Lady Gaga – Gagaism: From Pop Cultural Phenomenon and Why it Needs to Stop
The Little Monsters are so adamant in making us all believe the greatness of her queen that they go online comparing everyone and everything to Lady Gaga, from the tiniest thing like a small dance move of raising your arms, to everyone using pieces of mirror on their faces… even if Lady Gaga did it after someone else.
So while many people comment on other videos saying Gaga does it better, or Gaga this and Gaga that, fans of the other artists grow tired just as the people who get compared to her all the time. It’s not only that Christina Aguilera got called a Lady Gaga wannabe when her Bionic album dropped — though it was a miscalculated mistake to go on the slightly electronic synth pop direction at the time, Lady Gaga wasn’t the first one to do music for the slightly unappreciated demographic with Jonas Åkerlund — in Beautiful [MV], or weird and slightly scary visuals on a not exactly pop music video.
So it is completely understandable why Aguilera would be delicate on the subject of comparisons, just like when superstar and fashion icon Grace Jones had to voice out her thoughts on the Gaga phenomenon. In all honesty, there wouldn’t be any problems if fans didn’t keep giving hyperbole like this to their idol, but to them there’s nothing before or after Lady Gaga. To those who follow Gagaism, there’s only Before Gaga and After Gaga.
To many of them, Grace Jones — Before Gaga era — is not possible.
Gagaism needs to stop not because Gaga is a bad role model. On the contrary, she’s proved to be a concerned human being that worries about the world… an idol that cares deeply about her fans. Lady Gaga spreads a message of acceptance, though not new, it should never be diminished for it. But her fans, those who follow Gagaism, those Little Monsters that take it too far, they are the product of today’s crazy times — when you’re not only a Twilight fan, you’re a Twilighter, or worse, a Twihard. You’re not a Justin Bieber fan, you’re a Belieber.
Our fanaticism is getting out of control, and it clouds our judgement of other talent. For example, when Mainland China’s Laure Shang began expanding her music into fashion, she got often compared to Lady Gaga — even I made the Lady Gaga comparison on the review of Shang’s Nightmare. I didn’t do it out of spite. In fact, I did it as a parallel example and as a compliment. This doesn’t change the fact that these comments get so tiring that Shang herself states that she is not “the Chinese Lady Gaga,” she’s Laure Shang — a Chinese music artist.
In any case, Gagaism in China should get a little quiet after the release of The Edge of Glory [MV], when Lady Gaga showed up with a strikingly similar look (angular, layered style and all) to a photoshoot Laure Shang did in Japan a year prior. [1][2]
After the release of Born this Way, which received generally positive reviews from the critics, as well as some lukewarm (but generally excited) reception from fans, we’ll have to see where Lady Gaga is headed. Next year marks her proper fifth year under the spotlight (Wikipedia states she’s been active since 2005, which would make it her seventh), and as all things pop… we may or may not have Gaga for a lifetime.
—
Is the popularity of certain personalities or subjects turning you off from their appeal?
Nice article, Amy!!
“In all honesty, there wouldn’t be any problems if fans didn’t keep giving hyperbole like this to their idol, but to them there’s nothing before or after Lady Gaga”
I think this quote nails it perfectly. As you know, I’m a pretty big Gaga fan. But even I can’t stand some of the fans sometimes. It’s becoming unbearable to read comments on YouTube anymore, whether it be a Gaga video or a Slipknot song. Somehow, someway, Gaga/Twilight/Bieber are always being brought into the conversation.
Loved that you included the 2009 VMA performance. I was away for military training when Gaga broke through, so if I remember correctly, that performance was one of the first times (if not the very first) that I saw Gaga. That, my friend, was love at first sight. :)
@Red, I know you are ;D
I read YouTube comments to get a sense of what people are thinking, but I always end up saying why I even bother. LOL
To be honest with everyone, it’s not only Gaga/Twilight/Bieber alone any longer… there’s those horrible message of “Like if you are listening this ten years later” or 2011, or whatever other version. The internet is getting out of hand LOL
I also love that VMA performance, I think it was the first one I saw. I remember my friend in Toronto try to get me hook on Gaga when the MV for Poker Face came out, but I just didn’t like it. xD But when I saw this performance, I thought she was good and started paying more attention. I don’t think I’ve seen anything else from Gaga that has gotten me the same or similar reaction, though.
Have you seen her live?
@amy, I haven’t. She came to Omaha back in March, but I was already over in Iraq. Hopefully I can catch her sometime when I get back!
@Red, I’m hoping for a Latin American tour xD despite all the criticism, I do want to see her show live.
@amy, And despite this article you write, you still hope to attend a Lady Gaga concert, lol. I’m sure she’ll come. If Bieber and Spears are coming, Gaga might as well pop up.
@Rodrigo, psh – my dislike for the fanbase has nothing to do with my interest to see Gaga live. Unless… fans are going to be saying “that’s so Gaga” through it all.
