Music in the 21st century was accused of being increasingly derivative and irrelevant. Interest in individual performers, in the era of iTunes, was being relegated to the sidelines as teens assembled their own 'mixes' rather than sought to embrace the output of an individual artist. It was said that the era of the great soloist and the great musical concept album was dead. With her first album The Fame in 2008, Lady Gaga changed all of that and silenced the industry's critics. Yes, she is frequently outrageous and provokes controversy for her attire as well as her voice. But underneath all of the glam and glitter, Lady Gaga has proved that she a unique mix of vocal talent, showmanship, and social activism. She has also generated a huge following on Facebook and Twitter. Lady Gaga's fans do not simply download "Poker Face," "Telephone" and "Born this Way" online. They love Gaga, and follow her every word and move. She calls them her 'little monsters' -- her code name for people who are unafraid to be different and weird, as she says she was in high school. Lady Gaga's meteoric rise to fame illustrates the American dream: if you work hard, regardless of your background, you can still succeed if you have talent and tap into the unmet needs of the listening public. She began as an ordinary 'club kid' named Stefani Germanotta attending the Tisch School of Performing Arts at New York University. She had no particular connections to the recording industry. However, she fused her academic studies of the idea of 'performing' femininity. She adopted and exaggerated the styles of old Hollywood starlets -- and drag queens. Although Lady Gaga was a young woman, she set out to become a drag queen herself -- a larger-than-life figure who was 'Gaga,' not merely the ordinary, suburban teen role she was born into but chafed against. Lady Gaga found confidence creating a new identity, but in doing so, she 'found herself.' "When I wake up in the morning, I feel just like any other insecure 24-year-old girl...Then I say, 'Bitch, you're Lady Gaga, you get up and walk the walk today'"...
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