TMS Spotlight: My Favorite Lady Gaga Song
(via shutterstock.com)
Sixteen years ago, I began 2008 with my second semester of freshman year in college and ended the year with my first semester as a sophomore. My life was all about classic rock, so I wasn’t paying much attention to modern pop culture at the time. Of course, I wasn’t completely in the dark, since I had roommates, classmates and friends who were fans of all the biggest artists and celebrities then. I knew the days of teen bubblegum pop were MIA and the indie/alt rock band scene was still doing pretty well. Britney Spears was in the middle of her very public breakdown, Christina Aguilera would soon have her first big flop, the White Stripes were finishing up their last ever tour, and the Strokes were seemingly losing steam with young listeners. If you were a fan of indie/alternative music, quality groups like MGMT, Vampire Weekend, Of Monsters & Men, Mumford & Sons, Beach House and Sleigh Bells could be easily found. But traditional pop was about to get a new look and sound.
It’s fun to go back and see how Lady Gaga started her career compared to where it is now. I remember when she first debuted in April ’08 with the uber catchy ‘Just Dance’ and thinking her sunglasses + hairbow combo was cute, but what’s with the name? Was she already worried about Madonna comparisons with her incredibly Italian birth name [Stefani Germanotta]? Her first album, ‘The Fame,’ was not like what previous popstars were releasing at the time. The era of Max Martin and Rick Rubin was about to get shook up by Gaga and producer RedOne. While ‘Just Dance’ did well on the charts, her next single, ‘Poker Face’ is what blew up to no. 1 worldwide and made Gaga a superstar. Other popular singles like ‘Paparazzi’ and ‘Love Game’ followed from the first LP, and only a year later her second record—technically an EP—called ‘The Fame Monster’ came with even more success in autumn 2009. With no momentum lost at all, the singer-songwriter’s second giant single, ‘Bad Romance’ dropped and confirmed the whole world and music industry was gaga for the tiny blonde.
(via fanpop.com)
‘Bad Romance’ is what made me decide I indeed like Gaga’s music and might be a casual fan. I enjoyed her previous singles, but something about this one stuck in my mind. The synth, the ‘ra-ra’s, the ‘ooh-la-la’s, the questionable French in the coda. She’s a free b!tch, baby! The second verse was how we discovered Gaga is a big movie buff. ♫I want your Psycho, your Vertigo schtick. Want you in my Rear Window, baby, you’re sick.♫ Not one, not two, but three Hitchcock title drops in a row. That’s two of my favorite movies right there. While a surprise at first, we now know the songstress was initially hoping to be an actress before switching to singing. Her music videos were also getting more cinematic and veering toward short film territory. Nabbing music vid legend Francis Lawrence for ‘Bad Romance’ certainly helped as well. In a way, ‘BR’ was the peak of Gaga’s weirdness and artistry as a popstar. She wasn’t the cute girl with the hairbow anymore, but she hadn’t ventured too far into weirdness to turn people off. Her only real competition as an artist would be Beyoncé and Katy Perry for the next decade.
As we know, Gaga’s reign continued with her successful ‘FM’ singles ‘Alejandro’ and ‘Telephone,’ her next two hit albums ‘Born This Way’ (2011) and ‘Artpop’ (2013), and experimenting outside of pop with ‘Joanne’ (2016) and ‘Chromatica’ (2020). Her acting dreams became a reality when she won a Golden Globe for season five of FX’s “American Horror Story” (2015-16) and gained an Oscar nomination for her starring role in Bradley Cooper’s A Star is Born (2018); as well as an Oscar and Grammy for the movie’s theme song, ‘Shallow.’ We’ll see her later this year in Todd Phillips’ Joker sequel Folie a Deux. She’s collaborated with Tony Bennett multiple times, an active humanitarian and a fashion icon. While we have current music fans wonder if pop is dead, if the record industry is at a stand-still, and if there will ever be huge superstars from the western world again; I think of a time when we could see popstars organically grow through their ‘eras’ like Cher, Madonna, Gwen Stefani and Gaga. Similar to Cher’s ‘If I Could Turn Back Time’ or Madonna’s ‘Vogue,’ ‘Bad Romance’ is a perfect moment for a performer at the top of her game, and a reminder for me of a simpler, easier time in entertainment.