Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta (/ˈstɛfəniː dʒʌrməˈnɑːtə/; born March
28, 1986), known by her stage name Lady Gaga, is an American singer and
songwriter. Born and raised in New York City, she primarily studied at the
Convent of the Sacred Heart and briefly attended New York University's Tisch
School of the Arts before withdrawing to focus on her musical career. She began
performing in the rock music scene of Manhattan's Lower East Side, and was
signed with Streamline Records by the end of 2007. During her employment as a
songwriter for the record company, her vocal abilities captured the attention
of recording artist Akon, who signed her to his label Kon Live Distribution.
Lady Gaga
came to prominence as a recording artist following the release of her debut
album The Fame (2008), which was a critical and commercial success that topped
charts around the world and included the international number-one singles
"Just Dance" and "Poker Face". After embarking on the The
Fame Ball Tour, she followed the album with The Fame Monster (2009), which spawned
the worldwide hit singles "Bad Romance", "Telephone" and
"Alejandro". The album's success allowed her to embark on the
eighteen-month long Monster Ball Tour, which later became one of the
highest-grossing concert tours of all time. Her most recent album Born This Way
(2011) topped the charts of most major markets and generated more international
chart-topping singles, including "Born This Way", "Judas"
and "The Edge of Glory". Besides her musical career, she involves
herself with humanitarian causes and LGBT activism.
Influenced by
David Bowie, Michael Jackson, Madonna and Queen, Lady Gaga is recognized for
her flamboyant, diverse and outré contributions to the music industry through
her fashion, performances and music videos. She has sold an estimated 23
million albums and 64 million singles worldwide, making her one of the
best-selling music artists of all time and her singles are some of the best
selling worldwide.Her achievements include five Grammy Awards and 13 MTV Video
Music Awards. Lady Gaga has consecutively appeared on Billboard magazine's
Artists of the Year (scoring the definitive title in 2010), ranked fourth in
VH1's list of 100 Greatest Women in Music, is regularly placed on lists
composed by Forbes magazine and was named one of the most influential people in
the world by Time magazine.In 2012, Gaga was ranked at number four on
Billboard's list of top moneymakers of 2011, grossing more than 25 million
dollars.
Biography
1986–2004: Early life
Lady Gaga was
born Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta on March 28, 1986 in New York City to
parents Cynthia (née Bissett) and Joseph Germanotta, an internet
entrepreneur.Descending from Italian and more distant French-Canadian roots,
Gaga is the elder of two children.Her sister, Natali, a fashion student, was
born in 1992.Despite her seemingly affluent upbringing in the family home in
Manhattan's Upper West Side, Gaga has stressed that she did not come from a
wealthy background, stating that her parents "both came from lower-class
families, so we've worked for everything—my mother worked eight to eight out of
the house, in telecommunications, and so did my father."
From the age
of 11, Gaga – who was raised Roman Catholic – attended the Convent of the
Sacred Heart, a private all-girls Roman Catholic school on Manhattan's Upper
East Side.She described her academic life in high school as "very
dedicated, very studious, very disciplined" but also "a bit
insecure": "I used to get made fun of for being either too
provocative or too eccentric, so I started to tone it down. I didn't fit in,
and I felt like a freak."Acquaintances dispute that she did not fit in at
school. "She had a core group of friends; she was a good student. She
liked boys a lot, but singing was No. 1," recalled a former high school
classmate.Gaga began playing the piano at the age of 4, went on to write her
first piano ballad at 13, and started to perform at open mike nights by the age
of 14.Her passion for musical theatre brought her lead roles in high school
productions, including Adelaide in Guys and Dolls and Philia in A Funny Thing
Happened on the Way to the Forum.She also appeared in a very small role as a
mischievous classmate in the television drama series The Sopranos in a 2001
episode titled "The Telltale Moozadell" in addition to unsuccessfully
auditioning for parts in New York shows.
When her time
at the Convent of the Sacred Heart came to an end, her mother encouraged her to
apply for the Collaborative Arts Project 21 (CAP21), a musical theatre training
conservatory at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.After becoming
one of twenty students to gain early admission, she eventually lived in an NYU
dorm on 11th Street by the age of 17.CAP21 prepared her for her future career
focus in "music, art, sex and celebrity" where, in addition to sharpening
her songwriting skills, she composed essays and analytical papers on art,
religion, social issues and politics, including a thesis on pop artists Spencer
Tunick and Damien Hirst.With CAP21, she also tried out for and won auditions,
including the part of an unsuspecting diner customer for MTV's Boiling Points,
a prank reality television show.But Gaga felt more creative than some of her
classmates. "Once you learn how to think about art, you can teach
yourself," she said.
2005–07: Career beginnings
Gaga withdrew
from CAP21 at 19, in the second semester of her sophomore year, deciding to
focus on her musical career.Her father agreed to pay her rent for a year, on
the condition that she re-enroll at Tisch if unsuccessful. "I left my
entire family, got the cheapest apartment I could find, and ate shit until
somebody would listen," she remembers.Settled in a small apartment on
Rivington Street towards the summer of 2005, Gaga recorded a couple of songs
with hip-hop singer Grandmaster Melle Mel, for an audio book accompanying the
children's book The Portal in the Park, by Cricket Casey. She also began a band
called the Stefani Germanotta Band (SGBand) with some friends from NYU –
guitarist Calvin Pia, bassist Eli Silverman, drummer Alex Beckham and booking manager
Frank Fredericks – in September of that year.The band played a mixture of
songs: some self-penned alongside classic rock numbers like Led Zeppelin's
"D'yer Mak'er". Playing in bars like the Greenwich Village's The
Bitter End and the Lower East Side's the Mercury Lounge, the band developed a
small fan base and caught the eye of music producer Joe Vulpis.Soon after
arranging time in Vulpis' studio in the months that followed, SGBand were
selling their extended plays Words and Red and Blue (both 2005) at gigs around
New York while becoming a local fixture of the downtown Lower East Side club
scene.
