So, I will willingly admit that Lady Gaga is a guilty pleasure of mine, one that some of my musical elitist friends find laughable. However, I find her music to be throughly hypnotic and reminiscent of other pop greats of the passed 30 years.

What is it that makes a powerful/memorable pop song? I believe that there are several things that make a “good” song or a pop star.

1. The song has to be catchy. When I first listened to Lady Gaga, her song permeated my subconscious. The beat and lyrics of “Paparazzi” ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgKrzdaDQMw ) stuck in my head and haunted me until I finally downloaded the song off or iTunes. The great beat of the song and the repetition in the lyrics are what make it so memorable and hypnotic. I mean seriously how many of you could say that you found yourself singing along with the “Queen of the Night Aria” ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2ODfuMMyss )after listening to in once.

2. Lady Gaga puts on one hell of a show which adds to her mystique as an artist. People have done it before. Think of Elvis and his pelvis, Michael Jackson and his dance moves, or Metallica and their heavy metal attitude. Each one had their own distinctive style that they brought to the table and built their fame on. Gaga does the same with her ‘weirdness”. People are drawn to it because she puts on a show.

3. Controversy is what also plays to the masses. The more people say we should look away from the sun…the more we sneaks peeks at it…right? Just as with Elvis, Madonna, Elton John, Etc., there are those out there that have proclaimed Lady Gaga as some sort of “Faux Pas” celebrity of the moment. Due to this, people cannot look away whether she’s talking about her bisexuality or “hanging” herself at the VMA’s. This publicity is what makes her mysterious or eccentric to the masses.

I think that Lady Gaga has done what she set out to do. I think she has shaken up the pop scene (which she may or may not have intended). She has raised the bar for those that are coming out now. They cannot just be the Taylor Swift cookie-cutter pop star if they want to compete. Like Debbie Harry and Madonna (the celebrities that I compare her with), I think she has found her own nicht and has impacted the pop world.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrO4YZeyl0I