Blog No. 49 - The Fame by Lady Gaga

GENRE:
CD - POP

Title:
The Fame

Artist:
Lady Gaga

Lyricists:
Lady Gaga

Label: KonLive

Bibliographic Information:
Audio CD (October 28, 2008)
Number of Discs: 1
Label: Streamline/Konlive/Cherrytree/Interscope
ASIN: B001GM28HO
Grade Range: 9 and up, Age Range: 14 and up

Annotation:
Everyone is YAYA for GAGA!

Album Summary:
This album is Lady Gaga’s first, propelling her from local nightclub singer to a famous star. It contains the following songs:

1. Just Dance 4:02
2. LoveGame 3:36
3. Paparazzi 3:28
4. Poker Face 3:57
5. Eh, Eh (Nothing Else I Can Say) 2:55
6. Beautiful, Dirty, Rich 2:52
7. The Fame 3:42
8. Money Honey 2:50
9. Starstruck 3:37
10. Boys Boys Boys 3:21
11. Paper Gangsta 4:23
12. Brown Eyes 4:03
13. I Like It Rough 3:22
14. Summerboy 4:14

Critical Evaluation:
This is dance music at its best, and teens from 13 and up just love this. I taught 8th grade when this album came out, and it was the favorite of all the kids at the middle school where I worked. Funny, two whole years have passed, and its still a most requested CD at parties. Why? The electro-pop is great for dancing, period. Of course, Lady Gaga is highly controversial: she is a performance artist, not just a singer/musician, so she pushes the envelope in her performance and music, making Madonna seem mild by comparison. But this is not a DVD, it’s just music, and as such, one can’t help but move their feet when they hear many of these songs. Even me!

The better songs are probably the more famous ones—Just Dance, Paparazzi, and the always played Poker Face. The CD is worth having for these songs alone, but probably downloading them is a better ways to go. But a few of the others do grow on you, if you listed to them awhile.

I have seen high school dances come to life when Lady Gaga comes on. No kidding. That’s how electrifying her music is. Listen and hear for yourself.

Interest Age:
I recommend this album for older teens, due to some inappropriate subject matter. However, middle school kids love it, and some of the content goes over their head—not all the words are that easy to understand anyway.

Biography:
Born Stefani Germanotta on March 28, 1986, Lady Gaga was only two years old when Madonna had her first hit Material Girl. Yet, the two women have a lot in common, both pushing the envelope of music and performance art in their careers.

Germanotta attended an all-Catholic private girls’ school in Manhattan called Convent of the Sacred Heart. At seventeen, she went to the Tisch School at NYU to study music. Her instrument is the piano, which she learned to play as a child, and she began writing songs as a teenager. Her own musical influences were David Bowie during his flamboyant Ziggy Stardust era, and Freddie Mercury. In fact, she chose the Gaga part of her stage name from a song that Mercury sang called Radio Ga-Ga. She began her career in 2007 performing in clubs and lounges doing kitschy reviews, and she began to get noticed by the music industry. Pop-rap star Akon signed her to his label, and she began writing songs. This album, which was re-released in a larger form in 2009, has six hit singles.

Cover artwork courtesy of: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001GM28HO?tag=oneff-20