Lady GaGa's performance on Saturday Night Live this weekend managed to spark a Twitter debate over her between me, my roommate, & cousin. My roommate hates her, my cousin loves her, & I'm in the middle. So she's not a horrible singer, her songs are catchy, and she knows how to get people's attention. But she's not God's gift to pop music, by any means (God's true gift to pop is Mika).
I have a few issues with the Lady. First, she seems to have this idea that musically, she's incredibly innovative & she's presenting the mainstream with something new. Try again. Catchy dance-pop has been done before - better - and it'll be done again. Beyond that, half of the songs are about being rich & famous & were written before she experienced any kind of success. Anyone else think that's a little too ambitious?
Naturally, the girl's known for her fashion sense. This spells a few problems, the main one being it detracts from the music. Few people talk about an actual song or performance when GaGa makes an appearance somewhere. People tend to be more interested in what she's wearing, while as a musician she should be more concerned about expressing herself & making a statement musically. I feel like she relies on her fashion to draw attention to herself rather than letting the music & her ability as a performer - and as a performer alone, she is good - speak for themselves. Look at how many times she changed outfits during the VMAs alone.
As a result, the clothes start to detract from the music, not only because people don't say much about it, but look at her performance Saturday night. She sat at a piano, played, & sang & did a pretty good job of it, but you could hardly see her. She was obscured by that ridiculous thing she had on. You couldn't get a good view of her face, & I imagine it was tough for the audience to watch her hands while she played. I'm sure the camera operators had a grand time trying to figure out a good angle.
Fashion seems like a marketing ploy. Whether intentional or not, I don't know. That said, though, I must admit that if it is, it's really working.
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