Finally, I listen to Lady GaGa.

Hello, dear reader...

If you don't know by know (and after zero posts, how could you?), I tend to hold musicians and artists to a high standard. Even if they're making pop music. As a composer, I think of pop music as an art form and a discipline. Unfortunately, most of the music industry does not. So armed with this knowledge, let's move forward, shall we? And, being who I am, I resist will all my might, things that are hyped-up.

And who has been more hyped recently than Lady GaGa? After much resistance, I finally broke down and bought her album, The Fame Monster. The concept, as I had been told, was nice. And I must admit, a younger friend got me intrigued when he, completely seriously, insisted she was a hermaphrodite bent on Satanic world domination. Being a good Texan, I always love a conspiracy theory, so I finally had to investigate.

Before my visit to iTunes, I started on Youtube.com with the "Bad Romance" video. I found it stunning. I loved most of all, the brief shots of the lady in question looking less made-up and quite accessible, honest. I was drawn in. I then watched the video for "Paparazzi". I thouroughly enjoyed the Kahlo-esque obession with beauty (and in this case, glamour as well) juxtaposed with physical disability and suffering. And being the enormous fan of German expressionism I am, LOVED the references to Fritz Lang's Metropolis--itself borrowing purposefully images and icons from art history. The video also made its obvious commentary on the obsession with (and market for) fame, perhaps referencing slyly Lady Diana's tragic end and the more recent Brittny Spears incidents. Like Annie Lennox, she explores the personaes singing these songs in a visual media.

I decided to buy the album. Yes. I admit it.

Of course, on thier own, "Bad Romance" and "Paparazzi" stand alone as solid and compelling songs. Especially "Paparazzi", in which the listener is immediately drawn into a dangerous but intoxating obession with a famous stranger. The verses have a narrow and repetitive melodic quality fastened tightly to a relentless, mechanical pulse. The verses step quietly into the relative major key to soar euphorically, reveling in this fantasy love affair. And this makes the return of the verse even more frightening. "Bad Romance" features her reedier, darker range, steeped in an almost blues vocal honey. It's genuinely attractive.

So the bar was set high for such a young pop composer and star. But the rest of the album really failed to deliver. If there was a sense of a narrative cycle intended, my ear did not detect it. It quickly became a collection of sub-standard, emotionally trite spaghetti--limp and all over the place. Worse were the songs that started off well, but went nowhere; these are the ones that really let me down. Especially so, my first venture into the rest of the album, "Alejandro". This one starts with a solo violin playing the tune of Monti's "Czardas", a classic in the violin literature. A tone, an image, a milleu was set immediately. But as soon as the synthesizers and drum machine entered, it was lost. Lady GaGa channels badly a pastiche of a forlorn Penelope Cruz, who can't seem to quite remember the name of the lover she hopes to escape.

Now, having gone on my own journey as a composer from my early twenties to now (and beyond), I can see the work of a talented young woman. She's getting started. And because she is talented, she can make good music. But, the issue is one that a very close friend and collaborater mentions often, "Being an artist is mostly about being able to edit one's self". Lady GaGa's album is essentially 23 songs (plus a remix of "Bad Romance") which is pretty much 18-20 songs too long. Musicians and artists of her age have all wanted to put on display the whole of their output, but time teaches us to select more carefully what we put in the public sphere. And because of her young success, she doesn't have the luxury (yes, I said "luxury") of being hidden and allowing her art to blossom before being exposed to a waiting public.

But, I want to see what she's doing as an artist in 5-10 years. In the meantime I'll keep and eye and ear open...