Christmas Catch Up - Best of Lists, Beyoncé and Collected Columns

If you're stuck at home for a few days for all things festive and want another option for when you've done your boxset binge then here's a selection of stuff I've done recently that might help while away the hours.

I did a rundown of my favourite 40 singles released this year for GCN which you can read here. It also includes a full Deezer playlist of all the songs. There are some tunes I wish I'd added in now but for the most part it's a fairly accurate look at what I listened to and loved this year.

There's an album list too with full Deezer links to each underneath their respective blurb which might help you pick which albums to spend that Christmas gift of an iTunes gift card on.

I've been keeping up the regular writing for the Independent's Day and Night mag too. My last piece for 2013 looks at how the pop diva pack fared this year and where they might go next. I also recently discussed pop's "real music" fascination and also looked at how the music video is in rude health this year.

I also did a review of Beyoncé's self titled fifth album for the Independent online, delving into why this is such an impressive pop collection.

And there's been some fun radio show bits with the Dave Fanning show over the last while. I talked about Lady Gaga and her current career trajectory with Dave back when ARTPOP came out, there was a fun chat on the 30th anniversary of the Thriller video and just last weekend myself and the amazing Jenn Gannon gave our review of 2013's music moments.

2013 was a busy one so I'm delighted to do nothing for a few days before appearing at The George with Davina Devine to ring in the New Year on the 31st (poster below). Have a wonderful Christmas!

Friday tunes, Gaga chat and a new venture

Happy Friday! If you're looking for new tunes than this week's Friday Four for GCN is heavy on dance duos and the new Britney tune.

Also, Una Mullally had me do a guest post for her Irish Times blog where we hash out our differences on Lady Gaga as new album ARTPOP arrives on Irish shores.

On the Gaga tip, I'm chatting about her in today's Irish Independent as part of the Day and Night magazine. I've a regular column starting this week which is exciting in the extreme.

And if you're at a radio at all tomorrow I'll be discussing the current trajectory of Gaga's career with Dave Fanning on 2FM around 10:30am and reviewing the album for Spin 1038 on Plan B at 1:45pm that same day. Phew.

Sex and Smarts: Lady Gaga and R.Kelly team up for Do What You Want

In just over five years Lady Gaga has achieved the kind of success most popstars would struggle to achieve in ten. And as much as she's a star whose success relied on the always-on 24 hour media whirl we live in now, it's the same system that can make her seem she's no longer "relevant". She's griped recently about feeling misunderstood (like this excellent Guardian interview) and made a video that played with all the internet chatter about her just before Applause dropped.

Yesterday ahead of new song Do What You Want (one of a handful of songs that aren't singles that she'll be unveiling before new album ARTPOP arrives next month) debuting Gaga went on a Twitter rant, linking to videos and images of things people have said about over her career from her weight to what Madonna thinks of her. In one way it can be seen as her throwing her toys out of the pram (and how boring is it when popstars say they don't write for the charts? sigh) but it's an oddly self aware flip of the bird from someone who has more of a mask up in public than her contemporaries.

Recent Pop Tunes You May Enjoy

I'm about to prep tomorrow's Friday Four post for GCN.ie but if you missed last week music from Lady Gaga, TLC, Bastille and Jessie Ware and Julio Bashmore are still worth a look. 

The Weird World of Not Quite Right Gaga and Christina Aguilera Weight Gain Reporting

If you were keeping an eye on any celebrity chit chat in the last few weeks then you probably spotted the ongoing saga of how Lady Gaga had apparently put on alot of weight, was talking about it publicly, came under fire for it and then rushed to defend her figure while referencing her own teenage struggle with an eating disorder.

It was a frustrating story on a number of levels. First of all the amount of weight Gaga actually did seem to gain wasn't even that large amount and even if she was the size of a house who cares? Gaga may frequently appear in scant clothing but it's not her main selling point. She uses her image in an ever-shifting way and so trying to boil down her presentation to "Is she hot? Is she skinny?" is missing the point by such a huge margin. Jezebel discussed this topic including a round up of the amount of news outlets that ran with the story about Gaga's weight.

The other reason it was vastly irritating was how it was a story composed across several sources that wasn't even particularly true and yet so many outlets ran with it. 

