I’ve ranted about her before. Her undeserving spot on Vogue’s Best Dressed of 2010 issue; the creepy raw meat dress she wore when she hugged Cher during MTV’s 2010 Video Music Awards; those horns she wore on ‘The Tonight Show with Jay Leno’ on Monday night. And of course the absurd Grammy’s red carpet entrance in that ridiculous egg pod she claimed was a symbol of her rebirth.

Rebirth of what? Certainly not your relative normalcy. But if Lady Gaga is still trying to find a new way to shock the world, being normal might be her only option. 

I truly wish someone had attached a rocket to that egg and launched her back to where she came from: outer space. She would have loved that s*** and made some proclamation about how it was an expression of our generation’s tendency to detach ourselves from reality. Luckily she would be in space, so none of us earthlings would have heard her.

I won’t deny that Gaga’s talented, but her efforts to be so out of this world have overshadowed and, in some instances, sacrificed her real ability to sing. I’ve seen the pre-Gaga dive bar YouTube videos in which a young Stefanie Joanne Angelina Germanotta slammed on the keyboard and belted out original lyrics. It was raw, it was powerful, and it was moving.

And now, well… Some may say her performances are moving, but the plastic bubble suits don’t quite do it for me.

Her new single, ‘Born This Way,’ is certainly catchy and carries a cute little message about being who you are. But that’s just what it is: a catchy pop number about embracing your inner freak. Ke$ha said the same thing in ‘We R Who We R;’ Katy Perry accomplished it with ‘Firework;’ Pink with ‘Raise Your Glass;’ Lupe Fiasco with ‘The Show Goes On;’ and Pink again with ‘F***in Perfect.’ Frankly Gaga’s a little behind on the whole ‘Be Yourself!’ trend.

And unfortunately, her message appears to be more along the lines of ‘be who you are, but if that doesn’t work, change your name, make some vagina sparklers and a lobster hat, and see if that works.’ It’s no secret she switched things up once the Germanotta image didn’t quite cut it.

I really loved Gaga when she first hit the scene in 2008 with her chart-topping single ‘Just Dance.’ She undoubtedly influenced a new wave of pop music that created a space for the aforementioned Ke$ha and Katy Perry and now the eccentric Nikki Minaj to blossom. I applaud her for pushing the envelope with each new music video and award show performance, but at this point it feels like she’s trying too hard to be different.

And ‘Born This Way’ pretty much gives the middle finger to everything she’s previously done. Why you ask? I hate to bring it up, but the single’s similarities to Madonna’s 1989 single ‘Express Yourself’ is a little embarrassing for her whole ‘be authentic’ act. Pop culture enthusiasts have drawn similarities between the two artists since Gaga appeared on the scene. There’s nothing wrong with being influenced by the woman who revolutionized pop, but releasing a single that’s supposed to celebrate a ‘rebirth’ might not be the best occasion to closely mimic one of Madonna’s previous hits.

So yeah, she’s super original. Except not really.

Plus 20 bucks says Gaga creates her music video for ‘Born this Way’ into some kind of political statement, illustrating it in the most absurd way possible. The ‘Alejandro’ music video continues to give me nightmares about latex clad nouns turning into balls of fire and half-naked men in 80-pound combat boots stomping on my head.

Lauren Tousignant is a junior writing and communication and rhetorical studies major. Her column appears occasionally. She can be reached at letousig@syr.edu. 

Published on February 16, 2011 at 12:00 pm