The Gaga-Madonna Issue

Video: http://youtu.be/u3YmMqPEb_I


2:54 — MADONNA SINGS “EXPRESS YOURSELF”, “BORN THIS WAY” AND “SHE’S NOT ME” in her MDNA TOUR (Tel Aviv, Israel)


What she’s implying here is the already given impression that her 1989 hit “Express Yourself” (ooh, 2 decades later it’s finally stamped a classic!) and Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” do sound alike. You can’t really tell if it’s an act of gratitude, just a silly trip or mockery but I’d definitely buy the last, because singin’ two sonically identical songs back-to-back and then wrapping it up with “She’s Not Me” (Lyrics for the tour: “she’s not me” 5x) doesn’t represent anything more or less than a punch.


I don’t know why she had to bother really. Her whole fanbase has done the slagging too much, this just seems like a nod to the whole issue. “Express Yourself” comes off as a Madonna-serving anthem to the love-yourself-and-your-friends-and-your-God of “Born This Way”. She yelled numerous times “express yourseeeeelf!”. So now that she’s threatened/annoyed/whatever by a “reductive” fellow pop star who’s standing high and proud and following Madonna’s rants of self-expression for the conception of a therapeutic self-hugging song (call it melodramatic, but the Gaga saved me with her presence in pop alone), she tends to slag her off by mocking her.


Perhaps it’s just a matter of relevance. In 1993, when she was doing so much to be the most controversial, a financially-lesser but very talented singer named Sinead O’Connor raised more eyebrows with an SNL performance that included the tearing of an image of Pope John Paul II. Madonna, on the same show, did the same thing but with a different picture and attacked O’Connor’s action for being offensive to the Catholic Church. 


In response, Sinead told Spin magazine “Madonna is probably the hugest role model for women in America. There’s a woman who people look up to as being a woman who campaigns for women’s rights. A woman who in an abusive way towards me, said that I look like I had a run in with a lawnmower and that I was about as sexy as a Venetian blind.”


And for the kicker: “Now there’s the woman that America looks up to as being a campaigner for women, slagging off another woman, for not being sexy”. In Gaga’s case, for following Madonna. Hey hey.

The Gaga Wars: Ladies on Gaga

Videos in point:

*STUPID HOE - Nicki Minaj

*BIG MOUTH - Santigold

Within the week, Entertainment Weekly released Madonna’s latest 20/20 interview in which the Queen of Pop finally commented on the heated comparisons with Lady Gaga. Her remarks about Gaga being “cool” back in 2009 seemed to fade when she called Gaga’s gay anthem “reductive”. It isn’t quite odd that some of Madge’s collaborators on her new album (titled MDNA) added fuel to the fire in the same week as well. Two frustratingly bizarre videos (at least in the perspective of a regular Vevo music video subscriber) from Nicki Minaj and Santigold sliced and diced the nature of being a pop star - to be more precise, the nature of being Lady Gaga.


The two songs are about noisy girls by noisy girls. “Stupid Hoe” at first seems to be pinpointing at Lil Kim and it’s quite a painful listen. It doesn’t have the swagger of “Super Bass” or the eerie mystery of “Did It On ‘Em”. It’s a mean bully of a song. “Big Mouth”, on the other hand, is better. A playful experiment of synths and bass, it’s more like the Santi-penned Christina Aguilera song “Bobblehead” (which, in a better world, is a celebrated pop anthem) only this time the annoying bobblehead is bigger. Regarding their visuals, both videos reject current pop star trends. Both are animated, often funny but never fun. They’re very serious in their starbashing while remaining puerile and literal, which would mean they bring nothing new from the artists. But quite possibly these are their most absurd videos to date.


By now, music lovers (except Gaga’s loyal Little Monsters) share the annoyance felt by these two artists and how they seem to perceive the whole Gaga phenomenon as something terribly absurd. Just look at the artist’s humongous success in 3 years, and then question her sincerity - how she takes away millions of dollars while declaring that she’s a savior for the oppressed. And most importantly, just imagine her numerous “homages” that spark controversy and question her artistry. Her success is now being scarred by her critics, and Nicki Minaj and Santi White are ready with their knives. Their satire of Ms. Germanotta’s business is striking and is not so subtle indeed. Take Minaj’s imitation of Gaga’s locks and Santigold’s flashing of animated mermaids and monster tits. And in a more obvious move, take Santi’s line “Ga-ga-ga or slightly off”. This lack of subtlety straightly reflects Gaga’s artifice since her work was never discreet in its intentions even at the slightest bit.


