Tuesday, April 27, 2010

3search essay

Its 1:50 pm and those last ten minutes of the school day could not go by any slower. I’m sitting in class staring at this beautiful autumn afternoon wishing I could just be outside actually enjoying it. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like I didn’t like Mrs. Viens’ Asian studies class, I did. I just wanted to be outside. Finally everyone got up and stood by the door. It felt like I had waited forever when the bell rang, relieved to be done with school for the day I headed to the hallway were my friends and I met up every single day. Kelsey and Molly finally walked up to where I was standing and we began to walk to the car. I called shotgun and we jumped into Kelsey’s black Mazda Tribute. We rolled down the windows and turned up the radio, patiently waiting for all of the cars in the crowded student parking lot to file out. The radio was tuned into 95.7 and the host announced that Lady Gaga’s song “Poker face” was coming on next. I rolled my eyes and resisted my urge to change the station because I knew Kelsey wouldn’t allow it. I had heard this song way too many times in the past month and I just didn’t understand why people could even stand listening to it. It was so annoying and Lady Gaga was so weird, why was she even famous? At last the line of cars was moving and in about five minutes Kelsey dropped me off at home and I went inside to find things to distract me from doing my school work.

As the days went by Lady Gaga became more and more popular and you couldn’t step foot near a car without hearing “Poker face.” The only thing worse than that song was the fact that Kelsey had started to become obsessed with Lady Gaga. I couldn’t believe it. We were so alike and usually had the same taste in music. I was puzzled about how she was so infatuated with the very same artist I despised. The next week I walked over to Kelsey’s house and Molly was singing this song and it sounded familiar to me. I didn’t really know what the words said or who it was by, it was just kind of catchy. When I got home that night I logged onto the computer and typed some of the words into Google to try to find who the song was by. Google said that it had 57,500 results for the lyrics I typed in. They all seemed to say the same thing. The song I found so catchy was called “Paparazzi” and it was sang by no other than Lady Gaga. This didn’t make sense. How could I like a Lady Gaga song? Maybe she wasn’t so bad after all. I decided to listen to the song to see if it was as good as I thought it was. I don’t know what it was about “Paparazzi” that I enjoyed so much but I must’ve played it about ten times that night. My opinion on Lady Gaga did a complete 180.

Kelsey played me a song she liked by Lady Gaga called “Paper Gangsta” and I wasn’t really feeling it. Maybe my view on Gaga really hadn’t changed that much. The year went on and Lady Gaga hadn’t released anymore singles. Everyone was still talking about her and even though I didn’t exactly hate her anymore I still found it to be a bit annoying.

My junior year came and went and the summer passed in the blink of an eye. Before I knew it Christmas was right around the corner. I couldn’t wait for the long break from school we got; I knew my friends and I were going to do a bunch of fun stuff. I was awakened by someone calling my cell phone. I moved my hand around on the top of my comforter, trying to grab my phone. After about two minutes of searching I finally got my hands on the phone. I held it up and it said Kelsey was calling me. She said a few of our friends and her were going to Denny’s to get some food and she would pick me up in ten minutes if I wanted to go along. I rolled out of bed, found some clean clothes, and waited in my living room for Kelsey to pull up. When I got into her car she showed me her favorite gift she got for Christmas, both of Lady Gaga’s albums. It was all we ever listened to. It didn’t matter if we were driving to Providence College in Rhode Island to see Kathleen or if we were driving to Brockway Lane to pick up Missy to go to Friendly’s. I knew all of the songs but I never really knew any of the words. It had been a while since Lady Gaga’s last single came out but I knew that sooner or later she would release a new one. Later on in December that day had finally come. “Telephone” like Lady Gaga’s other songs became big very fast. It featured Beyonce which gave it a new sound. “Telephone” was very upbeat and catchy. I guess Gaga was starting to grow on me because I went home and downloaded her whole discography.

It wasn’t until recently this year that I learned about Lady Gaga and who she really is. When I was assigned to do a timeline project in my Graphics class I decided to use Gaga and it seemed as though the more I read about her the more I liked her. She has reasoning behind all that she does and a strong message that she is living for.

Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta was born in New York on March 28, 1986. At age four she learned to play the piano by ear, at age 13 she wrote her first ballad. She was booed of stage at open mic nights and local clubs. Stefani got early acceptance into New York University but soon found out it wasn’t for her. She dropped out and began waitress to make money while she designed her own costumes for her performances at dive bars and burlesque clubs. (Mock and Wang) She was signed to Def Jam Records but was soon let go. In 2008 she was signed to Interscope Records on her 20th birthday. (Metro Lyrics) One day her manager compared her style to Freddy Mercury and she got her name from Queen’s song “Radio Gaga.” After writing songs for Britney Spears, and The Pussycat Dolls her album “The Fame” was finally released in 2008. (Monsters and Critics)

Lady Gaga has as many haters as she does fans. She dresses in crazy outfits and many people believe she does that for attention. The truth is that is just who she is. She does not think that is appropriate to be dressed casually around her fans. When I meet celebrities and they’re in casual clothes, I’m always like: ‘Whaaat?’ I don’t mean to be judgmental, but it would do them better to be who they really are, all the time. This is really who I am all the time. When I get out of a car and there are 30 fans waiting for me, I know I’m dressed the way I should be. There’s a reason they have that emotional reaction.” (Lady Gaga) Her fans are very devoted to her and there are hundreds of websites and blogs dedicated to her and millions of pieces of art inspired by her.

When you hear Gaga is going to perform on an awards show or release a new music video you know that you are going to see an amazing performance. Lady Gaga has been compared to David Bowie and Madonna.(Monsters and Critics) “It might sound strange but aside from being like Madonna and David Bowie I think that Lady Gaga is also comparable to KISS in the way she creates a character and puts so much into her stage performance, she’s bringing a shift in modern pop music because she is taking musical and visual aesthetic back to the way it was in the 70’s and 80’s that you really don’t see anymore.”(Caplan)

Lady Gaga got famous the way it should be done. She tried and failed and tried and failed over and over again until she finally got big. “I worked hard my whole life - no one handed me a record deal,” (Lady Gaga) I believe that she earned every ounce of her fame. She isn’t a rap stars daughter; she isn’t an actor who thought they would just try singing to switch things up. One of my favorite things about her is that she can actually sing. Lady Gaga was on the Ellen show and Ellen DeGeneres mentioned how great it was that she really sang. Gaga replied with how weird she thought it was when people said that because that was her job, she was supposed to sing.

Lady Gaga is different and she knows that. I was a bit insecure in high school. I used to get made fun of for being either too provocative or too eccentric, so I started to tone it down. I didn't fit in, and I felt like a freak.”(Lady Gaga) She has talked about how she felt like a freak for all of her life until she became Lady Gaga. Now she is a positive role model for teenagers who feel like they don’t fit in. That is why she does everything that she does, for her fans. Gaga is constantly promoting the idea of safe sex and not having sex just to fit in.

I believe that Lady Gaga is a wonderful genuine person. I believe that her fame will continue to grow but she won’t let it go to her head. I think she has a great message and if more people knew about the real her they wouldn’t judge her on the way she dresses.






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Works Cited

"Lady Gaga Biography.", Starpulse, Web, 9 April 2010. http://www.starpulse.com/Music/Lady_Gaga/Biography/


Caplan, Daniel. Personal Interview. 7 April 2010.

"Lady Gaga Biography", Contact Music, Web, April 8 2010. http://www.contactmusic.com/info/lady_gaga#bio

"Lady Gaga Quotes", Greatpersonalities, Web, April 9 2010. http://greatpersonalities.com/lady-gaga/7.html

"Lady Gaga Biography", Metrolyrics, Web, 10 April 2010. http://www.metrolyrics.com/lady-gaga-biography.html

"Lady Gaga Biography", Monsters and Critics, Web, April 9 2010. http://monstersandcritics.com/people/Lady-GaGa/biography/


"Lady Gaga.", Ladygaga.com, Web, 8 April 2010. http://www.ladygaga.com/bio/


"Lady Gaga.", People.com, Web, 8 April 2010. http://www.people.com/people/lady_gaga/biography




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