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Embracing the Singularity of Lady Gaga

An in-depth look into the ever changing uniqueness of the pop star’s career.

The book’s cover, showcasing the singer’s chic boldness, 2022.

Lady Gaga: Applause

There are only a finite number of words to describe the unconventionality of Lady Gaga, and music journalist Annie Zaleski uses them all. Behind the seemingly unsuspecting black and white cover holds a treasure trove of vibrant, rich colors and chic patterns that perfectly encapsulates the flamboyant career of pop star sensation, Lady Gaga.

Zaleski’s approach to Gaga’s life takes on a rich musical stance, showcasing Gaga’s inspirations from the late 70s-90s such as David Bowie, Led Zeppelin, Cyndi Lauper, Bruce Springsteen, Blondie, and the Beatles. Starting with a rundown of the childhood of Lady Gaga, née Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, Zaleski emphasizes the way music played a large role in her hobbies and interests, shaping her into the pop star sensation she is today, from her father’s encouragement to learn rock songs on the piano that he played along the Jersey Shore to the influence of MTV upon the 90s generation. 

It explores the early start for the musician that began with her dislike for school (but not learning, as Gaga makes clear) and her strong desire to make music and work. While her parents were not thrilled with her decision to pursue music rather than continue her studies at NYU Tisch School of the Arts, Gaga was given their blessing to bring her ambitions to fruition. She had one year starting in September 2005 to “make things happen and land a record deal”– a timeline that for some may have been too ambitious, but not for Gaga. Within weeks, she had a band put together and they debuted in October of 2005, marking the beginning of Gaga’s career. Her passion for music only grew, and soon enough she was writing her first hit song “Beautiful, Dirty, Rich.” Zaleski notes that during this time, Gaga was entrenched in the drug scene, but it is not a point that lingered. 

While the book explores the details of Gaga’s career, Zaleski skillfully frames some of the singer’s not-so-classy actions in a graceful, elegant way, allowing the audience to appreciate the star’s somewhat questionable choices in a new light. Gaga was particularly demanding of her audience to pay attention to her and the work that she was bursting to share, to the point where she would strip on stage, but her actions were not something to look down upon, but rather admire, as Zaleski makes clear in stating, “[Gaga] poured her heart and soul into music and creativity– and pushed herself to embrace the kind of fearlessness needed for pop stardom.”

This creativity is what fuels Gaga’s career further, as Zaleski notes that Gaga’s first album, The Fame, is “diverse” and “fresh,” allowing for Gaga’s music to stand out in the 2008 pop scene. Zaleski embraces Gaga’s “provocative stances about fame and celebrity,” analyzing the ways in which the individual tracks of the album twists the typical narrative of what life of the famous is like. 

Throughout the book, Zaleski continuously stresses the importance of art in Gaga’s life, and how the star was predisposed to viewing art in a grandiose way due to her childhood. Gaga often used artists such as Andy Warhol as a guiding light, devouring his paintings and books on the artist, fueling her creativity, and allowing her uniqueness to shine through her dazzling hairstyles and signature outfits. She emulates many artists through her looks, such as the lightning bolt under her right eye as a homage to Bowie in the low-budget music video of her worldwide hit, “Just Dance.” 

The book is teeming with electrifying shots of the star’s performances, from her (literal) explosive performance in the 2009 MuchMusic Video Awards to her questionably pandemic safe, but adamantly chic lit-up COVID mask that she donned alongside fellow singer Ariana Grande’s plain black mask during the 2020 MTV Video Music Awards. Staying true to Gaga’s stylistic nature, Zaleski dedicates full pages to some of Gaga’s most eccentric outfits, from her controversial, yet legendary 2010 meat dress to a spread just for her wackiest hats.