It should be noted that Gaga’s videography is known to escape pop’s standards while still dwelling in it, and she produced some remarkable ideas. Her fast growth in the industry opened the gates for artists whose musical ideas, like her own, are far from pop’s status quo and more on something most would label as “freaky”. Gaga made the outlandish such a cool thing to do in the vein of pop stars, and Nicki will not be as out and about as she is now without Gaga. Santi and Nicki now slap Gaga’s ideas to the face, taking the cream of her three-year harvest and eating them up like real mother monsters. Gaga’s perception of the “fame monster” applies to this case now that her peers suddenly get up as pop cannibals ready to eat her.


Then again you might ask: All this fuss for silly old pop? It will not be relevant anymore after the flame of the conflict fades (especially since it’s just some silly attempt on a consumerist cat fight) but then we’ll come back to this and remember how fast-paced pop music has been since the arrival of Lady Gaga, and how her fellow artists - despite ripping her to shreds - also benefit from it. - Gio Potes, January 2012.


View the videos here:
Stupid Hoe - http://youtu.be/T6j4f8cHBIM
Big Mouth - http://youtu.be/cxdQ_uD5IWk

Revisiting the Music of 2011, Part 2

TAKE CARE
by Drake featuring Rihanna

"If you let me, here's what I'll do: I'll take care of you"

In the silence of this song, two artists portray a drunken sadness that has not been heard before. Perhaps it is only fitting, since it's about time that Rihanna finally exorcised the Chris Brown demon and Drake his bends of pop stardom. But perhaps, the winning aspect is the involvement of Jamie xx. Earlier, Jamie xx remixed Gil Scott-Heron's "I'll Take Care of You" with his own minimalist style. The result was raw and rough tribute. When Drake approached him for his new James Blake-inspired album, xx combined just the right ingredients for arguably the best song of the year.

The sexy, drunken vocals of the Barbadian star tops her recent trippings with Kanye West and Eminem. She's the rightful muse to Drake's successful but lonely lover because she herself is just the same. The restrain she puts in words like "I've loved and I've lost" makes you wonder if she's responding to Drake's sympathetic lyrics or she just had a night out and went home to talk to her mirror. It's the most heartwrenching moment in the year's pop next to 'Someone Like You' and 'Marvins Room'.

SOMEONE LIKE YOU
by Adele


After her fierce and successful delivery of ' Rolling in the Deep', Adele gives us a lonely ballad about losing the guy she loved, with nobody to comfort her except a mic and a piano. It seemed strange to love such a song about loss and sadness, but Adele delivers it from the bottom of a severely broken heart. It's a rare moment of honesty, where most of us would just choose the bitterness over accepting the truth that we had lost the battle. As Madonna said in her own ballads album 'Something to Remember', "It takes more strength to cry, admit defeat", I can see clearly why 'Someone Like You' is a gem of 2011. In the digital age, it's proof of our hunger for honesty, since the concept of love has become something more complicated than what we initially thought.


And also, amid the the dominance of house and dubstep, 'Someone Like You' is a farewell anthem to a distant genre. A genre that served well the likes of Amy Winehouse and Adele herself. And its our decision if we will let that go away. But thank goodness 'Someone Like You' was a success! It's a heartbreak song to end all heartbreak songs. And it will no doubt be an unforgettable one, not because it is bitter, but because it's real.








COUNTDOWN
by Beyonce


2011 was all about girls lookin' so crazy in love. There's Nicki Minaj and her 'Super Bass', Britney Spears and her 'Criminal', Lady Gaga's own 'Judas' of a boyfriend, even Katy Perry who imagined Russell Brand as an alien, a zookeeper and someone as gorgeous as Diego Luna. But who'd do a better (crazy in) love song than destiny's child herself?


