It's always risky to make too much out of a song's lyrics, but Lady Gaga's new "Applause" is so immediately striking in its un-sing-along-able ridiculousness it's hard to know where to start. Julie Andrews always advised us to start at very the beginning, so here's how a groaning Gaga opens: "I stand here waiting for you to bang the gong / To crash the critic saying, 'Is it right or is it wrong?'" When Gaga first shared the ARTPOP single on August 12, ahead of schedule, that line raised the question of who exactly in the world wants to go out and sing karaoke or pump their fists in the car about a subject as (frankly) removed from everyday life as us cantankerous music-opinion types. Now, it's clear that leveraging Gaga's market clout against a critical establishment that may have tired of her was the point all along.

And yet, Gaga's portrayal of herself as somehow less powerful than the few professional critics who savaged her song is troubling in various ways. She recently topped a list of the highest-earning famous people younger than 30, and since money is legally speech these days, that means her voice is probably louder than those of any detractors (although, have you heard "Applause"? Her voice is loud!). In fact, Billboard reports that industry sources say Gaga's single will probably sell more than 400,000 copies in its first week, so she's not being as crushed by critical opinions as the video suggests. When Gaga sings for her fans to drown out those mean ol' critics, she's posing as an underdog. She isn't one.