Huffington Post, amongst others, ran with this piece using a picture of Gaga on stage as proof that she'd piled on the pounds. The picture was from her Amsterdam stop on the Born This Way Ball tour and from the off seemed like a photo that had likely been tweaked or at the very least taken from a bad angle. I'd been at the show just days before this picture was taken and there was nowhere near that amount on Gaga's frame. I was standing near the catwalk and got plenty of close-up looks at Gaga in the flesh. She was in terrific shape, clearly someone keeping themselves fit and in show-ready shape but not afraid to look womanly. She bared a bit of ass cheek constantly, was happy to strip down when it suited her and just as importantly was squeezing into skin-tight leather ensembles at a dizzying speed. Basically she clearly was looking after herself and exceedingly comfortable in her skin. There was no way the Gaga in the Amsterdam picture was in fact a reality.

But that didn't stop the press from running with a non-story. Huffington Post, like other showbiz sites (there weren't the only ones who ran with this piece and are obviously not just a showbiz site, I'm just using them as an example in this case) began using lines from Gaga herself where they claimed she was addressing her weight gain after the pictures. They cited an interview she'd done with American radio where she referenced how much she'd put on, her Dad's new restaurant and how she was enjoying the food etc. Yes Gaga had said all this but in AUGUST. The interview is on her own Youtube channel and her discussion about her body are a small part of a seven minute piece where she sounds relaxed, keen to be in shape to do her shows in Europe. Suddenly the web was flooded with pieces about how much weight Gaga had put on, her response and painful hand-wringing from media outlets. Again Jezebel neatly summed up the stupidity of these comments but few seemed to question whether the sources of this story were legit (again that photo) or actually directly referencing the past week (An interview quotes were pulled from which literally anyone could google in about 2 seconds and spot was weeks old). Still it's easier for copy-and-paste showbiz sites and sound-bite celebu-tainment shows to run with an unflattering pic and some sort of line then it is to go "Oh, is this actually accurate?"

This week a similar has been brewing with Christina Aguilera. The popstar-turned-Talent show judge has had plenty of comments on her changing shape in the last couple of years but as she plugs new single Your Body and the accompanying album Lotus there's been plenty of commentary on Christina's shape. Billboard magazine placed Christina on the cover of their latest issue, posting a part of the story online two weeks ago. The slightly over the top comments on her previous album Bionic had already been picked up by pop fans but today another part of the interview where Christina made very explicit references to being a "fat girl now" and discussing specific situations where she claims music execs told her to slim down were being quoted online, causing quite a stir.

It did seem a tad fishy that people were running with quotes from Billboard that weren't on their website already but given that they promised the "full story" in their print edition maybe that's where they lay. The quotes were used by the website of Us weekly and soon appeared on plenty of sites until in the last couple of hours both Billboard and Christina's rep confirmed that the were in fact completely fabricated. Now many of the sites that shared the materialare rejigging and updating their previous posts (in a way they probably should have read in the first place before the desire to be first with a scoop took over). Unlike the Gaga story, which cleverly stitched together material in a typically tabloid way this story seemed to be completely false.

There are two things that are slightly worrying about how both of these stories unfold. One is that obsession with weight and how a comment on it will create a feeding frenzy. The other is that in the world of fast-paced gossip sharing, the accuracy of quotes is second to getting some hits. It's fascinating to watch how stories both false and accurate now feed into the images of stars. Even when stories are retracted or defused by those involved they'll stick in people's heads. It may only be famous people we're discussing, people with vast amounts of money and very different problems to the rest of us, but if we are supposed to be reading reports and fed information shouldn't it be accurate? The funny thing about how quickly stories like this move around is also how easy (almost too easy) it is to take apart the claims and see that most of them are bull.

It might only be celebrity journalism and it may not be highbrow but the ease with which narratives are knocked together by outlets quick to sell a story whether the star involved is playing along or not is worrying. Gaga and Aguilera's responses to these stories suggest that many stars are no longer going to play ball and when we can quickly figure out how fake such pieces are, why should we keep doing the same?

6 of The Best : Pop Culture Treats of the Week

Friday is here and it's time for me to reflect on the pop culture week that was. Here are 6 things I really really loved this week.

1: Andrew Garfield and his perfect hair is perfect 

No more explanation needed. Peep these .gifs and SWOON.

2: Madonna Boob Hysteria: A Plea For Sanity

Madonna flashed a bap at a stop on her MDNA tour this week and it's really not that big a deal you guys. This Buzzfeed piece is a perfect explanation why.

