Well, to be fair, I was only able to fairly judge her vocal talent after listening to a few of her a cappella or live performances. The stuff that gets played on the radio has been so heavily mixed/Autotuned that it’s impossible to judge her real talent from it. I mean, there are a lot of artists out there that sound great on the radio, but are completely unable to carry a tune when doing a live show.
Autotune is not unlimited in it’s power. It can clean things up (or, more accurately to my ear, flatten things out), but it can’t make Britney Spears sound like Sarah Brightman. Hell, it can’t make her sound like Christina Aguilera. It can make you sound competent, not good. Frankly, people throw around uninformed opinions of autotune more than they throw around uninformed opinions of GaGa.
Well, OK, I’m just saying that there have been artists in the past that I have previously thought were reasonably talented vocalists, and then they appeared on SNL or some such, and couldn’t even stay in tune. Taylor Swift, for example. Although that may have a lot to do with SNL’s shitty sound, I don’t know.
Yeah, that’s definitely an odd assessment (that Gaga has less vocal talent than Madonna.)
I think it does. I know nothing of Taylor Swift except that I am by default NOT Team Kanye, but everyone sounds like crap on SNL. 
I absolutely adore Lady Gaga. I guess I’m a fangirl that’s bought into the “hype,” but I generally dislike mainstream acts (Not just because they are mainstream, but because they usually don’t do it for me). Gaga, though, is very different, in my utter-layperson opinion. Her songs are just so . . . well-produced. They sound so layered and complex to me, compared to say, Britney Spears or even Madonna (although music technology was not as sophisticated then, so maybe it’s not a fair comparison).
So, I think her actual music is awesome, and I think her voice has a richness and depth that most pop stars lack. On top of that, I love the persona. I love how over-the-top and atypical she is, and as a poster mentioned above, she’s not obsessed with looking generically sexy like every. other. female. artist. She’ll make herself look downright goofy if she thinks it will fit into her artistic ideal. Also, interestingly enough, I’m not really sure what her face looks like.
:dubious: Have you seen “Telephone”? It’s nothing but tits, ass and vaginas. It makes Madonna look like a virgin.
I have seen “Telephone” and there are very, very few scenes in it where you could even reasonably try to say that any female in the shot is trying to look “generically sexy.”
I am not a fan of Lady Gaga’s music personally, but less than an hour ago I made the comment that she could potentially be this generation’s equivalent of David Bowie during his glamour years. Having now read this thread, I think the comparison to Madonna might be slightly better - or at least more palatable.
At first I wanted to hate her.
But then I found myself singing along to Poker Face, completely unintentionally.
Not any woman, her. I was responding to the idea that she’s not obsessed with looking generically sexy. I think that’s exactly what she’s going for.
Yeah, I stand by my prior comment. Any female in the shot, including Gaga.
That’s funny, because there are tons of articles talking about how she’s not afraid to look ugly, or take skimpyness (like her well known hatred of pants :)), which would usually be sexy, but make it either not sexy, ugly or downright grotesque.
Though yeah, I can see how frogs, being covered in blood, smoking after sex 
, near nakedness and some bitchin’ headpieces are pretty hot. 
She likes being weird (duh) and likes showing things that should be sexy (lacy things, wearing fur, visible lingerie, looking naked, skimpy clothing) actually looking anti sexy. She isn’t afraid to look hideous, and that’s cool.
Plus, with all the whackadoodle outfits and headpieces? She could totally go out in jeans, tshirt and sneakers and virtually no one would recognize her. Pretty slick.
Some guys have been known to like cleavage and naked women. I suspect there are even some porn movies involving prison scenes.
It’s not her only schtick but it is certainly a part of it. She definitely goes for the unusual.
I’ll just point to zweisamkeit’s post. Yes, there is cleavage/nakedness/etc., but very little of it is being presented in a “generically sexy” way.
Actually, I thought that the bit where the two guards walk her to her prison cell where the women are framed by the cell doors and being sort of predatorial, was generically sexy. As in, they were all stereotyping on purpose. It instantly became a bad women in prison flick at that point.
I agree completely. I have no idea what your tastes are, but I think if I were forced to choose between my favorite 100 records from 1960-1999 or favorite from 2000-2009, I’d side with the latter. A lot of that has to do with exposure. If you like music, it’s just so easy to find things now that suit your taste, and if you’re a bit open about what music can be (more than just drums, guitars, bass, vox), then it’s astonishing what’s been put out the past few years. And for better or worse, everyone making music now can get exposure to the world. If you’re good, you’ll probably be found.
Examples? The very small amount of radio music I’ve been exposed to this decade has been ghastly, and I just don’t have the zeal to be hunting down new stuff all the time like I used to. The only great music I can think of that I discovered this decade is Sufjan Stevens, and I waded through a lot of shit to find him.
Errr, I’m still thinking of 2000 - 2009 as “this decade,” obviously.
A cursory look into my iTunes library reveals The Strokes, The Black Keys, The Avett Brothers, Blackalicious (well, Nia came out in 1999, but it was late in the year), The Flaming Lips’ “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots”, Girl Talk, Gorillaz, Iron & Wine, Jimmy Eat World’s “Bleed American”, Metric, Old Crow Medicine Show, Spoon, Tinariwen (look it up. seriously.), and dozens more. I won’t put this decade over the previous 40 years combined, but it’s certainly been excellent.
Bowie was always musically innovative. Gaga’s stuff sounds like a dozen other cookie cutter artists.