Lady Gaga is a postmodern artist who creates a hyperreal persona named Lady Gaga separate from her personal identity of Stefani Germanotta. She references other works like films in her music videos and live performances to remix genres and push boundaries in unconventional ways for a mainstream pop star. By blending symbols, signs, and intertextual references from popular culture, Lady Gaga controls her image and critiques society.

1. LADY GAGA
POSTMODERN
ARTIST

2. HYPERREALITY
• “Baudrillard claims that our current society has replaced all reality and meaning
with symbols and signs, and that human experience is of a simulation of reality.”
• “He believes we cannot separate the image from the 'reality.’”
• By this he means that the manner in which the message is mediated becomes
more important than the meaning of the message itself.
• Marshall McLuhan who coined the phrase 'the medium is the message'.
APPLYING TO GAGA:
Lady Gaga is a stage name she has created for her image, she is rarely referred to as
Stefani Germanotta. She keeps her personal life and her superstar status separate this
gives her the ability to control her image and allows her to get away with outrageous
things, like wearing a meat dress. When fans see Lady Gaga they focus on her image
and fashion rather than gossip or everyday life.
In an interview she said “I have mastered the art of fame.” By this she means by
creating a hyper-real version of herself with outrageous fashion as Lady Gaga she is
able to keep the public and press attention away from her personal life as Stefani
Germanotta.

3. INTERTEXTUAL REFERENCING
• The opening titles reading 'Streamline Presents, Telephone, Starring Lady Gaga and Beyonce,
and Tyrese Gibson' even before we see Lady Gaga herself. It makes it look like its going to be
a movie, taking typical conventions of movies & TV shows and incorporating it into her work.
• Yellow title card text with reddish drop shadow: Jackie Brown. the fonts and hues are
different, but the effect and size on screen are similar.

4. INTERTEXTUAL REFERENCING
• Beyonce’s nickname “Honey Bee”: diner robber “Honey Bunny” in Pulp Fiction. Gaga
addresses Beyonce as “Honey Bee” before they pull off their poison murder spree in the
diner; this seems like a pretty clear reference to “Honey Bunny,” the nickname given to
Yolanda, one of the two robbers in the famous diner scene in Pulp Fiction.

5. INTERTEXTUAL REFERENCING
• The most straightforward Tarantino reference in “Telephone” comes from the “Pussy Wagon”
that Lady Gaga and Beyonce drive; Uma Thurman steals and drives the same one in Kill Bill
Vol. 1, it was literally the same one, Tarantino lent Gaga the original car when they were
discussing the video.

6. BRICOLAGE
• Inspired by the Warhol's exploration of mass consumer culture and advertising
through his Campbell's soup studies, Gaga and Akerlund challenge the gender
stereotype of the "perfect housewife" portrayed heavily in 1950s pop culture,
using Wonder Bread and Miracle Whip as their artistic devices.

7. BRICOLAGE
Gaga plays the stereotypical 50s housewife in
this scene, but she uses bricolage to create a
new meaning to show how she felt about the
50s housewife by adding poison to the food
she makes and it ends up killing everyone in
the diner.

8. EVERYTHING IS A REMIX
• Some may say that Lady Gaga’s career is a replicate of Madonna’s, she is younger,
equally famous and as powerful in the Music Industry.
• Comparing them both, you see clear resemblances in their careers, through their
image, songs, personas and vast following of fans around the world.

9. EVERYTHING IS A REMIX
• When ‘Born This Way’ came out, there was a lot of speculation that it was
‘Express Yourself’ 2.0. She follows the rules of a postmodernist, she takes
influences from the past and incorporates it into her work.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUDSX9vyG
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10. MIXING GENRES
• Fame Monster has quite a 70’s disco influence
with a modern sound. By mixing modern club
sounds like faders and heavy beats with disco,
she has made disco cool for a modern audience
and something that young people would dance
to. A good example of this is Disco Heaven. Fame
Monster can be seen as postmodern because she
has taken disco that is not cool by today’s
standards and made it popular selling over 15
million copies worldwide.

11. UNCONVENTIONAL POPSTAR
• Her live shows are known for their outrageous and
controversial content, like most mainstream pop stars she
puts on a show, it’s about the whole performance, the
dancing, the music, the fashion and the visuals together to
amplify the meaning of the lyrics. However unusually for
pop stars she does not mime during her performances and
will also play instruments e.g. the piano as well as dancing.
• The visuals and story of her dances during her
performances will amplify the meaning of the lyrics for
example at the MTV music awards for the song Paparazzi
she symbolised the death of the blonde icon by hanging
from the roof covered in blood. This signified the way the
press look for faults in celebrities and like to see how they
fall from the top.