3: Charlize Theron is like, REALLY funny

I stumbled on Charlize's interview with Chelsea Handler this week and it is SO FUNNY. And apparently she did stuff with Funny or Die and wouldn't you know it, those videos are pretty funny too. The sooner she ends up in a Bridesmaid style comedy the better really.

4: RuPaul is obviously amazing and deserves an Emmy

You'll feel the same after this short but sweet interview with ET Online.

5: Gaze Film Festival Announces Irish Short Film: 

The Dublin LGBT film festival Gaze will be screening Irish shorts this year and it's first pick The Arrival is a hoot. Check out the trailer below:

6: Lady Gaga to Release A Perfume

The details leaked online this week and Gaga soon confirmed the details on her first ever fragrance. The first official poster for the fragrance is also amazing. I can say without any shame that I am dying to give this a sniff.

 

Just a handful of the things that had me jumping about with glee this week. Feel free to leave your suggestions below!

Lady Gaga - Born This Way : A Review

Whether you did you own personal review 5 minutes after it leaked or would rather slice off all your extremeties than hear 5 seconds of it there's little ignoring the titanic hype, media push and sales Lady Gaga has drummed up with 3rd album Born This Way. Reviews have been mixed but that's hardly news. Gaga's previous records were met with varying critical response as is par for the course with any mainstream pop release. Now that we've had the chance to digest and watch it set the charts alight, does this album live up to the hype?

Sorta. One thing is for sure Born This Way is clearly Gaga's attempt to branch out musically. It does a fine job matching the big, brutally efficient choruses that are her trademark with weirder moments. Born This Way is a pungent, dense affair rippling with Springsteen references, variations on commercial dance music and Gaga singing in a myriad of registers. It is gleefully lacking in subtlety and is all the better for it. 

In working almost exclusively with producers Fernando Garibay and DJ White Shadow, Gaga has crafted a more cohesive and consistent vision than most popstars manage with a new release. Gaga has taken a concept and seen to it's logical endpoint. That concept is a loud brash journey of self acceptance, preach-y self love messages and belting vocals of course but still...

Born This Way is a high-octane, exhausting listen but it's also brimming with warmth, fun and plenty of perfect pop moments. It's clocked up a hugely impressive first week of sales but whether it has the same wide appeal of it's predecessors is debatable. This is still a shameless-y "pop" album but one that veers from the slightly more conventional moments of The Fame & The Fame Monster.

Overall: Various shades of amazing. Let's do a track by track shall we?

Track by track

Marry The Night : Suitably epic and melodramatic opener. Like Whitney Houston riding a motorcycle while wailing over electro beats. Sets the scene perfectly.

Born This Way: A song that improves immensely in context of the album. A breezy, infectious disco-throwback-meets-modern-day-pop charmer.

Government Hooker : Britney style sleaze shot through with tongue in cheek political references and plenty of attitude. The first of many songs to see Gaga play with a different register and thumping electronic production.

Judas : Some have been harsh on this but it's fast become one of my favourite Gaga singles. Relentless, chaotic but also brilliantly conceived. I have a feeling this will be looked back on as a bit of a Gaga classic in a few years.

Americano : Demented Mariachi meets club pop tune with "political overtones". On my first listen to this I was twirling my kitchen using my pots and pans as maracas. If that's not a sign of a cracker I don't know what is.

Hair : I can't decide on this one. It's sweet but also produced in such a way that the hook gets buried in over cooked 80s sitcom instrumentation. A bit too slight although the Cyndi-Lauper-on-speed-vibe of it is appealing.

Schieße : The closest this album gets to heavy electronica. German style gibberish, infectious  melodies and a relentless pace add up for a track that feels instantly Gaga and completely different from everything she's ever done.

Bloody Mary : Amazing and one of the strongest tracks on the album. Retreading the lyrical themes of Judas over a mournful mid tempo synth rumble and some monk chanting. A icy, ear-worm of a tune.

Black Jesus (Amen Fashion) (Bonus Track on Deluxe Edition) : Very much a bonus track. A fluffy and harmless ode to fashion, working it etc etc. Easy to see why this was left off the standard album but it is still fun.

Bad Kids : I wasn't sold on this at first but unlike Hair this wears it's "love yourself misfit" vibe so much better and is actually one of the best melodies on the album. Like a Madonna album track circa 1983. Sweet and charming.

