New Lady Gaga: Born This Way

[WaltD4Me]

Have you heard Lady Gaga's new song Born This Way? I could not think of what it reminded me of, but someone commented that it's a rip off of Madonna's Express Yourself and I was like "That's it!" Sounds like she mashed up Express Yourself and Vogue.

You can listen to it here.......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4a8QtvOkBQ

 

[lovelyrics]

I love the lyrics of this song

 

[LMO429]

there is much buzz on tv, internet, etc that born this way sounds like a blatant rip off of express yourself by madonna.

I have been in the car alot this weekend gaga new song is on every five minutes...I can say I am officially over this song already talk about over exposure I hate it already

 

[Disney Dad Canada]

Having been a big Madonna fan back when she was good, and a Lady Gaga fan now (although not a HUGE fan), these were the same arguments people had about Madonna 20 years ago, saying she was "ripping off" everyone from Marilyn Monroe to Chaka Khan to Nancy Sinatra.

There's very little originality in music, especially in the Lady Gaga "pop" area. While Lady Gaga may have been "influenced" by Madonna (and personally I'd say far more by David Bowie, Queen and Klaus Nomi), to accuse her of "ripping off" someone sounds a tad harsh. Unless your a band like Nirvana, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones etc. that totally invent new musical genres, there will be comparisons between you and those that came before you.

 

[DisneyKevin]

Sorry.....the new Lady Gaga song sounds very much like Madonna's Express Yourself.

Try it for yourself.

Sing the lyrics from Express Yourself to Born this Way.

 

[WaltD4Me]

Just watched Born This Way on the Grammys and sang along, only with the words to Express Yourself. Same song.

 

[Disney Dad Canada]

http://www.aishamusic.com/lawsuit_many_artists_madonna_stole_from.htm

These may not all be true, but makes you think.

 

[DisneyKevin]

http://www.aishamusic.com/lawsuit_many_artists_madonna_stole_from.htm

These may not all be true, but makes you think.

Not defending Madonna's originality or talent.

She lifted an entire video routine from Gentlemen Prefer Blonds, and those involved probably lifted it from somewhere else.

Don't know...dont care.

But I keep reading about Lady Gaga's blazing originality and how this new song was meteoric in it's rise to number one.

This is all wonderful fodder....all I'm saying is that Born This Way and Express Yourself have a very similar beat, tempo, melody, arrangement and that the lyrics are interchangeable.

So much for originality.

 

[rchristiansen]

Have you heard Lady Gaga's new song Born This Way? I could not think of what it reminded me of, but someone commented that it's a rip off of Madonna's Express Yourself and I was like "That's it!" Sounds like she mashed up Express Yourself and Vogue.

You can listen to it here.......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4a8QtvOkBQ

YES!! We just heard it Friday night for the first time and that was exactly what I said!

 

[SOnotLayuh]

Yeah, Rolling Stone just had a great article about how Express Yourself was ripping off some other old song. I think if you look for connections from every song you're going to be able to accuse them of ripping off something or someone else.

I've been to a ton of concerts, mainly older artists with my parents when I was younger, and I'll tell you that Lady Gaga's talent BLEW ME AWAY. She is incredible on stage, and her voice is so much bigger and more powerful in person than on CDs and the radio.

I think what she's done to music has been phenomenal, and can definitely be compared to what Madonna did to it 20+ years ago. The fact of the matter is that it's time for a new reining pop queen.

 

[Disney Dad Canada]

Watch the great interview Anderson Cooper did with her tonight on 60 minutes. She's a lot smarter than most people give her credit for.

To me, she's very much akin to Marilyn Manson (and I mean that in a nice way). They both know the psyche of who they are selling to, and market themselves to please those people. Brilliant strategy. Add to that her true talent, and she's a great entertainer.

 

[WaltD4Me]

http://www.aishamusic.com/lawsuit_many_artists_madonna_stole_from.htm

These may not all be true, but makes you think.

Interesting site. Even if every single thing on it is true, Born this Way still sounds just like Express Yourself.

 

[kaligal]

I heard a song the other day and asked my friend if it didn't sound like a Madonna song to her. She paused to listen and said, "Express Yourself." I was like, "That's it!"

I wonder if it was the same song. The part I heard seemed good enough, but we had to move along. I don't really care if it sounded like Madonna. For all I know, they got permission to do that.

It's been done before. A lot. My favorite was "U Can't Touch This"...a total re-do of "Superfreak" and still an excellent song.

 

[topolino]

Watch the great interview Anderson Cooper did with her tonight on 60 minutes. She's a lot smarter than most people give her credit for.

To me, she's very much akin to Marilyn Manson (and I mean that in a nice way). They both know the psyche of who they are selling to, and market themselves to please those people. Brilliant strategy. Add to that her true talent, and she's a great entertainer.

