Modern Divas Boxed Set

by Jessica Jayne

  Lady Gaga’s The Fame album contains her first four successful singles

  The Fame was released in August 2008 but wasn’t successful straight away. It took four months before it entered US charts and didn’t make it to European charts until the following year. It was only propelled by the success of Just Dance.

  Eventually, The Fame was nominated for Album of the Year and won Best Dance/Electronica Album at the 52nd Grammy Awards.

  The Fame was recognized by critic as Gaga’s exploration of her obsession with fame and the complexity of a famous lifestyle. The album peaked at number one in Canada, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the UK. It was in the top 5 in Australia and the US. Since its release, the album sold more than 12 million copied worldwide.

  The Fame was a very successful album which propelled Gaga into the heart of the mainstream. It garnered a Billboard magazine’s Rising Star award. It won 3 of 9 MTV Video Music Awards nominations. Another single in the album, Paparazzi, won Best Art Direction and Best Special Effects.

  And early in 2009, Gaga was the opening act on the Pussycat Dolls’ Doll Domination Tour in Europe and Oceania. She revealed that one of the girls had made a pass at her, but she wasn’t keen on saying who it was. She told The Sun: “I don’t like to kiss and tell; the girls and I are very close!” She added, “They are so nice and very sweet and I am very grateful to them because they have taken me all around the world and a lot of people found out about me thanks to those girls so I really can’t say.”

  Lady Gaga also toured with New Kids On The Block in late 2008. About the experience, she said, “Oh my God. I’m going to start hyper-ventilating.” She was grateful and humbled to be invited to perform as support to the Kids because then she was still an unknown artist.

  Lady Gaga’s meteoric rise to success led to her own six-month equally successful worldwide concert tour dubbed The Fame Ball Tour which ran from March to September 2009. She had promised her fans that they’d see plenty of multimedia, multisensory excitement. She promised to deliver “Pop performance art, multimedia, fashion, technology, video, film. And it’s all coming together, and it’s going to be a traveling museum show.” Lady Gaga did not disappoint her audience.

  While traveling, she wrote The Fame Monster, consisting of 8 songs released in November 2009. The album’s lead single Bad Romance quickly topped the charts in more than 15 countries. It peaked at number 2 in the US, New Zealand and Australia. It reached number one in the UK, Canada, Sweden, Germany, and Denmark. In December 2009, the single became Gaga’s third UK singles chart-topper, thereby making her the first female to have three number one singles in a year.

  Bad Romance went on to accrue the Grammy Awards for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance and Best Short Form Music Video. Gaga’s second single, Telephone, was a collaboration with singer Beyonce and nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals.

  Lady Gaga and Beyonce collaborated for the hit single Telephone

  The third single, Alejandro, featured a music video who was complimented by critics for its dark nature. The video also gained notoriety after the Catholic League attacked the singer for her alleged use of blasphemy.

  Despite the controversies in her music videos, Lady Gaga became the first artist to gain more than one billion viral views on YouTube. In 2010 during the MTV Video Music Awards, Lady Gaga won 8 out of 13 nominations. The Fame Monster also gained 6 nominations at the 53rd Grammy Awards.

  Lady Gaga embarked on her second worldwide concert tour after the success of The Fame Monster, the tour ending in May 2011. The tour was critically acclaimed and was a commercial success and grossed $227.4 million. It became one of the highest-grossing concert tours of all time and the highest-grossing for a debut headlining artist.

  Gaga’s most recent album was Born This Way, released on May 23, 2011. She described the album as a marriage between electronic music and metal, rock ‘n’ roll, pop and anthemic style melodies. She said it was “something so much deeper than a wig or lipstick or a fucking meat dress.”

  When Akon heard the album, he stated that Gaga was taking music to the next level. The album received positive reviews and music critics complimented the album for the different styles and for Gaga’s vocals. The album sold 1.108 million copies in just the first week in the US and topped the charts in many counties. Also, the album received 3 Grammy Award nominations.