'4' delivers so many emotions towards love. But they can be categorized into two: so-in-love-I-just-cry ballads and so-crazy-in-love-I-dance icebreakers. Those dance songs in that album exhibit her full diva potential without restrain. So if '1+1' was one hellufa weepy, 'Countdown' is the euphoric opposite. It's the mix of all Beyonce's craziness since she first shook her hips to the horns of her first solo single. But while it's all about her present love, she incorporated portions of her past to express it.


First of course is the notable sample. The titular countdown was taken from Boys II Men's song 'Uuh Ahh'. The 90s generation was all head over heels for the musical balladry of Boys II Men, and of course, as a 90s kid herself, Mrs. Carter loved them. But who would've thought that she could get back at the band's slow sexy jam and use it to new dizzying heights? And if you look at that video, it's a montage of dance's different eras with Beyonce lookin' good and fierce in the front. While 'Countdown' is the creative highlight of Beyonce's latest album, you can't deny that inspiration is wrapped all around that album.


Actually, I just can't describe the Beyonce present in this song. She's in love, she's all deranged about it, and she wants to make them three... all in a countdown of 10 to 1! It's her most exciting performance yet, and it was something you probably didn't expect from her material-girl-slash-R&B-soul-sister schizophrenia. If all this was because of monogamous love and that alone, wouldn't it be nice to have your own Jay-Z at this very moment?


Remember Sasha Fierce? Forget her. The real Queen B has stood up.

SUPER BASS

by Nicki Minaj

The euphoria you feel with love, translated into the boom ba doom boom bass of a speaker.

It's quite possibly the most popular song of the year, with rap verses a whole generation memorized by heart. And there's the chorus that made us all fall in love with how Nicki Minaj fell in love. It found Nicki balancing the schmaltz with her angst. Yes, she's head over heels in love but it's obvious that she isn't one who's falling fast and vulnerable. She's still her badass self. "I am Nicki Minaj, I mack 'em dudes up/ Back coups up and chuck the deuce up" And she falls for a guy who's not so macho like the stereotypical boyfriend, but is shy and gentle to her. "I can tell that you're in touch with your feminine side" Plus a guy who's like Pelican fly? It's true that the guy being described here is someone rare, a guy so gentle and loving without being gay. Now girls, check your boyfriends. If he's an asshole, leave him. Listen to 'Super Bass' and follow Nicki's example.

In the end, that's just Nicki Minaj's version of love. And how happy this love has made us.

CALL YOUR GIRLFRIEND
by Robyn


How about a guide to breaking up with your girlfriend?


Robyn's musical history has always placed her in the shoes of the other girl. Now, she isn't buying it anymore.


"Call you girlfriend, it's time you had the talk/ Give your reasons, say it's not her fault/
But you just met somebody new"


It's a confidence that you won't find in the schmaltzy wounded puppy shit of ballads straight out of Celine Dion, or any other stuff like that. She must be crowned for being the first other girl to rebel against her condition, and inspiring us all to realize it, finally.

ALL OF THE LIGHTS

by Kanye West

featuring Alicia Keys, John Legend, The-Dream, Drake, Fergie, Kid Cudi, Elton John, Ryan Leslie, Charlie Wilson, Tony Williams, Elly Jackson, Alvin Fields, Ken Lewis, and Rihanna

It’s Kanye West’s latest opus, so why not combine the forces of several powers of the industry and make one hellufa record? ‘All of The Lights’ is Kanye’s share of the limelight, of the riches and of the fame to the next generation. But even though ‘All of the Lights’ is a beautiful place to be, Kanye and all his performers here know that it can be such a ‘ghetto university’. The sexy devilish croon of Rihanna everywhere in the song (exhibit A: “Turn up the lights in here baby”, exhibit B: “We’re goin’ all the way this time”) is the tour guide to one whole roller coaster of the Hollywood life. It’s both a blessing and a curse. “I tried to tell ya but all I could say is oohh” warned at the end by perhaps the most experienced artist of the lights, Elton John.