Fashion Of His Love (Bonus Track on Deluxe Edition) : as has been widely pointed out sounds very like Whitney Houston's I Wanna Dance With Somebody. This is an enjoyable romp with R&B goes dance pop tones, if hardly earth shattering.

Highway Unicorn (Road To Love) : Horrific title aside, this is brilliant. Channels the rock'n'roll vibe Gaga references so often with a soaring, fist pumping melody and a sense of urgency.

Heavy Metal Lover : This is my personal fave. Dense electronic textures sidle on a Kylie style hook with plenty of sexy overtones. A song half grunted over juddering electro shouldn't work this well but this is brilliant. Another example of Gaga doing pop music in a different way to her earlier work but still attaching a solid gold hook to it.

Electric Chapel: More highway rock'n'roll meets electro pop. Brims with a strange sense of ceremony and energy and brilliantly sets the scene for the closing moments of the album

The Queen : As close the entire project gets to a stinker. The variation in tempo is a welcome change of pace on such a thumping body of work but it's also grating and underdeveloped. A missed opportunity.

You and I : Gaga's most Queen moment yet. Brian May turns up on guitar and it also "contains elements" from Queen's We Will Rock You. The chorus is the stuff Elton John dreams about at night and the vocal is among Gaga's best, earnest, endearing and euphoric. Thankfully the studio version adds enough oopmh without taking it's magic away. Lovely.

The Edge of Glory : A stunner. A rip roaring tale of living life to the very last, like a hybrid between Bruce Springsteen & Bon Jovi coated in Madonna gone mad vocals. Some of have criticised the sax solo as twee and self indulgent. In truth it's a moment of genius perfectly suited to the earnest throwback nature of the tune. Likely to be the next huge Gaga hit. (well, it technically already is. but still)

There you have it. At the rate this lady is going who's to say we won't have another Gaga album in oh, say, 6 months. For now Born This Way stands up as an exciting slice of bonkers pop.

Britney & Born This Way: 1 Month on Planet Pop

Holy crap. You wait a month (as in don't blog for a month) to blog about a huge pop tune and then two come along at once. This isn't an attempt to pit Britney's "Hold It Against Me" against Lady Gaga's "Born This Way" in some kind of do or die battle BUT two big artists, two big songs.. why not do one quick blog post? Here is your cheat sheet to the new tunes from both Britney and Lady Gaga

HOLD IT AGAINST ME

Who? Britney "Enigmatic or just crazy?" Spears 

The Team : Pop heavy hitters and hit makers who owned 2010: Max Martin, Dr. Luke and Bonnie McKee

The Song: A relentless club pop stormer that's about as subtle as a bag of glow sticks being ground up in a blender by a gaggle of pilled up drag queens. The underpinning beat is stompy and obtrusive but the vocal gives it a sense of desperation. The first time Britney croaks (and she sort of does, it sounds like they've let her voice sound a bit raspy for some reason) "if we could escape the crowd somehow" it's a weird moment of isolation and dread amid a song that takes a cheesy chat up line as it's main chorus. It combines a slightly disjointed Xenomania style structure with an out of the blue would be dubstep breakdown and a whizzing climax. It is in a word: A-M-A-Z-I-N-G

Sounds like:  Britney's Unusual You + Ke$ha's Take It Off + Magnetic Man's I Need Air with a smidge of Rusko for good measure

How has it fared?  Insanely good at first. With minimal promotion it broke US airplay records while shifting over 400,000 downloads all in one week and flew to the top of the Billboard Hot 100. It was instantly a top 10 smash in most major territories also. It has started to slide but this is a single that is still in the middle of it's chart run. With the immediate iTunes release this track has garnered a decent chart performance but we'll see how the video and possible promotion from Miss Spears allows this one to shape up over the next few weeks.

The Video : Directed by Jonas Akerlund (squeal) and already the subject of fourteen seperate online teasers to be released daily until the official premiere next week. Sounds like it'll be a chaotic affair, heavy on the dancing according to dance-commander Brian Friedman. Exciting.

Do Say: "It's good for dancing isn't it? It's bit like a rave, a bit like that moment you come off something and feel a bit weird and a bit like that time you ended up at dubstep night and spent the night wobbling around"

Don't Say: "I preferred If U Seek Amy"

BORN THIS WAY

Who : Lady "Why would I take a nap, when there's so much WORK TO BE DONE?" Gaga

The Team : Gaga, Fernando Garibay and DJ White Shadow

The Song : Well to say this has arrived with a bit of hype is an understatement. Gaga has declared this her anthem for a generation, a song about loving yourself blah blah blah. Basically she talked it up way too much. After talk of a deeper heavier side to the music the resulting confection that is Born This Way is a tad dissapointing.  

