Video: Lady GaGa on "SNL" – Hit or Miss?

Lady GaGa does not get much love from you guys in the commentariat, I think in part because it is natural to be suspicious of anyone who achieves a fame that can seem instant and unearned.  But I’m of the mind that while her initial blow-up came out of nowhere, she has pulled the rare trick of proving equal to her success, and I think her performance on Saturday Night Live over the weekend is a case in point.

Let’s start with her outfit: she’s got some kind of gyroscrope/Rings of Saturn thing going on, and it’s a pretty unambiguous statement.  That she has mass and stability; she’s a point of gravity, and things orbit and flow around her.  And yet she presents herself as an icon and a force, only to give a much more human and personal performance than is her M.O.  Video, after the jump.   Most of her songs are about opaque, general themes like Sex, Fame, and, uh, sex and fame, and rarely do they touch on the individual details of her – or anyone’s – life.  But she has expressed her love of New York in interviews before, and here she sings it: she misses the whiskey and the Yankees, Rivington St. and 72nd St.  It’s not the most original reminiscence of a city, but poetry isn’t Lady GaGa’s art, and the medley carries extra heft because she so rarely lifts her veil.

GaGa is also a singer whose genuine vocal talent, on her album, is decidedly secondary to sound machines and special effects.  I think that’s why she enjoys giving these stripped-down, voice-and-piano, lounge act shows: what is lost in the studio is that she’s quite a good singer.  And she’s reached a level of recognition at which she can begin to upend and play with the idea of her own image, which is exactly what she’s doing here.  The oddball alien fame machine from the future is a girl at a piano singing about how much she misses her hometown.

Thoughts?

Source: The L Magazine.