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Mary Breeden
Christine Olding
English 200
9 October 2013
Lady Gaga
Glam rock music has played a major role in the music industry. The wellknown artists of Glam rock made a huge impact in the 1970’s and paved the way for
future artists and performers. Glam was not just a genre that was popular in the
1970’s; it is still very alive today. The artist today that is the epitome of this genre is
Lady Gaga. She has a massive fan base because of her interesting lyrics and the
unique way she performs. She has all of the characteristics of being a glam rock
artist, theatricality, interesting fashion choices, and her lyrics emanate the themes of
exploration of self and sexual exploration. The two songs that most show these
themes are “Born This Way” and “ Teeth.”
Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, or Lady Gaga, was born on March 28,
1986 in Yonkers, New York. She knew how to play the piano by the age of 4 and was
accepted into the Julliard School in Manhattan by the time she was 11. She attended
the New York University’s Tisch School for the Arts but eventually left. Her musical
career was launched when she started to write songs at Interscope Records for
Britney Spears, New Kids on the Block and The Pussycat Dolls. R&B singer Akon
discovered her performing talent and her album The Fame debuted in 2008. Since
then, she has debuted two more albums The Fame Monster and Born This Way
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(www. biography.com). She has become a huge success and has a wide fan base that
believes in the lyrics of her music.
“Born This Way” is the anthem for the theme of self-exploration. This is
clearly expressed in the lyrics of this song. In this song, she expresses that is okay to
explore yourself and be who you are no matter what. The very first lyric of this song
is, “It doesn’t matter if you love him, or capital H-I-M” (www.azlyrics.com). In this
lyric, she wants to convey the fact that a person should be allowed to believe in
anything. When she says, “capital H-I-M she is referring to anyone a person could
look up to. It could be Jesus or Allah or some other type of God-like figure. Typically,
when a person capitalizes a pronoun, they are referring to something bigger than
just a normal person. Also, the way she spelled the word instead of just saying “him”
leads me to believe that she was trying to make it stand out in order for her
audience to realize the importance of “H-I-M.” She wants her audience to know that
she is referring to a God-like figure.
Another way she shows her support for self-exploration is through these
lyrics, "No matter gay, straight or bi, lesbian transgender life, I’m on the right track
baby, I was born to survive” (www.azlyrics.com). In this instance, she is showing
support for self-exploration in a major way because her lyrics state that sexuality
does not matter to her and that a person should have the freedom explore their
sexuality in order to find themselves. When she says, “I’m on the right track baby,”
this means she feels she is at a good place in her life and that she is happy to explore
the kind of person she is. When she says “track” this implies that she is still on this
journey of self-exploration.
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Another lyric that shows her encouragement of self expression is, “I’m
beautiful in my way ‘Cause God makes no mistakes I’m on the right track, baby I was
born this way Don’t hide yourself in regret Just love yourself and you’re set”
(www.azlyrics.com). She is showing that there is no shame in being you. Nobody
should hide who they really are and they find themselves through self-exploration.
She is reassuring her audience to find themselves instead of hiding themselves
because she is encouraging self-acceptance when she says to “love yourself.”
According to Lady Gaga, if people are themselves and accept that, they are on the
“right track.”
She also shows the idea of self-exploration through her music video of “Born
This Way.” Throughout her entire video she is featured in many different outfits and
interesting choices of makeup. At one point, she is wearing a tuxedo and has
makeup on to make her face look like a skull (www.youtube.com) This outfit shows
her more androgynous side because of her tuxedo. Also, her intriguing style of
makeup shows she wants to try something different as an artist. With this attire, she
is expressing her support for self-exploration because she is trying to be herself by
being different and interesting to her audience.
This song has a very upbeat tune and along with the lyrics, it is very
energizing, empowering and uplifting. The happy tune of the song helps convey the
message and inspire every person who listens to it, to be themselves. The fast,
backbeat and the louder singing during the chorus shows joyful and inspiring
message of the song. As shown above, she supports self-exploration throughout the
whole song with her openness and encouragement of self-expression.
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Another song that shows her glam rock side is “Teeth.” The lyrics in this song
are very explicit. One example of this is, “Take a bit of my bad girl meat (bad girl
meat) Show me your teeth” (www.azlyrics.com). She is singing about how she
wants a guy to perform oral sex on her. She is inviting him to “take a bit of her bad
girl meat” which is her metaphoric way of saying go down on me. This connects
back to the glam theme of sex because that is the main them of this song.
Another lyric that expresses this theme is, “Don’t want no money (want your
money) That’s shit’s is ugly Just want your sex (want your sex)”(www.azlyrics.com).
This lyric is expressing her desire for sex, which is all she wants from this man that
she is singing too.
Another aspect to this song she shows is her interest in a controlling sex
partner. Her lyrics of, “I need direction,” “My religion is you” and “I’m gonna love
you with my hands tied” (www.azlyrics.com). She is expressing her exploration of
this type of sexual nature. She wants to show that she looks to this person for
direction and guidance. This person is her religion; she gives them the utmost
respect and is always concerned about what they may think. She is letting the other
person control her because she does not mind having her hands tied. This is a type
of sexual exploration because she wants her sexual partner to take charge in that
relationship.
In the music video there is one part of her body that is very central the entire
time. That part is her mouth; she is either wearing bright red lipstick, dark red
lipstick or glitter on her lips. She does this to show the main theme of oral sex
throughout the song (www.youtube.com). There are also close-ups on other
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people’s mouths within this song, her assumed sexual partner opens his mouth and
moves his tongue in a very sexual manner at certain points in the video. This further
expresses the core themes of this song, sex and sexual exploration.
The only instrumentation in this song that is very noticeable is the loud beat
of the drum. It is a faster beat but very simple to execute and listen to. Lady Gaga did
this on purpose to showcase her lyrics to the audience. The consistent and simple
beat of the drum is meant to provide a tune while making her lyrics more prominent
than the music. The instrumentation in this case is not as important as the words
she is singing. With the lyrics more obvious, the sexual exploration theme is strongly
expressed.
The two themes of self-exploration and sexual exploration are shown
through “Born This Way” and “Teeth.” Lady Gaga is a very successful, modern day
glam artist. She does this through the content of her songs, theatricality,
performance and instrumentation. She is one of a kind.
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Citations
"Lady Gaga. Biography." www.biography.com. A E Networks, n.d. Web. 3 Oct 2013.
<http://www.biography.com/people/lady-gaga-481598?page=2>.
Lady Gaga. “Born This Way.” YouTube. YouTube, 23 June 2013. Web. 03 Oct. 2013
"Lady Gaga Lyrics-Born This Way." http://www.azlyrics.com. N.p.. Web. 3 Oct 2013.
<http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/ladygaga/bornthisway.html>.
"Lady Gaga Lyrics-Teeth." http://www.azlyrics.com. N.p.. Web. 6 Oct 2013.
<http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/ladygaga/teeth.html>.
Lady Gaga. “Teeth.” YouTube. YouTube, 26 March 2010. Web. 06 Oct. 2013