This premiered just now. Please, Dangerous Minds readers, please—explain to me what I just saw!?!?!?

(Watch big here.)

(The Fame Monster [Deluxe Edition])

(Special Bonus: 4chan thread on video here, while it lasts!)

...something like “Gaga meets Bikini Bandits.”

That was like snorting a Quentin Tarrintino movie.  Beautiful!

http://theinspirationroom.com/daily/2010/lady-gaga-as-high-priestess/

did anyone else catch the “you wanna go out?” line at 1:17, cribbed from a snoop dogg skit?

Richard D, that’s an excellent article

That article was really dumb. If it pointed out that her songs are pre-literate and she dances like a chimpanzee that would be really saying something. Talk about Emperor’s New Clothes. She’s no more shaman or priestess than Britney Spears or any other of these pop sluts.

Thelma and Louise + Natural Born Killers x Head = Genius!

OH MY! SO CONTROVERSIAL! WHAT ABOUT THE CHILDREN!

I see what they were aiming for but sadly they missed it. ‘Channeling’ Tarrantino and LaChappelle just don’t cut it as genius round these parts I’m afraid.

Anyone else bored to death with people referencing (ripping off) things all the time? Can we have some new ideas please?
And no, sunglasses with cigarettes glued to them don’t count…

tl;dw

Where do ya go after R Kellys ‘Trapped in the closet’- Its reaffirming to know that the song itself means absolutely nothing especially considering the massive amount of money thrown at this video. This is the natural extension of Tarintino’s big budget grind house depleted homage. Part of me is obviously drawn to its glitzy trashadelic over the top pretension but in this day and age do we really need celebrities to flaunt their obvious wealth or how seemingly sub hip they might be. She could ‘Da’ whatever she wants with her money but think what 1/2 that budget could have done in Haiti or a new Roll for that matter

it was decent until the hideous music chimed in. how i wish gaga was as musically provocative as her visual sensibilities. it pains my testicles deeply to imagine the cultural pervert who is capable of deriving pleasure from listening to that trite, homogenized muzak w/o the visual excuse.
@Dondi:
here are some new ideas:
http://www.youtube.com/user/KOKOFREAKBEAN
http://www.myspace.com/computerjesusrefrigerator

The one redeeming quality of this sort of music/image fusion is that the music itself is so bereft of complexity that it will have the longevity of a head of lettuce.  It will die off.

But, good lord, the product placement is just mind-numbing.

@KOKOFREAKBEAN:

Glorious.
Awesome 8-bit Post-M.I.Aesthetic and not a sliver of faux-mo titillation masquerading as female empowerment in sight. I like the cut of your jib, sir.

Here’s hoping you’re doing the visuals for the Autechre gig this weekend.

As for Ga Ga: Her pedestrian playground synth-pop glibly attired in early aught’s fashion rag imagery supports the law of diminishing returns. The thin glazing of pseudo self-awareness and PoMo 101 just makes the whole confection simply too sickly to keep down.

Pop is pop. Nothing wrong with that. Laptop stoner mixes are laptop stoner mixes. Nothing wrong with that except laptop stoner mixers tend to be crapily holier than thou. Neither is really new or holier. Sampling and concrete has been around for decades ladies.

I just hope that finally some hot butch dykes got paid some money.

Yes, Lady Gaga is a shamanic priestess - for a civilization that is dying.  Celebrate!

I got it. It’s an ad for virgin mobile.

I don’t understand the hype or the fascination for her, even from the supposedly fastidious self-consciously ‘alt’ people I’ve ended up having to mix with.  How can so many be under the spell of such vapid nonsense?

  Or is this a post-modern embrace of decline?  Masturbating as Rome burns?

Still, it’s another to-be popular post drawing the unwashed masses, eh?

  Huzzah?

The reason people want to believe that Lady Gaga is a shaman or a priestess is because they’re intellectually lazy and truly want to believe that our “pop” culture has some kind of legitimacy. The same people that want to belive it’s okay to be super rich while the rest of the world suffers. You get a lot of that vibe from this site (not to dis the site, but when you have a lot of wealthy rich friends, you go way out of your way to explain to yourself why their lifestyle isn’t heinous - mainly because it works in your favor).

Yeah, it’s brain dead. Visually appealing, but totally fucking brain dead. Style over substance pure and simple, which is the same shit that our culture’s been pushing since maybe ‘96 or so after a brief respite in the early nineties. Remember when selling out was something artists thought about? Watch reality bites (which is a crap movie, but it’s weird to see that artists used to question their desire to bow down to corporate interests - this was something that was going on for a while).

Any true shaman or priestess would preach against hyper consumerism not in it’s favor, and they would you know, actually have something to say. Who are these people that hang out in “clubs”. Answer: vapid retards, who want to get laid without actually having to display any kind of intellect in the process. To break the interaction down to pure physical attraction and nothing else as a means to run from the gaping hole that is their psyche.

I will say this though, I’ve only seen maybe one or two other Lady Gaga videos and my commentary each time has been, aren’t pop stars supposed to be sex symobls, who’s that tranny midget? In that video she at least looked hot. But you know, all the money in the world can buy you some dieticians and personal trainers.

The music and lyrics are super-vapid, super-mediocre, but that’s her ticket to ride. Gaga uses the money she makes from her disco schtick and product placement to act out her costume and video fantasies. I’m sure it’s fun for her. For me, it’s more like watching someone’s Star Trek holideck experience.

