Tomorrow I am lucky enough to be going to see Lady Gaga at the Echo Arena in Liverpool. I say “lucky” it was more a case of being in the right place at the right time for a chance to buy some tickets that weren’t £100 each. This, after three months of searching for some I could afford to buy without selling a kidney.

I like pop music. I’ve always liked pop music, although there was a period at the end of the nineties I would have classed myself as music snob – in reality, I just started liking indie. Mostly I liked indie that sounded like pop. I stopped being a music snob when I stopped listening to new music, I grew up and ended up sticking with my favourites^[1] instead of constantly demanding something new.

Occasionally, something in pop will make me happy, in the last few years I’ve found new things to like, Alphabeat, The Sounds, Miike Snow, Little Boots, Delphic, and Pendulum have got me dancing around a bit, and I don’t dance lightly. I even think Girls Aloud make excellent pop songs. But in the last year one force has made me stand up and cheer pop on, and that force is Gaga.
I didn’t get her at first. I stopped listening to Radio 1 with regularity at about that time that song Get what you give by the New Radicals came out, it was played to frequently. I didn’t listen to radio for about a year, the first song I heard when I finally went back was Music in you by New Radicals. So I was out of touch. I had heard the Gaga hype, but when I finally heard Just dance I was a bit disappointed, it sounded too mainstream. It wasn’t until Paparazzi that I started to enjoy her work. The album/s are/is (Fame/Monster) brilliant.

The strange costumes, the wigs, the peculiar press conferences, the playing of the media, brilliant, and thus far she’s not had an affair with a sportsman, said something about being bigger or gayer than Jesus or turned back to drugs. These are just the sort of theatrics, both on and off stage, that pop needs every so often. So why do so many people not get her. People seem mystified by the costumes, the act and the raunchy songs. It’s a bit like they’ve forgotten what showmanship is. There’s not enough of this about. People have reacted in the same way as the squares reacted to Bowie coming on stage in a unitard and make up and being a bit bisexual with a man on Top of the Pops. iT’s 2010 and I can’t understand why people don’t see it and thing it’s peculiar to want to play dress up and sing. And she can sing. And play the piano. And write songs. That’s right, she actually DOES have talent. Here’s some pre-glossed footage.

I think her current work is quite satirical, and amusing, along with the raunch, perhaps that goes over the heads of some people. The fact that’s she’s worked herself into a persona is somehow alien to people and that the costumes and acting are somehow a detraction from her song writing talents (or to some, her non-talents, as if the whole package cannot contain any worth). It’s very frustrating. It’s the first time in ages I feel like I’ve had to defend a popstar, I haven’t followed anyone this big and current, well, ever.

What’s peculiar about pop at the moment is though, is that a lot the things I liked in my snob years are now the sounds of the UK top ten. Twee popster Owl City sounds like The Postal Service, after being dipped in a bowl of pot-pourri, most of the male-led UK R’n'B which is charting is synth heavy and there are occasional acts that break through, like La Roux or Delphic who make me think that all is not lost because the UK public have started listening to the same odd stuff I was when I cared more about music, only now it’s acceptable and all those years I was bullied for liking it seem pointless. In fact having Owl City at number one^[2] shocked me, it’s such a peculiar record to be at number one, I blame digital downloads. More people are hearing peculiar music and enjoying it.

What’s most fun about Gaga is the anonymity of it all. If she walked down my road, in civvies, RIGHT NOW, I wouldn’t know it was her. Despite the publicity, the persona, the hype, when (unless you trawl a few non-authorised stories about her) have you ever seen Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta? Never, that’s why. You know what, that’s great. Yet for some reason, we get a lot of Cheryl Cole, and no one asked for that.

I like the theatrics and the pop and that’s all it ever needs to be about. Removing the make-up doesn’t make the music purer. In the same way that adding the make-up does not take away the talent.

———

Further reading:
This obsession with Lady Gaga makes me want to gag-gag
Lady Gaga, MEN Arena, Manchester

^[1] My top ten favourite bands of all time, just for background, are as follows: Sparks, DEVO, Pet Shop Boys, The Divine Comedy, Pulp, Gorillaz, Air, The Smiths, Jean Michel Jarre and Radiohead (who I got into at OK Computer, which is when most people were getting out).

^[2] I was trying to find some information about sales figures for Owl City’s number one but these aren’t given to non-industry sorts, and my skills at tracking them down have been fruitless thus far. More on sales in the future.

Tags: art, charts, fashion, gaga, lady gaga, music, pop

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