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TRANSCRIPT
LADY GAGA – BACKGROUND & CONTEXT
In 2008, Lady Gaga made a striking entry into the pop music scene. With her album, The Fame, she became the first artist to produce five number one hits on Billboard’s Pop Songs chart from a debut album.
Lady Gaga also grabbed the pop spotlight with her outrageous persona, built from an eclectic collection of characteristics, including unpredictable theatricality, avant-garde fashion, gender-bending performance, and GLBTQ activism.
The Italian-American star, born Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, maintains her public image with a team of stylists, designers, producers, and choreographers she calls the “Haus of Gaga.” Referencing her larger-than-life persona, Gaga claims, “my whole life is a performance. . . . I have to up the ante every day” (qtd in Stein and Michelson 109).
Lady Gaga’s subsequent musical releases, The Fame Monster and Born This Way, which followed in November 2009 and May 2011 respectively, definitely upped the ante. For example, the title song from Born This Way, released in February 2011, quickly topped the charts in 23 countries and set an iTunes record for selling one million copies in five days.
To date, Lady Gaga has sold 16.5 million albums and 29.5 million digital singles, which helped to put her in the number one position of Forbes’ 2011 Celebrity 100 index, which measures both fame and wealth .
As illustrated by her record-breaking following on Facebook (57 million fans as of May 2013), Twitter (37 million followers as of May 2013), and YouTube (1.2 billion views), she has a massive and loyal fan base.
Lady Gaga– Artist, Image & Music
Feature Connotation
Look/image
Gender
Nationality
Musical Instruments
Ideologies -Beliefs
perpetuated by the artists
Make notes on Lady Gag’s first few hits, analysing them using the following features as
anchors.
Key Information Technical
Conventions
Audience Representation
Purpose:Entertainment?
Persuasion?
Profit?
Form:Performance?
Narrative?
Conceptual?
Genre:Rock? Indie? Pop?
Tone:Happy? Serious? Sad?
Erotic? Mysterious?
Camera Shots:
Lighting:
Costume/Make Up:
Colour:
Setting:
Props:
Who is the target
audience?
How are they
being targeted?
What is the artiste
doing?
What are they
wearing?
How are the men &
women represented
in the video?
How does this target
their audience?
Think about age,
race, gender.
FACTORS TO CONSIDER IN MUSIC VIDEOS
LADY GAGA – Tracks to analyse
1. Just Dance (2008)
2. Poker Face (2008)
3. Love Game (2009)
4. Paparazzi (2009)
5. Bad Romance (2009)
6. Telephone (2010)
7. Alejandro (2010)
8. Born This Way (2011)
9. Judas (2011)
10. Applause (2013)
11. Cheek to Cheek (2014)
12. Perfect Illusion (2016)
Lady Gaga's Videos
Hidden symbolism in Lady Gaga
videos
LADY GAGA – what is the Audience Appeal?
1. The Music – the “sound” : Genre
2. The Music - lyrical content : Narrative
3. The Image: Representation
4. Fans – Audiences: niche vs. mainstream
5. Fans – pleasure: Uses & Gratification: Escapism + Fan community
6. Music Videos – connection / authenticity
7. Music Videos – Star persona / Escapism
8. Internet – Exposure / Raising Awareness
STARTER QUESTIONS – CONSIDER…
1. To what extent does Lady Gaga challenge or reinforce genre conventions?
2. Explore the key gender representations of Lady Gaga.
3. How do audiences respond to Lady Gaga? Remember – media texts are generally polysemic.
4. To what extend does Lady Gaga target mainstream audiences?
5. Is Lady Gaga all style over substance?
6. How important are record labels to the marketing of an artist like Lady Gaga?
LADY GAGA & SOCIAL MEDIA
BACKPLANE
Backplane got its start by creating private social networks for music artists and major social
influencers. It all began when Lady Gaga received 1.3 trillion social impressions following the
release of her Born This Way album. The social wave that was created brought tens of millions of
people on to social networking sites. Inspired by Gaga, they were looking for a place to share
their passions for music, dance, fashion, and art - a place where they felt free to be themselves. It
quickly became obvious that what was forming was more than a page on a social network. It
was a social network. And while her massive following gained her millions of ‘likes’, it was the
social sites themselves with ad revenues and data insights that stood to reap all of value.
