Going Gaga Over Telephone
“You’ve been a very bad girl. A very, very bad, bad girl, Gaga.” Then a fierce Beyoncé in black lipstick shoves a honey bun in Gaga’s mouth as she takes a forceful bite, “Mm mmm, Honey B.”
This is what you get when you take the two biggest divas of the decade and give them nine minutes of camera time to play. In the spirit of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” Lady Gaga and Beyoncé have teamed up to create a music video/movie that is as impossible to ignore as Gaga’s fluorescent locks or Beyoncé’s bootylicious backside. Combining their two superpowers, they have created an over-the-top, under-the-pants, overnight sensation. The first day it aired it got over one million hits on YouTube. Gaga and Beyoncé are both known for pushing boundaries and raising eyebrows and “Telephone” is no exception. If anything, they took it to a whole new level, or as they say on reality TV, they “stepped it up.” Lady Gaga has 12 costume changes alone, including one where she flashes a scrambled beaver shot against cell bars.
The hyper-sexualized, ultra-glamorized video is every gay man’s wet dream. Or at least that’s how it seemed to me at The Falcon when I saw the video for the first time. In a dark, packed room with everyone dancing among a smoke machine you would think nothing would disturb that chaos. But the second “Telephone” came on, the room stopped and everyone turned and fixated on the screen. Before I knew it, all the boys in the bar were screaming and catcalling and mouthing the dialogue. I wasn’t sure whether or not I liked it, but I found myself unable to turn away from the video.
That’s the general effect of “Telephone.” You want to look away but you can’t. Whether you like it or not, they’re here, they’re in your face, and they’re not going anywhere. It’s one of those songs that is so repetitive that it becomes unwillingly addictive the more times you hear it. If it’s true what they say, that the gays control what’s hot in music, then this video is an erupting volcano. I’m still getting used to the shock-and-awe factor of the musical sensation, but I’d better get over it fast, because it’s to be continued…
Watch the video here at:
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Nicely written but I will have to say that I disagree with almost everything you wrote. Lady Gaga has brought nothing new to the table. What boundaries has she pushed that haven’t been pushed a million times over? Look up Wendy O. Williams or Grace Jones or Peaches or… As far as the boundaries of female sexuality being pushed, costumes, music…Lady Gaga brings nothing new. Hell, when I first heard this song, I thought it was Britney. The thing is, just like with Madonna, she is somehow more acceptable to the “fish” so people see more of her versus the actual innovators. Beyonce is just as bad…she would have at least pushed the envelope for herself if she hadn’t bleeped out the fuck word.
Maybe it’s just hanging around the gays too much but they hardly control what’s hot in music. They are generally attached to what’s worst in it. No talent, rip offs that can’t sing or play an actual instrument. Granted, Ms. Stephanie here can but she’s just churning shit out and the masses are buying it…which is a shame.