SGBand
reached their career peak at the 2006 Songwriters Hall of Fame New Songwriters
Showcase at The Cutting Room in June where Wendy Starland, a musician, appeared
as a talent scout for music producer Rob Fusari. Starland informed Fusari – who
was searching for a female singer to front a new band – of Gaga's ability and
contacted her. With SGBand disbanded, Gaga traveled daily to New Jersey to work
on songs she had written and compose new material with the music producer.While
in collaboration, Fusari compared some of her vocal harmonies to those of
Freddie Mercury, lead singer of Queen. It was Fusari who helped create the
moniker Gaga after the Queen song "Radio Ga Ga". Gaga was in the
process of trying to come up with a stage name when she received a text message
from Fusari that read "Lady Gaga."He explained, "Every day, when
Stef came to the studio, instead of saying hello, I would start singing 'Radio
Ga Ga'. That was her entrance song" and that the text message was the
result of a predictive text glitch that changed "radio" to
"lady". She texted back, "That's it," and declared,
"Don't ever call me Stefani again."The New York Post, however, has
reported that this story is incorrect, and that the name resulted from a
marketing meeting.
Although the
musical relationship between Fusari and Gaga was unsuccessful at first, the
pair soon set up a company titled Team Lovechild in which they recorded and
produced electropop tracks and sent them to music industry bosses.Joshua
Sarubin, the head of A&R at Def Jam Recordings, responded positively and
vied for the record company to take a chance on her "unusual and
provocative" performance. After having his boss Antonio "L.A."
Reid in agreement, Gaga was signed to Def Jam in September 2006 with the
intention of having an album ready in nine months.However, she was dropped by
the label after only three months – an unfortunate period of her life that
would later inspire her treatment for the music video for her 2011 single
"Marry the Night".Devastated, Gaga returned to the solace of the
family home for Christmas and the nightlife culture of the Lower East Side.
She became
increasingly experimental: fascinating herself with emerging neo-burlesque
shows, go-go dancing at bars dressed in little more than a bikini in addition
to experimenting with drugs.Her father, however, did not understand the reason
behind her drug intake and could not look at her for several months."I was
onstage in a thong, with a fringe hanging over my ass thinking that had covered
it, lighting hairsprays on fire, go-go dancing to Black Sabbath and singing
songs about oral sex. The kids would scream and cheer and then we'd all go grab
a beer. It represented freedom to me. I went to a Catholic school but it was on
the New York underground that I found myself." It was then when she became
romantically involved with a heavy metal drummer in a relationship and break-up
she likened to the musical film Grease: "I was his Sandy, and he was my
Danny, and I just broke." He later became an inspiration behind some of
her later songs.
During this
time, she met performance artist Lady Starlight, who helped mold her on-stage
persona.Starlight explained that, upon their first meeting, Gaga wanted to
perform with her to songs she had recorded with Fusari. Like SGBand, the pair
soon began performing at many of the downtown club venues like the Mercury
Lounge, The Bitter End, and the Rockwood Music Hall. Their live performance art
piece was known as "Lady Gaga and the Starlight Revue" and, billed as
"The Ultimate Pop Burlesque Rockshow", was a low-fi tribute to 1970s
variety acts.Soon after, the two were invited to play at the 2007 Lollapalooza
music festival in August that year.The show was critically acclaimed, and their
performance received positive reviews.Having initially focused on avant-garde
electronic dance music, Gaga had found her musical niche when she began to
incorporate pop melodies and the glam rock of David Bowie and Queen into her
music.
While Gaga
and Starlight were busy performing, producer Rob Fusari continued to work on
the songs he had created with Gaga. Fusari sent these songs to his friend,
producer and record executive Vincent Herbert.Herbert was quick to sign her to
his label Streamline Records, an imprint of Interscope Records, upon its
establishment in 2007.Gaga later credited Herbert as the man who discovered
her, adding "I really feel like we made pop history, and we're gonna keep
going."Having served as an apprentice songwriter under an internship at
Famous Music Publishing, which was later acquired by Sony/ATV Music Publishing,
Gaga subsequently struck a music publishing deal with Sony/ATV.As a result, she
was hired to write songs for Britney Spears and labelmates New Kids on the
Block, Fergie, and the Pussycat Dolls.At Interscope, singer-songwriter Akon
recognized her vocal abilities when she sang a reference vocal for one of his
tracks in studio.Akon then convinced Interscope-Geffen-A&M Chairman and CEO
Jimmy Iovine to form a joint deal by having her also sign with his own label
Kon Live, making her his "franchise player."
As 2007 came
to a close, her former management company introduced her to songwriter and
producer RedOne, whom they also managed.The first song she produced with RedOne
was "Boys Boys Boys", a mash-up inspired by Mötley Crüe's
"Girls, Girls, Girls" and AC/DC's "T.N.T.".Gaga continued
her collaboration with RedOne in the recording studio for a week on her debut
album and also joined the roster of Cherrytree Records, an Interscope imprint
established by producer and songwriter Martin Kierszenbaum, after co-writing
four songs with Kierszenbaum including the singles "Christmas Tree"
and "Eh, Eh (Nothing Else I Can Say)".Despite her secure record deal,
she admitted that there was fear about her being too "racy",
"dance-orientated" and "underground" for the mainstream
market. Her response: "My name is Lady Gaga, I've been on the music scene
for years, and I'm telling you, this is what's next."