Her fan-site LittleMonsters.com currently has 4.9m users.
LADY GAGA – IMAGE ANALYSIS #1
How do the following images represent Lady Gaga?
What connotations do the images have?
What is the focus?
How is colour important?
Is the choice of font relevant?
Who would these images appeal to?
How do think the images will impact on the marketing of Lady Gaga as an
artist?
LADY GAGA – IMAGE ANALYSIS #2
How do the following images represent Lady Gaga?
What connotations do the images have?
What is the focus?
How is colour important?
Is the choice of font relevant?
Who would these images appeal to?
How do think the images will impact on the marketing of Lady Gaga as an
artist?
LADY GAGA’S FANS – LITTLE MONSTERS
Read the below statement from Lady Gaga to her ‘little monsters’ about her
interactive littlemosnters.com fan zone.
Welcome home, little monsters. This is for us. LittleMonsters.com is a place for all
monsters to gather, to create, to share, and to inspire. Remember, it's up to us to
keep LittleMonsters.com a safe and accepting space for everyone, so please...
Be brave. Dare to create and share your art with the world. Be kind. Encourage
and support your fellow monsters. We don't want to put anyone down, be it other
Little Monsters or other artists.
Be tolerant. Never make anyone feel unwelcome or judged; treat everyone with
respect, love and acceptance.
Be original. Please only upload content you've created or have permission to
post.
Be a contributor. Post good content and good discussion will follow. Don't ask for
likes. Up-vote great comments, and down-vote those that take away from to the
discussion (there is no room for negativity within LittleMonsters.com).
Be safe. Protect your privacy, and respect the privacy of others.
Be respectful. Keep things appropriate for everyone, including all of the young
little monsters out there. Please no nudity or explicit content. If you repeatedly
post content that offends the community, we may have to limit your access.
Most importantly... be yourself.
LADY GAGA – RESEARCH QUESTIONS
Industry
1. Who are the ‘Big Three’ music distributors?
2. What other media do the ‘Big Three’ produce?
3. What percentage of the music market do Universal Music group own?
4. Who else are signed to Universal? What does this suggest about the label?
5. What platform did Universal create to compete with YouTube?
6. What is the appeal of vevo?
7. What influence did Universal and Sony have on Lady Gaga’s success?
8. Do you attribute her continuing success to the record label or other factors?
LADY GAGA – RESEARCH QUESTIONS
Representation
1. How is Lady Gaga represented?
2. How does her stance on LGBT issues contribute to her representation? Look into her
activism involving ‘don’t ask don’t tell’ in the USA.
3. What kind of role model is she?
4. How might a post-feminist read Lady Gaga?
5. How might a Marxist read Lady Gaga? Consider her position both as a brand and a
product. Think about how she relates to Capitalism and Neo-liberalism.
LADY GAGA – RESEARCH QUESTIONS
Audience
1. How do Lady Gaga’s ‘little monsters’ define themselves? How are they
unique as a fan base?
2. How are the audience positioned to read Lady Gaga?
3. What is user generated content?
4. Find an example of a popular video (user generated content) which relates
to Lady Gaga.
5. How important is social networking in relation to Lady Gaga and her fans?
LADY GAGA – ALBUM SALES
Lady Gaga – Albums
The Fame (2008) worldwide sales 15 million
Born This Way (2011) worldwide sales 6 million
Artpop (2013) worldwide sales 2.6 million
Cheek to Cheek (2014) worldwide sales 0.7 million (Jazz covers with Tony Bennett)
Joanne (2016) to be released …