  The album featured the singles Born This Way, Judas, and The Edge of Glory. Gaga debuted Born This Way at the 53rd Grammy Awards in a performance where she emerged from an egg (she calls it “vessel”). The song made it to the Billboard Hot 100 at number 19 and becoming the 1,000th number one single in the history of the charts.

  Born This Way, as was the previous songs, was a commercial success, having sold more than 3 million digital copies in the US. It had a total sales of 8.2 million copies worldwide and was one of her best-selling singles.

  Following her collaborations with several artists, Lady Gaga continued her live appearances. She performed a concert at the Sydney Town Hall to promote Born This Way and at the celebration of former President Bill Clinton’s 65th birthday. She also had her own Thanksgiving Day television special titled A Very Gaga Thanksgiving. Its success spawned A Very Gaga Holiday.

  Lady Gaga became a very successful singer-songwriter, being ranked fourth on Billboard’s list of top moneymakers of 2011. She grossed $25, 353, 039.

  Performances

  Lady Gaga’s performances are one of a kind with constant costume changes and elaborate choreography. Her performances were described as “highly entertaining and innovative”, the product of the superstar’s creativity. In particular, her performance at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards which featured “blood” spurting from her chest was described by MTV as “eye-popping”. The reaction of the audience to the blood scene was precious, and Lady Gaga must have reveled in what she saw.

  Another notable performance of Lady Gaga that elicited both praise and criticism was during The Monster Ball Tour where she wore a leather corset. A performer dressed in black “attacked” her and gnawed on her throat, and “blood” flowed down her chest. And then she lay “dying” in a pool of blood.

  Lady Gaga continued to stir intrigue and controversy when during the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards, she performed in drag as her male alter ego, Jo Calderone. She (or he) delivered a lengthy monologue before performing You and I in front of screaming fans.

  Some people have defended Lady Gaga’s flamboyant and provocative behavior, including Chris Rock who said, “Well, she’s Lady Gaga. She’s not ‘Lady Behave Yourself’. Do you want great behavior from a person named Gaga? Is this what you were expecting?”

  Lady Gaga admitted herself that she was a perfectionist where her elaborate shows are concerned. She admitted, “I’m very bossy. I can scream my head off if I see one light fixture out. I’m very detailed – every minute of the show has got to be perfect.”

  Her fans wouldn’t mind her being perfectionist because they are always treated to fantastic shows.

  Chapter 9 - A Meticulous Performer

  Lady Gaga’s look is no accident. She does not just wear something to her performances and you definitely won’t catch her out and about in baggy jeans and a loose sweatshirt. Part of what differentiates her from other pop artists began from her hats and masks down to her sky-high boots.

  Back when she was beginning in her career, Lady Gaga observed that a lot of singer-songwriters fell victims to uniformity that prevented them from standing out. Gaga didn’t want this to happen to her, knowing too well that if she wanted to make an impact, she must be different and unique.

  And so Lady Gaga set about making herself stand out, from her clothing to her accessories. She doesn’t stick to one look, and each change has a purpose. One commentator said,

  “In Gaga’s world, where every swoosh of eyeliner, every wisp of hair, and every adhesive rhinestone is a thought-out gesture, there is no time for casual, no space for carefree
, and no such thing as careless.”

  And at festivals and concerts, all the movements are choreographed, even the awkward moves that border on clumsy. Everything is prepared, including the music which must be produced to be repeatable on cue.

  Gaga’s biographer, Lizzy Goodman, noticed that “there is nothing on Lady Gaga’s stage that she hasn’t thought about. Everything from the pattern on her dancer’s fluorescent Hammer pants to the font on the Haus of Gaga sign to the individual light-up crystals on her ‘disco stick’, she has either designed herself or consulted on. The entire stage has to reflect the aesthetic she’s going for that night and her image as a whole.”

  This being involved in a lot of things for her performances is one of the things that make Gaga different. Not all performers would get involved in pre-production stage and would instead focus on their own performance. But as ever, Gaga was always involved in the preparation, in the decision-making for the technology, design and visuals.