Picture if you will Madonna, Kylie, Gaga and a desire to name check as many minorities as possible combined with a rattling cheesy dance pop beat and you have Born This Way. It's not that's a bad tune. It's actually tremendous fun. Infectious, catchy and feel good it's a pure pop blast that stands well amongst the current batch of chart ready electro inspired numbers. It's well crafted with a strong melody but you can't help but feel the urge to throw the kitchen sink of production at the track makes it too layered. Compared to how Telephone mastered the wall of pop noise alongside an airtight melody Born This Way sounds like a track in desperate need of a pruning. If you can get past the hype though (and let's face it, that's not easy now) this a great little pop tune.

Sounds like: Well, Express Yourself obviously. But also Kylie's Better Than Today. and also quite like Mandy Moore album track from years back You Remind Me. Seriously.

How has it fared: Well it was released Friday, topped the iTunes chart in 23 countries (it just debuted on the UK chart at number 3), broke that radio play record Britney had up until a few weeks ago and looks set to go to number 1 in more than a few places by next week. and there's a small matter of a Grammy's performance tonight, which as I write Gaga has just arrived to in a coffin. And a giant egg. Subtle.

The video: Directed by Jonas Akerlund (Squeal AGAIN), set in New York with talk of Gaga giving birth, trannies and we're sure more than a few jaw dropping outfit choices. Let's just pray it's 100 hours long like some of her previous efforts.

Do Say: "This song is good fun isn't it? and isn't it nice that she just wants us to be loved? Pass the cocktails, this makes me want to dance"

Don't Say : "UGH IT'S SO CONTRIVED, IT'S LIKE A MARKETING EXERCISE MORE THAN A SONG" Really?

To be honest I'm really enjoying both songs for different reasons but the fact that both artists are releasing new albums in the next few months is cause for much excitement. Britney's Femme Fatale feels like it might be a collection of brilliantly produced pop masterpieces with a slightly souless sheen while Born This Way will offer soaring melodies with a side order of cheese that might begin to grate. But who knows? As Gaga arriving to an award show in an egg shows you really can't predict the pop world sometimes. 

Lady Gaga Is Still Human, Gives Good Onstage Chat

Obviously Lady Gaga has had what you would call a successful year. Relatively speaking. One of her biggest achievements this year has been the ongoing success of The Monster Ball tour which will continue to see Gaga flail around arenas will into next year, even after the release of her new album Born This Way. 

During The Monster Ball Gaga poses, prances and puts on a huge huge show. The show is thread around a loose concept with plenty of ridiculous dialogue and highly staged numbers (see my review of the show's first visit to Dublin earlier this year here. But thankfully Gaga is willing to indulge in plenty of freewheeling banter each night. A neat reminder that she is in fact human as opposed to the part popstar-part robot air she cultivates sometimes.

You just have to love that speech. Sure, the "Little Monsters" schtick has worn thin at times this year but Gaga has a natural ease with her audience that often eludes other popstars. The icing on the cake is definitely Gaga doing such a spot on impression of "The Gays". It should be cringe-tastic but is so affectionate and funny that it's impossible to dislike.

Gaga recently described the new album as "a marriage of electronic music with major, epic, dare I even say, metal or rock 'n' roll, pop, anthemic style melodies with really sledge-hammering dance beats."

Which makes it sound like it might be quite undeniably amazing. 

2011 is likely to be another Gaga heavy year and thankfully it seems like she's still able to have alot of fun despite the kind of schedule that many other popstars would crumble under. I for one, can't wait. 

Mash Up Magic

I don't trust people who don't like mash ups. I remember working with a guy who was a "musician" (I believe that was the term he used) when I lived in Canada who told me that as a "musician" (there's that word again) he couldn't get behind mash ups. He said it was because it didn't sound right to throw two songs together, something about key changes, pitch, him being a snob etc etc etc. Look I'm sure there are genuine reasons why mash ups are musically unsound but honestly, take a listen to this beauty:

Now as far as I can see grafting two very modern pop gems on to a bunch of thumping dance hits can only ever be a good thing. A bit of Shakira is always amazing, a bit of Lady Gaga is always fun, throw in a Madonna beat, a bit of Pitbull (who has perfected the art of the trashy club pop tune) and a snippet of David Guetta and how can you go wrong?

