OPINION
In the introduction to this month’s OUTinPerth magazine I wrote about the impending wave of Gaga craziness that I knew was about to hit us,
Here’s what I said,
Another wave of Lady Gaga craziness is about to hit us, later this month this singer will release ‘Applause’ the first single from her new project ‘ARTPOP’. Apparently it’s more than an album, it’s an experience or a movement, it is a multi-media world event. Now before all you little monsters pick up your pens and start scrawling hate mail hear me out.
I love to dance to ‘Born This Way’ as much as any gay man, and yes I have all her albums and went to her concert. It just seems that the imagery and spectacle of being Gaga is over taking the focus we put on her music. We’re supposed to squeal in excitement every time she releases a picture of her sitting naked on a couch made of motherboards or dressed as a Commedia dell’Arte clown. I’m not knocking the creativity; I’m just finding it exhausting.
There’s a definite generation gap in queer culture between the Madonna generation and the Gaga generation. Sitting down for coffee at Cantina recently to chat to Michael Griffiths about his upcoming Madonna tribute show was a pleasant experience. As gay men in our early 40’s we know every Madonna tune. Were we as wrapped up in Madonna as twenty year olds are in Gaga?
Oh probably, the album that smelt like a church, the sex book, she even forced us all watch a black and white Woody Allen film.
On the bright side of the new Lady Gaga onslaught, there will be a whole lot of new tributes made each week at The Court’s Drag Factory. How long before a baby queen appears with white face and smudged make up? Set your stop watches now.
Now it’s a fortnight later and we’re being swamped by Gaga stories every day, her single’s been rush released after it was leaked, she’s hanging out with Drag Queens in West Hollywood gay bars, and running around naked in the woods in stage art videos and declaring it’s all over.
Now there are claims that singer’s new single is just a bit of a rip off of Madonna’s ‘Girl Gone Wild’ song from last year. Check out this clever mash-up below that combines the two songs together. It’s not the first time that Lady Gaga’s been accused of recycling Madonna’s songs. Many people though ‘Born This Way’ was a revamped take on Madonna’s ‘Express Yourself’. Madonna even incorporated the tune into her MDNA tour.
Madonna’s love DVD of the tour is due out in a few weeks, and her 55th birthday tomorrow may also bring some more details of her secret project. Hopefully Madonna will be bring some ‘balance to the force’.
Graeme Watson
