#2: Not ‘Born this Way’, but ‘Plan this Way’

Social Reference Groups: Lady Gaga

During our last lecture when Lady Gaga was used as an example on social influence in class, it interested me because I realize she is a pop icon in our society today who I am curious to analyze. As a performance artist, there is nothing she will put on her body without knowing the concept and reference behind it. The amount of energy and research her team puts into her every appearance requires tremendous amount of marketing for her to become so famous this fast. How she uses a lot of past references toward her image to create noise and attention washes our brains. Let’s discuss why her actions are sometimes quite extreme. Her new album ‘Born this Way’ music video is a great example. When the audience sees her shiny blonde hair, she doesn’t want us to remember Cher, just think of Lady Gaga. When she shows her unashamed gapped front teeth, don’t remember Madonna anymore, just think of Lady Gaga. When we see a performer dancing with white gloves on stage, don’t think of Michael Jackson, think of Gaga.

The incredible amount of research and referencing that her team has done is unbelievable. Her formula to become this famous is to do everything to catch consumers’ eyes and let the media hype up her image.

By putting tons of pop icon references on her image, she makes her actions subjective and hysterical. Her marketing team probably knows she can’t sell her beauty, nor her singing (not that she can’t sing, but there are tons of people out there who can sing better than her) therefore, highly entertaining and innovative performances is the key to create gimmick for media discussion and win her popularity. By wearing raw meat clothing, puking blood on stage, dancing intimately with 15 male dancers wearing high heels, screaming ‘I want your disease….’ loudly, she is communicating the concept of outrageous and bizarre. It makes me realize her road to fame is not about her songs, is all about her as a person, as an image, as a representation of ‘diva’ to become one of the world’s most outrageous pop stars. All of this is a result from her team’s meticulous planning and implementation of her icon characteristics.

I can’t say I admire her, nor can I say I feel negative about her. More or less, I want to bring attention to the remarkable planning that has put in to market her business model. By using references in the past, her icon exposes society’s collective consciousness towards modern pop culture. All this hard work results in her No. 1 place on Forbes’s Celebrity Power List 2011 that was announced on Wednesday, topping Oprah Winfrey.