Lady Gaga’s Joanne Marks the End of the “Zany Pop Star” Era
Lady Gaga's overarching message that “weird” was “cool”—the biggest pop star on earth wore a meat dress to the VMAs and came dressed as a male alter ego a year later—was a sharp shift from the previous Spears-ian conception of the pop star. And her
emphasis on self-empowerment and self-expression—which would be mirrored in shows like Glee—became the overarching
cultural ethos of the time. On a purely sonic level,
her musical output consisted of one earworm pop hit after another; the songs were structurally robust, operating as effectively as pulsating dance tracks as they did heartfelt acoustic ballads when she decided to take a seat at the piano.
Some have noted that
this Joanne version of Gaga actually hews closely to pre-fame Gaga, Stefani Germanotta, who was touring dive bars on the Lower East Side, no frills or wigs—a time before Instagram. That certainly seems to be the narrative she is aiming for now, telling T Magazine this week, “
It’s an endless proving of myself, that I really am a musician, that I have something to offer in the room. That
women can be musicians, women can be rock stars, women can be more than an objectified idea of a pop star . . .
When I’m making music, I can hear all the parts, all the instruments. I can hear what it should be.” The signal here—
this album is about the music, everyone!!!!!!—could not be made any clearer. In the accompanying video with her T profile, Gaga is filmed discussing her album in a cream button-down dress shirt, her hair up in a simple bun; while she would still be classified by many as eccentric (the way she pronounces the word “love” in the chorus of “Perfect Illusion” is like a scar from a removed tattoo), she seems to be rejecting—or, at least, moving on from—the bright pomp and circumstance, the turbo-charged eccentricity.
Gaga's presentation for Joanne is perhaps as finite an end as we will get to the Zany, Weird Pop Star phase of the early 2010s (Katy Perry wearing a cube on her head to an awards show; Miley Cyrus constructing a skull made of french fries in a music video). All of that would seem silly now, if a pop star tried it. Gaga ushered in that phase, and she also now ushers us out of it. When she performs on Saturday Night Live this coming Saturday, the costumes will likely be minimal, and the “oddness” will likely be muted, and it is unlikely any late-night birthday parties will be broken up in order to see what her performances are like. But seven years later, a remark—as she wails “Million Reasons” in jean shorts and a pastel cowboy hat in Studio 8H—of, “
She is unlike anyone else,” would be just as apt now, perhaps even more so.
Had to read it again because it's so accurate
