OK, I give in!
For the past 18 months or so, I’ve been trying to resist Lady GaGa, but my defenses have slowly been worn down, and it has less to do with her outrageous imagery and overt sexuality than it has to do with the songs, man! There hasn’t been a pop artist in a long time who’s created so many earworms, one right after the other. While I still think some of her public shenanigans are tasteless and unnecessary, I gotta say, the girl makes some good songs.
The latest is called “Alejandro”, and it slows the tempo down slightly from her previous hits. As my friend Scott mentioned in a Twitter convo, it sounds very Ace of Base-specifically their remake of Aswad’s hit “Don’t Turn Around”. GaGa infuses the song with lyrical imagery that recalls Madonna’s ’80s era Latin infatuation (“La Isla Bonita”, “Who’s That Girl”) and the result is a pop classic.
In light of that, the video’s almost an afterthought. I mean, it definitely captures the eye, but it doesn’t make a heckuva lot of sense (sorry, I prefer my videos to have a linear thread, yanno? The video, like the song, conjures up memories of Madonna-specifically the “Like a Prayer” and “Express Yourself” videos. I don’t dislike it, but as I said earlier, all the shock value “extra” type of stuff doesn’t really move me. Then again, in the new muysic industry, you’ve gotta do what you’ve gotta do to turn heads, and “The Fame” is closing in on 4 million sold, which is Michael Jackson-type numbers in 2010. So props to her. Now, I’m going to have to find someone else to focus my ire on. Hmmm…I guess Ke$ha (who was obviously molded in the image of GaGa) is a good place to start…