2008–10: The Fame and The Fame Monster
By 2008, Gaga
had relocated to Los Angeles in order to work extensively with her record label
to complete her debut album and set up her own creative team Haus of Gaga,
modeled on Andy Warhol's Factory.The Fame was first released on August 19, 2008
to slow radio play. Gaga supported it by performing around Europe and in small
gay clubs around the US in addition to being billed as a supporting artist on
the North American leg of New Kids on the Block's reunion concert tour.A
sleeper hit, lead single "Just Dance" had preceded the album's
release by four months but only hit the summit of the international charts in
January 2009, provoking the instant success of the album, earning her first
Grammy Award nomination (for Best Dance Recording) and becoming one of the
best-selling singles worldwide.Gaga achieved a greater unexpected success when
"Poker Face", another sleeper hit, reached number one in most major
music markets worldwide in early 2009, selling 9.8 million singles
worldwide.The follow-up single won the award for Best Dance Recording at the
52nd Grammy Awards over nominations for Song of the Year and Record of the
Year.
The Fame
itself was nominated for Album of the Year while winning Best Dance/Electronica
Album at the same ceremony. Contemporary critics lauded the album, describing
it as an exploration of her obsession with fame and the intricacies of a rich
and famous lifestyle, noting its combination of genres "from Def Leppard
drums and hand claps to metal drums on urban tracks", the inspiration
drawn from 1980s synthpop and incorporation of dance music with clear hooks.The
Fame went to number one in Austria, Canada, Germany, Ireland, Switzerland and
the UK and appeared in the top five in Australia, the US and 15 other
countries. It also stayed atop the Dance/Electronic Albums chart for 106
non-consecutive weeks and, since its release, has sold over 12 million copies
worldwide.The album's success spawned many 2009 honors including Billboard
magazine's Rising Star award and the accumulation of 3 of 9 MTV Video Music
Awards nominations, winning Best New Artist with the video for her single
"Paparazzi" gaining Best Art Direction and Best Special Effects.In
addition to being an opening act on the Pussycat Dolls' Doll Domination Tour
during the first half of 2009 in Europe and Oceania, she also embarked on her
own six-month critically appreciated worldwide concert tour The Fame Ball Tour
which ran from March to September 2009.
While she
traveled the globe, she wrote The Fame Monster, an EP of eight songs released
in November 2009. Each song, dealing with the darker side of fame from personal
experience, is expressed through a monster metaphor. Making Gaga the first
artist in digital history to have three singles (alongside "Just
Dance" and "Poker Face") to pass the four million mark in
digital sales, its lead single "Bad Romance" topped the charts in
eighteen countries and reached the top two in the US, Australia and New Zealand
while accruing the Grammy Awards for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance and Best
Short Form Music Video.The second single "Telephone", which features
singer Beyoncé, was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Pop Collaboration
with Vocals and became Gaga's fourth UK number one single; its accompanying
music video, although controversial, received positive reception from
contemporary critics who praised her for "the musicality and showmanship
of Michael Jackson and the powerful sexuality and provocative instincts of
Madonna."Her following single "Alejandro" paired Gaga with
fashion photographer Steven Klein for a music video similarly as controversial
– critics complimented its ideas and dark nature but the Catholic League
attacked Gaga for her alleged use of blasphemy.Despite the controversy
surrounding her music videos, they made Gaga the first artist to gain over one
billion viral views on video-sharing website YouTube.At the 2010 MTV Video
Music Awards, Gaga won 8 of her 13 nominations, including Video of the Year for
"Bad Romance" (with "Telephone" also nominated), which made
her the first female artist to be nominated twice for the award.In addition,
The Fame Monster garnered a total of six nominations at the 53rd Grammy Awards
– equating to the amount of Grammy nominations her debut received – winning
Best Pop Vocal Album and earning her a second-consecutive nomination for Album
of the Year.
The success
of the album allowed Gaga to start her second worldwide concert tour, The
Monster Ball Tour, just weeks after the release of The Fame Monster and months
after having finished The Fame Ball Tour.Upon finishing in May 2011, the
critically acclaimed and commercially accomplished tour ran for over one and a
half years and grossed $227.4 million, making it one of the highest-grossing
concert tours of all time and the highest-grossing for a debut headlining
artist.Concerts performed at Madison Square Garden in New York City were filmed
for a HBO television special titled Lady Gaga Presents the Monster Ball Tour:
At Madison Square Garden. The special accrued one of its five Emmy Award
nominations and has since been released on DVD and Blu-ray.Gaga also performed
songs from the album at international events such as the 2009 Royal Variety
Performance where she sang "Speechless", a power ballad, in the
presence of Queen Elizabeth II; the 52nd Grammy Awards where her opening
performance consisted of the song "Poker Face" and a piano duet of
"Speechless" in a medley of "Your Song" with Elton John;
and the 2010 BRIT Awards where a performance of an acoustic rendition of
"Telephone" followed by "Dance in the Dark" dedicated to
the late fashion designer and close friend, Alexander McQueen, supplemented her
hat-trick win at the awards ceremony.Other performances may have included her
participation in Michael Jackson's This Is It concert series at London's O2
Arena. "I was actually asked to open for Michael on his tour," she stated.
"We were going to open for him at the O2 and we were working on making it
happen. I believe there was some talk about us, lots of the openers, doing
duets with Michael on stage."