There is a chapter for every album that highlights not only the tracks but also the mindset of the star at the time, showing the shifting nature of Lady Gaga as she matured and her fame rose around the world. Zaleski begins the chapter “Born This Way” with a comparison of the “superhuman-superstar” in 2010 that didn’t even drink water on stage out of fear that it would draw the audience away from the fantastical performance to only a year later when she began to write deeply emotional songs such as “Speechless” and her open-natured interviews where she paired “her usual sassy, savvy soundbites with earnest political and social activism.” This shift in Gaga’s mindset is also represented in the aesthetics of the book itself, as it goes from the highly saturated, sparkling colors of her 2014 “Paws up!” performance, her ARTPOP Ball tour outfits, and her vampiric performance with “EMMA” (an instrument incorporating bass guitar, synthesizer, and a drum machine) to more muted, yet powerful, stills of Gaga at military rallies, standing with his Holiness the Dalai Lama, and embracing cherished actress and singer, Julie Andrews.

It is during this transition that Zaleski strays from the pop star’s musical career and highlights the political and social activism that Gaga takes on, using her superstar platform in an effort to “make the world a better place,” as cliché as that may seem. In the chapter “Giving Back,” Zaleski brings back Gaga’s childhood in a new light, showcasing some of the traumatic bullying in which Gaga was a victim that led to her establishment of the Born This Way Foundation in 2012. Zaleski is firm in Gaga’s stance on “the culture of love” and her belief that the key to a better world is kindness, kindness, kindness. 

Gaga’s third album ARTPOP is “dialed back in seriousness”, according to Zaleski and Gaga herself, ushering in a new era of an unhinged Lady Gaga that the world had not seen before. From the realistic sculpture of a naked Gaga cupping her breasts on the cover of the album to her outfits that represented the “birth of Gaga-as-Venus,” ARTPOP was not a hit sensation as the other albums were, perhaps due to its rawness and rarity that was novel, even for Gaga, at the time. The tracks were sex-centric– “MANiCURE,” “Sexxx Dreams,” and “G.U.Y” all filled with both humorous innuendos and explicit descriptions. Despite some of the harsh criticisms that the album received, stating it lacked “impression” and that it “didn’t have much to say,” there were also praises for the music, as Exclaim! dubbed it as “reveal[ing] a performer who finally sounds as invested in her art as she is in her image,” as well as “dynamic” and “memorable.”

Zaleski makes it clear that the ARTPOP era not only brought forth a side of Gaga that was normally hidden from the public, but also allowed the pop star to embrace her individuality and uniqueness in a way that she had not before. After the album’s release, Gaga was more open in interviews about her bisexuality, her tortured past with sexual assault, and her escapism vibe. By opening up about her challenges to the public, Gaga unveiled a rawness that drew her fans in closer, harboring a newfound support from her Little Monsters. 

Following the release of her third album, Gaga dove into acting, appearing in hit TV show American Horror Story: Hotel and French film, Machete Kills. However, her most significant role to date is in the 2018 remake of A Star Is Born, acting alongside The Hangover star, Bradley Cooper. Some of the filming took place at Gaga’s performance at Coachella in 2017, allowing Gaga to blend both the performer and actress identities. Zaleski praises Gaga for her ability to “disappear fully into the role of Ally,” rather than incorporating a “thinly veiled version of [her] real self…as many musicians are when they switch to movies.” The box office success also featured a hit soundtrack that only drove Gaga’s fame further, as she was only the second person to receive Oscar nominations for both acting and songwriting in the same film. Zaleski is proud to note that, “when all was said and done, Gaga became the first woman ever to win an Oscar, Grammy, Golden Globe, and BAFTA in the same year,” a testament to the true talent that the artist holds. 

Zaleski ends the book with two short chapters, “Chromatica” and “Re-Born This Way,” both highlighting Gaga’s return to the spotlight as a singer with the release of her fourth album as well as her performance of the National Anthem for the 59th Presidential Inauguration. While her tour dates for Chromatica have been postponed due to the pandemic, Gaga is still in her prime, as she balances movie and music careers. Zaleski transforms her love for the pop star sensation into an intriguing, motivating tale that leaves the audience wondering how Lady Gaga will evolve from here.

