LADY GAGA MEDIA CASE STUDY

LADY GAGA MEDIA CASE STUDY

LADY GAGA BACKGROUND & CONTEXT In 2008, Lady Gaga made a striking entry into the pop music scene. With her album, The Fame, she became the first artist to produce five number one hits on Billboard s Pop Songs chart from a debut album. Lady Gaga also grabbed the pop spotlight with her outrageous persona, built from an eclectic collection of characteristics, including unpredictable theatricality, avant-garde fashion, gender-bending performance, and GLBTQ activism. The Italian-American star, born Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, maintains her public image with a team of stylists, designers, producers, and choreographers she calls the Haus of Gaga. Referencing her larger-thanlife persona, Gaga claims, my whole life is a performance.... I have to up the ante every day (qtd in Stein and Michelson 109). Lady Gaga s subsequent musical releases, The Fame Monster and Born This Way, which followed in November 2009 and May 2011 respectively, definitely upped the ante. For example, the title song from Born This Way, released in February 2011, quickly topped the charts in 23 countries and set an itunes record for selling one million copies in five days. To date, Lady Gaga has sold 16.5 million albums and 29.5 million digital singles, which helped to put her in the number one position of Forbes 2011 Celebrity 100 index, which measures both fame and wealth. As illustrated by her record-breaking following on Facebook (57 million fans as of May 2013), Twitter (37 million followers as of May 2013), and YouTube (1.2 billion views), she has a massive and loyal fan base.

Lady Gaga Artist, Image & Music Make notes on Lady Gag s first few hits, analysing them using the following features as anchors. Feature Look/image Connotation Gender Nationality Musical Instruments Ideologies -Beliefs perpetuated by the artists

FACTORS TO CONSIDER IN MUSIC VIDEOS Key Information Technical Conventions Audience Representation Purpose: Entertainment? Persuasion? Profit? Form: Performance? Narrative? Conceptual? Genre: Rock? Indie? Pop? Tone: Happy? Serious? Sad? Erotic? Mysterious? Camera Shots: Lighting: Costume/Make Up: Colour: Setting: Props: Who is the target audience? How are they being targeted? What is the artiste doing? What are they wearing? How are the men & women represented in the video? How does this target their audience? Think about age, race, gender.

LADY GAGA Tracks to analyse 1. Just Dance (2008) 2. Poker Face (2008) 3. Love Game (2009) 4. Paparazzi (2009) 5. Bad Romance (2009) 6. Telephone (2010) 7. Alejandro (2010) 8. Born This Way (2011) 9. Judas (2011) 10. Applause (2013) 11. Cheek to Cheek (2014) 12. Perfect Illusion (2016) Lady Gaga's Videos Hidden symbolism in Lady Gaga videos

LADY GAGA what is the Audience Appeal? 1. The Music the sound : Genre 2. The Music - lyrical content : Narrative 3. The Image: Representation 4. Fans Audiences: niche vs. mainstream 5. Fans pleasure: Uses & Gratification: Escapism + Fan community 6. Music Videos connection / authenticity 7. Music Videos Star persona / Escapism 8. Internet Exposure / Raising Awareness

STARTER QUESTIONS CONSIDER 1. To what extent does Lady Gaga challenge or reinforce genre conventions? 2. Explore the key gender representations of Lady Gaga. 3. How do audiences respond to Lady Gaga? Remember media texts are generally polysemic. 4. To what extend does Lady Gaga target mainstream audiences? 5. Is Lady Gaga all style over substance? 6. How important are record labels to the marketing of an artist like Lady Gaga?

LADY GAGA & SOCIAL MEDIA BACKPLANE Backplane got its start by creating private social networks for music artists and major social influencers. It all began when Lady Gaga received 1.3 trillion social impressions following the release of her Born This Way album. The social wave that was created brought tens of millions of people on to social networking sites. Inspired by Gaga, they were looking for a place to share their passions for music, dance, fashion, and art - a place where they felt free to be themselves. It quickly became obvious that what was forming was more than a page on a social network. It was a social network. And while her massive following gained her millions of likes, it was the social sites themselves with ad revenues and data insights that stood to reap all of value. Her fan-site LittleMonsters.com currently has 4.9m users.

