Lady "Born This Way" GaGa- How much is too much?

Just one of the many characters from her video

In her newly anticipated music video for “Born this way” Lady GaGa goes from extreme to verging on insanity with her warped new image. Claiming she drew inspiration from Salvador Dali and James Bacon, the video encapsulates the birth of a new form of human to “inspire unity and togetherness” she was quoted saying in an interview.

Opening with a montage of a futuristic birth followed by a continued dark fantasy theme throughout, one is left feeling ultimately confused at the end, as to whether they watched a music video or some piece of hypnotic propaganda for a cult. Maintaining her image of erotica, she is able to convey sexuality whilst wearing a suit and having skeleton face paint on, how she does it i will never know.

Being a fan of Lady Gaga myself, I was hoping I would enjoy this video as I have learnt to appreciate her wacky sense of taste. However I was somewhat disappointed with my reaction, due to the disturbing nature of some of the scenes. The whole thing is very futuristic and odd, and unlike her previous work I was left without the wow factor, rather just speechless.

The whole seven and a half minute performance begins with a monologue were GaGa expresses some rather dark images, “But on that same day, as the eternal mother hovered in the multiverse, another more terrifying birth took place: the birth of evil”, then continuing to shoot a machine gun im not quite sure what she’s going on about. The confusion doesn’t flitter out, but maintains throughout the video leaving one perplexed and ultimately confused.

Is this just too provocative?

Whilst this particular video isn’t that inspiring, it is remarkable how she singlehandedly allowed the rite of passage for women to dance around in their underwear. But how much is too much? For this entire video she prances around provocatively wearing next to nothing, and although I find it intriguing, I don’t know if I would feel the same way being a parent or young child. The beautiful thing about Lady GaGa is how we have learnt to expect the unexpected and never know how far she will go.

Drawing on the inspiration of naturalness, from the birthing scene to the lyrics she utters, it is questionable why one would direct a video so unnatural as out of space to present this idea. Maybe the opposite effect works for some but I personally feel she didn’t quite hit the nail on the head with this one.

Better luck next time GaGa.