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Chasing the Narratives in Rock Music

Jessica Hopper’s latest book spotlights her writing on the biggest names in rock to the smallest up and comers from her beloved Chicago.

The book’s revised and expanded edition pops with sharpness and color

The First Collection of Criticism by a Living Female Rock Critic

More than a critic, Jessica Hopper is a storyteller. The First Collection of Criticism by a Living Female Rock Critic displays this time and time again. She dives into her pieces not only as a journalist, but as a fan, making it clear even in the introduction–her 2002 essay “I Have a Strange Relationship with Music”–that she’s not impartial. Hopper has a voice that demands to be heard. Music is everything to her, and not in the typical way. “It is strange by virtue of what I need from it,” the journalist confesses, “having developed such a desperate belief in the power of music to salve and heal me, I ask big, over and over again.” This piece begins as an analysis of Van Morrison’s T.B. Sheets. Hopper professes her love for the album and then dives into an illustration of the miraculous power of rock music. She shows her devotion to exploring its meaning through her work as a critic: “the exhaustive chronicling of what it is that artists possess that we mere mortals do not.” 

This job description is a gutsy and possibly over-the-top statement from her earliest days. But even then Hopper was doing far more than just chronicling. She started conversations about the treatment of women in underground rock scenes through her piece “Emo: Where the Girls Aren’t.” She tackled harrowing tales that weren’t getting enough attention in “The “Stomach-Churning” Sexual Assault Accusations Against R. Kelly.” She even disclosed stories from her teenage years about the journey to her musical awakening through Bikini Kill in her essay “Louder Than Love: My Teenage Grunge Poserdom.”

The latter showcases Hopper’s greatest strength: putting herself in the narrative. Personal anecdotes and opinions saturate the pages, somehow in a way that adds to her credibility. She grew up in the world of punk and rock and she is just as dedicated as ever to uncovering the stories inside it, especially those of women who weren’t always given a voice. “It Was Us Against Those Guys” tells the story of the six women who formed the first Copy and Research Department for Rolling Stone in the 70s, led by Marianne Partridge. “A galvanizing feminist force, Partridge deputized these ambitious young women to turn Rolling Stone into a true journalistic endeavor: a credible music magazine.” Hopper blended their interviews in order to tell their important and often overlooked story. Her resolve to bestow their long overdue credit flowed into an empowering chronicle of determination in the face of sexism.

Hopper also fights to give a voice to the modern woman. “Cat Power is Doing Just Fine” deconstructs the idea that an artist’s well-being should be measured by their ability to entertain and perform. “Kacey Musgraves, Janelle Monae, and the Year of the Woman… Again” applauds the female artists who were able to control the top of the charts in 2019. “A Woman Every Hour” questions why there aren’t more women in country music; it’s certainly not for lack of talent. Radio stations don’t play female country, so record labels don’t sign them, and then festivals can’t book them because there isn’t enough fame attached to their names. “All of this, as both artists and activists attest, has created an environment in which women are locked out of opportunities and subject to systemic discrimination and barriers, and one in which a growing pool of talented young women are pitted against one another,” Hopper reports with an appetite for change.

She has no patience for those who maintain or defend the status quo. This is even more prominent in “The Silver Lining Myth.” After the 2016 presidential election, many people were desperate to find a bright side to the dismal reality. One misguided mindset involved the idea that Trump’s presidency would somehow improve the production of music during that time. “Punk will rise up and ‘be good again,’ pop will get ‘real,’ gain meaning, become explicitly political.” Hopper shut this down in no uncertain terms, calling out the perspective for what it really is: “indifference to the plight of others and to the many possible ways by which Trump’s presidency threatens to ruin lives.” She isn’t afraid of getting political. Hopper follows her sense of justice to every corner of the music industry.

