Lady Gaga: Bad Romance

The objectivity of seeing this music video in 2022 is seeing Lady Gaga trying to stand out with the 20/20 knowledge that she will transcend all this outfit weirdness and become a pure icon.

Never mind the actual story-line of this video, I just see a crazy jumbled crow's nest concoction of absolutely out-of-this-world imagery that appealed to Lady Gaga's creative spirit, her alien sense of style, in short, an excuse for Lady Gaga to do what she likes, getting her jollies by acting weird. It doesn't make sense to me, reading the plot outline on Wikipedia, there are so much holes, stuff not explained, like how come she looks like, well, an anime doll, an embryonic baby bird days before it is supposed to hatch, whatever? But never mind, just sit back, enjoy the weird and wonderful ride, just enjoy. And, we do get to see Lady Gaga all scrubbed of makeup, or at least almost all scrubbed of makeup, and she is really quite beautiful. The sound of the thing? It's not in my own personal taste, I prefer girl bubblegum disco pop, but for Lady Gaga here, I just turn up the volume and let it go. Sounds like Cher at times. Must say, what a disconcerting sight she makes with those big cartoon eyes, kinda creepy like THE GRUDGE. Really creeped me out.

Note that scene with the burning polar bear rug. Reminiscent of a Vogue photo-shoot, like in the old days when they had models standing on top of elephants brandishing vacuum cleaners, I kid you not, well, something like that anyway. Here Lady G stands in her skimpy underwear and white platform shoes a la Pamela Anderson, and there is this inferno of flame as if the polar bear skin is on fire. It's an absurd* image taken simply for the effect of the image itself. It makes no sense, but does show off the beauty of her body, and in an artsy way, so it floats everybody's boat on some level.

*oops, repeated research, I got it now, it's the guy who bought her's bed that's on fire. Still, that's something not made abundantly clear at that point in the video. But okay, so the image does make sense after all. Hey, as long as we see her green eyes and legginess and how great she looks in underwear :)

Then there are all those religious crosses, Madonna revisited! And the abduction + sex slavery theme, but all filmed totally avant garde in a surrealistic style. Hardly something like the gritty reality in TAKEN, this is an over-stylized female-friendly look- at-me-I-am-so-desirable-men-fight-over-me pseudo-rape fantasy. Only it's in such a way it's art, and Lady Gaga is all artsy.

In summary:

Weird, weird, weird, love those shoes, weird, really badassweird.

This is seriously the most creative, beautiful music video I have ever watched. From directing, choreography, mood... Eveything.

I appreciate the very nifty costumes but this does seem more like style than substance. The whole thing comes off as rather hollow and soulless while Ostensibly meant to be some kind of artistic statement. After all of these years it almost comes across as a self parody, which is a shame. Especially that goofy spasmodic dance style.

It has to get points for its iconic status. There are still some scenes in here that I appreciate like the flaming bed and skeleton.

Billboard said it, not me. And while I do think this video is stunning, and an artistic and musical triumph. I don't know that it is the best music video of the 21st century, I don't even know if it's Gaga's best video, although it is a masterpiece, a modern day Thriller if you will, and in some ways it's more ambitious than Thriller. Don't sue me, MJ fans.

Bad Romance tells the story of a Russian bathhouse, and Gaga is sold to a group of men who are bidding on her, only to have the highest bidder be murdered by Gaga in an act of fiery revenge. All of this is basically irrelevant to the meaning behind the video itself though. All of this imagery, symbolism and storytelling is just a manifestation of Gaga's experience as a pop star, a product to be sold, and represent the capitalistic exploitation of the female form in every facet of American culture.

"I want your love, and I want your revenge" Gaga sings, and in an interview with Fuse during her Fame Monster days, Gaga claimed that the song is about love so profound that you want someone whole, even their most disturbing traits and qualities. I think that the video represents the complex relationship we have with the patriarchy and with power structures, all with incredible choreography and stellar cinematography that was rarely seen in music videos at the time. Bad Romance is a modern masterpiece and (one of) Gaga's best music videos, and it simply towers over even the best music videos of Gaga's contemporaries.