In 2009 she
collaborated with consumer electronic company Monster Cable Products to create
a pair of in-ear jewel-encrusted headphones titled Heartbeats. "They are
designed to be the first ever fashion accessories that double as the absolute
best sonically sounding headphones in the world," she commented.Gaga also
partnered with Polaroid in January 2010 as their Creative Director.Excited
about "blending the iconic history of Polaroid and instant film with the
digital era," Gaga unveiled the first trio of new products called Grey
Label: a pair of picture-taking sunglasses, a paperback-sized mobile printing
unit and an updated version of the traditional Polaroid camera at the 2011
Consumer Electronics Show.But her collaboration with past producer Rob Fusari
led to her production team, Mermaid Music LLC, being sued in March 2010 when he
claimed that he was entitled to a 20% share of the company's earnings. Gaga's
lawyer, Charles Ortner, described the agreement with Fusari as
"unlawful" and declined to comment, but five months later, the New
York Supreme Court dismissed both the lawsuit and a countersuit by Gaga.In
addition to such strife, Gaga was tested borderline positive for lupus, but
claimed not to be affected by the symptoms. The revelations caused considerable
dismay among fans, leading to Gaga addressing the matter in an interview with
Larry King, saying she hopes to avoid symptoms by maintaining a healthy
lifestyle.
2011–present: Born This Way
Gaga released
her second studio album and third major release, Born This Way, on May 23,
2011. Described as a marriage of electronic music with metal, rock 'n' roll,
pop and anthemic style melodies with sledge-hammering dance beats and referred
to as an album "about what what keeps us up at night and what makes us
afraid," Gaga characterized it as "something so much deeper than a
wig or lipstick or a fucking meat dress" and, upon hearing it, Akon
remarked that she is taking music to the "next level."Upon release,
the album received generally positive reviews from music critics, who praised
its range of different styles and her vocals.Born This Way sold 1.108 million
copies in its first week in the US, debuted atop the Billboard 200, and topped
the charts in more than 20 other countries.In addition to exceeding 8 million
copies in worldwide sales, Born This Way received 3 Grammy Award nominations,
including her third consecutive for Album of the Year.
In the months
prior to its unveiling, Gaga released the singles "Born This Way",
"Judas" and "The Edge of Glory" alongside promotional
single "Hair". The eponymous lead single, first sung live at the 53rd
Grammy Awards in a performance that saw Gaga emerge from an egg-like vessel,
deals with self-acceptance regardless of race or sexual orientation. The single
debuted atop the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the 19th number-one debut and the
1,000th number-one single in the history of the charts.It sold more than 3
million digital copies in the US by October 2011, becoming her eighth
consecutive single to exceed sales of 2 million and, with worldwide sales of
8.2 million copies by November 2011, one of her five best-selling singles
worldwide.Critics noted artistic and cultural references and praised the
concept of the song's accompanying music video, in which Gaga gives birth to a
new race amidst surrealistic images.The video for "Judas", in which
Gaga portrays Mary Magdalene, and Biblical figures such as Jesus Christ and
Judas Iscariot are also featured, was criticized for its religious references
but received acclaim for its overall delivery and praise from others who
claimed that there was nothing offensive about it."Judas" also peaked
within the top ten in several major musical markets, while "The Edge of
Glory", first a commercial success in digital outlets, was later released
as a single to critical appreciation, accompanied by a video which was notably stripped
down from her usually "extravagant" efforts.She released "You
and I" and "Marry the Night" as the following singles from Born
This Way. Although their "crazy and ambitious" videos were praised
for their audacity, both songs failed to match the similar international
success that their predecessors achieved.
Gaga
continued her musical endeavors by pairing with veteran artists like Tony
Bennett to record a jazz version of "The Lady Is a Tramp".he also
recorded a duet with Cher on a "massive" and "beautiful"
track, which Gaga "wrote a long time ago, and I've never put it on one of
my own albums for, really, no particular reason."Gaga also lent her vocals
to an original duet with Elton John for the animated feature film Gnomeo &
Juliet. The song, "Hello, Hello", was released without Gaga's vocals
but the duet version features in the film.She also continued her live
appearances throughout 2011, performing a one-of-a-kind concert at the Sydney
Town Hall on July 13 in promotion of Born This Way and at the celebration of
former US president Bill Clinton's 65th birthday, wearing a blond wig as a nod
to the famous performance of Marilyn Monroe for John F. Kennedy and changing
the lyrics to "You and I" specifically for the performance.Televised
appearances comprised her own Thanksgiving Day television special entitled A
Very Gaga Thanksgiving which was critically lauded, attained 5.749 million
American viewers, and spawned the release of her fourth extended play A Very
Gaga Holiday.Her second performance on Saturday Night Live saw her singing a
selection of Born This Way songs alongside appearing in number of sketches with
Justin Timberlake and Andy Samberg.In March 2012, Gaga was ranked at number
four on Billboard's list of top moneymakers of 2011, grossing $25,353,039
dollars, which includes sales from Born This Way and her Monster Ball Tour.
In early
2012, Gaga stated that songs for a new album were "beginning to
flourish" as she worked with producer Fernando Garibay, while the
accompanying tour for Born This Way was materializing.The Born This Way Ball
Tour began on April 27, 2012, at the Olympic Stadium in Seoul, South Korea.
Artistry
Influences
Gaga's
parents, who exposed her to artists like The Beatles, Stevie Wonder, Bruce
Springsteen, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and Elton John, had significant influence
on her childhood and, presently, still do. "I am a real family girl. When
it comes to love and loyalty, I am very old-fashioned. And I am quite
down-to-earth for such an eccentric person," she insists."I'm quite
traditional in the family sense. I've always been that way." According to
Gaga, Joanne Germanotta – her aunt who died of lupus aged 19 – lives on through
her and inspires all of her music and art.Joanne's date of death is tattooed on
Gaga's body and, despite dying 12 years before her birth, Gaga commented,
"I really believe I have two hearts. I think I actually carry two souls in
my body, and that I'm living out the rest of her life and her goodness – she
died a virgin, she died never having experienced all these things that we all
get to love and experience in our lives."Another spiritual influence on
Gaga has been the Indian physician, public speaker and writer Deepak Chopra.