In terms of the music, the whole orchestration is a reminder of Kanye West’s unpredictability and superstardom. After going through the rap geniuses of ‘The College Dropout’ through ‘808s and Heartbreak’, the song’s structure shows Mr. West’s maturity into one accomplished artist. One whose ideologies also developed along the process. And ‘All of the Lights’ is that part of his beautiful dark twisted fantasy that is a shaking reminder that on earth, life can be a series of critical darling ups and self-embarrassment downs.


‘All of the Lights’ is perhaps an unforgettable song about Kanye’s life and career nonetheless, and we can share and relate from his experiences because we also want ‘All of the Lights’. And after all the sins he’s committed (and ones he thinks he committed), he gets back to us with a musical creativity like no other.







SOMEBODY THAT I USED TO KNOW
by Gotye (feat. Kimbra)


A heartbreak song disguised in an 80s pop package...
but the bittersweet taste remains in the buds long after the song concludes.








FIREBALL by Willow Smith (feat. Nicki Minaj)


You asked for a fireball, you get a f*ckin' fireball!
Just strange that we're getting all this hotness from Will Smith's baby girl. Alright, the girl's 10 years old. But she's got more charisma than the Disney pop princesses combined. Plus Nicki Minaj up there, it seems Pitchfork was right in claiming that the female rapper is the secret ingredient to a good hit these days. Age ain't nothin' but a number, and my love for this dance hit is just inescapable.








CRYSTALLINE
by Bjork


If Bjork's themes are getting tired, her music is always fresh. Possibly because she's one of the most resourceful artists around, using the sounds of live nature to punctuate her eclectic vocals. An experimental showcase of percussions, the surprise of 'Crystalline', aside from its striking criticism of commercialism, is the drum-'n-bass ending that gives the entire song a menacing final exclamation. She's still an exciting artist, that Bjork.

YONKERS

by Tyler, the Creator

A haunting rap track by a man who's "not gay, just wanted to boogie to some Marvin".

Yet, he's on therapy and imagines B.o.B. dead in a plane crash and Bruno Mars stabbed to the back.

And here's an even grimmer music video to make it worse.

Okay, Tyler. Run along. Go ahead and find yourself. I'll just cure the stabs you've done to Bruno Mars.

CRUEL
by St. Vincent


"How can they be casually cruel?"


How can they be, when your whole song is a series of quotable Facebook statuses compiled into one cohesive weave and delivered with dead-pan quirkiness and a catchy backtrack?


This one's a find.








CALL IT WHAT YOU WANT
by Foster The People


I learned in art class that beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. Therefore, all the things I consider beautiful is all because of my perception of beauty. Then later, I learned the theories of Hegel and Marx about things like the "ruling ideology". Looking back at history and tracing towards the present, we get bullying, labels and all those cruel names. In response to this, we get songs titled 'Born This Way' and 'Call It What You Want'.


"Yeah we're locked up in ideas/ We like to label everything/
Well I'm just gonna do here what I gotta do here/ 'Cause I gotta keep myself free"


I don't know what Foster the People want to bring up from their debut album 'Torches' but to me, the whole thing is summed up in this song, to which you can say they're playing it safe. But upon listening to the song, the anthemic declarations of "CALL IT WHAT YOU WANT!" forces your own judgments to be erased and just sing along. Call it what you want, Foster the People pays no attention to what you think. Like Lady Gaga's own erase-hate statement, in its own light, "Call It What You Want" may be the year's biggest self-empowerment theme song.


Just call it what you want? Hell, it's beautiful.








ROLLING IN THE DEEP (JAMIE XX REMIX)
by Adele featuring Jamie xx)


Much of Adele's performances are so beautiful and so powerful that they get a bit campy. And her admirers can't help but make fun out of it, producing GIFs and funny sketches revolving her talent. And Jamie xx, well aware of the happenings in music right now, took that idea and blended it with his own style.


This Jamie xx remix of the inescapable 'Rolling in the Deep' replaces her anger with a playful I-don't-care-if-you-care manner, backed up by a track of continuous percussion. The vocals suddenly changes pitch and the whole first and final choruses sound like scenes from 'The Exorcist'. And he let Adele interrupt his game. A seemingly endless run of "You played it. You played it. You played it. To the beat." finishes the remix, giving her an obvious reason to rant. In other words, Jamie xx turned Adele's song against herself. The irony gives the song a whole new catchiness, and it's so not Adele.

