Lady Gaga’s fake blood baths would be better if they weren’t spewing out of a clichéd mouthpiece

I think that Lady Gaga’s music has bland, generic (and to me annoyingly meaningless) pop lyrics, which is the main reason I do not understand why she seems to appeal to so many poets. Personality wise, I think she comes across as an oddball/cheese ball fusion (not that there's anything wrong with that), but not in a poetically creative way. Poetry is a form of unique, artistic verbal communications, not unique, artistic personal dress styles.

I’m not anti-pop, mind you – but I’m surely not a fan of overly clichéd words – which are not poetic in any way that I can fathom or that makes interesting sense to me. Frankly, her blah bland clichéd lyrics annoy the shit out of my poetic sensibilities.

Fellow poets, please feel free to try to help me understand her appeal based on WORDS.

She LOOKS interesting, but how strongly does that relate to poetic sensibility or content? Not much at all, as far as I’m concerned, if the interestingly dressed person can’t also create words as powerfully unique as their attire.

Furthermore, how do we know that she even chose her own look or did so for creative reasons, rather than money making reasons? What if it’s not even her personal style, so much as an odd marketing scheme that ended up working? If it is her own genuine quirky flare, then what’s the explanation for video of her as a singer, in which she looks more normal, before she changed her name to Lady Gaga? If she wasn’t really “born this way”, then what made her normal style suddenly turn more oddball?

If those are indeed her own unique oddball artsy design choices, she sure looks interesting, but how the heck does that relate to her clichéd lyrics; in which most of the lines sound high school level and like lines I’ve heard thousands of times; what is the poetic appeal of that blah blah blah riff raff?

It seems like I’ve heard many comments that speak favorably about Lady Gaga for looking attractive in her own non-traditional way – and yes, she has an oddly appealing gender-fluidity about her look – but she still has a model-like body type, which I think makes her less uniquely/oddly interesting than other singers who look less traditionally attractive than Gaga.

Especially when those other singers who look less traditionally attractive than Gaga also have their own uniquely interesting design styles PLUS offer much more interestingly creative and/or in depth lyrics. Peaches and Beth Ditto of the Gossip almost immediately pop out of my mind and I’m sure there are others too. So what makes Lady Gaga stand out as seeming super-duper special?

I do think people tend to focus on appearance and unusual dress styles too much, both overly positively and overly negatively. In terms of overly negative focus in that regard, it’s nice to have someone go out of their way to stand out and be themselves, BUT tons of people do that; it’s really nothing majorly different or vastly new to exhibit a ‘be yourself and let me be myself’ vibe. Don’t get me wrong; I think it’s a good vibe; but I don’t think it’s anything phenomenally new or different – and I also don’t think it equates to performance art – even if spewing fake blood is part of your looks based performance (although I will admit, that’s my favorite part of any Gaga performance I’ve ever seen; but it’s not incredibly unique; Peaches has been doing that for years).

Yes some people still seem to have too much of a tendency to be uncomfortable with/make fun of odd dress styles way too much, so it’s good to see strong/powerful/confident people feel free to express via their own chosen style, no matter what anyone else might think; even if people think they look like a bit of a freak show, so what? Be yourself. Dressing/acting the way one truly wants to is a good and powerful thing. BUT that goodness and self-empowerment (and possible empowerment of others too) does not equal extreme super powers or incredibly unique performance art, in my opinion. I think it equals a personal style-oriented confidence whether or not overly insecure people are overly flabbergasted by the matter.

Even if some people do consider Gaga to be an interesting/inspirational performance artist, I still don’t understand how that appeals to poetic sensibilities, especially if her performance art is being enacted in the midst of clichéd lyrics. Am I missing something here?

I don’t despise her music; I think she has a good voice. I’m not saying I dislike her look; it’s fun and oddly interesting. I’m just saying I don’t understand the appeal on any in-depth artistic/poetic level. I can understand how she might inspire different looking/acting teens/young adults to feel more comfortable/confident about themselves (which is a good thing); but I can’t understand how she inspires adults, especially writers. When someone’s primary form of expression is much more LOOKS based than WORDS based, how/why does that inspire word-based individuals?

