Lady Gaga: The Perplexing Package

Lady Gaga is an example of both a performance artist and a pop star, despite the the fact that these are usually opposites of one another. A pop star is simply defined as a person who "performs popular music." Justin Bieber, Britney Spears, and Miley Cyrus are pop stars along with Lady Gaga. Songs such as One time, Womanizer, Party in the U.S.A, and Poker Face appeal to a large demographic, which is the reason these artists are pop stars. In my opinion, becoming a pop star is much easier than becoming a performance artist. With youtube, all a person has to do is sing a catchy song with an appealing haircut and they have a decent chance of getting a record contract. As long as Britney Spears stays pretty, has a few mental breakdowns, and edits her voice so that she barely sounds human, she will stay reasonably famous. Miley Cyrus has her dad to thank for her fame. Notice how the Jonas Brothers have fizzled out while Miley has stuck around. I think this is because she has a famous parent while the Jonas Brothers come from a family of ordinary people. Lady Gaga is a pop star who became famous after her hit song Just Dance came out a couple of years ago, before anyone even knew how eccentric she was. Now, I would argue that she is 35% famous for her music and 65% famous for her performance art. She knows that if she does crazy wild things, she will get attention. I still do not think that it is all an act, because Lady Gaga does seem to be a reasonably bizzare person. Or at least she isn't someone who marches to the same drum as everyone else. Lady Gaga wears dresses made of meat, ends her shows with her own suicide as part of the act, has fire and sparks shooting out of her breasts, and shows up to the Grammys in a giant egg. This is why she is a performance artist and a genius. But she is also a Pop star because she sings pop songs while doing all of these strange, unimaginable things.