TILL THE WORLD ENDS (THE FEMME FATALE REMIX)

By Britney Spears (featuring Nicki Minaj and Ke$ha)

The single itself was already a humongous earworm. Like the luscious strings of 'Toxic' and the three-note piano intro of '...Baby One More Time', the gigantic oh ohs of that chorus are forever stamped in my brain. And did I mention that on paper, it was only about a night out in the club?

Enter the dragons. In a brilliant move, Brit allowed the (wittily titled) Femme Fatale Remix of the song to be done. Not only was it remixed to heavier dubstep, she let the new pop stars Nicki Minaj and Ke$ha unleash their talents in one of her many comeback singles. While half the song can be attributed to Ms. Sebert for co-writing (notice the resemblance to 'Blow'?), Ms. Maraj colors it pink. Her rap before the actual song is proof of her mastery, and the playfulness was unexpected. Who else could just blurt out fried chicken in a club pop song and get away with it? And in the now famous role call ("It's Britney biiiiiiiiitch! I'm Nicki Minaj and that's Ke$ha!"), the femme fatales combine in a three-headed monster and kill it like pros.

I can't take it, take it, take no more! It's just one hellufa brilliant idea.

SHAKE IT OUT
by Florence and The Machine


(Ceremonials)


A celebration of freedom and confidence, complete with arena-sized declarations and Luis Bunuel references. So much soul, it’ll make you want to pray.
#Shake







MAN DOWN
by Rihanna


In one silly YouTube comment, a playful switch of lyrics say "Oh mama, mama, mama, I just shot a Chris Brown." The whole Chris Brown issue has always been associated with Rihanna. But she used this to her benefit. Her fifth album 'Rated R' (plus a featured song with Eminem) was dark and the songs presented mostly chaotic love and domestic abuse. In her successful album 'Loud' and its corresponding videos, she finally exorcised the demon.


And speaking of the songs, no other song reflected the state of Rihanna than in 'Man Down'. 'Man Down' is the quintessential Rihanna song. It is notable in that collection because of its unique structure and delivery. It's reggae, that one song in every Rihanna record that would reveal the Barbadian within all the American pop fluff. But what really kills in her fifth single is the lyrics twisted to the music. She sings about the murder of a man, and how she regrets it. Yet the way she sings this tale is vague and undisturbed, as if she's just saying that she didn't mean to do it but she knew it was coming. As with Foster the People's 'Pumped Up Kicks', Rihanna can't help it if she's a criminal. The man deserves it. And she deserves the relief.


This relief though wasn't satisfied till the video came out. The tale was visually presented and completely spelled out for the spectators. Rihanna portrayed a Barbadian lass having fun in the island until a local guy raped her. She gets back on him by shooting him dead. Alas, it was another controversial video. Catholic groups around the States deemed it too vulgar and violent. People would always rant about violence against women, but why is it that when women rise up from the violence and do something about it (say "shot a man down in central station in front of a big ol' crowd"), it is deemed inappropriate? In this light, I bet Rihanna called for the controversy herself.


Rum Pa Pum. Rum Pa Pum. Chris and Critics Down.
Not only did she exorcise her demons and made the critics scratch their heads. She managed to craft one of her best songs to date.








PUMPED UP KICKS
by Foster the People


Eerie vocals introduce us to the twisted mind of a Counter Strike-inspired killer who's half-serious in his upcoming spree. "You better run, better run or I'll run my gun." Then come the scarier whistles that you can almost feel Mr. Foster walking behind you. 'Pumped Up Kicks' is deranged alt-pop, but catchy as hell.








JUDAS
by Lady Gaga


Love it or loathe it, 'Judas' surely was 2011's most head-stomping, brow-raising, under-performing Lady Gaga song. It paved a larger path for the coming of more silly Illuminati accusations and made a lot of fans walk away, yet the Lady just sat calmly on her throne and awaited her biggest success yet: the album. Maybe if the subject matter was not something as Biblical as the betrayal done by Judas, it would've been a success. Unlike its mother, Madonna's 'Like a Prayer', which kept its sex-with-God backstory behind gospel choir catchiness, 'Judas' enveloped its bad romance within a conspiracy involving Mary Magdalene, Judas and Jesus Christ. The (Christian) world wasn't ready for Gaga's musical ambush, so they responded with brash criticism and a total eclipse from her artistry.


