The stilted line deliveries in the Telephone vid are intentional, I would think.
well, yes. i'm not saying her acting is bad because her delivery is stilted. stilted line delivery and complete lack of emotion can constitute good acting (someone like candy darling being a good example of that) but even on those terms i find it unsuccesful.
― jed_, Monday, 15 March 2010 17:08 (fourteen years ago) link
i am not trying to take her down, but to me she seems like a popstar who makes normal pop and does weird things, whereas lines like
The whole thing about gaga is that her composition treads the line between weird and incredibly poppy more than most.
seem to give undue credit to her musical range
but yeah, proceed, it's not my place to call you guys. lette the mynne talke of gagge
― ilxor lookin' boy (acoleuthic), Monday, 15 March 2010 17:09 (fourteen years ago) link
LJ
stop callingstop callingI don't wanna talk anymore
― smoking cigarette shades? it doesn't even make any sense. (HI DERE), Monday, 15 March 2010 17:09 (fourteen years ago) link
lj that sentence you quoted doesn't call the music "weird" per se, it's saying it's on the line b/w weird/arty and poppy. which i'd agree with
― k3vin k., Monday, 15 March 2010 17:11 (fourteen years ago) link
hmm, maybe I will have to let lady gaga into my life
― ilxor lookin' boy (acoleuthic), Monday, 15 March 2010 17:15 (fourteen years ago) link
i dunno, i wonder how helpful the word "weird" really is this discussion
― plax (ico), Monday, 15 March 2010 17:16 (fourteen years ago) link
plax (ico) is so OTM in that earlier post.
guys, be truthful: how genuinely 'weird' or 'arty' is the music of lady gaga
not at all really - the clothes and spectacle just cover up very standard electro-pop, which appeals straight to the Midwest. Hipster Runoff said it best:
"Feel overwhelmed by GaGa mania. I think she really appeals 2 middle america, though. Like she represents something ‘zany’ and ‘glamorous’ that helps ppl disconnect from their real lives’, and gives them an absurd image to lose themselves in."
― nevermind312, Monday, 15 March 2010 17:17 (fourteen years ago) link
+1
― I just wish he hadn't adopted the "ilxor" moniker (ilxor), Monday, 15 March 2010 17:46 (fourteen years ago) link
so, just added to the list of songs i didn't realize were so good: so happy i could die
― big (surm), Monday, 15 March 2010 18:52 (fourteen years ago) link
like, really
― big (surm), Monday, 15 March 2010 18:55 (fourteen years ago) link
also HER VOICE does not get enough mention, tho people recognize that it's the real deal
― big (surm), Monday, 15 March 2010 19:03 (fourteen years ago) link
http://lineout.thestranger.com/lineout/archives/2010/03/15/part-of-the-weekend-never-dies-rendezvous
There's a bunch of assholes dressed in shit costumes inspired by Lady Gaga. I hope this ends soon.
― brotherlovesdub, Monday, 15 March 2010 19:03 (fourteen years ago) link
what exactly makes them assholes?
― iatee, Monday, 15 March 2010 19:05 (fourteen years ago) link
being dressed like Lady Gaga, apparently
― smoking cigarette shades? it doesn't even make any sense. (HI DERE), Monday, 15 March 2010 19:09 (fourteen years ago) link
I hope this ends soon.
it's not even a thing unless you're looking for it.
― jed_, Monday, 15 March 2010 19:11 (fourteen years ago) link
Aw I hope innocent drag acts don't start getting accused of being Gaga rips.
― How to Make an American Quit (Abbott), Monday, 15 March 2010 19:39 (fourteen years ago) link
for me, the key thing about lady's songs are the way her voice is positioned in the mix -- it's at once huge and small. edited like a club voice, but with the chops of something bigger. fills the track resonantly but keeps up with the beat.
― big (surm), Monday, 15 March 2010 21:00 (fourteen years ago) link
yeah kinda O_o abt ppl thinking gaga shows beyonce up as being safe
― plax (ico), Tuesday, March 16, 2010 12:17 AM (7 hours ago) Bookmark
I guess I should clarify here - as someone who doesn't keep my finger on the pulse of pop, for all of Beyonce's idiosyncrasies, she still comes off in my mind as pretty safe i.e. it's pretty easy to separate Beyonce the person from Beyonce the persona.
It just seems plain wrong to accept her own rhetoric the way I kinda feel like is happening a little on this thread now.
― plax (ico), Tuesday, March 16, 2010 12:39 AM (7 hours ago) Bookmark
I think this is OTM in so far as that Gaga's success is predicated upon people buying into her rhetoric, and maybe part of the reason why I have a much harder time humanizing her than with Beyonce.
― but actually it is impossible to have a penis on the body of a mermaid (dyao), Tuesday, 16 March 2010 00:19 (fourteen years ago) link
just got done talking to some students about telephone, lady gaga and beyonce - they seemed to agree that while beyonce can be weird (or whatever descriptor you want to use), beyonce is pretty clear that that weirdness is just one side of her - whereas lady gaga only presents that side of herself, and thus that is the only image we know her by. you could say that beyonce is polychromatic whereas lady gaga is decidedly monochromatic - you can't imagine gaga doing an 'irreplaceable' type vid or song, for example.
― but actually it is impossible to have a penis on the body of a mermaid (dyao), Tuesday, 16 March 2010 03:46 (fourteen years ago) link
i see what you're saying, but following your logic, you would conclude that being polychromatic is to be more safe than being monochromatic, which seems odd.
― big (surm), Tuesday, 16 March 2010 03:52 (fourteen years ago) link
I don't see the contradiction there - if you know that the weirdness/offbeat/whatevs is just a mask that the performer puts on, it's easier to rationalize as just being 'part of the performance'
― but actually it is impossible to have a penis on the body of a mermaid (dyao), Tuesday, 16 March 2010 03:54 (fourteen years ago) link
yea but you're also saying that lady gaga is more limited than beyonce in the scope of her performance. you can't imagine her doing certain things, but you can imagine beyonce doing pretty much anything, even if it isn't as committed
― big (surm), Tuesday, 16 March 2010 03:57 (fourteen years ago) link
hmmm.... lady gaga
― :3 (cankles), Tuesday, 16 March 2010 03:58 (fourteen years ago) link
^^ otm
― but actually it is impossible to have a penis on the body of a mermaid (dyao), Tuesday, 16 March 2010 04:01 (fourteen years ago) link
yeah surm I agree with that - and that makes it easier to separate the persona from the person imo, thus more 'safe'
― but actually it is impossible to have a penis on the body of a mermaid (dyao), Tuesday, 16 March 2010 04:07 (fourteen years ago) link
i've got this mash-up of the choruses and nonsense hooks from "bad romance" and "poker face" that gets in my head on occasion, but i still get bored when i hear either song (seeing is a bit more engaging) and couldn't sing the verses for you.
― da croupier, Wednesday, 18 November 2009 13:00 (10 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
kinda have a pet theory that this is actually something that's subconsciously appealing in all gaga's stuff, some sort of maddening absent centre that's not just down to the whole distracting extraneous pr whirligig but seems to me to be something intrinsic to everything of hers - putting like and dislike aside for a second i'm always quite interested to sit thru any given gaga song again whenever one comes on, just to fill in the gap, and then lose it again. even her face! - i can never really exactly recall what she looks like. it's proper peculiar.
― r|t|c, Thursday, November 19, 2009 7:46 AM (3 months ago) Bookmark
hahah this has happened to me (ra ra ra ah ah ah....CANT READ MY CANT READ MY) and I was thinking something similar along r|t|c's lines - she's some kind of tabula rasa or nonperson, ghostlike maybe, which of course is helped by how many costumes she puts on, her purposeful dead-eyed look, etc. etc. you may also insert the following words in previous sentences: lacuna, decentered
― but actually it is impossible to have a penis on the body of a mermaid (dyao), Tuesday, 16 March 2010 09:26 (fourteen years ago) link
i might come back and defend "speechless" against rtc at some point
― لوووووووووووووووووووول (lex pretend), Tuesday, 16 March 2010 13:36 (fourteen years ago) link
the "telephone" video STILL sucks
― لوووووووووووووووووووول (lex pretend), Tuesday, 16 March 2010 13:37 (fourteen years ago) link
for me it's the middle that really sucks. i love the beginning, and i can appreciate the dance number at the end. the diner shit + the recipe is retarded, especially when those round pop-up shades show up again, the same ones she wore in paparazzi (on B this time?). get a new schtick.
― big (surm), Tuesday, 16 March 2010 13:39 (fourteen years ago) link
and like, the editing with all the food? i mean . . . why are we focusing on nasty scramble plates covered in syrup in a song about HER CELL PHONE
― big (surm), Tuesday, 16 March 2010 13:42 (fourteen years ago) link
because she is poisoning people for calling her while she's trying to dance
― smoking cigarette shades? it doesn't even make any sense. (HI DERE), Tuesday, 16 March 2010 13:44 (fourteen years ago) link
lol
― big (surm), Tuesday, 16 March 2010 13:45 (fourteen years ago) link
i love gaga's repeated references to red wine. i don't know why exactly. it's a really refreshing alternative to the Patron name-drop.
