Adrenochrome Dreams
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Aug 1, 2022
When Gaga was inescapable after Born This Way she would really irk me. I felt like she was shamelessly pandering to LGBT people and I couldn't believe anyone (my own best friend included) was buying it. I'm LGBT myself, and while I think having famous allies is great, and they can do a lot of good for the community, it felt like a cynical ploy to capture an audience. I also found her really cringey on American Horror Story and felt like she was only there because Ryan Murphy is one of the gay guys who buys into her fully. Incidentally, after Art Pop my best friend was just like 'what the actual fuck did I just listen to?' and stopped being into her. She definitely was "inspired" by David Bowie, she's open about idolising Bowie and Freddie Mercury and owes a lot to them.
The thing is, I've seen some videos of her doing that quiet piano ballad stuff when she was at Julliard and she is actually pretty damn talented. Even though aside from Dolly Parton I'm not at all into country as a genre I thought her Joanne album had some nice songs. Some people are really made for stripped-back acoustic and soulful piano ballads where you can hear both their instrumental talent and their vocal chops and she seems to me to be at her best doing those things. She's not one of the best, but she's a good sight better than most of her contemporaries like Beyonce or Katy Perry. Neither of them can actually write music or play an instrument. She was pretty decent when she toured with Queen, enough so that I regretted not going due to her fronting the band.
Her acting has really improved. My soul cringes at the thought of her doing a heavy Queens accent and saying Harley Quinn stuff, because if Margot Robbie couldn't pull it off she has no chance, but she's improved a lot in AHS and she wasn't bad in A Star Was Born, all things considered. She is definitely getting roles that she isn't experienced enough to be cast in, but that says more about Hollywood than her. I think she'll improve and be one of the better singers-turned-actresses out there. Certainly she's better than Madonna, although Madonna was okay when she basically played herself.
Madonna's not wrong that she's reductive. She absolutely is. Both of them hide behind outrageous behaviour (I'm using the term liberally here) and outrageous costumes and elaborate shows. The difference is that Gaga actually has talent hiding underneath all those layers of spackle, and Madonna really doesn't. Her talent was honestly mostly marketing herself well early on.
tl;dr Gaga ripped off Madonna/Bowie and Madonna's right about it, but Gaga has some real musical talent to fall back on and Madonna does not.
I agree Gaga is definitely talented, even her haters would agree. She's just incredibly inauthentic and a shameless rip-off. Disagree about her being better than Beyonce though, Beyonce is a better vocalist, dancer, and IMO, performer. I'd say they're about equal, all things considered. Gaga is obviously the better writer, especially given Beyonce's credit thieving reputation. I've heard internet rumours that Beyonce is dumb and her artistic ideas are stupid, but everyone has to pretend they're viable because of who she is, then tactfully work towards doing something else.
Gaga's piano ballads are who she truly is as an artist, but she thinks that's too boring and conventional. Which it probably is to be fair, she may be good but there are lots of competent piano-playing singer-songwriters around. I personally don't like her songs like this, I know she can really sing, but I actually hate her voice because it's so nasal.
Even as a hater I really like the majority of the songs on her first 3 albums, though I couldn't stand her honking dirges like Speechless and You and I. Otherwise, Born This Way was the second shittest song on that album after You and I, and should never have been included. She definitely was cynically marketing herself to the alphabet soupers, and even decided that she would write a gay anthem. Not realising that gays pick their own anthems, you don't get to tell them which songs will be their anthems just to make money off them.
She acted like she was a the world's gay saviour and this "mother monster" shit was a bit groomy. I don't think she's actually done much good except getting herself successfully worshipped. She also entirely got away with pretending to be bisexual, then quietly dropping it like the attention-seeker she is.
I'm no good at telling who is a good actor or not, but one thing I always notice about Gaga is that she tries to portray intense emotion by flaring her nostrils. That may be due to all the filler and botox lol, it's the only moveable part left.
Madonna has minor ability in singing and dancing. She's a good performer. I wouldn't say she's devoid of talent but she certainly made the most of her meagre gifts, a bit like Rihanna has this century.
Last edited: