HYBRID: Gaga’s marriage between art and pop in her new album truly defines artistic innovation.
By Antonio Serros, Staff Writer
We love labels. We have them on our cans of soup, clothing, electronics, cars and music. We even have machines for the sole purpose of making labels! Unfortunately for us, Lady Gaga’s third studio album ARTPOP cannot be labeled; it exists outside of our comfortable world of compartmentalization. We so eagerly want to stick a label on ARTPOP as definitely this or definitively that, but in Gaga’s world that is simply impossible—because her ARTPOP could mean anything.
Unable to comprehend anything more complex than a Super Bowl commercial, the American public reared on its hind legs like a spooked stallion when the first tracks of ARTPOP made their way onto iTunes. Critics in particular were quick to attack her banal artistic endeavor and counterproductive overproduction.
The critics, from Matisse’s time to Warhol’s, have always denounced artists and their will to birth innovation. Gaga could have easily pulled a Prism with her new album by creating something so superficial and commercially appealing that she would have lost her title as an artist, instead becoming the figurehead of a corporate music machine. But instead, Gaga strapped on her bedazzled seashell bra and garden panties, flipped the bird to her contemporaries, and took off on her own rocket to Venus.
In Gaga’s mission statement, released what seems like ages ago now, she described ARTPOP as a “reverse-Warholian expedition.” And when Gaga makes such a pretentious, lofty claim, boy does she deliver. With the album came an accompanying application featuring a celestial being named Petga, who guides users on their primordial Warholian expeditions through the album. The app includes a built-in .gif maker, and as the user navigates and interacts with the app, his or her “aura,” which is aptly created by Petga, begins to grow and change color. Through the app, the user discovers a new integration of art and pop as never attempted before.
But that’s not all. In addition to Gaga’s alter ego, Petga, Gaga collaborated with NASA to create VOLANTIS—the world’s first-ever flying dress. Additionally, ARTPOP also gave birth to the Japanese GAGADOLL, an intricately crafted, life-size version of the goddess herself: Gaga. The eerily life-like doll, bedecked in Gaga’s own garb, plays music when the listener rests his or her head on its chest.
Gaga is the first artist in the twenty-first century of her generation to conceptualize a piece of mutually existing mediums of art. As Gaga describes, her ARTPOP could mean anything and it does. If every picture is worth a thousand words, then Gaga’s integration of ART and POP is worth infinitely many. From the trans-genre qualities of the music itself to the collaborations with Apple, NASA, Jeff Koons and Marina Abramović, ARTPOP (although misinterpreted) lives up to what Gaga intended it to be: something different, something innovative, something retrospective, something transcending a typical pop artist’s limitations.
Lady Gaga, after all is a pop artist and she takes her role as such quite seriously. She lives and breathes for the creation she believes in. ARTPOP is an experience and, as is the unfortunate fate of nearly all authentic art, will not be understood until the later years of Gaga’s life. Only then will the public comprehend the artist’s vision. With allusions to Picasso and Botticelli in her daily wardrobe, educationally inspiring lyrics relating to Greek and Roman mythology and her futuristic flying dress, Gaga has truly married art, fashion and technology into one flawless enigma.
Gaga sings on “Donatella,” a track inspired by the Versace vixen herself, “She walks so bad, like it feels so good/even though she knows she’s misunderstood.” Gaga will continue to confidently strut down her runway of life until her art becomes as easily understood as a Super Bowl commercial.
Photo courtesy of www.ladyxgaga.com