“Bad Romance” – Lady Gaga
(Words/music: Lady Gaga and RedOne, available on The Fame Monster, Interscope 2009) 

With a performer who works in such complex and dense layers of imagery (the “Bad Romance” video lends itself to countless different readings), the imagery and the music become intertwined to the point that it’s hard to isolate one from the other.  For example, it’s hard to divorce those booming bass synthesizers from the orange-haired, wide-eyed Gaga leaning over the edge of the bathtub (or her stegosaurus spine, or the weird monsters, or whatever image grips you the most).  So it’s hard, even when Gaga says that these songs reflect her personal experiences, not to read them as if they are in character.  Even after watching her Saturday Night Live performance where she intertwined bits of the then unreleased song with some improvisations about her childhood in New York City, it’s hard to see where the real person ends and Lady Gaga begins.

Putting the video and the performer aside for a minute, the persona emerges just from the song itself.  In the midst of detailing the depth of her devotion via the deep, dark details she wants out of her lover, she’s listing off references to Hitchcock films and repeating herself in French.  The French bit particularly makes me think of the French verse in the Talking Heads’ “Psycho Killer” and how David Byrne described the purpose of the verse as a way the deranged narrator sought to make himself appear more “sophisticated.”  This isn’t a direct parallel necessarily – the Hitchcock references could be about getting to the dark heart of her lover the way that Hitchcock’s films plunged to the darkest part of his characters.  The other bit of personal details – the repeated declaration of being a “free bitch” and the fashion-centric bridge seem like connections between the song’s protagonist and Lady Gaga – as strong-willed and fashion-conscious as they come.  Regardless, it just solidifies the unified front (or, if I was Carles, her “brand”) that Gaga cultivates.

More on Lady Gaga: Allmusic | Amazon MP3 | Emusic | Last.fm

“Bad Romance” – Lady Gaga
(Words/music: Lady Gaga and RedOne, available on The Fame Monster, Interscope 2009)

With a performer who works in such complex and dense layers of imagery (the “Bad Romance” video lends itself to countless different readings), the imagery and the music become intertwined to the point that it’s hard to isolate one from the other. For example, it’s hard to divorce those booming bass synthesizers from the orange-haired, wide-eyed Gaga leaning over the edge of the bathtub (or her stegosaurus spine, or the weird monsters, or whatever image grips you the most). So it’s hard, even when Gaga says that these songs reflect her personal experiences, not to read them as if they are in character. Even after watching her Saturday Night Live performance where she intertwined bits of the then unreleased song with some improvisations about her childhood in New York City, it’s hard to see where the real person ends and Lady Gaga begins.

Putting the video and the performer aside for a minute, the persona emerges just from the song itself. In the midst of detailing the depth of her devotion via the deep, dark details she wants out of her lover, she’s listing off references to Hitchcock films and repeating herself in French. The French bit particularly makes me think of the French verse in the Talking Heads’ “Psycho Killer” and how David Byrne described the purpose of the verse as a way the deranged narrator sought to make himself appear more “sophisticated.” This isn’t a direct parallel necessarily – the Hitchcock references could be about getting to the dark heart of her lover the way that Hitchcock’s films plunged to the darkest part of his characters. The other bit of personal details – the repeated declaration of being a “free bitch” and the fashion-centric bridge seem like connections between the song’s protagonist and Lady Gaga – as strong-willed and fashion-conscious as they come. Regardless, it just solidifies the unified front (or, if I was Carles, her “brand”) that Gaga cultivates.

More on Lady Gaga: Allmusic | Amazon MP3 | Emusic | Last.fm