Do you like Lady Gaga?

[Manifestor_of_Light]

I am asking because I am one of those old baby boomers.
I was into the rock of the 60s and the 70s.
When The Police broke up in 1983, I gave up on rock music.
So I haven't kept up with any popular music, pretty much, since then.

I really loathe country, rap and hip hop.

I had seen a lot of publicity for her, and watched the video for Bad Romance. I noticed she knows about chords and verses and all that stuff. I was impressed.

Tonight I watched the Madison Square Garden show on HBO. I was really amazed at all the costume changes and the theatricality of it all.

I'm a showbiz person. I took years of music lessons, played in amateur orchestras, and even sang in the chorus of an amateur opera company. It was a production of "The Elixir of Love" in Italian. That was the most fun I had in a long time. I've also acted in three plays. Acting was not difficult for me because of my stage experience in orchestras and church choirs.

I really am impressed with her telling her audience they are OK too and they can do whatever they want to. She does this because she was bullied in high school for being weird.

The HBO website has a video of her taking her makeup off and talking about how she still feels like a loser and says she needs to be a winner for her fans, to inspire them. She is crying, and praying through this. It brought me to tears.

I don't understand the weird costumes, or the message, but she is speaking out on important causes and she has an excellent voice.

[bigwillq]

1. I like her.

Think the music is great. Kind of obsessed with the MUSIC. She's certainly very talented. I also like her because, as you said, she speaks out for important causes.

However, I've soured on her a bit of late. She needs to tone it down a bit with trying to appeal to gay folk. She needs to broaden her fan base and become relative to different types of people.
I also think everything she does is for show, naturally, since she is a performance artist. However, lately it doesn't seem like her behavior, words or actions are very genuine. Although I haven't seen the HBO show, I am talking about her crying and praying, as one example.

Also, she needs to end it with this "Little Monsters" stuff. It's kind of creepy. Much too like a cult.


All in all, however, I really enjoy her music. She makes the type of music I love.

[blue_onyx]

32. I agree....

about toning down the pandering to gays and "little monsters" stuff. I find it creepy for someone to refer to themself as my mother monster. I find the character of Lady Gaga to be annoying. I just wanted her to shut up during the HBO special and focus on the music. She kept acting like everything she said was so profound but it wasn't.

I really like her first 2 CDs. This new one, based on the 4 songs I've heard, is not going to be good.

[erinlough]

2. This 58 year old grandma loves her!

But then I like Eminem too. Her song "Teeth" is my favorite. I will watch her special, although I'm not much into the visual, mostly the music.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

3. yes, i do.

[Tom_Foolery]

4. Not a huge fan, but I do like her.

[Sabriel]

5. I like her, and I'm 45

But then, I like most dance/house music, so she's pretty easy to like.

[LibDemAlways]

6. As the kids would have said back on Am. Bandstand, her music is

catchy and you can dance to it. I think she's very talented (I'm 58) and so does my 18-year-old daughter who attended her concert recently and had a great time.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

7. Nope.

Well, I should say that I like her politics and message of acceptance that she preaches, but musically, I don't see the big deal. She's not doing anything Madonna hasn't already done and her music is essentially catchy cookie-cutter dance tunes.

Not that there's anything wrong with that, but I'm tired of the media treating her like the second coming when there are so many more singers/musicians worth talking about. I also dislike her overreliance on outlandish costumes/set pieces. Call me old-fashioned, but the music should be good enough to stand on its own.

[TorchTheWitch]

8. no

Don't like her as a musician/entertainer. Can't say if I like her for any other reason seeing as I don't know her nor her motives for doing whatever she does.

Sick and damn tired of hearing about her.

[nolabear]

9. Yeah, I do. Didn't think I would but she's very talented and brave.

[LynneSin]

10. That concert was pretty impressive back in 1991 when Madonna did it for "Blonde Ambition"

Lady Gaga can sing but she needs to stop copying what Madonna did 20 years ago.

About 20 years ago HBO did a special for Madonna's "Blonde Ambition" tour that pretty much looked, sounded and played out exactly like what Gaga did today - only thing, Madonna did it first. They even had the B&W cut-outs for when Madonna went behind the curtains.

Don't get me wrong, I think Lady Gaga has some potential, she can definitely sing better than Madonna. But she isn't showing originality at all. Gaga's latest song release "Born This Way" sounds very much like Madonna's "Express Yourself" - same type of video, same type of pop and even same type of message. You could see Gaga wanting to use the tried and true methods Madonna used 20 years ago to get noticed in the industry but you'd think by her 3rd album that perhaps Gaga would find her own voice and break free of the Madonna-clone image she has created for herself.

[Beaverhausen]

31. +1000

I feel exactly the same way.

[Riftaxe]

11. No, not really

She is the end product of decades of case studies, she has done nothing original yet. She has the vocal talent that someday she might break out and do something on her own, but until then it is just recycled corporate pop music.

Besides I heard most of her songs back when Madonna was doing them.

[trueblue2007]

12. i dont like her at all.....

[MilesColtrane]

13. Her message is good.

Her music...not so much.

