Lady Gaga - Bad Romance

• Lady Gaga (24)  from New York, America, produces pop and dance music however she also writes songs, is a record producer, dancer and business woman. 

• She has been signed to record labels such as Def Jam, Streamline, Cherrytree and Interscope and has produced 4 singles that reached number one in the UK Singles Charts and also both of her albums have reached the number one position in the UK charts.

• 'Bad Romance' was the 6th single that she released and it got to #1 in the UK. 

• Too be very broad this song is 'pop' but also dance and has some features of techno and trance included.

• This song is aimed at people in their early teens (tweenagers) mainly females however elements of the 'male gaze' is brought in at various points throughout the video. Make up and dressing up also has a big part of the video. Lady Gaga is outrageous, rebellious, and different from the 'norm', this reflects the tweenager idea of acting up at an age your not at and pretending to be someone you aren't.

• This video was probably made on quite a high budget, it's very other the top and there are lots of different costumes used from scene to scene.

• This video follows the narrative type of music video where they have chosen to follow the lyrics of the song. However this video is unique and abstract so not everything totally fits in with the lyrics. However there isn't really any performance aspects involved.

• Personally i think that 15-34 is the main target audience for the video. Males like what they see in it and this is signified by the 'male gaze' aspects included because of the woman, the fact that they aren't wearing much and explicit scenes, this is made very clear and there is no effort made to hide this.

• It also appeals to the 'pink pound' and gay culture as the video is really camp.

• Sometimes she looks directly into the camera at the audience to try and gauge their attention however when she is singing various lyrics she looks at the men that are sat around her because those specific lyrics are aimed at them. Eyes and 'looking' is really important in music videos as I will look at this more as I look at different examples of music videos, it's especially significant in this because she either wears specially made contact lenses or her eyes have been photoshopped to make her eyes extra enlarged and almost doll like.

• At one point she is seen with not much make up on and crying, this shows her feminine and more gentle or personal side to her character. 

• Tortue is included in the video, this could be her way of showing how women are portrayed in the media and their position within todays society. At various points she is stripped of her clothing and this is totally out of her control. Her body is a very big focal point of the video and she could feel that she needs to use her body in this way in order to make sure she sells records. During the video she plays with the idea of her gender (which has been speculated about lots in the media since being in the fame spotlight about her possibly being a hermaphrodite) and also her identity.

• She makes intertextual references to Madonna in the video which shows there is a sense of post-modernism included. Lady Gaga has used lots of elements from the music video for 'Vogue' by Madonna. She uses a big metal bra at the end of 'Bad Romance', Madonna also uses one similar in her video for 'Vogue', at the time it was released, it was very iconic and different from the rest of the video's available at that time.

Feminists VS Post- Feminists.

• Feminists would say that Lady Gaga produced the video for 'Bad Romance' in the way that she did because it's the only way for her to make money, sell records and stay in the spotlight. She dances and shows lots of her body because she feels she has to and this is the way that today's society wants to see her and through this she is being exploited. 

• Post-feminists would say that Lady Gaga is showing that she is a powerful woman is really in control of what she is doing. They would also say that she is in control of everything and is just being playful with her ideas.

Menaissance and He-cession

Woman are now earning a lot more than they did before and are slowly taking over the men in our society. Some people would say that our society is changing from patriarchy (male dominated society) to matriarchy (female dominated society). This is called a 'meaissence' or a 'he-cession' , men are also becoming more heterosexual and the idea of the 'new man' and being feminine  is becoming increasingly bigger. This has all come about from the past 10 - 20 years with the likes of people such as David Beckham endorsing various moisturises and products to take care of yourself.