Music essay on structuring and composition

Music

Few popular music stars today are as colorful as Lady Gaga. Recently on tour, Lady Gaga is again making the headlines. In South Africa, a group of churches has been organizing protests against Lady Gaga's performances, and even just her presence, in the country. Among other complaints, the South African Council of Churches claims Lady Gaga's visit "could lead to an exponential growth of Satanism," (Engelbrecht, p. 1). For others, Lady Gaga is a welcome presence in the popular culture because she spreads the message of gender equality and positive gender "performativity," (Horn, p. 1). Lady Gaga is like a female "drag queen" and therefore sends a good message about tolerance of gender and sexual identities. Finally, Lady Gaga exemplifies the way social media can be used to promote popular culture and allow for greater fan interactions and control over content. Given that Lady Gaga is associated with Satanism, gender, and social media, few people view Lady Gaga as a pure musician. Lady Gaga is a controversial pop music star because she is a performer, even more than she is a musician.

One of the ways Lady Gaga is a performer is by staging elaborate and expensive stadium shows, which are responsible for the Council of Churches in South Africa's anger and fear over her presence in their country (Engelbrecht). The fact that the Council of Churches in South Africa is not focused on the content of Lady Gaga's lyrics is significant because it shows they object more to her performances and her image than to the music itself. Horn states, "Her outfits and performances proved to be the highlights of the evening at shows like the American Music Awards and MTV Music Awards," (p. 1). Unlike gangsta rap music, Lady Gaga's music is not controversial. It is her stage performances and her public image that are controversial, as well as her association with gay culture.

Thus, another way Lady Gaga is more a performing artist than a musician is in the way she understands how to enact the "drag queen" or "camp" mentality. In "Camping with the Stars: Queer Perfomativity, Pop Intertextuality, and Camp in the Pop Art of Lady Gaga," the author claims that "camp found its way into popular culture and academic discussions about new aesthetics," and Lady Gaga is an integral part of this phenomenon (p. 1). The drag queen and camp phenomena are closely associated with the gay community. As a result, many homophobes are opposed to anything that resembles a drag queen. Even though she is female, Lady Gaga represents a Drag Queen, and therefore, she also represents gay pride. Her hit song "Born this Way" could be read as a gay pride anthem.

Lady Gaga is also controversial because she is viewed more like a marketing device than a real musician. In "Gaga, Oooh Lala: Why the Lady Is the Ultimate Social Climber," the author states about Lady Gaga, "few marketers of any kind have leveraged social media the way she has to drive sales of their core product," (p. 1). By this, Hampp means that Lady Gaga is in control over her image and her entire marketing mix in ways that many traditional musicians envy. Lady Gaga has been involved in many marketing campaigns because she is good at what she does. It just happens to be that Lady Gaga is better at marketing herself as a whole popular music package, than she is at actually writing songs.