Today I will be sharing with all of you the story of how I came to know, and love, Lady Gaga.
It all started in late 2008, while searching YouTube for videos of Christina Aguilera's live performances. Up until very recently, all I really ever used YouTube for was watching music videos, and I did it often- I suppose this isn't really surprising, given my overwhelming obsession with music. Anyway, I had finished watching a video of some performance, and was reading through the comment section to see how my beloved Christina had been received. I don't remember any of the comments (which is a good thing, really, because it means that no-one wrote anything memorably offensive. By the way, people who write negative/offensive comments are time-wasting Poopheads! Haters back off! So there), except for one, which said something like, "She's good, but Lady Gaga's better." I remember thinking, "Pshh, who's Lady Gaga? We'll see about that." I then proceeded to search for Lady Gaga. At the time, Gaga had only released "Just Dance," which, upon watching the video for, I thought was fun, but not life-changing. I had no way of knowing what Gaga would come to mean to me.
A while after my first taste of Gaga, and after I'd had time to really start liking "Just Dance," the Lady released "Poker Face". That was when I started to fall in love. There was something about the way that song was put together that excited me. I hadn't really heard a song like it before. I loved that song. I danced like a crazy mofo to it at any dance I went to that year, as well as every time it came on the radio in the car. However, I was still only in love with the song, and didn't really care too much about who Lady Gaga was. Imogen Heap was my real artist obsession then, followed by random songs from Pandora, and Paramore, who is, in a way, partially responsible for my learning to love Gaga. But we'll get to that part in a bit.
My fondness for "Poker Face" continued to grow, and soon led me to begin researching Gaga via the internet. Through my surfing and searching, I found additional songs and videos, including "Beautiful, Dirty, Rich" (love that song), wathced a few live performances, noted her iconic, brazen style, and found the song that really changed it all for me: "LoveGame."
"LoveGame" was a game changer for a few reasons. The first was that I loved the video, despite it's somewhat raunchy tones (not to mention the raunchiness of the song itself). However, the video was nothing compared to the song. That song was the first electronic song to really fascinate me (and I mean electronic as in EDM; I already stated that I loved Imogen Heap, who is almost entirely electronic, but a completely different genre). It was the first time I really saw that EDM could be something beyond just super-fun dace beats. The production of "LovegGame" was insane! The melodies were not only hooky, but clever and interesting. I loved the music of that song. It blew my mind. See for yourself! Be mindful of who's watching this vid, though:
Arrangements were made- I found a friend in the Valley to provide transport and go to the concert with me, another friend to stay with (I had lived in the East Valley for eight years before moving to north-east Arizona), and began counting down the days to the concert in May.
May soon came, school let out, and, after an extremely uncomfortable Greyhound ride, I was at Cricket Court Pavilion, dancing and singing to sweet music! That concert was, to date, the coolest show I've ever been to. I had a blast.
On the ride home from the concert, my friend Jennifer and I were all full of adrenaline, and that post-super-awesome-event high had set in. I decided I just had to have that Paramore album for real, not just the iTunes version I already owned. Jen agreed, and we stopped off at the first Wal Mart we came across. We went in, headed straight to the music section, and I scooped up Riot! by Paramore. However, I left the store with two albums that night . . .
You see, while looking for the Paramore album, I came across The Fame, by Lady Gaga, and something inside me ardently urged me to by it. So I did. The rest of the drive was one of the best drives ever, as Jen and I listened to The Fame at very high volume, speeding down the freeway and through the hot, summer night. The Fame was genius. I was absolutely stunned by it. The production was flawless; the lyrics were interestingly bold and fun; the music was solid- each song sounded completely different, yet all felt like they belonged. It was really unique, but also reminiscent of music I'd heard before. And the vocals. Gaga's voice. I was in love! It amused and amazed me how fearless she was with it! She sounded different on every single song! Her range and control was apparent by the way she adapted her voice to match the content/tone of each individual track. "Just Dance" was throaty and playful, while "Brown Eyes" was bluesy and rock-tinged. "Summerboy," was all flirty, high-register, fun. That night, over five years ago, was when Gaga began to climb, in earnest, to the highest reaches of my "favorite musicians" list.
The release of The Fame Monster later that year, as well as her insanely good performance of Paparazzi at the VMAs, confirmed what a part of me already knew: Lady Gaga was a genius, a force to be reckoned with, and a musician I would follow until one of us dies. Two albums, many astounding live performances, countless memorable outfits, and five years later, Gaga still manages to surprise and astonish me with her innovative music and ideas. I love Born This Way, and know every word to every song. ARTPOP is awesome, and was a wonderful coming-home-from-Africa present ("Applause" was released the day I left South Africa- I watched the video on an iPad at Heathrow Airport, during my London layover). And soon, I will experience it all first-hand, at the ArtPop ball. I'm thrilled. Like, pee-my-pants excited.
Much Love,
Adam
PS: At some earlier point in my Gaga-loving time of life, my cousin and I put together this funny little thing: