TIMELINE OF LADY GAGA'S RISE TO POP CULTURE SUPERSTARDOM: 2008 EDITION
September 6, 2008
The day before the infamous Christina Aguilera performance of Genie 2.0 & Keep Gettin' Better at the 2008 Video Music Awards; A performance setting in to motion a chain of events that would eventually catapult Lady Gaga in to pop culture superstardom and change the musical landscape for years to come.
On this day, Lady Gaga is still larely an unknown to the American audience. Her Myspace friends count stands at 28,502. Christina is nearing half-a-million friends, although her official Myspace page updates are, for the most part, handled by her team.
US Billboard Digital Sales of "Just Dance" stand at around 236,700. On average, she has been moving roughly 25,000 copies for the last several weeks, but the single has been lingering on radio for almost 5 months without really taking off in a big way.
September 7, 2008
Christina performs Genie 2.0 & Keeps Gettin' Better at the 2008 Video Music Awards.
September 8, 2008
After the performance, some of Lady Gaga's vocal fans begin to mobilize in the comments section of her Myspace page and accuse Christina of stealing from Gaga.
Soon Perez Hilton is tipped off. As he has discovered Lady Gaga's music in June of 2008, Perez is eager to post comparisons in an attempt to raise Gaga's profile. This marks one of the first major blogs/sites to start the Christina vs Lady Gaga comparisons and attempt to put those comparisons into the public's consciousness.
http://perezhilton.com/2008-09-08-christina-went-gaga
Starting from September (and into the next couple of months), Gaga's label organizes an aggressive PAY AD campaign on various social media and major e-mail sites to capitalize on Christina's name and attempt to eliminate her as competition.
November 10, 2008
US Weekly publishes Lady Gaga's presumptuous response to their Christina Aguilera question.
Q. Everyone says Christina's biting your style now. Thoughts on that?
"Anyone with two eyes can see the resemblance. But I'm really flattered to inspire a superstar. There's room for all of us.
November 11, 2008
The L.A. Times Music Blog interview with Christina.
(For years to come, this comment will be misconstrued time and time again. This interview marks a major turning point for Lady Gaga that will lay the foundation for her rise to pop culture superstardom)
Q. What do you say to those on the Internet who are hinting that you borrowed Lady Gaga’s look?
"You know, that’s funny that you mention that. This person [Lady Gaga] was just brought to my attention not too long ago. I’m not quite sure who this person is, to be honest. I don’t know if it is a man or a woman. I just wasn’t sure. I really don’t spend any time on the Internet, so I guess I live a little under a rock in that respect."
Perez and some of Lady Gaga's fans are quick to proclaim that Christina is lying about not knowing who Lady Gaga is, however, history will show that Christina does indeed live under a rock much of the time and doesn't closely follow what is happening in pop culture. Case in point? She had no idea who Rebecca Black was when asked.
http://atrl.net/forums/showthread.php?t=119339
And most recently, during a taping of The Voice Season 5, she was unaware of Ariana Grande having mistaken one of her songs for Mariah's. "That's a Mariah song, right?"
November 13, 2008
MTV News interviews Christina. She describes the concept behind Keeps Gettin' Better and her VMA performance as being pop-art inspired and name drops a few influences, including Andy Warhol. (Notice the early mention of D*Face who created the imagry for Bionic)
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/159...ok-sound.jhtml
Christina's description of "pop art and Andy Warhol" evokes a scathing reaction from Perez Hilton.
http://perezhilton.com/2008-11-13-xtina-vs-gaga
Neither he or some of Lady Gaga's fans seem to realize that Christina has been referencing Andy Warhol since 2004.
“From one icon to another — that’s Christina Aguilera posing in front of Andy Warhol’s silkscreen portraits of Marilyn Monroe last Monday. Aguilera, in Pittsburgh to visit her family, was asked to pick a location where she could be interviewed for the September 2004 cover of Jane magazine. She chose The Andy Warhol Museum, which she toured with Esther Haynes, the senior editor at Jane. Since the museum is closed to mere mortals on Monday, she managed to walk and chat without interruption.“
NOVEMBER 25, 2008
The Christina vs Lady Gaga comparisons/attacks are beginning to take root in the public's consciousness, translating into sales for Lady Gaga. From mid-November on airplay and sales begin to dramatically increase on "Just Dance". The first major breakthrough comes on November 25, when "Just Dance" posts 6 digit sales for the first time.
13 04 LADY GAGA FEAT. COLBY O'DONIS JUST DANCE 120640 54 78148 782553
December 31, 2008
Digital Spy Interview with Lady Gaga.
Christina Aguilera was accused of stealing your look recently. How do you feel about that?
"Well, it was very flattering when it happened. She's such a huge star and if anything I should send her flowers, because a lot of people in America didn't know who I was until that whole thing happened. It really put me on the map in a way, though of course I don't just want to be remembered for the Christina Aguilera scandal."
So there are no hard feelings?
"There are no hard feelings with Christina at all. What it showed me was, even though I've only been on the commercial market for seven or eight months, I've really burned graphic images of my visuals onto the irises of my fans. They saw a huge, Grammy-winning star who's been around for years and they recognized Lady GaGa. That to me is quite an accomplishment."
By the beginning of early January, 2009, Gaga's profile has significanly increased. "Just Dance" tops the Billboard chart with a massive sales increase of approximately 419,000.
In summary, it's sad that Lady Gaga would mention "being attacked" in her ARTPOP press release, when she and her label had no problem piggybacking off Christina all the while trying to make her look bad over some silly tenuous connections between their looks and sound.
Addendum
Some of Lady Gaga's fans claim that she was already a huge star before Christina's performance. That is completely untrue. Though she had a few appearances under her belt, like New Now Next Awards and Miss Universe Pageant, she was only given major attention by radio and the opportunity for higher profile appearances after the so-called Christina "scandal" gave her relevance.
Be on the lookout for the 2009 Edition.