Whats going on? She’s maybe hoping that an ounce of B’s natural talent rubs off on her?

whee!!

in response to some of the haters: i never resonated with the music but some friends got me watching her videos, and that’s where whoever’s in charge of lady gaga (herself or some team) is genius.. I’ve started to think of her as a new archetype - different from the way the article mentioned—more as an archetype of focus, zeal, uber-creativity, movement/action, strength and ability to assume command over a system (industry) by abolishing the usual standard.  whether she is self-made or created by a team of industry folks, whether she personally embodies these types of characteristics or not is wholly besides the point (to me). 

at the very least, she’s got a great sense of irony about the cycle of fame/promotion/indentured servitude with the industry.. at the very best, she is about transcending the noise and impacting society, shaping the generation about how mass-media, pop culture, and the lazy consumer are interconnected.. 

if best-case is truly the scenario going on, there needs to be this type of reach and popularity to get into the psyche of the entire world. there may be well-more intelligent artists out there but they’re not intelligent enough to burrow into the minds of masses like she has.

Umm, looooooooooooooooooooooong advertisement.  BOOOOO

Lady Gaga is so unique and that’s why I love her…..no I lied, that’s only one reason….there r so many other reasons…

John Gillanders = wind bag

@paunch and joody
At least he’s saying something. You just proved his point.

It’s heartening to see people reacting against this garbage and depressing to see people making half-assed excuses for it.

There is no irony here, no new archetype. She’s just a corporate lapdog, plain and simple. And a pug at that.

This will tell you all you need to know about the puppets of the entertainment industry:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YelUtvG2X_E

I feel as though those that hate or put down the “image” are incredibly insecure about their own lack of depth and hidden, inescapable superficiality. It is possible to be hyper-superficial and have incredibly deep meaning that isn’t obvious.

Gaga hides poisen in sandwiches of wonder bread and miracle whip for the masses, who manically eat it up and die as a result. Beyonce and Gaga dance around the corpses in American flag attire. They are America, in all it’s patriotic absurdity.

This commentary on consumerism is hidden enough to fool the shallow and obvious enough to engage the art-lover.

In an interview recently Gaga stated that there is a misconception, that everything she does is outrageous for the sake of being outrageous. She clarified that EVERYTHING she does tells a story, and has a deeper meaning that, when patiently deconstructed, speaks volumes about society.

“She clarified that EVERYTHING she does tells a story, and has a deeper meaning that, when patiently deconstructed, speaks volumes about society.”

Yeah, right. Did she clarify any further?

Love the trashglam of the video, and god knows, that’s the dyke prison of my dreams made real (well, almost real), but the majority of people who watch this are either going to think that the music’s shit, or will be enamoured with it becos of the bright colours, the beauty of Beyonce and the attention-grabbing over-the-top cartoony/Tarentino aesthetic. Hate the music or love the general madness of it, either way, it won’t make them actually think anything.

The idea that Gaga’s some kind of augur or shamanic priestess isn’t bearing out. Yes, she’s doing some fulsome wanking while Rome is dying. But trying to search for meaning in her aesthetic or persona stops there, unless you really want to go for some unverifiable, hilariously indulgent extrapolation. There’s no getting around the facts that her music’s completely tedious, this video is nowhere near as impressively absurd as R Kelly’s output of the past few years, and that whilst she & Jonas Akurland certainly know how to showboat their faintly daring visual imaginations, that, too, becomes predictable pretty soon for anyone with an outrageous visual imagination of their own.

I’m still waiting to be shown that there’s something intelligent or genuinely original going on here. It’s only a few steps away from being banal and those few steps seem pretty damn obvious to me, too. I mean, the most impressive thing was the hot girls in the prison. But that’s Russ Meyer & Tarantino & MTV Base. Big fuckin wow.

Although the telephone hats are genius.

Jeramee K, sorry to be a hater, but the idea Gaga’s providing artful commentary on consumerism ‘obvious enough to engage the art-lover’ through a postmodern combination of ubervulgarity and a mash-up of every bit of wacky & crude bit of semiotics she can lay her hands on - um, even if this is the case (and I highly doubt that’s her overarching MO), so what? It’s been done hundreds of times before. It’s hardly mind-shatteringly innovative to be vulgar and outrageous and insist you’re making a subversive point with it.

Just one example out of TONS - The KLF burnt a million quid in 1994. They knew it was artwank. This is analogous, but dressed up as a Diesel ad.

Wow - let’s be flashy, outrageous and OTT and we’ll:
a) convey the message that corporate, hypercapitalist America is fatally self-devouring.
b) inspire people to be “themselves” cos Gaga is clearly a fascinating, richly textured and complex archetype of a benevolent leader (yeah, right).

None of this is in any way original. All Gaga is is momentarily titillating & briefly fascinating. I mean, I admire her ambition and her hilarious fashion sense, and the fact she tries so hard to shock is kind of sweet, but nothing she’s saying or doing is really that clever.

And she dances like a chimpanzee.

It’s pathetic how hard they try with this video, but at the end of the day gaga will only ever be a corporate shill. Her insistence that she is omgsodeep and telling stories is a laugh when you see the real artists work. There are so many inspiring, talented and ACTUAL subversive artists and creators out there. But of course, people have to care enough to seek it out, and most just… don’t.