...the real "Lady Gaga"

According to Wictionary, usually the word "gaga" is applied to the senile, the infatuated, and the crazy. Surely, Lady Gaga is referring to the latter, however, not in the sense of a disorder. But was is "the Crazy", or, as she would put it, "the gaga" in her music, or rather her style?

I heard her music long before I watched a video clip to one of her songs, and I remember that I had not little difficulties to connect the artist, or rather her image, with the music. The name of her hit single in those days was "Pokerface", which was played ceaselessly on the radio. Now, after I watched the video clip to this particular song, I know the reason for this confusion. There is nothing gaga about "Lady Gaga." I don't want to bother you with an in-depth analysis of the song structure, which won't bring anything to light worth reading, nor with an interpretation of the lyrics, which are nothing but a description of a seduction. So if you are looking there for anything gaga, you are digging at the wrong place. Even the video clip is not more than a sequence of choreographed dances, which weren't new in the early days of Britney Spears.

When I hear the expression "gaga" I usually think of another artist, namely Roisin Murphy, former singer of the band "Moloko." Together with her partner Mark Brydon she was performing the most interesting, that is to say, the most "gaga" music that mainstream pop is capable of. Here I think especially of the album "I am not a doctor", admittedly years before the rise of "Lady Gaga." On this album she isn't afraid of singing in fake voices, using lyrics without any obvious sense, and doen't care at all for radio compatibility. But even her first solo album "Ruby Blue" is fulfilling the promises "Lady Gaga" claims by her name.

I have no doubt that Lady Gaga chose her name as an allusion to an untamed way of life and self-expression. Nevertheless, her music as well as her video clips are betraying her and finding her guilty of appealing to mainstream. The award of "gaga" clearly belongs to someone else.