But it's clear that the song is one of her best yet. 'Judas' pushed her music further, baptizing it with heavier beats and crazier ideas - Ear condoms? Lipstick guns? Most of all, likening your bad boyfriend to Judas? - and fearlessly releasing the animal right before the Holy Week. Who would dare to do such things but the newly-crowned Queen of Pop?








UNDER COVER OF DARKNESS 
by The Strokes


Like a tribute song to The Strokes by The Strokes.
Nothing new, but you can't deny it: you did miss "Someday" and "Last Nite".








1+1
by Beyonce


If she has nothing, she's got YOOOOUU! She doesn't know much about algebra but she knows 1+1 equals TWOOOO! Yes, it's an almost campy performance from Beyonce declaring her love for Jay-Z. She delivers an amazingly matured vocal but she gets it out by way of a teenage girl much in love and is too happy that she begins to cry, or like a drag queen in a karaoke bar hitting the high notes of a Whitney Houston song. With all that restrain, it's like one of the songs of Adele's albeit one with a delivery that's more like a warm and tight embrace than a cold kissoff.








HEADLINES
by Drake


One of the strongest hits from Drake yet, once again the rapper spills his issues on celebrity in the forefront of booming beats and restless strings. Like his rise to the top, the song is a speedy reflection. And it gets better.








WHAT YOU NEED
by The Weeknd


It's like that cold post-orgasmic feeling, when you leave the scenery right after she climaxes and returns to what she wants. Yes, we've all been there, in that painful options list, and being the other boy/girl might be the real pain of Abel Tesfaye aka The Weeknd. But when he opened up the gates for his latest experimentation of indie and R&B, there is of course no one else in the game better than him. Even Drake took him for the rapper's latest album.








RUMOUR HAS IT
by Adele


Beware of the monstrous percussions and angered vocals that are ready to crush your indecision! Bless your soul, you have made a fool out of this woman! In no more than 4 minutes, she will make you think again and run to your mommy like a silly little boy who spoiled the whole meal by eating sweet candy. And beware because there's more bashing to come!








VOMIT
by Girls


A mystifying love song that builds up and explodes into howling gospel.








I'M THE BEST
by 2NE1


There is no way I'm buying into this KPop craze. But if they ever managed to build-up these inescapable ra-ta-ta's and na-na-na's and get 4 confident bitches snarl all around the place, why not give in? It's 2NE1's best, and probably of the whole KPop phenomenon as well.

Revisiting the Music of 2011

BORN THIS WAY by Lady Gaga

A week after the much-anticipated release of Lady Gaga's first single for 2011's much-anticipated album, Pitchfork's Tom Ewing wrote a blog about the whole emergence of pop music's self-empowerment hoopla:

""Born This Way" fits neatly into a current vogue for self-empowerment pop anthems with Pink's "Raise Your Glass" and Katy Perry's "Firework". The Village Voice's Rich Juzwiak has written pointedly about the "Great Gay Pander-Off Of 2010"; Pitchfork's Nitsuh Abebe has talked in New York magazine about how Gaga's rainbow fanbase-building is designed to "open up that circle of self-acceptance to anyone who wants in." And this is what makes the trend so interesting to me-- because these pop songs about self are becoming hits at a time when the presentation of self and the value of self is a bubbling issue across our culture. If Lady Gaga's trick is to make her fans believe their self-empowerment is socially important, she's picked a smart time to do it."

It was one of the most bloated events in pop culture. The self-proclaimed Mother Monster to her legion of Little Monsters gave a gigantic surprise to open the year. It was one that she promised way back September 2010, when she won Video of the Year for 'Bad Romance'. "I'm beautiful in my way coz God makes no mistakes/ I'm on the right track baby I was born this way!" goes the meat dress-donning gay rights activist. It was a fitting present to her admirers who bought in to her hype since the arrival of her renaissance that is 'Bad Romance'. That moment was the peak of her year, and her promise is one her fans held on to until the record finally arrived on February 2011.

