Who -- or What -- Is Lady Gaga?

Lady Gaga Is ... a Hipster Artiste
No need to deny it: the Lady Gaga (she's earned that definite article by now, don't you think?) is a hipster -- of the art-school-attending, dirty-club-frequenting, skinny-jeans-wearing (well, when she wears pants, that is), intentionally-obscure-art-making variety. Just look at her first single. "Just Dance" may not sound like music for the multibelted set, but goodness, that video is way too cool for you. Or us. Or anyone.
See also: Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Karen O

Lady Gaga Is ... Glam
This one is perhaps Gaga's most obvious attribute -- or at least the one she references most explicitly. After all, she named herself after a song by David Bowie Queen and lists the "Queen Bitch," Mr. David Bowie as an influence. And while her music isn't so aesthetically glam as, say, that of Adam Lambert, her general tendency toward over-the-top spectacle is very much in keeping with the likes of T. Rex, Queen, Gary Glitter (minus, you know, the child pornography), et al.


Lady Gaga Is ... Disco
Remember those mind-numbing dance beats? They sound familiar at all? They should: picking up where indier artists like Scissor Sisters and Mika left off, Ms. Gaga has almost single-handedly revived disco fever on the charts, along with its attendant infectious decadence, gay-friendly vibe and single-minded pursuit of a good time and a dance groove, thanks to neu-disco cuts like "Lovegame." And everyone from Pussycat Dolls to Gossip to Shakira has been hit upside the head with her "disco shtick."

Lady Gaga Is ... (Studiously) Derivative
All these very apparent influences, not to mention the undeniable similarities to fellow blonde provocateurs like Christina Aguilera and Debbie Harry, have led many critics and cynics to dismiss Gaga as a derivative Madonna-come-lately who is simply refashioning others' more "original" styles. They're not wrong, but they do miss the point. Gaga makes no bones about her very explicit references: she is an amalgam, a pop-culture collage cobbled together from bits and pieces of both overlapping and disparate decades and divas. What's "original" about her is the way she lines all these influences up in new and unique ways, giving us new and unique ways to look at them (see: the high-heeled, all-white-rubber, all-girl homage to the "Thriller" dance in her video for her latest single, "Bad Romance"). In the process, she throws into question the very notion of "originality" -- and makes us wonder if it ever existed in the first place.

Lady Gaga Is ... A Drag Queen
In fact, Gaga's penchant for the originality-challenging amalgamation of genres and styles is steeped in another long and storied tradition: drag. The good Lady is intimately familiar with the drag queen's makeup bag of tricks. If "Paparazzi," with its emphasis on "bad" as "good," artifice as art and style that trumps sincerity (not to mention the over-the-top ridiculousness of that hyper-dramatic, super-decked-out, leg-brace dance break), isn't a camp masterpiece, then Oscar Wilde would surely eat his cravat, darling. But Gaga does more than visit the camp grounds. In many senses, she herself is a female drag queen, executing choreography perhaps best described as "Vogue"-esque, lording it over her "love interests"/circuit boys in videos like "LoveGame" and just generally performing an exaggerated and oh honey, so fabulous femininity (see, for instance, her various and sundry B-52s-like wigs in "Eh Eh Nothing Else I Can Say"). Though they may look a bit alike, Gaga ain't no "Dirrrty"-era Xtina. Her style is sexual but it's undoubtedly a very, very queer sexuality.
See also: The Scissor Sisters' self-proclaimed female drag queen, Ana Matronic

Lady Gaga Is ... A Burlesque Queen
Also among Gaga's foremothers is the drag queen's sister in arms (and legs): the burlesque artiste. The Lady herself worked as a stripper and burlesque artist in New York clubs before hitting it big, and her penchant for corsets, bustiers and general pantslessness reflects that personal history. She also picked up some burlesque aesthetics along the way. Gaga teases with the best of the tassel-twirlers, simulating and suggesting sex in the most over-the-top (or on-the-bottom) ways without ever actually giving it up in videos like "Poker Face" (a song that itself calls into question what you think you know about her sexual desires). Moreover, while she is undeniably hot, hers is an unconventional sexiness, a beauty that's very different from, say, Beyonce's Barbie-doll perfection or Britney's easy-on-the-eyes easiness. Finally, like the best of the burlesquers, Ms. Ga's presentation of eroticism is often intentionally hilarious.

Lady Gaga Is ... (Spectacularly) Grotesque
Another of Gaga's burlesque aesthetics is what burlesque historian Robert Allen once called the genre's "horrible prettiness." She exaggerates eroticism and attractiveness, taking them to their extremes in the dingy, decadent sexiness of "Just Dance." She layers conventional notions of beauty with monstrosity in "Bad Romance," a video in which she looks perhaps her most stereotypically pretty but sings in a guttural, almost inhuman growl. She forces us to examine our own social taboos, pushing at the boundaries of normative desire by pairing conventionally feminine seductiveness with suggestions of her alleged/potential penis. Did we mention she wears Kermit the Frog evening gowns?

Lady Gaga Is ... A Pop Gender-Bender
We've offered many answers to the question of just who -- or what -- Lady Gaga is here, but perhaps they can all be summarized with one term: this provocative, undeniably compelling woman is a pop gender-bender. She appeals to our most populist sentiments, soothing us with familiar dance beats, reeling us in with carefully crafted hooks. But once she's got us right where she wants us, the Lady flips the script, upending convention and forcing us to question our most entrenched norms. And we love her for it.

Listen to Gaga in good company on our Pop's Greatest Gender-Benders Playlist.