  Costumes and Accessories

  Lady Gaga once said that the dress – or rather, the costume – she wears on her performances is sometimes as important as the song itself. Her taste for fashion was influenced by her mother when she was young, and as she grew older, her taste for clothes changed.

  Lady Gaga is not your typical jeans-and-shirt woman. You can always count on her to wear outrageous, absurd, provocative and jaw-dropping costumes, not just on high-profile events but even while just out and about. A lot of people might have looked at Lady Gaga with derision or indifference for how she looked, but for Gaga, this was entirely a different experience.

  The reactions of people to Lady Gaga’s choice of costumes are mixed. She seemed to push the boundaries to what people call ‘fashion’, and Gaga is not afraid to wear whatever she wanted. Take, for example, that infamous meat dress that she wore to the MTV Video Music Awards where she won an award. The dress, made of cuts of raw meat, had matching hat and boots, also made out of meat. Animal rights campaigners heavily criticized Gaga for wearing it, saying that wearing the outfit was offensive enough. Peta founder Ingrid Newkirk said that “someone should whisper in her ear that more people are upset by butchery than are impressed by it.”

  If Gaga meant to shock people, she succeeded when she wore this controversial meat dress to the MTV Video Music Awards

  And as expected, the dress drew gasps from the people at the VMAs where the artist won in eight categories. The only comment that Gaga said about her outfit was this: “I never thought I’d be asking Cher [who presented the award] to hold my meat purse.”

  Ever since she came to public attention in 2008, Gaga has worn increasingly outrageous and staggering outfits, including a dress made of Kermit the Frog, a dress made of transparent plastic bubbles, and a dress made entirely of lace with a matching cover for her face. She was also seen done up as a futuristic Spanish widow. People had seen her in costumes made out of mirrors and glass and Perspex.

  And while Gaga has continued to reinvent herself by constantly changing her taste in clothes – and wearing costumes that would really shock people – her costumes serve their purpose of getting press attention to their wearer. She once said, “Fashion is everything to me.”

  Thus, it came as no surprise when Gaga assembled her own team of designers which she dubbed the Haus of Gaga, patterned after Andy Warhol’s Factory. The Haus of Gaga exists to collaborate with her on her clothing, her props and her sounds, her stage sets and its mission is to shock people and confound expectation.

  Gaga has said of Haus of Gaga, “It’s my creative team and it was really organic. It was a bit frustrated at the beginning, being so new to the business and going forward with a major label. I wanted to put my own money into the show because, when you’re a new artist, you kind of have to prove yourself. I was making money as a songwriter and I didn’t want a condo or a car because I don’t drive and I’m never fucking home, so I just wanted to put all my money into my performance.”

  Gaga shared that when she assembled Team Gaga, she called on all her “coolest art friends” and she would tell them what she wanted, whether it be wanting a pair of dope sunglasses, video glasses “or whatever it was that I wanted to do. It’s a whole amazing creative process.”

  The Haus of Gaga created this Pyro Bra for Lady Gaga

  Team Gaga was responsible in creating Gaga’s performance-art accoutrements, including the Pyro Bra that shoots sparks, the Disco Stick, light-up microphone gloves, and a light-up sound-triggered microphone headset. She also has a range of glasses, including the Fame Glasses, the Razor-Blade Glasses, and the Half-Smoked Cigarette Glasses. Some of Gaga’s fans were resourceful enough to create their own versions of these specs.

  Gaga has since spoke about her love of fashion and some of her couture items with The Independent. She told them about her “custom nude sequined panties with opalescent light blue rhinestones on them” and her “Rifat Ozbek Italian jacket with feathered shoulder pads”. There was also a leather nude bra that she made for her LoveGame video. And for her interview with The Independent, she itemized what she was wearing: a pair of Christian-Louboutin toeless shoes in taupe/camel color, Capezio dance fishnet tights, diamond-encrusted Maranello watch (given as gift by Akon, Vincent Herbert and her manager, Troy Carter), and a pair of vintage Versace sunglasses. That’s not forgetting the oversized black patent bow in her hair made by Christian Siriano. Her false eyelashes made of feathers were created by Shu Eumura. Her flesh was elaborately tattooed with white daisies and white roses on her shoulder and back.

