WSJ on Lady Gaga and her "Euro Beats"

AndroidsDreamofBTC

AndroidsDreamofBTC

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I was recently reading Wall Street Journal and I came across this article about Lady Gaga titled "The Lessons of Lady Gaga" (Bear with me for just a moment =D).

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB100...5029621644867154.html?mod=WSJ_hp_mostpop_read

I was simply shocked by the manner in which WSJ 'analyzes' the music industry and some of the stuff they say is simply out of this world. It just shows what a bunch of assholes all the record label executives are.

Let me demonstrate:

Her dance hits, including "Poker Face" and "Paparazzi," recalibrated the sound of pop radio with a spacey Euro vibe that's crept into songs by rock and rap artists.
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Dance hits? Spacey Euro Vibes? Wow just because she uses beats and some synths that doesn't mean she has anything to with electronic music (I am assuming that's what they mean by "Spacey Euro Vibes"). I wish I could send the author and the target audience of this article to a real "dance" event. Maybe something like a techstep or a psytrance gig for good measure.

From concerts, including four sold-out nights at Radio City Music Hall this month, a percentage of her take goes to her label, Universal's Interscope Records. The label also gets a cut of her revenue from Polaroid, Estée Lauder's MAC and other corporate partners.
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Polaroid? Corporate partners? WTF? What does Polaroid or Estée Lauder have to do with music?!? :!

Despite these dark theatrics, she's become a darling of mainstream radio by drawing from Madonna's playbook, with thumping dance beats, a shape-shifting image and a playful obsession with celebrity.
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Thumping dance beats? Pfff....

Gaga's allure is that of a misfit run amok in the system, a role that has helped her cut across disparate subcultures, including teens, finicky hipsters and gays, to whom she sends frequent shout-outs.
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Misfit amok in the system? Disparate subcultures? 8o Lady Gaga has nothing to do with any damn subculture. It's just top40 music with generic beats...

RedOne, Gaga's primary producer, hails from Morocco and has an outsider's take on American music. "The songs have to be lyrically simple and easy to sing along to, even for people in the world who don't speak English,"
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Lyrically simple and easy to sing along.... WOW! That's the main creative inspiration for your music???

Manny Marroquin are being hired to replicate her chopping synths and densely-layered sound. "Everybody's saying, 'Make it like Gaga,' " he says.
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Chopping synths? Her synths are as generic as they come. I think she even borrowed some of them from other mainstream electronic songs. For instance, I think she took a part from Alice DeeJay's "Better Off Alone". Densely layered sound?!? 8o

And here is the last one to finish it off:

The business needs more Gagas.
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Don't get me wrong, I don't have anything against Lady Gaga or the people who like her music. I am not particularly fond of her music, but you know whatever... But what ticks me off is this retard attitude towards music. The author obviously doesn't know a damn thing about music, he's probably more used to talking about how the Dow Jones gained 100 points and not talking about music. :\

The scarier thing is that I am going to have to deal with exactly these kind of people because I am planning to do a Masters in Accounting. 8o
 
Lady Gaga is a complete fabrication of all those corporate interests you just mentioned. The fact that her producer says outright that the songs have to be simple is at least honest of him.

And Lady Gaga is danced to by many people in mainstream clubs. That, along with her insane music videos, is the whole point of the Gaagster. So you could call her music dance music. Just like NSync and countless other bubblegum pop artists can be called dance music. Obviously it's nowhere near the same vein as what you consider true dance music.

I'd say the article fits with the audience quite well. The business needs more cookie cutter crap. That's what keeps money flowing in.
 
Well, you know, as soon as I read it was a WSJ article, I expected to laush very hard, very long and spit coffee through my nose. Aside from the boring musical whatever that Lady Gaga sells, the WSJ wouldn't know anything about music if Beethoven himself came back and shoved his revolutionary cock down their collective throats while blasting "Ode to Joy."
 
she gets respect from these people cuz she's a money maker so they try to make her into some great artist

her "art" is to make music that will make the most money and will be bought by the most people on ITunes
 
Lady Gaga is possibly the US's most ridiculous idol yet....though her songs are pretty darn catchy.
 
^^^^
We'd love to. Please post the links. That there are such things is as believable to me as the existence of a chupacabra.
 
CoffeeDrinker said:
Lady Gaga is a complete fabrication of all those corporate interests you just mentioned. The fact that her producer says outright that the songs have to be simple is at least honest of him.

And Lady Gaga is danced to by many people in mainstream clubs. That, along with her insane music videos, is the whole point of the Gaagster. So you could call her music dance music. Just like NSync and countless other bubblegum pop artists can be called dance music. Obviously it's nowhere near the same vein as what you consider true dance music.

I'd say the article fits with the audience quite well. The business needs more cookie cutter crap. That's what keeps money flowing in.
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Flawless post...now I don't have to write it!!
 
It's the WSJ, of course it's going to be focused on the business aspect over the musical aspect. The title of the article is even "The Lessons of Lady Gaga" (lessons as in lessons for someone trying to succeed in business)...
With digital dominance, business savvy, a niche-busting sound and 1,001 wardrobe changes, she is a new model for success
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|>R()|)!G/-\|_ said:
^^^^
We'd love to. Please post the links. That there are such things is as believable to me as the existence of a chupacabra.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCmo9XuKV28

I wasn't talking about this version specifically. It's pretty good though but I was in the club and they played a slightly better remix than that. I mean if you don't like pop music in general I can understand but she's one of the better pop stars out there.
 
BollWeevil said:
It's the WSJ, of course it's going to be focused on the business aspect over the musical aspect. The title of the article is even "The Lessons of Lady Gaga" (lessons as in lessons for someone trying to succeed in business)...
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I understand, that is why I read WSJ. I just like to see how far to people are willing to go in order to hustle. I guess I am kinda of masochist. =D I juts think it's funny to read this stuff if you're into electronic music or even listen to any music in a non-casual manner.

With all that said, I must say that when I can't have good music playing, I'd rather hear Gaga than most other pop stuff. :o
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCmo9XuKV28

I wasn't talking about this version specifically. It's pretty good though but I was in the club and they played a slightly better remix than that. I mean if you don't like pop music in general I can understand but she's one of the better pop stars out there.
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I agree that's pretty good for that club pop style. I just think I misunderstood what you originally meant by techno.
 
I just saw that she's one of the this year's Lollapalooza headliners. Also, the new video for "Telephone" is really John Waters-esque. The video would actually be pretty good without her music and all the obvious product placement.
 
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