Labeling him a "true inspiration", she stated that "he's always
reminded me to work in a life of service to my fans and to fulfill my vision
and my destiny" in addition to thinking about Chopra when it comes to her
work as a musician: "I want so much for it to go beyond the music for my
fans."
Musically,
Gaga takes influence from numerous musicians from dance-pop singers like
Madonna and Michael Jackson to glam rock artists like David Bowie and Queen
whilst employing the theatrics of artists like Andy Warhol and of her musical
theatre roots in performance.The Queen song "Radio Ga Ga" inspired
her stage name: "I adored Freddie Mercury and Queen had a hit called
'Radio Gaga'. That's why I love the name [...] Freddie was unique—one of the
biggest personalities in the whole of pop music," she commented.Gaga
receives regular comparisons to recording artist Madonna who admits that she
sees herself reflected in Gaga.In response to the comparisons, Gaga stated,
"I don't want to sound presumptuous, but I've made it my goal to
revolutionize pop music. The last revolution was launched by Madonna 25 years
ago" in addition to commenting that "there is really no one that is a
more adoring and loving Madonna fan than me. I am the hugest fan personally and
professionally."Like Madonna, Gaga has continued to reinvent herself and,
over the years of her career, has drawn musical inspiration from a diverse mix
of artists including Whitney Houston, Grace Jones, Cyndi Lauper, Blondie singer
Debbie Harry, Scissor Sisters, Prince, Marilyn Manson, Yoko Ono, and Britney
Spears.Gaga has mentioned Spears in several interviews, and revealed,
"Britney certainly doesn’t need any freakin’ tips from me! Britney Spears
is the queen of pop. I was learning from her."Gaga also paid tribute to
Spears during the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards with the MTV Video Vanguard
Award, adding that the pop singer "taught us all how to be fearless, and
the industry wouldn't be the same without her."
Gaga has
identified fashion as a major influence and has been stylistically compared to
English eccentrics Leigh Bowery and Isabella Blow and to American recording
artist Cher. She commented that "as a child, she somehow absorbed Cher's
out-there fashion sense and made it her own."She has considered Donatella
Versace her muse and the late British fashion designer and close friend
Alexander McQueen as an inspiration, admitting that "I miss Lee every time
I get dressed" while channeling him in some of her work.Modeled on Andy
Warhol's Factory, Gaga has her own creative production team, which she handles
personally, called the Haus of Gaga, who create many of her clothes, stage
props, and hairdos.Her adoration of fashion came from her mother, who she
stated was "always very well kept and beautiful."When I'm writing
music, I'm thinking about the clothes I want to wear on stage. It's all about
everything altogether—performance art, pop performance art, fashion. For me,
it's everything coming together and being a real story that will bring back the
super-fan. I want to bring that back. I want the imagery to be so strong that
fans will want to eat and taste and lick every part of us."The Global
Language Monitor named "Lady Gaga" as the Top Fashion Buzzword with
her trademark "no pants" a close third.Entertainment Weekly put her
outfits on its end of the decade "best-of" list, saying,
"Whether it's a dress made of Muppets or strategically placed bubbles,
Gaga's outré ensembles brought performance art into the mainstream."Gaga
made her runway debut at Thierry Mugler's Paris fashion show in March 2011
where she wore items from Nicola Formichetti's debut women's wear collection.
In June of the same year, she won the Council of Fashion Designers of America
Award for Fashion Icon.Time Magazine placed Gaga on their "All-Time 100
Fashion Icons List" amongst some of Gaga's inspirations such as Michael
Jackson, Madonna, and the The Beatles, stating: "Lady Gaga is just as
notorious for her outrageous style as she is for her pop hits. After all, Gaga,
born Stefani Germanotta, has sported outfits made from plastic bubbles, Kermit
the Frog dolls, and raw meat."She has since devoted her time as a fashion
columnist for V magazine, where she has written about her creative process, her
studying of the world of pop culture, and her ability to tune into the
evolution of pop-culture meme.
In August
2011 she sent to her 15 millions followers that she had at that time on
Twitter, a quote about creativity from the book "Creativity"by
Osho,which led journalists, on October 28, of the same year, on her arrival to
India for the inauguration of a big Formula One motorsport event,to ask her
about her connection to him, to which Gaga said she was influenced by his work
and that for her, "the creativity is the greatest way of rebellion":
"Equality", she concluded, "is one of the most important things
in my life".
Musical style
A 30-second
sample of Lady Gaga's "Just Dance" featuring the chorus sung by Lady
Gaga and Colby O'Donis in the range of B3 to C♯, backed by a synth marching beat.
The song became her first international hit single and sold 7.7 million copies
worldwide.
Problems
listening to this file? See media help.
Continually
experimenting with new musical ideas and images, Gaga's musical and performance
style is the subject of much analysis and scrutiny from critics. She professes
that she is "liberating" herself by constantly reinventing her sound
and image, insisting that she has been drawn to such a practice since her
childhood.Vocally, Gaga possesses the range of a contralto and exhibits
"overwhelming expression, instinctive vocal phrasing, '80s rock
reminiscent chest belts and animalistic vocal ticks" while being able to
move through 2.4 octaves.Refusing to lip sync, Gaga – whose range is frequently
compared to those of Madonna and Gwen Stefani – has manipulated her vocal style
over the course of her career yet considers Born This Way (2011) "much
more vocally up to par with what I've always been capable of." In
summation of her voice, Entertainment Weekly wrote, "There's an immense
emotional intelligence behind the way she uses her voice. Almost never does she
overwhelm a song with her vocal ability, recognizing instead that artistry is
to be found in nuance rather than lung power."
