I agree that she is really attractive out of costume, but I don’t know if she has the pop tart look. It’s about more than just being attractive, although I can’t exactly describe it.
Furthermore, she very clearly was not getting anywhere as herself. It’s not like Germanotta never released an album. If she’d have stayed the course, she might have made it to pop, but she’d be one of those many great singers no one has ever heard of. Her only ticket to true pop fame was taking on a persona.
And it is a persona. Her craziness is just too calculated. Even if her story about it starting from a drug fueled craze is true, she’s clearly under too much control for that to currently be the sole motivator. She’s not Amy Winehouse. It is her levelheadedness that makes me think she actually stands a chance.
BTW: I prefer Weird Al’s version. There are plenty of times when I think Al is a poor substitute for the real thing, but not this time. His background stuff is mixed better, and his voice successfully counters the tinniness of what’s left. Other than the weird nasally thing he does when he sings low (which I always thought was just to be funny), he sounds better throughout. Unlike Gaga’s, I just intentionally listened to his song twice. In a row.
On preview: I see someone else has responded similarly to Justin, but they went a little differently with it, so I’ll keep mine.
I’m aware of the first point, and I’ll mostly concede the second.
What Weird Al does is very different than what Lady Gaga does though, I think everyone knows what I mean by that and I think everyone knows that they aren’t really comparable.
Somewhere along the line Weird Al became the mainstream parody guy, there’s not a lot of room for multiple acts like that and he was talented enough and beat everyone else to the punch. That’s great. But he doesn’t have to worry about reinventing himself or remaining culturally relevant, all he has to do is wait for the real culture makers to come up with something and he riffs off that.
That bit will never get old because it will always have something new to create from. I would be more impressed with his longevity if his career were based entirely around original comedy songs. We all know though that his original stuff, while it may even be his best, is not the drawing power of what he does. That would be siphoning from the creativity of others and adding a bit of his own.
Once again I’m not disparaging him, I’ve always been a fan. But favorably comparing the lasting power of his career to every sub genre and big artist over the course of decades is just silly and missing the entire point.
But didn’t Britney have nearly the same fanbase? No matter how hot she was, I don’t think a significant portion of her fanbase were mostly just oogling her, either.
Back in the 1950s when Stan Freberg wanted to do a parody of “Dragnet”, his record company insisted he get permission from Jack Webb. Not only did Webb give permission without reading the script and made arrangements to get the orchestra play the Dragnet theme. Not only was Webb a far superior artist than Lady GagMeWithASpoon, he was a far superior human being with the all-important gift of laughter.
So saying no to Weird Al makes someone a shit head instantly?
Gaga’s people initially apparently not liking the sound of the song makes them humourless instantly?
Do any Weird Al fans here think that he has ever been a bigger star than Gaga is right now? Or ever?
Of all the singles either of them have released in the US, Gaga’s worst charts at 10 (it was only released a week ago so it will probably improve), Weird Al’s BEST (over all these years…) charted at 9.
Saying no to Weird Al doesn’t make one a dick. Lots of people have done it. On the other hand, stringing him along and letting him write, produce and record a whole song, and then saying no, is kinda a dick move.
It’s a good thing the issue is resolved. Weird Al > Gaga.
The public has shown, over and over again, that saying no to Weird Al is a cardinal sin when it comes to pop culture. The correct response (again, shown over and over again) is to say yes and then realize that because Weird Al wants to parody you, it means you’ve made it.
Holy shit. How many times are we going to have to go over this? The (now-resolved) beef was *never *that she said no. If she had simply declined, no one would have ever heard about it.
Agreed with olives…both of them are dynamic and interesting. Why does it have to be one or the other? I fancy they make our world have a little more fun in it.
What Weird Al did makes no sense at all. He essentially asked her permission, was denied the permission, and went ahead and released the song/video anyway. The fact that he didn’t put it on the album is meaningless. He released it believing that Gaga didn’t want it released, which negates the whole purpose of asking permission, which he has no obligation to do in the first place. The fact that Gaga retroactively gave her permission after the release doesn’t clear things up at all.
He hasn’t made the video yet AFAIK, and it’s possible, though I admit it’s my own factless WAG, that Al suspected his request wasn’t making it through to Lady Gaga herself, and he figured he’d make sure it was really Gaga saying “no.”
He released it for free. He wasn’t planning on making any money off it beyond the publicity. He also felt, as has been pointed out a few times, that the way in which he was denied was a dick move; nobody’s ever made him write and record an entire song before they’d approve or deny. That was a waste of time when he was supposed to be working on his own album (something Gaga’s people should be familiar with), and if he really wanted to be a dick about it, he could claim they commissioned the song and bill them for his time.
Asking permission before doing the parody is a courtesy. Why should he continue being courteous to people who screw with him? Just because you’re a nice guy doesn’t mean you have to be a doormat.
Irrelevant. When an artist objects to a parody, it has nothing to do with whether someone is making money off of it, and Weird Al knows it.
Then why did he do it? Nobody forced him to. He could have just said, “Nah, I’m not going to do this on spec” and left it there. Instead, he wrote the lyrics and recorded the song, all for the purported purpose of obtaining permission, which means that there would be a possibility that permission would be denied.
The fact that he could have behaved even more like a dick really doesn’t explain anything.
If he has no intention of abiding by the artists’ wishes, then asking permission isn’t a courtesy. It’s a weird, nonsensical, bizarre, waste of time for everyone involved.
Right, and so the song would not have been on his next album. You say that’s meaningless, but that’s only your assertion, one which I’m not inclined to accept.
I’m not a fan of either of them, but I guess if I had to sit and listen to either of them for an hour, I would certainly pick Weird Al.
But all this talk about who is more popular and has had more success of the charts is so… silly. If you look at the majority of the other performers that populate these same charts, they are not usually the sort of company that I would be proud to keep.
TL;DR = Most chart-toppers suck bigtime! Asserting the superiority of a performer based on their position on the charts is sort of like saying how honest a politician is because they got elected.