Biscocho, Isabelle Ann P. I-AB POS En11 R34 Mr.

Francis Sollano Beyond the Hairbows and Poker Faces The twenty-first century. The century of all things media, of all things pop, of all things fun, fresh and fierce; the century of wide-spreading popular culture. But because of the sudden intrusion of a bronze-skinned blonde haired femme fatale into the scene, it has also become the century of hairbows, of blonde wigs, of full bangs, of outrageous fashion sense, of large contact lenses, of sequins, of sparkles, of form-fitting spandex, of Poker Faces and Telephones, of Alejandros and Summer Boys, of Paparazzi and Lovegamesthe list just goes on and on, Im tired of typing, my manicured hands are starting to hurt. To put it in a very compact phrase, the twenty-first century has become the Century of Gaga. Lady Gaga. Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, or simply Lady Gaga, is the perfect personification of the word eccentric. Her out-of-this-universe clothes, her love for outrageous wigs, her sky high stilettos, her hairbows and her weird accessoriesall of which I want to wearsays it all. Add to the equation her swagger, that Yes, I contradict myself aura exuding from that bronze skin of hers, and of course her smart and mind-boggling lyrics that require a skilled poet to decodebecause only a True Blue Little Monster would take the time to do that. Both her appearance and her personality simply sum up to eccentric. Multiply the sum to her overflowing talent, she has been crowned as the twenty-first century Queen of Pop. Shes dubbed as the Lady

of Eccentric, the Queen of Pop and the Mother Monster. Surely, no one could be born with such talent. Wrong. One plus one equals to two, and same goes for outrageous appearance plus bizarre personality multiplied by epic talent equals to Lady GagaI may not be that good at Math, but I know what I am saying is true. Because even as a child, little Stefani was never lacking the talent nor the virtue of capricious showmanship. As a little girl, she would climb up tables and dance while using breadsticks as batons, sing her heart out to Michael Jackson and Cindy Lauper, and get twirled in her dads arms to Rolling Stones. At age 4, she learned how to play the piano; at age 13 she had written her first piano ballad; at age 14 she had played on open mic nights in New York clubs. No wonder she grew up to be the wonderful exhibitionist-slashmultitalented singer-songwriter-slash-epic performer with a flair for theatrics that she is today. The icons who influenced her also contributed a big part to that eccentricity. Michael Jackson and Madonna styles combined made her royalty in the world of pop. Madonna even says that she sees herself in Gaga. David Bowie and Queen gave her the sequins, the spandex, the sparkle and the shine. One may even say that Queen gave her the name, from their song Radio Ga Gawhere she coined her quirky pseudonym. Her vocal range drew comparisons to that of Madonna and Gwen Stefanidue to the Europop and funky 80s sound. Fashion was also a large influence to dear Gagas queer erratics. She confesses, When I'm writing music, I'm thinking about the clothes I want to wear on stage. It's all about everything altogetherperformance art, pop performance art, fashion. For me, it's everything coming together and being a real story that will bring back the super-fan. I want to bring that back. I want the imagery to be so strong that fans will want to eat and taste and lick every part of us."

She, according to Entertainment Weekly, brings back the art in a performance. Outr and lavish her outfits maybe; however weird her stunts on stage may appearbloody murders, playing piano with the feet, bubble dresses and etceterait just heightens up the art in the stage, the lyrics, the dance and the whole performance itself. But of course, a great star like Gaga never goes without controversies. Her eccentricity and provocative acts hasnt been accepted well by some people, especially conservatives. Her fashion sense has been dubbed as too revealing, too sexy, too showy and too everything. Her music videos have been called hypocritical, sacrilegious and obscene. Her music video of Alejandro has been especially taken into consideration, with the sacrilegious scenes showing Gaga in a nuns dress with an inverted crucifix on her genital area and playing with and near eating a crucifix. There were also scenes containing sadomasochism (S&M) and her overflowing androgyny. Telephone didnt escape the eyes of conservatives either. It has been said that Gaga has gone too far in this video, maybe even too far for Gaga. It shows murder, lesbianism, manhating and a lot of obscenities. It may portray an image of feminism and anti-chauvinism, but the concept of murder still overlaps that portrayal. Even Little Monsters had to think twice. I know I did. With her eccentricity and talent, not to mention her piled controversies, a question erupts. Being a worldwide phenomenon, how does Lady Gaga affect the behavior, the fashion sense, the speech and the thoughts of a college student in the Metro? Furthermore, does Gaga affect these students in a negative or a positive way? Surely, with all the Little Monsters (Lady Gaga fans) as proof, Lady Gaga is not only an icon, she is a trend. So, it would be impossible for a normal personyou know, those not living in other planets and stuff?to not be affected by the Gaga Fever. But, in what angle?

