We aren't talking about the re-invention of the wheel. As far as electro divas go, Lady Gaga is only the latest in a vast line known for contributing both good and bad marks to the pop cultural landscape.Invariably, I tend to measure my pop stars up to a few litmus tests. Should they match up to each one with atleast one or two flying colours, then I add them to my shortlist of catchy obsessions.
A few examples of what I consider TRULY great examples of electro pop goodness: 1977's collaboration between dance floor goddess Donna Summer and Moog progeny Giorgio Morodor. The result? The sprawling 20+ minute epic 'I Feel Love', a cavalcade of spaced out synth sweeps, robotic beats and cooing vocals courtesy of Ms. Summer.
Another barometer: the self titled album by one Madonna Louisse Ciccone. See here's the thing about Madonna, here career has been largely hit and miss (the Evita soundtrack comes to mind for marks to place in the "Bad! Shame On You!" column. Her most recent Hard Candy was a large miscalculation and suffered from too many cooks in the kitchen with multiple producers and enough varying sounds to make it sound like a badly composed composition then a cohesive record), but when she's on, she's fabulous (her Confessions On The Dance Floor two years back met derision by many for its heavily robotic sound, and I'll confess that maybe the Morodor influence is what had me sold, but what a solid record!). That first record though? Near perfect. Half of the bloody thing ended up as singles - count them, 'Holiday', 'Lucky Star', 'Burnin' Up', 'Borderline', 'Everybody' - we're talking a MASSIVE record.
One last barometer: Kylie Minogue's 2002 released single 'Love At First Sight' single. Put simply, it did for me what 'I Feel Love' and Kraftwerk's 'Trans Europe Express' did for everyone in '77. For a 17 year old kid coming out of punk rock and a listening palate that demanded everything be loud and fast, Minogue reminded me why New Order were still my favorite band ever despite their lack of testosterone ridden aggression and why electronic music lived up to the promise Brian Eno bestowed upon it when he proclaimed it the future of music.
So where does this put Lady Gaga? While I admit a bit of envy at her success and age (being only a year younger then myself), her Fame album is undeniably brilliant. With a pair of missteps (the generic Paper Gangster and the filler ballad Brown Eyes), the album still sports a 13 strong set of songs that come one after the other like bullets out of a glitter drenched machine gun. Sure 'Just Dance', 'Love Game' and 'Poker Face' are rad songs and were heard pouring out of every rolled down window up and down every city street, but the rest of the record? 'Summer Boy' cops Blondie with the best of them while the record's self titled track has such a massive sound that every other pop song released this year sounds positively underwhelming in comparison.
With her recently released 8 song Fame Monster, Gaga steps things up in many ways by slowing them down. 'Speechless' pays homage to the Queen reference in her name while 'Alejandro' and 'Bad Romance' are more four to the floor dance tracks in the vein of the album's predecessor's singles.
In all likelihood, with all of the hyperbole removed, we truly are looking at our generation's defining pop star. Our older siblings had Madonna and we have Gaga. What sets her apart? We're talking avant garde dance troupes, absolutely mind blowing outfits (not the scantily composed stuff, but the orbs, the lighting panels, all of it colliding in a collage of Dadaist fashion brilliance). To say that Lady Gaga is staging a massive pop cultural coup is an understatement. Detractors say the masses are brain washed - truth is this, they're wrong. Our generation finally has a pop star on a mass scale with actual creative chops and none of the mindless manufactured bunk and bile that has afflicted the past pop messiahs whose prophecies have ultimately amounted to nothing.
In Gaga we trust...
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