Although her
early lyrics have been criticized for lacking intellectual stimulation,
"[Gaga] does manage to get you moving and grooving at an almost effortless
pace."[She admits that her songwriting has been misinterpreted; her friend
and blogger Perez Hilton articulated her message in a clearer way: "you
write really deep intelligent lyrics with shallow concepts." Gaga opined,
"Perez is very intelligent and clearly listened to my record from
beginning to end, and he is correct."I love songwriting. It's so funny – I
will just jam around in my underwear or I could be washing my dishes. I wrote
several songs just at the piano," she confesses.Gaga believes that
"all good music can be played at a piano and still sound like a
hit."She has covered a wide variety of topics in her songs: while The Fame
(2008) meditates on the lust for stardom, The Fame Monster (2009) expresses
fame's dark side through monster metaphors. Born This Way (2011) is sung in
English, French, German and Spanish and includes common themes in Gaga's
controversial songwriting like love, sex, religion, money, drugs, identity,
liberation, sexuality, freedom and individualism.
The structure
of her music is said to echo classic 1980s pop and 1990s Europop.Her debut
album The Fame (2008) provoked The Sunday Times to assert "in combining
music, fashion, art and technology, [Gaga] evokes Madonna, Gwen Stefani circa
'Hollaback Girl', Kylie Minogue 2001 or Grace Jones right now" and a
critic from The Boston Globe to comment that she draws "obvious
inspirations from Madonna to Gwen Stefani... in [her] girlish but sturdy pipes
and bubbly beats."Music critic Simon Reynolds wrote that "Everything
about Gaga came from electroclash, except the music, which wasn't particularly
1980s, just ruthlessly catchy naughties pop glazed with Auto-Tune and undergirded
with R&B-ish beats." The follow-up The Fame Monster (2009), saw Gaga's
taste for pastiche, drawing on "Seventies arena glam, perky ABBA disco and
sugary throwbacks like Stacey Q" while Born This Way (2011) also draws on
the records of her childhood and still has the "electro-sleaze beats and
Eurodisco chorus chants" of its predecessor but includes genres as diverse
as opera, heavy metal, disco, and rock and roll. "There isn't a subtle
moment on the album, but even at its nuttiest, the music is full of wide-awake
emotional details," wrote Rolling Stone, who concluded: "The more
excessive Gaga gets, the more honest she sounds."
Music videos and performances
With constant
costume changes, backup dancers, and provocative visuals, Gaga's music videos are
often described as short films."Being provocative is not just about
getting people's attention. It's about saying something that really affects
people in a real way, in a positive way," she professes.Exploring bondage
and sadomasochism in addition to highlighting prevalent feminist themes,
"the three central themes that shape Lady Gaga's music videos are sex,
violence, and power."Vaudevillian and carnal, Lady Gaga has got the knack
of sending rape-like fantasies—in songs and videos that double as catch club
hits—to the top of the charts," wrote one critic."Whether it is
physical violence or sexual exploitation, these videos offer vivid depictions
of male power over women's bodies," wrote another.While she labels herself
"a little bit of a feminist" (she rejects man-hating feminism) and
asserts that she is "sexually empowering women,"Gaga strives to
empower young women to stand up for what they believe in.She also attempts to
liberate her fans so they can feel "less alone."She not only
reiterates her assertion of total originality," professed pop critic Ann
Powers, "but also finesses it until it's both a philosophical stance about
how constructing a persona from pop-cultural sources can be an expression of a
person's truth—a la those drag queens Gaga sincerely admires—and a bit of a
feminist act."In summation of her videos, Rolling Stone used the rhetoric:
"does anyone look to a Lady Gaga video for restraint?"
Her
performances are described as "highly entertaining and innovative";
the blood-spurting performance of "Paparazzi" at the 2009 MTV Video
Music Awards was described as "eye-popping" by MTV.She continued the
"blood soaked" theme during The Monster Ball Tour, in which she wore
a revealing leather corset and was "attacked" by a performer dressed
in black who gnaws on her throat, causing "blood" to spurt down her
chest, after which she lies "dying" in a pool of blood. Her
performances of that scene in England triggered protests from family groups and
fans in the aftermath of a local tragedy, in which a taxi driver had murdered
12 people."What happened in Bradford is very fresh in people's minds and
given all the violence which happened in Cumbria just hours earlier, it was
insensitive," said Lynn Costello of Mothers Against Violence.Her unconventionality
continued at the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards: performing in drag as her male
alter ego, Jo Calderone, and delivering a lovesick monologue before a
performance of her song "You and I".Some have defended her flamboyant
and provocative behavior. "Well, she's Lady Gaga," Chris Rock said.
"She's not 'Lady Behave Yourself.' Do you want great behavior from a
person named Gaga? Is this what you were expecting?"As Gaga's
choreographer and creative director, Laurieann Gibson provided material for her
shows and videos for four years. However, the pair parted in November 2011;
Gaga replacing her with Gibson's assistant Richard Jackson.Gaga admits to being
a perfectionist when it comes to her elaborate shows. "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."
Public image
While Rolling
Stone named Gaga the "Queen of Pop" in 2011, public reception of
Gaga's music, fashion sense and persona are mixed.Her status as a role model,
self-esteem booster for her fans, trailblazer and fashion icon who breathes new
life into the industry is by turns affirmed and denied.Gaga's albums have
received mostly positive reviews and critics have pointed out her unique place
in pop music, the need for new movements in popular culture, the attention Gaga
brings to modern social issues, and the inherently subjective nature of her
art. In view of her influence on modern culture and her rise to global fame,
sociologist Mathieu Deflem of the University of South Carolina has organized a
course titled "Lady Gaga and the Sociology of Fame" since spring 2011
with the objective of unravelling "some of the sociologically relevant
dimensions of the fame of Lady Gaga."When Gaga briefly met with US
president Barack Obama at a Human Rights Campaign fundraiser, he described the
interaction as "intimidating" as she was dressed in 16-inch heels
making her undoubtedly the tallest woman in the room.