I may not be a "musician" (truth be told, I just like putting quote marks on things, no disrespect to any musicians intended) but I can't help but this not only makes the case for mashups, it also makes the case for Shakira and Lady Gaga teaming up for some kind of world conquering pop superduo. Like Salt 'N' Pepa with the rapping swapped with leotards. I think it would work well for everyone.

EXCITEMENT ALERT: MTV VMA 2010 Nominations are in

I'm not going to lose the run of myself and rant on about how OBSESSED I am with the MTV Video Music Awards (VMAS) but suffice to say they are one of my favourite pop culture events of any given year. Last year's ceremony in particular was great stuff. Plenty of big performances, lots of great videos winning it was a perfect storm of a great year for both big music videos and big popstars making for one endlessly enjoyable awards show.

With that in mind it's fun to look through the list of nominations today. Lady Gaga is clearing slaying the competition already with her record breaking 13 nominations, Florence and the Machine have managed to sneak into the Video of the Year category (I'm not sure how given that all of her videos have been a bit blah) and the new artist category should be an interesting mud slinging between Ke$ha and Nicki Minaj and Jason Derulo and Justin Bieber while Broken Bells look on somewhat bemused to be in their category.

It's a neat reminder of how big music videos have gotten again that there are plenty of heavy hitters across the nominations. Obviously Gaga's Telephone and Bad Romance have eaten up online attention the last 12 months but Eminem, Jay Z and B.O.B. are likely to offer up some competition too. The full list, which is exhaustive, can be found here. It's well worth a look not leats for the non award show technical categories which are a neat reminder of the level of work that goes into these productions.

In the mean time I await the full show with baited breath. SO. EXCITED. The official site is pretty kick ass too. I'm actually feeling faint just looking at it. In a good way.

Spin That Record - Top Tunes of the Moment Circa May/June 2010

LCD Soundsystem – Dance Yrself Clean

B.o.B. – Airplanes feat. Hayley Williams

Janelle Monae – Tightrope feat. Big Boi

MIA – XXXO

Kylie – All The Lovers

David Guetta – Louder Than Words feat. Afrojack and Niles Mason

Jennifer Lopez – Everybody’s Girl

Christina Aguilera – You Lost Me

Lady Gaga – Alejandro (Chew Fu Remix)

Ne-Yo – Beautiful Monster

Dizzee Rascal – Dirtee Disco

Alicia Keyes – Rapture

Kelis – 22^nd Century

Spin That Record - Tunes of the Moment Circa May 2010

Oh I know the blog has been away awhile but while we're getting back into the swing of things, enjoy a list of tunes that I'm enjoying at the moment. It's your typical mix of old/new and respectable/not respectable. And I wouldn't have it any other way.

Lady Gaga - Alejandro (The Sound of Arrows Remix)

Ke$ha - Lost Weekend

Alexandra Burke feat. Pitbull - All Night Long

Hurts - Better Than Love

Miley Cyrus - Can't Be Tamed

Uffie feat. Pharrell Williams - ADD SUV

Crookers feat. Kelis - No Security (Bart B More Remix)

Ciara feat. Ludacris - Ride

Kelly Rowland - Commander

Enrique Iglesias feat. Pitbull - I Like It

Mini Viva - One Touch

Kid Sister  feat. Kanye West - Pro Nails

Hole - Samantha

Usher  feat. Nicki Minaj - Lil' Freak

Spin That Record - Top Tunes of the Moment Circa March 2010

No frills here just a list of tracks I’ve been enjoying over the last few weeks. I’m not going for the freshest tracks per se, just the things I’ve been spinning for whatever reason. 

And despite my usual need to rant about everything I’m keeping this down to artists and names only. Go dig out the songs yourselves if you’re interested (End rant!) 

P.S. this post was inspired in part by the utterly stylish blog of Miss Eimear who also turned me on to the amazing Lady Gaga mix I mention below!