Another topic she tackles the merits of numerous times is selling-out. She shoots down re-releases put out by Fleetwood Mac, Dinosaur Jr., Sonic Youth, and Nirvana because they reek of a thinly veiled cash-grab. She demolishes Sonic Youth, avowing that “buying the whole new Daydream Nation nostalgia package, and the late-’80s/early-’90s nostalgia-fest in general, feels pathetic–as if the only way to sandbag against encroaching obsolescence is with our wallets.” She similarly shuts down the twentieth-anniversary box set of Nevermind, asking ““Does anyone imagine that kids deafened by two decades of increasingly shitty mastering and overcompression will even be able to hear the difference…”? Hopper’s realness and wit combine to form engaging reads that attempt to hold artists accountable to their fans. Her evocative vocabulary and industry insight allow her to unmask those she deems to be aging frauds.

She isn’t afraid to attack larger institutions either. “Punk Is Dead! Long Live Punk!” gives an account of her summer following the Vans Warped tour in 2004. From its secretive set-times to its menacingly methodical layout, the Warped tour was always meant to squeeze every penny it could from the expendable income of its teenage attendees. Hopper wasted no time breaking down the corporate practices poorly hidden under the guise of a purely punk festival. And she made sure to put a spotlight on the few bands with a true rock-and-roll essence, namely Juliette & the Licks and Mean Reds, while she was at it. Hopper is always on a mission to find music that moves her.

As a result she was quite adamant about boycotting Lollapalooza despite it taking place in her hometown, publishing a retort titled “Not Lollapalooza.” The whimsical festival grounds may elicit feelings of excitement and community at first, “but the idea that mega-festivals somehow create ad hoc communities out of their mega-crowds–an idea likely owed to Woodstock–is ridiculous. The only thing everybody at Lollapalooza has in common is the willingness to be painfully gouged for a ticket.” Not at all worth it when Chicago has so much else to offer. Hopper recalled some of the most moving shows by no-name artists that she had attended. Rollin Hunt, Screaming Females, and Abe Vigoda had given her far more meaningful experiences than a festival full of drunk teens ever would. The underground scene breeds connection, “in the basement, you can feel the band’s humanity as well as your own.”

Reading Hopper’s compilation in succession certainly gave way to larger themes and ideas. Her articles work together to put rock music on display: its culture, contributors, and concerns. But despite this, there are certainly weaknesses in the book’s structure. Each individual piece comes across as thought out and captivating, but they fit together like a puzzle that was jammed into place. The book is broken up into nine different sections, each with four to eight articles that span numerous lengths, publishers, and decades. The themes of each section range from places to feelings to juxtaposing ideologies. Certainly more creative than laying out her articles chronologically but not all of the fifty-six articles feel quite in the right place. 

The first section, Chicago, left me hopeful. The deep love and understanding that Hopper has of her city is engaging and leads to passionate writing. But so much of her writing centers around Chicago it begs the question of why those articles were chosen to represent the city and others were swept into broader categories like Strictly Business or Personal/Political. A similar argument could be made for the final section of the book, She Said, given that a large portion of her writing also focuses on empowering female artists.

That being said, The First Collection of Criticism by a Living Female Rock Critic is overall an engrossing and informative read. It aptly achieves its goal of highlighting the best so far of Jessica Hopper. Her journalism goes above and beyond, covering superstars to up-and-comers and treating them all with the same level of care and respect. Whether she’s writing Sufjan Stevens a letter on his misconceptions of the state of Illinois or analyzing a photograph of Lady Gaga in the airport, she can make a compelling story out of anything. The structure of the book can be overlooked. Besides, with a career as long and fruitful as she’s had, Hopper can’t be blamed for having too much work to organize neatly and nicely. She’s far too busy tackling the patriarchy and moshing in Chicago basements to worry about playing by the rules.