So today Born this Way hit some record.... *goes to look it up....oh it's number #1... i'm assuming billboard. Regardless, breaking 1 million is sales in one week is actually impressive. How much of that is profit? Probably a lot less then you think. From what I've been seeing, lots of $$$ have been going into marketing. Regardless of that 1 million these days is still impressive.
Now, onto the real discussion because numbers are a tad boring. Everyone these days goes on about the liberating nature of the song Born this Way blah blah blah. Now there's nothing wrong with advocating gay rights (actually it should be encouraged) but if you think that Lady Gaga is some revolutionary with real intentions you are a fool to think is such a way. When it comes down to it, Lady Gaga is no Dylan, she is no RATM. Not in the musical or genius sense. In the sense that they live what they preach. Lady Gaga is no real advocate for gay and lesbian rights. She uses these avenues and audience base to sell her product. Since Elton did Disney, since Bowie is pretty much retired, and since the death of Freddie, the market for gays and lesbians has a large void on large stage. The only logical thing for big record companies to ask is how to fill that hole. This is where Lady Gaga steps in. What I'm trying to get at is, Lady Gaga advocates for human rights because it makes money not because it's her nature. She'll do whatever that makes her money. If the market needed a white, female to do NWA style gangsta rap then Lady Gaga would be doing that. Case in point, since previous this most is just speculation.
VS
We are defintely not making the assumption that she writes the instrumental parts because she isn't that talented.
So let's assume Lady Gaga writes her own lyrics, which I have a hard time believing. Just because she's acredited with lyrics doesn't mean she writes them, it's just how big your pocket books are... as my drummer would say. So Lady Gaga writes these lyrics for gay and lesbian rights she really believes in. Ok, so why in the world would you put those lyrics to a backdrop that isn't even yours. I've never heard or met a musician who writes lyrics close to their heart and allows some flunky to take it and colour it in. It's your heart and soul, no one else should touch it. Which leads me to believe that these lyrics are either not genuine to her soul, or some record company told her to write on this subject matter (which still is not genuine).
Go be a Courtney Love (I can't believe I just said that). But to Love's credit she's honest about her short comings (which are a lot). She's honest about not being a true solo artist. That she always writes her music with a partner or a group. Which at the end of the day you can't discredit her for it. No one discredits Lars and James of being hacks because they can't write music without each other. No one discredits Mick and Keith, Perry and Tyler, etc etc. But the difference is, these artists write with other artists. Not the record hacks that Lady Gaga writes with. It would be better to write music with Billy Corgan, even though he is a complete ass, than to write with a company. Lady Gaga is no artists, nor does she have any interest in being in an artist, only if being an artist is a means to end for money.
