the marking point for her emotional pleaded songs.

After just one listens, it'll change the way you thought of Lady Gaga, and makes your mind at peace for the rest of the day to feel understood and represented.

2. Bloody Mary (From Born This Way: Track 8)

Hell hath no fury like a woman's scorn is the way to introduce the mysterious macabre nature of this song. This was one that defiantly flew under the radar, I've talked about this song before, and it could be tweaked to be interpreted as a song anthem for witches. When I was getting the selective releases of Born This Way on YouTube back in 2011, I was getting used to this change in Gaga's artistry for a darker theme. Looking at the title, I was intrigued if this was a song about the woman who was first given the title, Queen Mary.

Listening to it, it's eerie but has an eloquence in the idea of the revenge. It makes you wonder what hellish act happened to make the act of vengeance without any shred of remorse.

It's dark, it's engaging, it's twisted, and it's the piece of music that I feel represents her nickname, "Mother Monster".

3. Paper Gangsta (From The Fame: Track 11)

There are two kinds of criteria that Paper Gangsta covers in this song are the topics that I love to see musicians express.

A song that talks about what it’s like to be in the industry, but not wanting to lose your image or mold your image to someone else to revoke your own identity.

She uses that concept of signing your life away to explain what it's like to be with a person who is about as sketchy and controlling as a record contract. Looking at this song now, it's like if Don't You Want Me by The Human League had a sequel from the woman's side, Paper Gangsta would be exactly how it would go.

She opens up the song with a rap that has a smooth hook right at the beginning and resonates in the whole being of your body. You feel the unease and distaste for what she's realizing. The lyrics that she uses are very unique to have it stylized with inserts of comparisons to luxury items and places.

Lyrics like-

"Yeah, the dinners were nice

'Til your diamond words melted into some ice."

That is the exact lyric that sums up the realization about this person whose words have no meaning or feeling.

Not many songs can do that, and Gaga does it with a strong message to explain the caution of lousy lovers that aren't worth your time.

It would have been interesting to see how this song could have been imagined in a music video, but the closest we'll ever get was when it was on the radio for background music in the Telephone music video.

4. Government Hooker (From Born This Way: Track 3)

Can you think of anyone else that can make a sketchy and catchy song about being a woman who enjoys being the lover of certain politicians?

Despite the vulgar provocative nature of the song, it is a fun song that surprisingly no one listened to from the album, Born The Way.

The only resurgence it's gotten was being sampled and parodied for a YouTube sketch by The Hillywood Show.

Just like with Dance In The Dark and Born This Way, she makes references and shoutouts to other famous people in her songs. With this one, she talks about John F Kennedy, The way she says it is almost the same breathy tone as the way Marilyn Monroe would have said it.

It's reckless and provocative, which is what I expected from someone as uniquely creative as Lady GaGa.

5. Perfect Illusion (Joanne: Track 6)

Lady Gaga had a well-needed break after the mixed reception to the album ArtPop in 2013, although she was taking a break, she still maintained some collaborations and projects. She rejoined Elton John for a duet of "Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me", and premiered some specials to reveal more of her life story and hard work. She took it easy to work on herself as well as work on new material that will be different. What we got was the prized pinnacle of all her work coming into a new and relaxed side.

I love the way Lady GaGa has presented herself in the media for the past twelve years; the edgy songs, the wonder of what new wardrobe will be worn to match the atmosphere of the specific song. But she never showed us the soft side, what's underneath the intricate costumes and provocative pop songs. It seemed as if she was pushing herself to keep up with the same image, which was taking a toll, and never got to show us what was in store.

After a couple of years of reinventing and taking a lax turn with the styles, she released Perfect Illusion as a teaser and first song for a single before incorporating it for her 2016 Album Joane.

In GaGa's self-evolution for style and songs, this was a breath of fresh air to see a different and rejuvenated turn for GaGa's venture for making songs. It's not uncommon to have a song that talks about the realization of finding out the partner you loved are no longer the same person, but the way Lady GaGa emotionally pleaded the ballads of her broken heart and realized the person was just a charade of love. It's not heavily stylized like Paper Gangsta in the same terms as a failed relationship. It's just raw and real and it feels like we are now seeing the personal side of Lady Gaga.

The song has been compared to Bruce Springsteen's songs and listening to this song it does have a bit of a Springsteen vibe with it without having to sound just like a Bruce Springsteen song.

With Perfect Illusion, it marks the moment that Lady GaGa put a personal touch on all her songs, it feels like we are finally getting to see the real Lady GaGa. She's known for making intriguing and entertaining songs for a story she wanted to convey. But now we get to know her story.

To see her go from dancing around in lingerie and stilettos for Bad Romance and Alejandro to wearing a t-shirt and jean shorts with messy hair and boots, it was nice to just see her in simple clothes, stripped away of the chaotic costumes and heavy makeup. She was bold with how much she could bear being in a natural element.

It was amazing to see her transition to be in the appearance that she wants and gets to the exact music that she wants to do. She could convey her message without crazy clothes and wild lyrics.

I'll sum up this song with a reference to one of the titles of another Lady GaGa song. It left me Speechless.

Lady Gaga won't be out of the spotlight anytime soon, in the moments she makes a return, it's always with a different side of her or style we haven't seen yet. We have always left surprised by what she'll shell out for us in her evolution of entertaining us with various songs she creates. But I would hope that in the time of her continuing evolution in music, these songs I mentioned would be at the same level as her other songs to be understood and praised.

Because she's not on The Edge Of Glory, she is the glory.