What is with this chick? She is down right nutty, 
http://factoryboi.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/lady-gaga-9309-12.jpg
She’s rich and wildly popular. Nothing crazy about that.
I hater her with a seething, irrational rage.
I’ve seen her described as a performance artist, and that makes the most sense to me. Of course, there is no restriction that excludes performance artists from being nutty, too.
Probably less nutty than 95% of humanity, though.
Lady Gaga is a ridiculous character created by Stefani Germanotta. Stefani appeared reasonably normal in an early appearance on a reality show, Boiling Points.
There’s a youtube video of Stefani here.
Lady Gaga is a performance artist, playing a media game, and doing it very, very well. Here’s her wearing a costume made of Kermit the Frog:
http://www.celebrity-gossip.net/celebrities/hollywood/lady-gaga-kermit-the-frog-cutie-215854/
She also makes pretty good pop songs, which is a nice bonus. She was great at Glastonbury. Here’s the slow version of Poker Face:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x9xz9h_lady-gaga-glastonbury-poker-face_music
Here’s the whole thing in it’s full splendid barking nutterdomness. Note the Candy Warhol stuff.
http://www.veoh.com/browse/videos/category/music/watch/v187151667YBdTDyX
Her shtick reminds me Sacha Cohen’s crazy characters. Both performers are pushing the boundaries and love making audiences uncomfortable.
Andy Kaufman did the same thing 30 years ago.
What, just because she wears ridiculous outfits? What do you actually know about her besides her fashion sense?
What I find a bit confusing about her is that she’s apparently a performance artist because of the wild costumes she wears, but her primary product – her songs – seem to me to be about as mainstream and commercial as it gets. Back in my day, performance artists were generally people who tried (successfully or not) to push the boundaries with their art. Pop stars who dressed funny were generally called pop stars who dress funny.
ETA: For example, David Bowie, Peter Gabriel, and Elton John in the '70s may have occasionally been described as performance artists, but it didn’t seem to be a ubiquitous prefix to their names. Klaus Nomi would be a better example of a performance artist.
EATA: Not that the '70s were my day…
The best example I can think of of a real performance artist actually becoming a (minor) pop star would be New York artist Laurie Anderson’s “O Superman” accidentally reaching No. 2 on the U.K. charts. Ironically she has released many more “commercial” records since, none of which have been hits.
So, would you buy Lady Gaga as a singing persona?
For the record, I would have lost my shit after 30 seconds.
I guess she figured she could be Stefani Gagamanotta, generic Amy Winehouse clone playing indie rock in some bar* in Soho or she could be Lady Gaga, multi millionare pop sensation.
*
- The Bitter End on Bleeker ST.*
I find her a breath of fresh air, a change from all these bulging cleavage divas.
Gaga has said that her main form of expression is her visual art. Her performances and videos are really great works of visual art. To me that makes up for the mediocre songs because I haven’t seen visual art that exciting and insightful anywhere else.
I never saw the appeal of avant-garde fashion until Lady Gaga came along. She uses it express things in ways that I find strangely compelling.
If anyone wants to read about the art and substance behind the funny way she dresses, here is a good article.
Bad Romance is a great freaking song.
Here is another non gaga performance. From the link it looks like she can actually sing pretty well, unlike many other pop starlets.
From the linked article -
She is absolutely right. A dance song with some lame-ass synchronized dancing video to go with it is just boring and unsatisfying (Janet Jackson, I’m looking at you). The medium is music AND video at this point - if you’re going to do both, DO both, don’t just toss out some half-hearted attempt at a video and call it good enough.
Most likely a muppet escaped from Jim Henson’s Creature Shop. That, or a Frankenstein assembled from the spare parts of Madonna and Cher.
She bridges the gap between the authentic and the artificial in an intriguing way. I’d say it’s a return to glam: T-Rex and Bowie with a modern dance sensibility.
You don’t often see legitimate female singer-songwriters become international pop superstars. Hopefully she can sustain it better than Shakira or Amy Winehouse have.