"The Blah Blah of Gaga"

Newsweek, not exactly the go-to source for entertainment and art criticism, never-the-less put into words what I wish I had regarding Lady Gaga, essentially hitting on the head exactly why she's terrible, and why pop culture writers going along for the disco-stick ride are on some bullshit.
To summarize in a quote or two:

"The problem with Gaga is that she refuses to add any concrete value, while also wanting us to think she has something to say. She's described her concept of "the fame" variably as an "inner sense of confidence" and something about how "nobody knows who you are, but everyone wants to know." When pressed to clarify by a reporter, she denied "trying to feel" anything at all: "I make soulless electronic pop," she said.

"Gaga may want to have it both ways, but that doesn't mean we should let her. Inscribing Rilke's question—"must I write?"—on your arm and then hiding behind a nihilist's superficiality amounts to a pretentious form of bullshit."

"Of course, bubblegum music can get a pass from needing to say anything if it's philosophically modest: rocking all night and partying every day. But with due respect to the swear-word police, pop also becomes offensive when it puts on airs it has no intention of earning."

Oh, and her songs are terrible.


http://www.newsweek.com/id/223509