Turn It Up!: Lady Gaga - Applause (Music Video)

  "Pop Culture Was An Art, Now Art's In Pop Culture In Me!"

 Well, it's almost time my lovelies! In a weeks time the new Lady Gaga album ARTPOP officially gets released, and you all are either very excited, or mortified beyond belief and wish she would just go away lol. I happen to fit into the group of you who are forever on the fence about her. I love her to a point, I think she's really creative and fun to watch, but there's a certain pretentiousness about her that often rubs me the wrong way (We Get It Gaga, You're An ARTIST!), but the thing is, I think she's fully aware of this side of her and is often annoyed by it also, so that's what keeps me coming back. My only other issue is (and this is kind of indirectly about her) when people (namely fans) take a singers stance out of context. Gaga is obviously of the motto of let your freak flag fly, which I fully support, but when fans take that to mean that they can present themselves or carry themselves in a manner that is right for them, but makes them non-inclusive to other people, that is just fucked up in my opinion. There has got to be a way in which you can be the most fully realised version of yourself without being a selfish prick to others, because then, you are no better than the people that oppressed you. I'm not really articulating it right, but if you know what I mean, then you know what I mean.

 So, let's get back to the music, that's why you're here. This is (if you've been living under a rock) the first single from ARTPOP. I originally didn't think much of the song until I saw the video, which, according to quotes from Gaga, is exactly the point of this album. The visual side of her craft is just as big a part of this project as the auditory side. The video, directed by Inez & Vinoodh who have worked numerous times with artists like Bjork and Antony Hegarty of Antony and The Johnsons, features Gaga in various circus performer outfits and many different shape shifting persona's (as well as her homage to Botticelli's "Birth Of Venus"). The lyrics are not just about her need for adulation but also an artists need for an audience. Does art exist if there's no one there to see, hear, smell, touch or taste it?

 'Applause' is a very meaningful song to me, because it addresses what many think of 'celebrities' today, that we 'do it' for the attention. But some of us are 'artists' in this group called 'celebrity,' & what we create doesn't live on unless there's an audience to remember it. So I may need your attention at first, so I can sing you my song. But its the 'Applause' after that let me know if I've entertained you. Entertainment makes people happy, I live for the 'Applause,' to know I've spread that. I live to hear you cheer, to just be a part of that.I believe in show business. The 'Applause' is what breeds that thing that I love. When I know I've made you happy. When I know it was good.'

 As well as this song, Gaga has premiered probably half the album by now, by releasing them in video form (a lyric video for the song Aura, and audio videos for the songs Venus, and Do What You Want feat. R Kelly) or performing them live (see the iTunes Festival performance). I personally have been intrigued by all of these songs and am looking forward to finally hearing the finished product from start to finish, so I guess whatever she's doing, it's working.

 Game well played Gaga!