Lady Gaga continues her one-woman performance art with the very theatrical video for “Applause,” which she premiered on “Good Morning America” today.
Shot primarily in black and white by Dutch photographers Inez & Vinoodh, “Applause” shows there is nothing Lady Gaga won”t do to get your attention, whether it”s catching a knife between her teeth, turning into a swan, popping out of a magician”s hat, dancing maniacally, or writhing around in a clam shell bikini. Because, damn it, she wants your “Applause,” but she is willing to work for it.
There are art/film references aplenty from pop artist Jeff Koons, whom she mentions in the lyrics, to Fellini to even Janet Jackson”s Rolling Stone cover with someone else shielding her breasts.
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The mannered video matches the mannered vocal delivery. The whole thing feels more like an experiment than a pop song, but that”s where Lady Gaga has excelled from the start: either she”s convinced us that her weird performance art is today”s pop music or she”s connived us into believing that her pop eccentricities are performance art. It probably doesn”t make much difference either way as long as we keep watching.
The good news is that the hip injury that led to surgery earlier this year seems to have completely healed, as she is dancing up a storm.
Lady Gaga told “GMA” that during her recovery, she could do nothing but “create…I sat on the couch and I worked every day and I wrote all my ideas down and I obsessed, obsessed about the music.” Makes you wonder how else that obsession will play itself out on “ARTPOP,” her new album out Nov. 11.
And as if she didn”t have enough to do right now, Lady Gaga has engaged in a Twitter war of words with blogger Perez Hilton, who, apparently, has gone from friend to frenemy. He”s taken digs at “Applause”s” single sales, which are running behind Katy Perry”s “Roar,” while she”s accused him of being a stalker. Rolling Stone recaps the whole Lady Gaga/Perez Hilton feud here.