Style: Electronic-dance pop/rock; compare to Madonna, Britney Spears, and Katy Perry
Top tracks: “Born This Way,” “Americano,” “You and I”
Describing her second studio recording as “bad kids going to church,” pop music’s new boundary pusher fills her latest outlandish occasion with brash-yet-sophisticated sonic perspectives, interweaving thoughtful spiritual quandaries (“Jesus is my virtue / And Judas is the demon I cling to”) with self-gratifying free-for-alls (“I’m gonna’ marry the dark, make love to the stars / I’m a soldier to my own emptiness”). Whether purporting self-actualization (“I’m beautiful in my way / ‘Cause God makes no mistakes” from “Born This Way”), fussing over immigration (“Americano”), confessing humanity’s sin nature (“Judas”), or professing love (“You and I,” in a surprising Mutt Lange co-write and total Shania allusion), the avant-garde music queen takes pride in melding head-pounding dance-rock programs with loud-mouth—and oft-politically charged—lyricism. Though formidably creative pop, Gaga is mostly relatable to less discerning demographics preferring dance-drenched psychological rhetoric to artistic, subtle suggestion.
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