Several years ago, I remember hearing a lot of positive buzz about Lady Gaga and her uniqueness. I had not heard any of her music yet, but based on the feedback I’d heard, I imagined it would be pretty interesting and different, both visually AND lyrically. Thus the first time I heard her sing her Paparazzi song live on Saturday Night Live, I was quite confused by her poetic appeal. I heard a Madonna like voice and cheesy repetitive pop lyrics. I felt like I’d heard the song countless times before, even though this was my first time hearing it. I thought Gaga looked semi-interesting and semi-sexy, but nothing so incredibly new and different that it drew me in deeply or empowered me or inspired me in any way. I’ve sense seen a few more artsy performances of hers, but not a single one has ever come anywhere close to inspiring or thrilling me.

In fact, she sometimes annoys me, seeming to come across with such a full-of herself, look-oriented vibe – because even if someone’s style looks different and interesting and oddly artsy, I find it irksome when someone’s primary interest seems to be the way they look. I am not uninterested in appearance and style, but I am far more interested in complex, intense, word-based forms of personal (and larger scale) expression.

Mind you, I am the type of woman who thinks that ultimately everyone should be able to dress however they desire to dress, even if their style seems over the top, absurd, or ridiculous by other people’s standards. One’s style should be their own and should not have to fit main stream sensibilities. Still though, that doesn’t mean I want to hear someone blabbing on & on & on about their appearance – the way I heard Gaga blabbing on & on about her fake hair during a televised Thanksgiving special of hers I started watching out of curiosity. The special seemed primarily focused on her looks, cover songs, and her goofball blabbing – until her overly lengthy hair blabbing episode struck me as so annoyingly, ridiculously full of herself that I had to change the channel. I’m the type of woman who sometimes feels like I focus too much on my own appearance, so if I have to change the channel because I think another woman is being way too appearance oriented for my liking, then she must be pretty darn full of herself.

Why/how did looks-based Lady Gaga inspire an online literary magazine called Gaga Stigmata? I like the name of that lit mag and am a big fan of quirky specific lit mags with content based on whatever the editors choose to base it upon (and I am also a fan of founding editor Kate Durbin’s style AND much of her poetry; she LOOKS interesting AND can sure write much better/more uniquely than Lady Gaga). For a while, I thought about submitting to that magazine, because it seemed like a uniquely interesting publication. However, then I got to thinking more about it – and wondering how the heck I would write a Lady Gaga inspired poem – because nothing about her inspires me in a particularly powerful positive or negative way and I’m not about to fake it. I personally don’t really agree with the lit mag’s description of Lady Gaga as a “shock pop phenomenon”. I mean her looks and fake blood might shock SOME people, because some people are easily shocked, but they sure don’t shock me (and I don’t imagine they would shock many other poets/artists) – and her lyrics bore me and irk me, so I sure don’t find her phenomenal in that regard. Maybe her popularity could be interpreted as oddly phenomenal. Perhaps the oddness of her mass-appeal is the combination of cheesy pop lyrics with weird over the top artsy style – but again, she is sure not the first to have that kind of style, so what makes her seem different enough to stand out so much, including to some unique poets?

If any of Gaga’s lyrics were submitted as a poem to my literary magazine, they would swiftly and easily be rejected. Would any of you other poets publish any of her lyrics within your online or print literary publication? What if bland, clichéd words were submitted alongside a bizarrely dressed photo of the writer? Would that make her a better writer? How can an odd, artsy appearance change bland, boring words into poetry or poetic inspiration?

Not to get way overly repetitive here in terms of my confused little ramblings on this matter, but can another poet please try to help me understand Gaga’s poetic appeal? I’m not anti-pop (although I definitely dislike lots of cliché); I think she has a good voice; I think she has a fun and interesting visual appeal; but how the heck does that relate to poetry or make her stand out as someone special to poets?