Forget about the fireworks: Lady Gaga crowdsurfaced at Lollapalooza 2010, and one guy even licked her. They weren’t even there to see her.
touch and be touched
Everybody Got a Piece of Lady Gaga At Lollapalooza
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Jay
Ive seen GaGa twice and at 25 my generation seems to worship her but I’m not sold on her potential longevity. The music is catchy but standard dance pop that Kylie, Britney and certainly Mafonna do better. Like Bad Romance and Pokerface but I wonder if they’ll sound dated in 10 or 20 years. Like a Prayer and Ray of Light are timeless along with a ton of Madges songs bc the lyrics are still meaningful. RaRa GaGa doesn’t mean anything abs GaGa is still a 2nd rate Madge to me even though I like her.
Blah
I just threw up in my mouth.
John
I think Just Dance, Telephone, Bad Romance and Paparazzi are pretty solid pop songs, especially considering they were all released in the same year. Bad Romance will probably be the classic among them, especially in light of it being the second most viewed video on Youtube.
I can understand the comparisons to Madonna and Britney… but Kylie? Can anyone name more than 3 Kylie songs?
I’m fascinated by the supposed hugeness of her star… I get that she’s very popular in Australia and Europe, but I just don’t see it here in the U.S., even among the gay population. Her latest single was extremely boring, even with all that exposed flesh in the video and performances. Kind of a dud.
jason
What a horrible little skunk. And to think we in the GLBT community are supporting skunks like this. We need better idols, and quick. Our credibility is being seriously damaged.
jason
Kylie had some amazingly catchy pop/dance tunes 15 or so years ago. The US seemed to ignore her then, for some bizarre reason. She’s had about 9 or 10 number 1 hits in both the UK and Australia, but only 3 top ten hits in the USA, none of which hit number 1.
You guys in the US sometimes are very late catching on, or you don’t catch on at all. What’s going on? The same thing happened to Abba. Abba did have a number 1 in the US with Dancing Queen but only about 5 or 6 of their other songs hit the top ten, none of which went to number 1.
When you consider that Abba had about 10 or 11 number 1’s in Australia and much of the rest of the world, one can only surmise that the US is kind of in an insulated state of mind.
swarm
@Jason 5 LOL. Abba. Please. In 1975 we were glued to Top 40 of Bowie, Queen, Led Zepplin, The Who, Aerosmith, Michael Jackson,The Rolling Stones, The Beegees…. And newsflash, America listened(s) to lots more than pop. Like country and the music of Barry White, Gladys Knight, Earth Wind & Fire, The Ojays….sigh…you obviously weren’t going to gay bars back then in the US. ABBA was lucky to get the charting they got here. All they were was a lightweight disco sound imo. “The rest of the world”? LOL you mean Europe (and NZ). Since Abba had NO number 1 hit singles in Japan, for example.
How many of our Top 40 were popular in Europe? And with no internet exactly how do you suggest that everyone should have been internationally popular? http://www.cylist.com/List/400300165/
BTW even the Stones only charted about 7-8 number 1 hits in Swe in their LOOOONG career of 5 decades! Why say the US is “late catching on”? LOL We just didn’t like Abba all that much. eyeroll.
swarm
OK so thanks, Gaga for continually showing us your fauxMo BI side. LMAO. phony mercenary.
Ian
@Jay: With respect, I was in my 20’s when Like A Prayer was around and I find the song to be dated. And Ray of Light has always made me cringe with Madge’s uncharacteristic shrieking in that terrible song.
Some songs are instant classics from the second they are put out. Sweet Dreams by the Eurythmics was an example of this, I think that Bad Romance is also going to be around in another decade on the radio.
MGangemi
For pop music Gaga has some clever lyrics here and there and of course the videos are all fun to watch. but it’s pop music folks, and therefore by definition forgettable and not exactly deep. Gotta say kids Madonna, she did change pop culture and left her mark there is no doubt about it, but her music maybe had over the entire span of her career only one or two moments where I thought “huh that’s sorta clever what she just said/did” That is over decades. In a handful of years Gaga has done that many times more. Oh and just for the record no I do not own any of either of their albums, I’d rather listen to actual queer musicians instead of idolizing some hetero. ;P
reason
I really don’t understand what the buzz about her is. Is it the dress, the weirdness, rebellion? Enlighten me.
Michael
Those who don’t “get it” or don’t see it or don’t feel it…whatever… should maybe do some searching – maybe interviews in person or in papers and magazines, or interviews copied onto blogs. – and see how Gaga describes her art and her being and the journey she’s on…and the relationship to her fans. There is so much out there that if you want to find it, you can.
Trying to explain why we are so obsessed with Gaga is really difficult. For me what makes it difficult, and it is becasue of this that I’m obsessed with her, is that I admire her in so many different ways. Not just her music. Not just her fashion. Not just her vision. etc… I could start rambling, but in short either you get her or you don’t care to or take the time to. It is my opinion that if you’re opposed to Gaga, you’re likely opposed more to her remarkably unique popularity and not Gaga herself. A lot of people – although I don’t know why – oppose things just because they’re popular. But popular doesn’t always mean cheap or of poor quality. Maybe (as in Gaga’s case?) popular means universal.
I don’t know…trying to describe my infatuation or trying to persuade someone to like Gaga is literally as difficult as entering into a religious debate between myself (atheist) and a devout Christian. Sure, I could rattle off bit by bit, but in the end, doing so on a string of comments on Queerty.com isn’t quite the place to do it. I’d need you here with me on my laptop to show you and discuss with you. …if we took it that seriously lol
But if I had to say here on Queerty, I’d start with her talent, her message, her breaking of convention while also remaining in some ways entirely conventional, her ability to work in any context, her outspoken support of the LGBT community, her voice (more so before it got harsher in recent years…but I’m really picky. I study voice and vocal pedagogy…) I find that she is a true artist and that her art is important, ever-changing in response to the society in which it and the artist exist. Her essence and art often contain paradoxisms and double or hidden meanings, that sort of depth. I personally like that.
…and I could elaborate on each of those and more for days on end.
That’s why I like her. Can’t do that with Ke$ha. Can’t do that with Miley. Can’t do that even with Beyonce, although her latest material strikes me as more intriguing. Can’t even really do that with Britney despite her mega-success. Can’t do that with _________…on and on. Gaga is special and unique.
Only time will tell – and it has already been silly enough of me to write this much – but I (being a huge Gaga fan) think she AND her music will be around for quite a while.
Paws up
Michael
…and I should have mentioned that I don’t think she’ll be around forever as a musician. She already considers herself a performance artist. She is also involved in a number of collaborations and side projects. I’d really love to see her do something a little less expected (how can anything from Gaga NOT be unexpected except that she will do something unexpected). Maybe writing the musical score for a film? Collaboration in writing a musical? (You know I often hear that Gaga was once a music theatre major at NYU. Don’t know if it’s fact or myth.) Maybe more involvement in performance-based art, surely something in fashion, music production, I don’t know –
anything.
PopSnap
I love Gaga to pieces. She’s creative, fresh, artistic, a big gay supporter, fun, catchy, and a pop culture icon. She’ll be remembered years from now.
Oh well, guess you can’t please everybody. Can’t wait for her new album<3