Little Monsters are prowling around the Metro these days. And this would be because Lady Gaga is such a viral trend. She could practically influence the behavior of anyone because of the fact that she is in the media spotlight. Being a person under the radar, she influences almost all the aspects of her fans. Fashion wise, she disregards all forms of limitation. She brought about liquid leggings, sparkles and sequins everywhere, hot pants and short shorts, hairbows, broad-shouldered jackets, immense accessories, feathers and animal print, skin-tight outfits, spandex, poufy wigs and etcetera. She even made me experiment with some of my clothes just to try and look like herand until now, Im still dying to get a Blonde Wig. Behavior wise, she instilled feminism in women (and gays); the idea of not letting the male gender be dominant over the female gender. She also portrayed the perfect example of femme fatale, the Im letting out my true colors while being fierce at it attitude that only a few artists have succeeded to portraymost are just singing about some kind of hopeless love. These influences were passed on to other people, therefore creating a domino effecta non-stop chain reaction of the Gaga Fever. In the Ateneo, you could say that the perfect portrayal of a Lady Gaga influence would be the Dollhouse. The Dollhouse is, on first look, just a bench; a simple, non-special bench with a pink and silver placard behind it plastered with The Dollhouse: Well blow you away. But, if you take a closer look, its more than just a bench. Its the home of a bunch of quirky, queer, and colorfulmaybe also eccentricpersonalities who arent afraid to show their true colors to the world. Theyre open-minded; they have their sexuality down pat and arent scared to show the whole world that theyre different from others. Paired with that Gaga-inspired eccentricity and courage are their killer fashion statements that could make heads turn all-over. No one can carry short shorts like Third Fernandez, that OrSem host whos myand maybe others toopersonal

favorite, does it. If that doesnt scream Lady Gaga to you, I dont know what will. (P.S. Try to walk by the Dollhouse and youll hear timeless Lady Gaga hits playing from their MacBooks.) Plus, theyre all smart. But, as Newtons third law had said To every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction; not all influences of the reigning Queen of Pop are positive. Frankly put, a lot of it may be viewed as negative. If you overlook the feminine empowerment and the outrageous fashion sense, a viewer might just say that shes downright obscene. Shes very provocative, and she does come out as simply obscene. And her lyrics do contain a lot of sexual undertones, and if it isnt decoded welland because of the very short attention span of most human beings, no one really cares to decode the real meaning of her lyricsit would just appear as one big sexual innuendo with synth tones. And though her music is undeniably unique and powerful, her star power has served as a catalyst in corrupting the minds of teenagers and young adults, and college studentsespecially liberated Metro College-goersare not immune from this. As artistic her videos maybe, they still have a lot of sexual undertones which possibly contribute to the being sexually active of most college students. And even if she insists the virtue of chastity and abstinence from sexas said in an interviewits kind of hard to believe what shes trying to instill when her videos, songs and fashion statements promote the exact opposite of that. Lady Gaga, the Reigning Queen of Pop, the Lady of Eccentricity and the Mother Monster, has an influence to the youth that is playing on both sides. Her influence could be either positive or negative, depending on the aspect. Positive, if you talk about the way she paved the path for freedom of expression in women and her empowering songs that will bring out the real feminist inside every girl. Negative, if you talk about the connotations of her lyrics, the sexual undertones, sexual imagery in videos and alleged Satanism in some points. Positive, if you look

at the fashion innovations and the Be yourself and be fierce while youre at it attitude that is portrayed by every Little Monster. Negative, if you overlook these innovations and just see the provocative side of her clothes. As Gaga as it may sound, she falls on the very thin line between good and bad. According to afterellen.com, She may kill Comissioner Gordons in her videos, but in real life, she helps people. From gays to hobos. Even with that, she still proves to go beyond the Hairbows and the Pokerfaces, So, her videos may have a whole lot of provocative clothing and sexual undertones but in real life, she helped a lot of people stand-up against norms and rules and dare to be different. Add the strongas-a-boulder feminism and the whole lot of charities she sponsored, all of the controversies made by bored and shallow people who refuse to look deeper at the Keyhole cuts and Studded Spandex are covered up. Gaga is not just a person, shes an icon, someone who women and even gays can look up too. She goes beyond norms, beyond her queer appearance, and behind that gargantuan hairbow and that unreadable Poker Face, shes someone you could truly idolize. Her wit, her charm and her undying charisma proves that. Shes far from the usual shallow heartbroken girl who sings about her bleeding heart, she can empower. She makes girls believe that they will always be Beautiful, Dirty, Rich; and to not care about the Boys Boys Boys who broke their hearts. People may think shes a Monster who eats hearts, but shes not that kind of Paper Gangster. And for those who Like it Rough and cant help but be attracted to The Fame, shes the perfectly queer Goddess to look up to. Shes Lady Gaga, and shes a whole lot more behind that Pokerface.