This document provides an analysis of Lady Gaga's music video for "Telephone" through the lens of postmodern cultural theories. It discusses how the video references Baudrillard's ideas about the inability to separate image from reality in mediated messages. Lady Gaga has successfully branded herself so that intertextual references to her own works can be seen in other works. The opening titles reference film conventions to make the video seem like a movie. Cultural references are made to films like Pulp Fiction and cultural stereotypes from the 1950s are challenged through Gaga playing with the housewife role.

1. Lady Gaga Telephone
Post modern music video

2. 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. Lady Gaga is a stage name she has created for her
image, she is rarely referred to as her real name. 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.
Hyper reality

3. Telephone also makes intertextual references to Lady Gaga’s own
music videos, audiences have speculated that Telephone is a
continuation of Paparazzi, as we see the album cover image for
Paparazzi used as Lady Gaga’s "Wanted" picture on the TV screen.
There were also pop culture references to Disney's Mickey Mouse
when Lady Gaga wears a pair of glasses, these same glasses are
seen worn by Beyonce in Telephone. Lady Gaga has successfully
branded herself so that inter textual references from her own works
can be seen within others.
Intertexual References

4. The opening titles reading Streamline Presents, Telephone, Starring
Lady Gaga and Beyoncé, 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

5. 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.

6. Cultural flattening is commonly used throughout the video
through provocative dancing , minimal clothing and
swearing. The director tries to reduce the stigma around this
meaning that the culture around these identities and
symbols are weakened and devalued.
Cultural Flattening

7. 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.
Gaga plays the stereotypical 50s housewife in this scene,
but she uses bricolage to create anew meaning to show
how she felt about the50s housewife by adding poison to
the food she makes and it ends up killing everyone in the
diner.