Four years of Gaga

Around this time four years ago a particular song started playing on my radio. The track sounded unusual, and was very different to both all the other music that I had heard on the radio that year and to almost everything I had ever heard on the radio overall. It was a dance-pop/electropop song...highly suitable for clubs but unlikely to perform well on the major American music charts. I found myself loving the song and knew to appreciate it while it lasted, so I took the time to research it online and find out about the artist who sang and composed it.

Which song was it? "Just Dance" by Lady Gaga and featuring Colby O'Donis. O'Donis I already knew about from a track he released earlier in 2008 with Akon called "What You Got", but Lady Gaga was an entirely new person. Although "Just Dance" had been released three months prior in April, in July there was still a dearth of information about Lady Gaga, in which the most common pieces about her were that she was from New York City and had worked with Lady Starlight.

"Just Dance" quickly proved to be an incredibly popular and catchy song, and before long Lady Gaga became known throughout the United States. Her debut album, The Fame, was released in August; by this time, Lady Gaga was well on her way to establishing herself in the music business.

Unfortunately, in the late summer of 2008 there were several people (including me, I have to admit, although I wasn't on the radio to discuss my feelings on the subject) who expected Lady Gaga to be a one-hit wonder and to vanish from the scene a year later. This wasn't because of any particular problem with her, but rather, because her style of music had not exactly been having major chart success in the United States for the years up to "Just Dance" (I even recall one radio presenter pointing this out), so there were thoughts floating about that she'd be a mere flash in the pan...at best. Still, I had hoped that she would have a couple of successful singles, at the very least.

Lady Gaga's subsequent achievements shattered both my and others expectations of her. "Poker Face" was released in the United States in September, at which time "Just Dance" became an international hit. In early 2009, "Poker Face" performed strongly on various charts; then three more singles from The Fame, "Eh, Eh (Nothing Else I Can Say)", "Love Game", and "Paparazzi", were released.

In the latter half of 2009, Lady Gaga released The Fame Monster...an EP and her second major release; the first single was "Bad Romance", which was followed by "Telephone" featuring Beyoncé Knowles, "Alejandro" and "Dance in the Dark". The Fame Monster and its singles were successful worldwide; Lady Gaga was clearly a household name by the time her official second studio album, Born This Way, was announced for release. As The Fame and The Fame Monster are often considered to be part of one album, the subsequent massive success of Born This Way and its singles ensured that Lady Gaga would not be limited to being a one-album wonder.

Gaga has also been honorable by using her status to promote worthwhile causes. Her second album's lead single, "Born This Way, is about self-empowerment and self-respect, and her two major areas of activism have been LGBT rights and anti-bullying. She was an influential and powerful campaigner in having "Don't ask, don't tell", a law barring open gays and lesbians from serving in the US military, repealed (DADT was overturned in December 2010); she has also spoken various equality marches in the United States and Europe. Lady Gaga and her mother, Cynthia Germanotta, formed the Born This Way Foundation, an organization focused on addressing the problems young people face - such as bullying and intolerance, and on wanting to build a kinder, more accepting world as a whole. I have deep respect for people who use their fame to help others, and Lady Gaga qualifies as one of those people.

I also respect Lady Gaga for the way she treats her fanbase and how much appreciation she seems to have for it: she truly appears to love those who consider themselves her fans (the "Mother Monster" and "Little Monsters" terms she invented to describe the relationship between herself and her fans tickles me). I dislike famous individuals who treat their fans with disdain, who have forgotten that it is because of their audience that they were successful in the first place. Lady Gaga doesn't strike me as that type of person.

Lady Gaga appears to be everywhere nowadays in terms of media coverage: on average, I observe Lady Gaga in the news about once a day, but fortunately, unlike a lot of other celebrities who are often in the news frequently for poor reasons, Lady Gaga's coverage is mostly positive or neutral towards her. Putting aside odd instances such as the meat dress, as I implied in the previous paragraph she seems as though she is a really genuine, wonderful, and caring person...not at all somebody deserving of negative or outright hateful opinions and thoughts.

Lady Gaga has come a long way from the era of working with Lady Starlight (who, to her credit, was a huge boost to Lady Gaga's career), and the days of "Just Dance": I am glad she has turned out to be an enduring artist, I wish her continued success with her music and her activism, and I am looking forward to her third studio album. Taking everything into consideration, I think the world is a better place with Lady Gaga around.