Contrary to
her outré style, the New York Post described her early look as like "a
refugee from Jersey Shore" with "big black hair, heavy eye makeup and
tight, revealing clothes."Gaga is a natural brunette; she bleached her
hair blonde because she was often mistaken for Amy Winehouse.She has nine
tattoos on the left side of her body (her father has banned etchings on her
right): a unicorn head with a ribbon wrapped around its horn that says
"Born This Way"; a small heart with "dad" written inside
it; several white roses; a treble clef; three daises; "Tokyo Love"
with a little heart; "Little Monsters" written in cursive; a peace
symbol, which was inspired by John Lennon, whom she stated was her hero; and a
curling German script on her left arm quoting the poet Rainer Maria Rilke, her
favorite writer, commenting that his "philosophy of solitude" spoke
to her.In a question posed about the necessary procedure to attach the
prosthetics to give the unconventional appearance of recent horn-like ridges on
her cheekbones, temples, and shoulders, Gaga responded, "They're not prosthetics,
they're my bones." She also clarified that they were not the result of
plastic surgery, believing such surgery to only be the modern byproduct of
fame-induced insecurity to which she does not subscribe. The interviewer's
further probing brought Gaga to the conclusion that they are an artistic
representation of her inner inspirational light and part of the
"performance piece" that is her musical persona: an inevitability of
her becoming who she now is.
Towards the
end of 2008, comparisons were made between the fashions of Gaga and recording
artist Christina Aguilera that noted similarities in their styling, hair, and
make-up.Aguilera stated that she was "completely unaware of [Gaga]"
and "didn't know if it [was] a man or a woman."Gaga released a
statement in which she welcomed the comparisons due to the attention providing
useful publicity, saying, "She's such a huge star and if anything I should
send her flowers, because a lot of people in America didn't know who I was
until that whole thing happened. It really put me on the map in a
way."When interviewed by Barbara Walters for her annual ABC News special
10 Most Fascinating People in 2009, Gaga dismissed the claim that she is
intersex as an urban legend. Responding to a question on this issue, she
stated, "At first it was very strange and everyone sorta said, 'That's
really quite a story!' But in a sense, I portray myself in a very androgynous
way, and I love androgyny."In addition to Aguilera's statement,
comparisons continued into 2010, when Aguilera released the music video of her
single "Not Myself Tonight". Critics noted similarities between the
song and its accompanying music video with Gaga's video for "Bad
Romance".There have also been similar comparisons made between Gaga's
style and that of fashion icon Dale Bozzio from the band Missing Persons. Some
have considered their respective images to be strikingly parallel although fans
of Missing Persons note that Bozzio had pioneered the look more than thirty
years earlier.
While devout
followers call Gaga "Mother Monster", Gaga often refers to her fans
as "Little Monsters" which has been tattooed on "the arm that
holds my mic" in dedication.Her treatment of her "Little
Monsters" has inspired criticism, due to the highly commercial nature of
her music and image.To some, this dichotomy contravenes the concept of outsider
culture. Camille Paglia in her 2010 cover story "Lady Gaga and the death
of sex" in The Sunday Times asserts that Gaga "is more an identity
thief than an erotic taboo breaker, a mainstream manufactured product who
claims to be singing for the freaks, the rebellious and the dispossessed when she
is none of those."Writing for The Guardian, Kitty Empire opined that the
dichotomy "...allows the viewer to have a 'transgressive' experience
without being required to think. At [her performance's] core, though, is the
idea that Gaga is at one with the freaks and outcasts. The Monster Ball is
where we can all be free. This is arrant nonsense, as the scads of people
buying Gaga's cunningly commercial music are not limited to the niche worlds of
drag queens and hip night creatures from which she draws her inspiration. But
Gaga seems sincere."
Philanthropy
Besides her
career in music, Gaga has also contributed to various charities. For natural
disasters, Gaga has helped various relief efforts. Although declining an
invitation to appear on the single "We Are the World 25" to benefit
victims of the 2010 Haiti earthquake, she donated the proceeds of her January
24, 2010 concert at New York's Radio City Music Hall to the country's
reconstruction relief fund.All profits from her official online store on that
day were also donated. Gaga announced that an estimated total of US$500,000 was
collected for the fund.Hours after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami hit
Japan on March 11, 2011, Gaga tweeted a message and a link to Japan Prayer
Bracelets. All revenue from a bracelet she designed in conjunction with the
company was donated to relief efforts.As of March 29, 2011, the bracelets
raised $1.5 million.However, attorney Alyson Oliver filed a lawsuit against
Gaga in Detroit in June 2011, noting that the bracelet was subject to a sales
tax and an extra $3.99 shipping charge was added to the price. She also
believed that not all proceeds from the bracelets would go to the relief
efforts, demanding a public accounting of the campaign and refunds for people
who had bought the bracelet. Gaga's spokesperson called the lawsuit
"meritless" and "misleading".On June 25, 2011, Gaga performed
at MTV Japan's charity show in Makuhari Messe, which benefited the Japanese Red
Cross.
HIV and AIDS
Gaga also
contributes in the fight against HIV and AIDS, focusing on educating young
women about the risks of the disease. In collaboration with Cyndi Lauper, Gaga
joined forces with MAC Cosmetics to launch a line of lipstick under their
supplementary cosmetic line, Viva Glam. Titled Viva Glam Gaga and Viva Glam
Cyndi for each contributor respectively, all net proceeds of the lipstick line
were donated to the cosmetic company's campaign to prevent HIV and AIDS
worldwide.In a press release, Gaga declared, "I don't want Viva Glam to be
just a lipstick you buy to help a cause. I want it to be a reminder when you go
out at night to put a condom in your purse right next to your
lipstick."The sales of Gaga-endorsed Viva Glam lipstick and lipgloss have
raised more than $202 million to fight HIV and AIDS.