[wickerwoman]

14. She's not the worst.

Her songs are catchy, her voice isn't completely autotuned and some thought goes into her videos. And she has an important message about tolerance.

I'll take her over half a dozen NSYNCs or Brittany Spears.

[dembotoz]

15. i have always been drawn to the strange--so yes

as she becomes more mainstream-nay not so much.

when she talks politics--yes
i admire her

[cbdo2007]

16. sometimes I do and sometimes I don't

I've loved a few of her performances that I've seen on award shows and stuff over the past few years, but this new album is terrible and is way too gimmicky. Her first album was new and refreshing and instead of following that same new/refreshing path, she decided to go gimmicky and trite. Makes me wonder if she's the next Britney Spears and her best days are behind her already.

[blue_onyx]

33. I think she would....

be happy to be as successful as Britney. Britney has been around 12 years and is still releasing hit songs/CDs.

[WillParkinson]

17. I was surprised...

And found I did indeed like her music.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

18. I think she has genuine heart and she has taken the Madonna thing to a new level.

[Deep13]

19. Yup. nt

[Iggo]

20. Shock Pop is not really my thing (n/t)

[meegbear]

21. 28 costume changes per performance does not make someone a talented singer ...

shit, even Bowie knew when to step back for a moment.

[Forkboy]

22. No, but it's cool that others do.

Music is art, and art is subjective. She's not doing the kind of music that really grabs me in any way, but that doesn't mean it's silly that others get into her music. More power to them.

There's enough music out there that any music fan should be able to find something worthwhile, no matter what they get into. I hear people say that there's no good music out there these days and I wonder if we're on the same planet. I've been into music for 40 years and I've never seen a time where there's so much music from so many artists available in so many ways. The barriers between genres has pretty much crumbled, and anything and everything goes, for good or ill. There's a lot of crap out there still, but there's also a ton of cool things out there if one wants to dig a little.

[Zorra]

23. Yeah. Great theater. Love her activism.

IMO, she's a great performer and has a great voice, and I love some of her lyrics, but not the general genre of her music.

I like Madonna in the same way.

[kentauros]

24. I gave her a two-minute chance.

The 'sound' I heard wasn't anything special. I don't care about the message. If I'm not hooked by what I hear with regards to the music then I'm not taking the time to listen to any more.

There's plenty of other (listenable) new music out there for me, above and beyond the top-40/top-100 stuff :)

[Bucky]

25. Yeah, she's fun to watch. Some of her shtick is just updating what Madonna did 25 yrs ago, but...

Still she's a very talented musician and an outspoken progressive and a great role model. She even makes techno fairly listenable. Let the kids have their fun.

[mvd]

26. Good message, but the music doesn't do much for me

I like a lot of pop music, though, so maybe she will still connect with me.

[Bake]

27. Some of her stuff's OK, some ... not so much

We watched her HBO special and five songs into in, I'm still waiting for a strong number.

As for the theatrics, Madonna did 'em better. And believe me, I'm no fan of Madonna.

Bake

[Taverner]

28. Like her as what?

As a singer? Meh - she's better than Justin Bieber

As a fasionista? Meh - she's got some hits, some misses

As a role model? Well, she's a whole lot better than Ronald Reagan, Michelle Bachmann or Orly Taitz. I'd rather have my daughter wearing a meat dress any day over being a Republican

[IcyPeas]

29. She's the musical guest on SNL next week.

I've seen her more than I've heard her. Will check her out on SNL next week.

[Evoman]

30. I've got a few of her songs on my playlist.

Catchy music. Compared to the rest of the autotuned pap interspersed with shitty lazy (and frequently autotuned)rap, she's fairly decent. I don't abhore her as mush as Kesha, Black eyed peas, etc.

I say if your going to rip something off, rip off something interesting. Madonna was interesting. Lady Gaga is fun to watch. Also, calling her a Madonna clone is disengious...sure some of their music was similar (some of it ripped, I guess), but I don't remember Madonna doing anything like Telephone or Poker Face).

[stuntcat]

34. I like her sorta, sure :)

I don't listen to her or watch her videos or concerts, but she seems alright.
It sounds like we learned a lot of the same stuff about humans growing up, I just wish I was brave as she is.

Cheers to her. Maybe I'll even buy a couple of her songs :D or something.

[lifesbeautifulmagic]

35. goddess status

around this house. Little monsters live here. :)

[femmocrat]

36. Another boomer who likes her.

I don't think she needs all the crazy costumes and gimmicks. Her music and singing can stand on their own, IMO. I think she can really belt out a song.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

37. Not in the least, as a person or a performer

Madonna did it before her, and before Madonna, there was Grace Slick.

Grace did it best. She wrote the book on "outrageous," and she had one hell of a lot of talent to back it up.

[applegrove]

38. I assume I would like her if I ever saw her perform because I like Madonna.

Seems to be the same deal..except Lady Gaga can sing while Madonna can really dance.

[provis99]

39. eh. just a female Ziggy Stardust. Its been done before.

[Luciferous]

40. I like some of her songs, but she just tries way too hard and

that's kind of a turn-off.