There’s video floating around on YouTube that shows Lady Gaga performing Bad Romance while sitting down. She starts on her feet, doesn’t dance, and just decides to sit down and then crawl around while performing the song.
One headline I read said that she collapsed. It doesn’t look like she collapsed to me.
It’s not uncommon for artists to have to cancel performances because of exhaustion or being ill. Doing the concert circuit week after week can take a toll on performers.
What does everyone think? Was Gaga tired? Or was this just part of her wacky stage show?
If you haven’t read SonicClash’s own Paul Lorentz’s take on the new Lady Gaga/Beyonce Telephone video, check it out. It’s a must read.
As inspiration for a music video, you wouldn’t think much of the latest Lady Gaga single “Telephone”, a thumping Rodney Jerkins instant-club-hit with a feature spot by Beyonce (returning the favor after Gaga guested on a remix of Beyonce’s “Video Phone” for the reissue of I Am… Sasha Fierce). The song’s lyrics virtually write their own screenplay (girl wants to dance; boy keeps calling girl; girl takes no calls cuz she’ll be dancing), and in any other hands, would probably get a very literal music video treatment. But, as we’ve come to expect, Lady Gaga and director Jonas Akerlund (who directed her video for “Paparazzi” last summer) have come up with something altogether more menacing, and hilarious – a “lez-ploitation” sequel to “Paparazzi” which finds Beyonce bailing Lady Gaga out of jail, only for the two of them to hit the local diner, off all the patrons (including a Beyonce boyfriend played by Tyrese), and then do a big dance number for an audience of fresh corpses before riding off into the sunset.
The long-anticipated video – Gaga’s been tweeting about it for what seems like months now, and the song has already bulldozed its way up into the Top 3 of the Billboard Pop Chart – made a splashy premiere Thursday night on E! News, which also ran clips of an interview with Gaga (praising the E! network’s “courage” in running it in it’s glorious 9 minute entirety, and noting her and Beyonce’s shared love of women) who was almost certainly encouraging those (like me, admittedly) who would draw parallels between this particular spectacle and the ceremonious unveiling of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” more than 25 years ago (before Gaga was born).
Okay, so I’ll bite. There won’t be another “Thriller” moment. There can’t be. In 1983, the music video was still a fledgling form – videos were cheaply made, poorly shot, and disposable – and with one grand gesture, Michael Jackson had turned it into a legitimate art form. That kind of thing can’t happen now – the audience isn’t nearly innocent enough, which Jackson himself almost certainly had to have learned. He never stopped making epic music videos (ahem, “short films”), but none came close to garnering the notoriety of “Thriller”, even when the actual quality of the videos (I’m thinking “Smooth Criminal” here) rivaled it for pure watchability while ditching the embarrasing dialogue and bad acting.
But setting that singular moment aside, there are numerous parallels to be drawn between the videos for “Thriller” and “Telephone”. Not the least of which is that they are both genre flicks with big-name directors. Michael’s was a horror movie directed by John Landis of American Werewolf in London fame (and Twilight Zone infamy), while “Telephone” is a 70s-style exploitation flick with a decidedly meta twist and a pulpy lesbian plot line like a cross between Thelma & Louise and Natural Born Killers. Like Jackson, whose song “Thriller” was actually the seventh (and final) single to be released from the album of the same name (a year and a half after that album’s release), “Telephone” – Gaga’s sixth consecutive top 10 hit since late fall 2008 – comes at a moment when the artist risks shark-jumping by sheer pop-cultural ubiquity. Like Michael in 1984, Lady Gaga in 2010 needs no further exposure, and like Michael before her, she lunges for it, regardless, with a video that demands to be talked about.
Both videos culminate in a menacing/comical dance sequence involving dead people (Michael’s are an undead dance army while Gaga’s are a still-warm flock of face-stuffers), and like werewolf Michael, lusty murderess Gaga is portraying herself (along with her oh-so-game partner Beyonce) as a monster – as in The Fame Monster, now on sale at iTunes for $7.99! – with a knowing nod to all the metaphorical implications of such. If “Telephone”offers one major innovation, it’s a knack for wall-to-wall product placement that manages to be simultaneously witty and crass. Half the fun of the video is spotting the shill. Diet Coke cans for curlers? Miracle Whip as murder weapon? I didn’t even know that there was a real dating website called Plentyoffish.com. I just thought it was a really good joke. And just like Thriller when Michael confesses to actress Ola Ray that he’s “not like the other boys”, Telephone has at least one, great, defining, iconic, self-referential, media-tweaking one-liner. But I’ll leave it to the prison guard to deliver it:
Live blogging the Grammys tonight and away we go once Ryan Seacrest scampers in from the red carpet after letting slip (yeah, right) that he’ll be performing on We Are The World. To quote Lionel Richie, “We had Dan Akroyd there so yes, you can sing.”
Gaga updated the opening with the real Gaga that mashed a circus, steampunk and a power ballad that has the likes of Alice Cooper and Elton John gushing to mainstream media about the latest to ascend the throne they built. Lady Gaga relises being a monster. That’s why Sir Elton donned specs years after shedding them from his act.
Gaga pulled all the specs and eye patches off and dueted with Sir Elton brilliantly. Alice Cooper said it best. Gaga works as an artist because she can sing.
Stephen Colbert does his schtick to a flat crowd including a once-over glance from Jay-Z. One liners: Jeff Beck has the all-time high score on Guitar Hero. Then he told his daughter to stay away from Katy Perry.
Finally Song of the Year on an iPad. Beyonce and co-writers win for Single Ladies. I’m not sure the songwriter award belonged to that track. It was certainly my choice as Record of the Year. Colbert talked so damn long that they played the songwriters off lightning-fast.
Jenny from the Block is up. We told you years ago that American Idiot would be a Broadway show. The Broadway cast and the once-punkers met onstage for GD’s title track. Writing hellacious hooks was never a problem although Joey Ramone probably revoked their place in Punk Heaven. The good news is that Tres Cool’s kids will never want for college tuition. So Green Day has been Glee’d. They won’t be the last.
There’s a promo for When in Rome masked as presenting. The actors shill for people to get interactive and vote for Bon Jovi to play one of three songs. Oy. The Pro Bowl is before the Super Bowl and now we get to vote on Grammy performances.
Best Country Album was Taylor Swift’s when the nominations were announced although Zac Brown Band sure had a chance. No Kanye sighting although Taylor’s delight is getting a bit tired. Taylor, you’re winning everything on every show. Accept it. Nice young woman. I’m sure it’s a dream.
CBS shills The Mentalist by trotting out Simon Baker without worrying about his accent. Hugh Laurie was undoubtedly jealous. I’m simply jealous because he introduced Beyonce. She is our generation’s Streisand and Cher rolled into one mixed with a supermodel’s looks.
The mix sounded off on my set, but was resolved about halfway through. The holding pen she sang to moved a little of the gravitas from the show, but music is about people so no complaints here. Beyonce threw a fake cold ending at the audience and owned the venue.
