I remember well watching the gimmicky Gaga perform jazz standards with Tony Bennett and thinking that she seemed more interested in showing off her quirky personality/fashion than her beautiful voice.
Hence, whenever I had cause to comment on the cultural phenomenon she became, it invariably went something like this:
I’m not sure why people are so gaga over Lady Gaga.
Ironically, her costume-heavy act probably never looked so ‘been there, done that’ as when she came out for a somber duet with Elton John, who – as we all know – elevated the spectacle of theatrics over talent to its zenith 25 years ago.
Perhaps, like Elton, she will come to realize someday that her talent alone is enough to make her a superstar – cuz the girl can sing.
(“52nd Annual Grammy Awards,” The iPINIONS Journal, February 1, 2010)
And like this:
Lady Gaga literally personifies the triumph of packaged and formulaic acts over talented performances…
Most singers today seem to think the key to success is looking and behaving in ways offstage that render what they do onstage irrelevant… For you older folks, think of all of the offstage exhibitionism that rendered the music of recording artists like Grace Jones and Madonna irrelevant…
By sterling contrast, Adele not only sings like an angel, she might just be the music industry’s saving grace. Unfortunately, this [industry has] so little to do with musical talent these days that Adele performing [on any music awards show] is rather like Andrea Bocelli performing on So You Think You Can Dance.
(“2011 MTV Video Music Awards,” The iPINIONS Journal, August 30, 2011)
Unsurprisingly, my critique incited Gaga’s “Little Monsters” to begin trolling me … like avenging zombies. Except that what their small, fawning minds did not, indeed, could not appreciate was that my commentaries contained more truth about Gaga than they, perhaps even she, knew.
Sure enough, CBS Sunday Morning aired a profile two days ago, during which she vindicated every word of my critique. Here, musically speaking, is the hook:
I used to come home, I think my mom used watch me having a hard time washing it off, you know, I’d keep the wigs on, keep the makeup on, keep the outfits on… I was always, I never wanted to let my fans down … always wanted them to see me in my art form…
I think that when people see me with less makeup on and less of what I was doing before [‘there’s a sense you’ve evolved,’ the interviewer interjected]… They have to kind of let go of the last era of music.
Gaga’s profile included clips of her new vamped-down, “dive-bar” show. As I watched them, I could not help thinking she had evolved from imitating Grace Jones during that last era of her music to channeling Amy Winehouse during this one. In other words, she’s presenting herself, at long last, as more recording artist than performing artist.
As it happens, Amy (the recording artist) probably mesmerized me as much as Gaga (the performance artist) mesmerized her Little Monsters. But the tragedy of Amy’s drug-fueled life offstage is nothing to channel. Therefore, I hope Gaga limits her very flattering channeling to Amy’s onstage performances….
Related commentaries:
52 Grammys…
MTV…