― big (surm), Tuesday, 16 March 2010 20:55 (fourteen years ago) link
you know that the one in "Let's Dance" is actually her saying "Red One", aka the name of the producer
― smoking cigarette shades? it doesn't even make any sense. (HI DERE), Tuesday, 16 March 2010 21:03 (fourteen years ago) link
and actually the rest of them may be "Red One" as well, I can't think of any of them in her other singles so I don't know for sure
― smoking cigarette shades? it doesn't even make any sense. (HI DERE), Tuesday, 16 March 2010 21:04 (fourteen years ago) link
just realised this song is called Just Dance
― plax (ico), Tuesday, 16 March 2010 21:06 (fourteen years ago) link
haha I've done that like 500 times over the past 2 days, oops
― smoking cigarette shades? it doesn't even make any sense. (HI DERE), Tuesday, 16 March 2010 21:07 (fourteen years ago) link
omg really!? that's disappointing, i really liked it as "red wine." so i guess it's just "so happy i could die" then? :/
― big (surm), Tuesday, 16 March 2010 21:07 (fourteen years ago) link
she's definitely talkin bout some red wine in "so happy i could die," and i do love that line. i like imagining her sipping on wine. so proper.
― big (surm), Tuesday, 16 March 2010 21:08 (fourteen years ago) link
i love how ur correcting surm on lyrics to a song u don't know the name of!
― plax (ico), Tuesday, 16 March 2010 21:12 (fourteen years ago) link
"Happy in the club with a bottle o' red wine..."
― I just wish he hadn't adopted the "ilxor" moniker (ilxor), Tuesday, 16 March 2010 21:31 (fourteen years ago) link
okay, um Teeth is unbelievable
― plax (ico), Tuesday, 16 March 2010 21:33 (fourteen years ago) link
SHOW ME UR TEEF
http://www.fugly.com/media/IMAGES/Random/big_yawning_cat_with_sharp_teeth.jpg
― I just wish he hadn't adopted the "ilxor" moniker (ilxor), Tuesday, 16 March 2010 21:35 (fourteen years ago) link
finally watched this video with my bf after so many people talking about it and my bf pointed out that both the song and the video are reminiscent of the rambling of an eight year old when they make up little songs- the whole "and there there was a prison and then they escape and then there was a diner and then they made sandwiches and there was a cell phone and this one girl and then more people and then they killed this other guy and then more people danced and then they ran away the end". And her songs are kind of a big mess too, one damn thing after another, one little earworm and then a verse and then another and then another and then another with no real cohesion, when you hear it you can practically see people pasting this shit together in ProTools. On a theoretical level, I kind of like the notion that messy, de-centered assemblages can be hugely popular. So if I was being theoreticall consistent with the qualities that I like in, say, seventeenth century prose or art brut then I *should* be into this. But I just find the actual experience of listening to Lady Gaga cringe-inducingly awful. I hate her singing voice, the sheer Broadway Sally "belter" thing she's doing just sounds terrible to me. The trashiness would be fine if it was cool trash but this just sucks imo. Which should probably just trigger a "ha ha, u old" reaction.
Plus the feeling that it's somehow mandatory for gay dudes to be down with this gives me a rash. It's just reminiscent of the way fags bought into Madonna in the 80s. She is our queen, bow down, etc. Fuck this shit.
― twice boiled cabbage is death, Tuesday, 16 March 2010 21:54 (fourteen years ago) link
― plax (ico), Tuesday, March 16, 2010 9:33 PM (25 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
you didn't know!!?
― big (surm), Tuesday, 16 March 2010 21:59 (fourteen years ago) link
twice boiled cabbage is death OTM (although i love "bad romance" and do find it cohesive) what's more depressing is how ubiquitous this video will become and how it will be watched by young kids, young girls especially, and the messages it sends out are just depressing.
― jed_, Tuesday, 16 March 2010 22:07 (fourteen years ago) link
Ugh, yes. QFT.
― Turangalila, Tuesday, 16 March 2010 23:30 (fourteen years ago) link
re: cabbage's post:
you're absolutely right that you can see the seams in the production of her music. it's messy, scrappy and maybe even lazy, and the subjective part is whether or not it all comes together somehow. obviously for you it doesn't. i think it comes together in one sad, manic moment of a girl sitting at the club bar, singing about the shit that just happened to her week: all of it - messy, ugly and valid in its stubbornness.
and with regard to her popularity, i totally understand the likeness to madonna in terms of scene appeal, but at some point, these things can be boiled down to just really liking the music. the shared bond that you perceive in mass reactions like this could be as simple as the notes she's hitting, as opposed to the scene she's repping.
― big (surm), Tuesday, 16 March 2010 23:54 (fourteen years ago) link
and regarding young girls, i don't necessarily find this the right forum for discussion on female development, but that's just me.
― big (surm), Wednesday, 17 March 2010 00:12 (fourteen years ago) link
shes got the fattest ass i would bone her butt so hard
― :3 (cankles), Wednesday, 17 March 2010 00:19 (fourteen years ago) link