I agree that the subject wouldn’t be so over blown if it wasn’t for the ‘fanatism’. Not the ‘fans’, fanatism. I disagree that the article is to be directed at a single artist (Gaga or otherwise). This should be an article about how obssessive fanatism leads to distorition of thought, complete denial of anything that isn’t their obssession and the obnoxinous, misconstrued idea that any one else who does anything remotely similar to their idol is either copying or a wannabe. Nevermind that plenty others have done it before and plenty more will do it after.
This is a matter of being mature enough to distinguish between admiring and obssesssing. One thing is to love your idol and admire the positive things they do. Another is to convert that love into a form of veneration. We all have role models in our lives, beacons of inspiration that guide us, but there’s a fine line from there to much darker feelings.
A lot of these people don’t even realise it but it’s a bit of a sickness. It’s not healthy at all. I have special beef with the Beliebers. Those not only obssess to the point of making me feel homicidal but to top it all off they’re mostly comprised of pre-teen girls. This is exactly why it’s useless to watch shows like the VMA’s and the MTV Movie Awards anymore. People don’t care who did it best but how many times they voted for their favorites. I’ve even seen artists on twitter giving out prices to users who vote the most in random contests, just feeding the sickness.
It’s gotten way out of control. When the Justin Beiber 3D-movie wins “Most Jaw Dropping Moment” award over 127 Hours… you know something in the world has gone wrong.
@Roxanne, I had to pick Lady Gaga because she’s the most name-dropped on anything that might be remotely interesting… like seeing “that’s so Gaga” comments on Bjork’s Oceania MV when… that was released so long ago.
I think it’s interesting that all these artists are getting compared to Gaga (Lee Hyori at one point, Laure Shang, Aguilera, 2NE1, etc), but they never get compared to each other.
Justin Bieber is something different, he’s phenomenon is just creating mass hysteria. And yes, his fans also populate all the net with i *heart* bieber messages… but we never read “oh, Super Junior is so Bieber” LOL at least I haven’t found those… yet.
Maybe it’s because we outgrew MTV — I never knew that could happen — but the MTV Movie Awards just never arose above its first few years. The VMAs, however, are such a pity. Not only because its lost its “cool” popularity tag, but because they have actually changed their voting to let people vote. Even worse this year, they’ve gotten rid of the Breakthrough MV category.
You can be a fan… okay, a crazy fan, but one must always have a sense of perspective. With naming different fanaticism, it just makes it all the more crazy.
@amy, But you seem to be mostly poking against American singers with crazy ass fanbases – that’s kind of a good topic, but an easy one to do. You could easily talk about the asian singers and their fanbases. Based on the little of what I’ve learned from knowing and talking to the Jennas and Julyssas of the world, korean/japanese pop/rock fans can be just as batshit crazy/hyper as the americans who worship singers and franchises we consider to be shitty like Gaga, Bieber, Twilight, etc.
inb4 “You’re an asshole.”
And the VMAs jumped the shark after Britney and Madonna kissed.
@Rodrigo, true. But you won’t find a Jrock fan poking into one of Gaga’s music videos saying “this is so Gackt” LOL or something like that. At least, I haven’t run into it.
J-music and Asian music in general is still in subculture status, and they stick to their own environments when it comes to talking. So you’ll only find them in said music videos on YouTube, or their own message boards.
American pop culture, however – as many like to point out, is everywhere. So whenever something not American pops up on the YouTube frontpage, someone always brings up Gaga.
@Rodrigo, oh – by the way. This also stems from the Kpop crazies. It’s either, Kpop fans fighting with Jpop fans (maybe kinda like Harry Potter/Twilight) LOL And there’s also the Kpop crazies within the Kpop… fighting over things like which girl group is better, SNSD or 2NE1. LindzerDinzerTV did her Kpop101 on the color and names of the fan thing.
But that’s almost regular fanaticism… like U vs. Alianza Lima. LOL But you’ll never see one 2NE1 fan in a SNSD MV saying “this is so 2NE1” because it is (of my knowledge) impossible to draw similarities with both groups. They are just clashing concepts.
So yeah… there are the types of crazies… but the fact that there’s a term for Gagaism. LOL it’s just… pretty disturbing.
Wasn’t it really popular to say “Oh my Gaga” in China at a moment? I wonder if that died down…
It’s a crazy world now, not even Michael Jackson had a MJism or Michaelism or anything like it, and Michael had some really crazy times – mass hysteria an all. But it never had a name. Wonder who was the first one to get a name. Is it possible that Bieber, Twilight and Gaga that started this whole crazy business?
@ghost, I don’t know the status of the “Oh my Gaga” comments. There used to be a show too… I think. LOL
I don’t know what’s the origin of the crazy, though. xD
I think the internet has made everyone crazy… or maybe it’s just made sharing your opinion a lot easier and that’s why we get all this nonsensical comments about any topic. And due to our internet culture of “the more hits you get, the better ranking, the more money” we get all these so called journalists who thrive on trolling.
E! and Entertainment Weekly are perfect examples of that.
Maybe even IMDb, though… it still has some useful information if you skip their forums.
@ghost, yeah – it shouldn’t be the quantity of the comments, but the quality. Sometimes I don’t even know why I bother going through comments…
I think some of the CNN posts are also thriving on trolling. It’s a pity really that news outlets need this type of game.