LADY GAGA IMAGE ANALYSIS #1 How do the following images represent Lady Gaga? What connotations do the images have? What is the focus? How is colour important? Is the choice of font relevant? Who would these images appeal to? How do think the images will impact on the marketing of Lady Gaga as an artist?

LADY GAGA ALBUM COVERS

LADY GAGA ALBUM COVER

LADY GAGA ALBUM COVER

LADY GAGA IMAGE ANALYSIS #2 How do the following images represent Lady Gaga? What connotations do the images have? What is the focus? How is colour important? Is the choice of font relevant? Who would these images appeal to? How do think the images will impact on the marketing of Lady Gaga as an artist?

LADY GAGA Magazine Covers

LADY GAGA Magazine Covers

LADY GAGA Magazine Covers

LADY GAGA S FANS LITTLE MONSTERS

LADY GAGA S FANS LITTLE MONSTERS Read the below statement from Lady Gaga to her little monsters about her interactive littlemosnters.com fan zone. Welcome home, little monsters. This is for us. LittleMonsters.com is a place for all monsters to gather, to create, to share, and to inspire. Remember, it's up to us to keep LittleMonsters.com a safe and accepting space for everyone, so please... Be brave. Dare to create and share your art with the world. Be kind. Encourage and support your fellow monsters. We don't want to put anyone down, be it other Little Monsters or other artists. Be tolerant. Never make anyone feel unwelcome or judged; treat everyone with respect, love and acceptance. Be original. Please only upload content you've created or have permission to post. Be a contributor. Post good content and good discussion will follow. Don't ask for likes. Up-vote great comments, and down-vote those that take away from to the discussion (there is no room for negativity within LittleMonsters.com). Be safe. Protect your privacy, and respect the privacy of others. Be respectful. Keep things appropriate for everyone, including all of the young little monsters out there. Please no nudity or explicit content. If you repeatedly post content that offends the community, we may have to limit your access. Most importantly... be yourself.

HOMEWORK READ THE LADY GAGA ARTICLE - SPECTACLE OF EXCESS

LADY GAGA RESEARCH QUESTIONS Industry 1. Who are the Big Three music distributors? 2. What other media do the Big Three produce? 3. What percentage of the music market do Universal Music group own? 4. Who else are signed to Universal? What does this suggest about the label? 5. What platform did Universal create to compete with YouTube? 6. What is the appeal of vevo? 7. What influence did Universal and Sony have on Lady Gaga s success? 8. Do you attribute her continuing success to the record label or other factors?

LADY GAGA RESEARCH QUESTIONS Representation 1. How is Lady Gaga represented? 2. How does her stance on LGBT issues contribute to her representation? Look into her activism involving don t ask don t tell in the USA. 3. What kind of role model is she? 4. How might a post-feminist read Lady Gaga? 5. How might a Marxist read Lady Gaga? Consider her position both as a brand and a product. Think about how she relates to Capitalism and Neo-liberalism.

LADY GAGA RESEARCH QUESTIONS Audience 1. How do Lady Gaga s little monsters define themselves? How are they unique as a fan base? 2. How are the audience positioned to read Lady Gaga? 3. What is user generated content? 4. Find an example of a popular video (user generated content) which relates to Lady Gaga. 5. How important is social networking in relation to Lady Gaga and her fans?

LADY GAGA ALBUM SALES Lady Gaga Albums The Fame (2008) worldwide sales 15 million Born This Way (2011) worldwide sales 6 million Artpop (2013) worldwide sales 2.6 million Cheek to Cheek (2014) worldwide sales 0.7 million (Jazz covers with Tony Bennett) Joanne (2016) to be released

REVISING LADY GAGA