Born This Way Foundation
As a
humanitarian, she has launched her own non-profit organization, the Born This
Way Foundation, which focuses on youth empowerment and issues like
self-confidence, well-being, anti-bullying, mentoring, and career development.
"My mother and I have initiated a passion project. We call it the Born
This Way Foundation," Gaga said in a statement about the foundation, which
takes its name from the 2011 single and album. "Together we hope to
establish a standard of Bravery and Kindness, as well as a community worldwide
that protects and nurtures others in the face of bullying and
abandonment." The foundation will work with a number of partners,
including the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, The California
Endowment and the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard
University.She also jumped into the debate surrounding SB 1070, Arizona's recently-enacted
anti-immigration law, after premiering her Born This Way song
"Americano" on the Guadalajara stop of The Monster Ball Tour in
Mexico, telling the local press that she could not "stand by many of the
unjust immigration laws" in the US.A devoted advocate for the LGBT
community, Gaga is also an outspoken activist for LGBT rights worldwide.On
February 29, 2012, Gaga and Oprah Winfrey visited Harvard University to launch
her Born This Way Foundation.
LGBT advocacy
Gaga
attributes much of her early success as a mainstream artist to her gay fans and
is considered to be a gay icon.Early in her career she had difficulty getting
radio airplay, and stated, "The turning point for me was the gay
community. I've got so many gay fans and they're so loyal to me and they really
lifted me up. They'll always stand by me and I'll always stand by them. It's
not an easy thing to create a fanbase."She thanked FlyLife, a
Manhattan-based LGBT marketing company with whom her label Interscope works, in
the liner notes of The Fame, saying, "I love you so much. You were the
first heartbeat in this project, and your support and brilliance means the
world to me. I will always fight for the gay community hand in hand with this
incredible team."One of her first televised performances was in May 2008
at the NewNowNext Awards, an awards show aired by the LGBT television network
Logo, where she sang her song "Just Dance".In June of the same year,
she performed the song again at the San Francisco Pride event.
After The
Fame was released, she revealed that the song "Poker Face" was about
her bisexuality. In an interview with Rolling Stone, she spoke about how her
boyfriends tended to react to her bisexuality, saying "The fact that I'm
into women, they're all intimidated by it. It makes them uncomfortable. They're
like, 'I don't need to have a threesome. I'm happy with just you'."When
she appeared as a guest on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in May 2009, she praised
DeGeneres for being "an inspiration for women and for the gay
community".She proclaimed that the October 11, 2009 National Equality
March rally on the National Mall was "the single most important event of
her career." As she exited, she left with an exultant "Bless God and
bless the gays,"similar to her 2009 MTV Video Music Awards acceptance
speech for Best New Artist a month earlier.At the Human Rights Campaign Dinner,
held the same weekend as the rally, she performed a cover of John Lennon's
"Imagine" declaring that "I'm not going to [play] one of my
songs tonight because tonight is not about me, it's about you." She
changed the original lyrics of the song to reflect the death of Matthew
Shepard, a college student murdered because of his sexuality.
Gaga attended
the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards accompanied by four service members of the
United States Armed Forces (Mike Almy, David Hall, Katie Miller and Stacy
Vasquez), all of whom, under the United States military's "Don't ask,
don't tell" (DADT) policy, had been prohibited from serving openly because
of their sexuality.In addition, Gaga wore a meat dress to the ceremony which
was supplemented by boots, a purse and a hat that were all fabricated from the
flesh of a dead animal.Partly awarded in recognition of the dress, Vogue.com UK
named her one of the Best Dressed people of 2010 while Time magazine's named
the dress the Fashion Statement of 2010, it received divided opinions – evoking
the attention of worldwide media but invoking the fury of animal rights
organization PETA. She denied any intention of causing disrespect to any person
or organization and wished for the dress to be interpreted as a statement of
human rights with focus upon those in the LGBT community, adding that "If
we don't stand up for what we believe in and if we don't fight for our rights,
pretty soon we're going to have as much rights as the meat on our own
bones."
She later
released three videos on YouTube urging her fans to contact their Senators in
an effort to overturn the policy. In late September 2010 she spoke at the
Servicemembers Legal Defense Network's "4the14K" Rally in Deering
Oaks Park in Portland, Maine. The name of the rally signified the number – an
estimated 14,000 – of service members discharged under the DADT policy at the
time. During her remarks, she urged members of the U.S. Senate (and in
particular, moderate Republican Senators from Maine, Olympia Snowe and Susan
Collins) to vote in favor of legislation that would repeal the DADT policy.
Following this event, editors of The Advocate commented that she had become
"the real fierce advocate" for gays and lesbians, one that Barack
Obama had promised to be.
Gaga appeared
at Europride, a pan-European international event dedicated to LGBT pride, held
in Rome in June 2011. In a nearly twenty-minute speech, she criticized the
intolerant state of gay rights in many European countries and described
homosexuals as "revolutionaries of love" before performing acoustic
renderings of "Born This Way" and "The Edge of Glory" in
front of thousands at the Circus Maximus.She stated that "Today and every
day we fight for freedom. We fight for justice. We beckon for compassion,
understanding and above all we want full equality now".Gaga revealed that
she is often questioned why she dedicates herself to "gayspeak" and
"how gay" she is, to which, she told the audience: "Why is this
question, why is this issue so important? My answer is: I am a child of
diversity, I am one with my generation, I feel a moral obligation as a woman,
or a man, to exercise my revolutionary potential and make the world a better place."
She then joked: "On a gay scale from 1 to 10, I'm a Judy Garland fucking
42."
