Everybody.
No. Seriously.
In turns. Lady Gaga does songs which sound like other people. I don’t just mean a little similar. I mean melodies ripped whole for a bar or two. She sings in other people’s vocal ranges – complete with fake voice strain at the edges of their vocal range. Similar arrangements, instrumentation, choice of synthesizer sounds, and everything.
Some of these identifications are tentative, but here’s what I’ve identified:
- Lovegame - Lords of Acid
- The Fame - Madonna (note the word “material” right in the first sentence!)
- Paper Gangsta - Missy Elliot, I think. Note the accent.
- I Like It Rough - Information Society. Synth, melody, and the vocal style.
- Summerboy - The Cardigans. Contrast with their Lovefool.
- Bad Romance - Eurythmics, I think. Just because it’s a very Annie Lennox vocal line.
- Speechless - Elton John.
- Teeth - I don’t know, but I am totally sure I’d see it if someone told me.
- Electric Chapel - Heart. Listen to Barracuda, then to Magic Man. (Especially the vocal intro to Barracuda.)
- Fashion of His Love - Cyndi Lauper (I think). It’d be easier to tell if Gaga didn’t eerily avoid Rs in most of the song.
- Black Jesus + Amen Fashion - Scorpions. Specifically, Rock You Like a Hurricane. Contrast the “AMEN!” in Gaga’s song to the “Here I Am” in the Scorpions piece. Now you know why “amen” is three syllables.
- Scheiße - Can’t place it, but it’s very familiar.
- Bad Kids - same deal. I totally know what band did that distorted vocals over guitar intro.
I’ll update this if/when I can figure more out.
Comments [archived]
From: badducks
Date: 2011-05-28 20:27:53 -0500
So true.
I caught ‘Judas’ on the radio a week ago (late to the party, I know) and I swear she ripped it from HER OWN song ‘Bad Romance.’
Sometimes I think she does it intentionally. Just to see if she can get away with it. Or maybe she really isn’t that innovative and needs to borrow off other people to find some semblance of inspiration. There’s a difference between a photographer that can take a beautiful picture anywhere and one who can take a picture of something beautiful. Lady Gaga is the latter.
From: Jesse
Date: 2011-05-31 17:59:55 -0500
I disagree. I think she’s doing it on purpose, and really skillfully. Like Weird Al but subtler. Frank Zappa. Yoko Kanno.