A few months after the 2010 VMAs, the trend was all for the fairies. It was timely, that Gaga moment, for in the heightened Facebook Age of 2010 sprang the numerous cases of online bullying and teenage suicide mostly caused by homophobia. A popular case was the suicide of Tyler Clementi which placed LGBT groups in intense action. With these cases, pop music found a cause celebre: bullies. Ke$ha wrote 'We R Who We R' after learning these incidents. This was followed by the release of a series of pop songs including Katy Perry's 'Firework', and Pink's 'Raise Your Glass' and 'Fuckin' Perfect' all addressing the issue, like repackaged Christina Aguilera belters to save the lives of a troubled generation by saying that they're beautiful. Even the hit TV musical Glee was fearless in tackling the issue. The trend was not entirely new. Back in the 80s, when the height of AIDS was surfacing in the United States, artists like Whitney Houston, Madonna and George Michael released powerful songs about self. And in 2002, Christina Aguilera and Linda Perry wrote 'Beautiful' which left a trail of admirers who claim they were saved by such a song. You can watch 'Mean Girls' and see for yourself. Yet no other era underlined the issue more than in the years 2010 to 2011. With all these patriotism in 2010's pop music, it seemed the fight for gay rights has been pushed forward but not ultimately to its success. As of 2011, the only legalization accomplished was in New York City.

And so came February 11, the day of Little Monsters. Lady Gaga's labor of love has surfaced on her website. And you knew the hot air balloon of hype has exploded: 'Born This Way' was both a triumph and a disappointment.

Musically, Ms. Germanotta's first single for her sophomore album is an overproduced industrial disco anthem. It is brash and relentless, a no-holds-barred pop song. It spits its intentions straight to the face, and pounds down to the ear drums that it can be unbearable. Lyrically, it is a poem of patriotism. Perhaps it was the troubled youth Gaga is concerning within the center of her opus since most of Gaga's "Little Monsters" are teenage outcasts. That's what one would think at first but actually it addresses the totality of the human being, the whole of society. It's as if the impulsive superstar decided to finally be everything to everyone. Check the following list of social groups mentioned in the song and see if you're included: drag queens, subway kids, the youth, the insecure, the broke, the evergreen, the blacks, whites, beige, the Chola descent, the Lebanese, the Orient-made, the disabled, the outcast, the bullied, the teased, the gays, the straights, the bisexuals, the lesbians, the transgendered.

That's the size of ambition Lady Gaga injected within her song. No other gay anthem may be as big as this one yet no other artist would dare to do such mindblowing work, too. Not with statements like "Don't be a drag, just be a queen" or "No matter gay, straight or bi, lesbian, transgendered life/ I'm on the right track baby I was born to survive". Without a doubt, it's the highlight of Lady Gaga's young career so far, and it will be hard to top this one considering its hype alone.

In fact, it was forced upfront with so much hype and expectations that it didn't just land on top of the charts, it infuriated the community Gaga intended to embrace. Many gays found it too similar to Madonna's own 1989 self-empowerment anthem 'Express Yourself' also at the same time when she was beginning to have a gay following. The controversy heightened when she thanked Whitney Houston rather than Madonna in her speech at the Grammys. It is also possible that Gaga used the gay community for her own profit. After all, her fans are mostly homosexuals. Nevertheless, her song for them was ridiculed and mocked, giving the song such nicknames as 'Bored This Way', and the artist 'Lady FlopGa'. It's ironic to imagine all this hate towards a song written and recorded for love for equality and that love alone but, considering the juggernaut success she has achieved in just 3 years, it cannot be denied that these hateful speculations can be true.

In the end, Lady Gaga triumphed over all of them. Her song was a recordbreaking iTunes chart-topper and the most inescapable tune of the year, getting covered here and there, playing everywhere from clubs to the streets, achieving lots of recognition and saving the lives of countless teenagers. You can say that Elton John was right in describing the song as the new 'I Will Survive'. Flawed at best, Lady Gaga's promise is both the crowning moment and the explosion of the whole self trend. No other song will be as big and proud as 'Born This Way', and it came at the time when it was hugely necessary. - December, 2011