Dragonette – Big Sunglasses

Goldfrapp – I Wanna Life

Bitches With Wolves – Broken Hearts

Madonna – Into The Groove

Gabriella Cilmi – Heart’s Don’t Lie

Adam Lambert – For Your Entertainment

Lady Gaga- Bad Romance (Skillrex Remix)

Rihanna – Rude Boy (Cosmic Dawn Remix)

Cheryl Cole – Just Let Me Go

Crookers  - Natural Born Hustler feat. Pitbull

Usher – OMG feat. Will.I.Am

Hot Chip – I Feel Better

Madonna – Music 2008 (Live)

Missy Elliot – Lose Control (Jacques Lu Cont Remix)

Simon Curtis – Beat Drop

Sophie Ellis Bextor – Bittersweet

Tinie Tempah – Pass Out

Toni Braxton – Make My Heart

Aggros Santos – Candy feat. Kimberley Wyatt

Happy Birthday Lady Gaga!

It's Lady Gaga's 24th birthday today. Hard to believe how ridiculously young she still is and the  amount of things she's already achieved. From bestselling albums to eye popping videos and a handful of tours under her belt her work ethic is putting every other popstar out there to shame. Maybe Gaga will have a slice of this for her birthday:

(found this on Flickr here by the way)

Below is a video of Miss Gaga having Happy Birthday sung to her by backing singers/dancers in Australia last night. I love when celebrities get Happy Birthday sung to them. It's always so ridiculous and overblown. (Video spotted on Lady-Gaga.net, my fave Gaga fansite)

Here's hoping the Lady takes time out of her busy schedule of wearing outrageous outfits, being provocative and constantly touring to you know, kick back and relish another year passing in her life. In honour of the Lady herself, her is what is still one of my favourite Gaga videos Lovegame

Lady Gaga Explains Away The Critics: Telephone Video Continues to Set Tongues Wagging

Let's face it, at this stage, with nearly 20 million views in less than a week the world and it's dog has probably seen the new Lady Gaga video with Beyonce for Telephone. Predictably it's caused alot of discussion from fevered fans to critics, all of whom have dissected the video in various ways.

For my sins I got locked into a passionate defence of the video with the lovely Una Mullally over on the Panti blog. We've got differing viewpoints on the video and Lady Gaga for sure but it's always fun to compare and contrast them too. Head over there if you can brave the lack of paragraphs (I tried to space them but the blog wouldn't let me. Raging).

There is lots of great further reading to be found elsewhere. Only Words to Play With offers up spirited academic discussion of the ideas in the video, in painstaking detail. Whether or not you agree with all of it (which is always open to debate when it comes to these kind of ideas) it's interesting to read and unsurprisingly has been shared online by Lady Gaga herself.

Vincent Herbert, Gaga's manager, spoke with Advertising Age after the video was released to discuss the level of product placement in the video. It's fascinating to see who did and didn't pay for their inclusion in the video and how many of the placements were not paid for but included as part of ongoing deals (which means that they WERE paid for, just not for this video specifically a nice way of skirting around the issue).

Gaga's own chat with Ryan Seacrest of E! News (who got the first play of the video) is interesting too. There is some very clear attempts by Gaga throughout to discuss and explain her own ideas and also point out Beyonce's reaction to some of them which is entertaining in itself.

The best of the bunch though is Out magazine's interview with Heather Cassils who plays Gaga's lover in the prison exercise yard sequence. Cassil is a performance artist and personal trainer based in California and by her own admission not usually used to appearing in big budget pop videos. She recounts her own experiences on set, including a discussion about gender that herself and Gaga have between takes. It's a fascinating piece and Gaga's own posting of the article suggests her need to make clear her intentions behind Telephone.

It's a bold move and a welcome one when many miss the crucial point of what she is doing. Her work is deliberately referential and part of how mainstream culture borrows from more left field areas. As Cassil points out : Elvis stole from African American music. Everybody's constantly riffing -- Madonna stole voguing from poor, disenfranchised black drag queens in Harlem. This isn't a new concept. I think there's more reverence with regard to Lady Gaga as she's obviously educated herself in her trajectory with visual arts practices and the stuff that she's doing isn't light stuff


Telephone for all it's bluster and flaws and epic ambition has become a sensation, reminding us how the pop video can still be an event and how to maintain interesting in a follow up single from a recently released album (something many big popstars struggle with these days). Whatever your stand point, there is nobody else in the mainstream pop arena attempting a third of what Gaga is doing and it's breathtaking to watch. If you only read one article about this video then make sure it's the Out interview.


