Yes, this is another Lady Gaga post. I swear each time I think everything that needs to be said about the whole Lady Gaga phenomenon has been said, something else comes up. Have we reached the "full saturation point?" (Answer: Yes, we are fully saturated with "Gaga-ness" when you're in the car with your mother and she's singing, "Ga Ga Ooh La La-ah," but only recognizes it as "that song they did on Glee.") From Jezebel:
"Everyone in the spotlight who reaches a point of public adoration is subject to the all-powerful backlash, though most backlashes seem aimed at the subject's obsessive fans, or, in the case of Betty White, the majority of people on the internet for their seemingly endless, patronizing, and fairly irritating need to act as if they're the only ones who have noticed that that Betty White, who has been an entertainer for most of her 88 years, is quite good at her job and deserves recognition."
(Full disclosure: I am a sometime commenter at Jezebel, and have followed Lady Gaga's career mostly through her fans, and she has many among the Jezzie crowd. )
I've been a fan of pop music for more than twenty-years now, and it's easy to say that everyone has a shelf life, but what fascinates me most about Lady Gaga -- and I swear I've read this somewhere but can't place it -- is that she came to us this fully-formed pop star. There was no embryonic state; nothing from which she's evolved. She's essentially a collection of influences. (And one of those influences, Madonna, if I recall, started out pretty rough.) It kind of makes a backlash inevitable.
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