GaGa. Of course it was going to be her (even if the title didn't give it away). Needless to say, anyone who knows me even in the slightest will know that above all else, I love GaGa. My obsession with Miss Stefani Germanotta is bordering on unhealthy at times, mainly because it results in people attacking me for supporting her as much as I do (not that I'm going to go naming any names...yet...). I think part of the reason I love GaGa as much as I do is because I found her almost by accident, and about a month before everyone else in the UK had first heard Just Dance. The BBC's "Sound 0f 2009" poll released their shortlist in December of 2008, which you can see here; actually, looking at that list, it's kind of interesting to see that a great number of those artists and bands have had quite a large amount of success. Anyway, I was immediately sure that Florence and the Machine had it won (as every critic etc. loved Florence like mad at the time), which annoyed me greatly since I kinda hated her work at that time. That's something I no longer agree with, since I count a great deal of songs on Lungs as being very, very strong. That's something for another post, though. Anyway, I looked through all the profiles and immediately kind of...stopped when I came to GaGa's. Needless to say, the phrases "New York party princess" and "She has also written songs for Britney Spears" were all it took for me to listen to Just Dance. And with that, the obsession began. About a day later I'd downloaded The Fame and within a week I knew all the lyrics off by heart.
I don't know what it is about GaGa's music that is so appealing to me. I just...love it. The fact that she's so different and unique only strikes more chords with me - everything just works for me. When I found out that she didn't even make the top 5 of that "Sound of..." poll, I flipped a little, to say the least. What did make me laugh was that two days after Little Boots was announced as number one in that poll, Just Dance entered the charts at #3, quickly storming to the top a week later. In terms of trying to work out the root of the obsession and why it's gone on for so long, I guess it's a combination of things. It helps, of course, that I love the music so much, but there's more to it than that. The fact that I "discovered" her before everyone else did probably means I had more of an affinity when she became successful, because I felt like I'd jumped the gun on everyone else. Her personality, the quirky randomness, it worked for me. The fact we share the same birthday helps, too (you have no idea the amount of squealing and clapping that went on when I found that out). Overall, it's just...there, this love for GaGa. Which means that when people criticise her, I do tend to go a little bit mad and start defending her with gusto. Of course, I don't just go a bit mad when I'm defending her:
Case in point. The fact I spent about three nights working on the GaGa shirt says it all (R.I.P GaGa shirt, by the by).
This isn't to say I don't find GaGa perfect. People tend to be surprised when I say that there are GaGa songs I don't like. Of course, I can count them on one hand; Eh Eh is just horrible, I'm afraid to say, and I can only ever listen to it in the Pet Shop Boys' remixed form. Then there's Starstruck, which is just a bit bleh (I'm looking at you for this, Flo-Rida). Some songs on The Fame were a bit samey-same (Money Honey and The Fame itself, although I still like them). Ironically, I don't even really like Just Dance that much these days, mainly because it doesn't really sound like a GaGa track. The only Fame Monster song I don't like is Monster, because it just doesn't go anywhere. But for all of those songs, there are the ones that virtually no-one will have heard: Fashion (featured in Confessions of a Shopaholic, then butchered by Heidi Montag), Vanity (performed in The Monster Ball Tour, to my delight), No Floods, Honest Eyes, Second Time Around...the list goes on and on. In fact, No Floods is probably one of my favourite songs, if only because it helped me get through a particularly tough time last year, where I pretty much spent every night listening to it, along with Halo and Run. So, yeah, it's pretty special to me.
I also hate it when people say things like "she can't write songs/she can't sing/she mimes". Because...seriously, no. Alright, yes, I'll admit it: Poker Face is a lot of "muh-muh-muh-mah" and repetition. Telephone is a bit like that, too. But that's sort of what makes them great. I've yet to be in a club where, the second that Bad Romance comes on, nobody starts to sing along with the "ohhhhhhhh..." at the start, quickly followed by "Ra, ra, ah ah ah" (I'd post the rest, but you all know it anyway, and you know you do). She can't sing? Go ahead and listen to that No Floods video above, or the Honest Eyes one. She sings live all the time, as the Honest Eyes video proves, but there's plenty of other examples of this. GaGa is a performer, and she does what she does amazingly. The videos for Paparazzi, Bad Romance and Telephone are awesome...aaaaand now I'm going in to uber fanboy mode. My point is, no matter how much people may say they hate GaGa, I've yet to find anyone who doesn't like at least one of her songs. As much as people may wish to hurl violence and insults upon her, she's here to stay and that's something I will be happy about for a long, long time.
I have a few other things I want to write about, although the one problem I do have is the fact that trying to open up to just one person is an uphill struggle for me that I can't really face half the time, let alone doing it via a blog for everyone to see. Plus, the fact that I generally have three-four different groups of people I know doesn't really help that, since something one group of people may know the other won't. Still, you only live once, so...we shall see.
Oh, also: Miley Cyrus, Can't Be Tamed. Sort of an awesome song, when it really, really shouldn't be.
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