And once you've done that, give it another watch (how long before this hits the 100 million mark? Days?)

Lady Gaga and Beyonce make a typically understated video for "Telephone"

Well knock me over with a diamond encrusted feather, I've just had my first viewing of the video for Lady Gaga's Telephone featuring Beyonce.

Initial reactions:

- Brilliantly shot, with Jonas Akerlund riffing on Kill Bill, the Paparazzi video (the story is obviously intended as a continuation) and his other videos particularly for Madonna (I was getting both American Life and Nothing Really Matters at times), hip hop videos (the Hype Williams style split screen and booty dance at the end) and I'm sure ten billion more cultural touchstones I'm not smart enough to catch up

-Outfits are suitably impressive but particularly love the use of costumes from the current Monster Ball tour esp the Rachel Barrett latex (I'm guessing) dress and the leopard print catsuit. For someone who has done so
many looks, Gaga knows how to re-use certain costumes to great effect.

- Some of the new looks are particularly those smoke covered glasses in the prison sequences

- The chick with a dick joke is actually hilarious

- The obligatory mobile phone plugs are as painful as you'd expect

- The choreography is the most "pop" we've seen from Gaga in awhile in particular the underwear dance sequence amidst the prison cells which is like Britney doing the Cell Block Tango from Chicago.

- The "to be continued" bit is interesting. If Alejandaro is really the next single as is been mentioned around the place recently, it should lead to an excellent follow up

- The humour is off the wall and all the better for it. "Let's Make A Sandwich" indeed.

I'd be here all day ranting about this really. I will say that compared to the Paparazzi video this is much more of a short film/musical piece. At times the ins and outs of the music don't work as well as they should. It'll be interesting to see what kind of edit they do of this for TV play etc. Still it's hard to fault a story as bonkers, enjoyable and brilliantly visual as this.

Nicely played Lady Gaga and assorted creative types/Beyonce.

Credit to iLeaks for sending out the video early to Gaga heads everywhere!

UPDATE: Now on Vevo/YouTube

Lady Gaga Live: Slick, Shambolic and Stunning

Still can't quite believe that I saw Lady Gaga live in concert last weekend. I won't go into it now but safe to say I've been a huge Gaga fan since mid 2008 and I've watched her blow up in the last 18 months and loved every second of it. To finally see her live show was a real treat particularly as her first night in Dublin was only the second night of the newly re-jigged arena size version of The Monster Ball tour.

Unsurprisingly for someone who has made her name on outlandish costumes, performance art pretensions and stellar pop songs there was plenty to enjoy about the show. I loved the stage, it was quite simple but managed to fit in alot in terms of props. On tracks like Alejandaro and Love Game the props and lighting worked to spectacular effect to create stark but effective backdrops for the action. The concept of the show was part musical, part pop extravaganza and all Gaga. The basic story is of Gaga on her way to The Monster Ball and the dark things that happen all the way. Cue hokey dialogue and excuses for dance routines. It works but just about. The lines seem like a deliberate play on the programmed patter of most pop shows and when it works it really works. When it doesn't it's still quite amusing. I never thought I'd hear Lady Gaga say "Oh no! A TWISTER!" on stage but I did and it was fantastic.


Other highlights? So Happy I Could Die got across the sense of isolation and desperation in a supposedly happy club scene by elevating Gaga in a S&M style dress above the whole arena. Telephone was straightforward pop amazingness with a blindingly good dance routine and Paparazzi with it's actual on stage monster was an unbelievably striking set piece. And Bad Romance was suitably epic.

There were some niggles though. The interludes between songs were stunning pieces of high fashion pretentiousness that were beautiful to look at. But there were obvious gaps where the video wouldn't play quickly enough. Between the 2nd last song and the closing number there was a two minute gap that felt like it was in by mistake. Those odd gaps tarred an otherwise slick show.


Still even with such minor faults this is a stunning piece of pop entertainment meets high brow musical theatre. It helped that I saw with a crowd that proved just how rabid Gaga fans are. Singing along to album tracks almost as loudly as the singles there was a real sense of excitement about the place extending even to the support acts Semi Precious Weapons and Alphabeat.


It's quite staggering to think that this is the fourth tour by Lady Gaga in as many months. Between that convention busting videos, endless hit singles and mind bogglingly extensive wardrobe The Monster Ball is the icing on an already satisfying pop cake. Let's hope and pray this show gets immortalised on DVD.