Some might call that a brilliant strategy. Others may feel that an artist shouldn't worry about marketing themselves, and instead should be true to their own creativity. Not every artist goes into the industry to get rich. There are those that do, however, and in the music businesses that type is called a "sellout".

 

[Disney Dad Canada]

Some might call that a brilliant strategy. Others may feel that an artist shouldn't worry about marketing themselves, and instead should be true to their own creativity. Not every artist goes into the industry to get rich. There are those that do, however, and in the music businesses that type is called a "sellout".

It's called the music "business". If you think marketing yourself isn't part of any business, you're very naive. It's part of a package. While you "can sell an inferior product with proper marketing, in most cases marketing helps to show others what your true talents are.

There are many talented artists of all types that die broke. Making money isn't a bad thing, it pays the bills.

 

[DisneyKevin]

It's called the music "business". If you think marketing yourself isn't part of any business, you're very naive. It's part of a package. While you "can sell an inferior product with proper marketing, in most cases marketing helps to show others what your true talents are.

There are many talented artists of all types that die broke. Making money isn't a bad thing, it pays the bills.

So the Kardashians are great talents?

You are equating financial success with artistic success and while they sometimes meet.....they arent necessarily the same thing.

Marketing yourself is certainly a skill, but it doesnt mean you are talented at anything other than marketing yourself. Again....I offer the Kardashians as an example.

 

[SOnotLayuh]

So the Kardashians are great talents?

You are equating financial success with artistic success and while they sometimes meet.....they arent necessarily the same thing.

Marketing yourself is certainly a skill, but it doesnt mean you are talented at anything other than marketing yourself. Again....I offer the Kardashians as an example.

Lady Gaga *is* extremely talented, though. You can tell that much in her live performances, as well as with her songs that don't get released from CDs. Shoot, you can also hear the five songs she recorded while she was a student at NYU... you can hear her voice on those without it being overly produced.

To say she isn't talented just because you feel like she is committing a musical sin by sounding like someone else isn't fair - you clearly haven't heard much of her.

 

[Disney Dad Canada]

So the Kardashians are great talents?

You are equating financial success with artistic success and while they sometimes meet.....they arent necessarily the same thing.

Marketing yourself is certainly a skill, but it doesnt mean you are talented at anything other than marketing yourself. Again....I offer the Kardashians as an example.

Forgive me if I made the impression that the two were equated. They are definitely mutually exclusive. The point I was trying to make is that just because someone can successfully market themselves does not make them a "sellout", or any less a talent. Similarly, as you stated, a great marketer is just that, a successful marketer and may or may not have other talents.

 

[DisneyKevin]

Lady Gaga *is* extremely talented, though. You can tell that much in her live performances, as well as with her songs that don't get released from CDs. Shoot, you can also hear the five songs she recorded while she was a student at NYU... you can hear her voice on those without it being overly produced.

To say she isn't talented just because you feel like she is committing a musical sin by sounding like someone else isn't fair - you clearly haven't heard much of her.

I think you have read more into what I said than is really there.

I said the song Born This Way sounds like Express Yourself.

I also said that I dont think this song is the last bastion of originality.

As for marketing herself......she (or her management) is a genius. A year or so ago, no one had ever heard of her and now she is a world wide phenomenon.

Bully for her. She's made a boat load of money and it seems everyone knows her name.

That being said....she's not doing anything original. She is definitely standing on the shoulders of those who came before her.

Paul has given examples of people she can and should be compared to artistically.

As for her talent....I'm underwhelmed by it but then music and art are truly subject subjects.

You dont need to defend Lady Gaga. She's doing alright.

But back to the original idea....you can still sing the lyrics to Express Yourself to the song Born this Way and they sound very similar.

And I have to say.....this quote made me laugh out loud this morning.

"Gaga, who wore a raw meat dress on another red carpet last year, arrived inside the egg for the Grammys.

Gaga was "incubating," her creative director Lauri Ann Gibson said.

"It was necessary to incubate her for a certain time, because tonight she is actually birthing a new race," Gibson said. "A new race that doesn't have the ability to judge or hate in their DNA, so she is incubating right now so she goes through that process."

This quote can be found here:

http://www.cnn.com/2011/SHOWBIZ/Music/02/14/grammy.awards.show/index.html?hpt=C1

Now....if you want to know where my musical tastes lie......I was beyond thrilled that Arcade Fire finally got the recognition they deserve.

 

[Disney Dad Canada]

Now....if you want to know where my musical tastes lie......I was beyond thrilled that Arcade Fire finally got the recognition they deserve.

Wow Kevin, something we can agree on!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjxef8AfVQg

Great win for Canadians.

BTW Kevin. Don't be dissing Lady gaga too much, or you'll have Ferris to deal with.