  Lady Gaga was quick to point out to a British newspaper that “Fashion is just as important to me as the music. I don’t want to exist to the British people as just one song. I want to be a true artist who affects their culture in the same way that I’ve affected American culture.”

  Vincent Herbert said that Lady Gaga’s image-consciousness was in response to the need of pop audiences. “She gives the kids something new, and it’s fun and healthy and positive. She does these epic videos and really great stage sets, and people appreciate that. You come to the show and see all these girls dressed like her.”

  Gaga’s fashion style definitely contributed to her popularity, and her changing identities is based on her belief in glamour and in treating her life as an art project. She said, “I want to live the glam life, and my material is heavily rooted in that.” She also added that the visuals she used aimed to provoke or disturb or comment or criticize.

  Concerning her love of outlandish clothes, Gaga explained that the outfits she wore, either on stage or off, were “the story of our time, of this subculture of people in New York who live and die for music, art and club culture. It’s not a gimmick.”

  Indeed it is more than just a gimmick. Gaga clarified that her taste in clothes was more than just dressing up for pleasure. She wanted to “push buttons – I want to cause a reaction. I’m blonde with no pants. I love that. I love the reaction it gets. I love that it shocks people, that it makes them question themselves. That I make a statement.”

  Lady Gaga achieved all these things. Nowadays, her name is synonymous to crazy outfits and catchy songs. Sometimes it’s hard to imagine that the girl who once appeared in Boiling Points as a natural brunette and who wore pants is now transformed to a phenomenon whose popularity extends far beyond seas.

  Chapter 10 - Going Gaga Over Lady Gaga

  Friends and Foes

  Lady Gaga has insisted that she’s very lonely, “single and alone.” And when she rose to stardom, she said that she stopped going out at night. “I feel detached from the celebrity world…” And while she thought that she’s too much to handle and that nobody was willing to put up with her craziness, the truth is that despite the outrageous outfits and the reputation she built for herself, she’s still like every one of us.

  Lady Gaga has struck friends with some of the famous faces in the entertainment industry such as Sir Elton John. They had performed together at the Grammy Awards in 2010 and became frie
nds. Sir Elton John said, “What I like about Gaga the most is that she’s amazingly polite and respectful to everyone around her… But the greatest thing about her is that she manages to let everyone think they know everything about her but no one knows anything.”

  Lady Gaga found a friend in Sir Elton John

  They again worked together on a song for the animated feature film Gnomeo and Juliet and their friendship continued. John especially admired Gaga’s marketing and promotion skills and also her performing talent.

  Then there was Oprah Winfrey in Gaga’s list of friends. Oprah recalled, “I fell in love with Lady Gaga during a moment on my show when someone stood up and said, ‘Thank you for being who you are because you being who you are has made me proud to be myself.’ Listen: I teared up over that. And so did she. It gave me goose bumps. When you being who you are makes somebody else proud to be his or herself? I don’t think you can do better than that. She’s not just eccentric. She makes a lot of people accept their own differences – and other people’s. It’s real for her.”

  Though not all fall for Gaga’s charms, she knew how to use every opportunity to her advantage, even negative publicity. Take the Christina Aguilera scandal for example. For some time, Gaga and Aguilera were compared. During an interview with L.A. Times in November 2008, Aguilera said, “You know, that’s funny that you mention that. This person [Lady Gaga] was just brought to my attention not too long ago. I’m not quite sure who this person is, to be honest. I don’t know if it is a man or a woman. I just wasn’t sure. I really don’t spend any time on the Internet, so I guess I live a little under a rock in that respect.”

  The issue apparently originated from accusations that Aguilera stole her look after appearing at the MTV Video Music Awards in September 2008 looking like Gaga in platinum blonde hair extensions, black catsuit and mask. Lady Gaga only basked in the scandal.