Lady GagaBorn This Way

The Early Years

Birth Name Stefani Joanna Angelina Germanotta

Born March 28, 1986 Parents to Parents

Cynthia and Joseph Germanotta

Residents of Yonkers, New York

Musical Beginings

Began studying the piano at the age of Four.

At the age of 11, she was accepted to the Juilliard School in Manhattan but instead chose to attend Convent of the Scared Heart

In the eighth grade, She found the way to meet boys was to get involved with theatre

She constantly landed the lead role

She gives credit to her early life in theatre for a lot of the inspiration to her craft today.

Birth of Gaga First New York night club appearances started at

the age of 14. Donned the title Lady Gaga, inspired The Queen

song Radio Ga-Ga. This façade allowed Stefani to become

something a “little more overdramatic, spoiled and brassy, but she was also a nice girl (not to say a good girl)”.

She view herself at a ‘Theatre chick’ that started to express herself though music and songwriting, inspired deeply by classic rock and more specifically Queen, The Beatles and Pink Floyd.

Education Granted admission to the prestigious Tisch

School of the Arts at 17 Later dropped out of school to focus on her

music and songwriting Her father made a deal with her to pay her

rest for a year with the circumstances that if her music career failed, she would reenroll at Tisch.

"I left my entire family, got the cheapest apartment I could find, and ate shit until somebody would listen”

Early Professional

Career Briefly signing to record label Def Jam Records in 2005 but was dropped just after a few months.

This sent Stefani back into the night clubs and venues on New York’s Lower East Side.

Collaborated with several up and coming rock bands.

Early Professional Career At the age of 20, Gaga

was discovered at a burlesque show called ‘Lady Gaga and the Starlight Revue’ by singer/songwriter Akon.

He was very impressed by her talents and quickly signed the performer to Interscope Records subsidiary Kon Live.

First Album: The Fame

Debut album The Fame. First single “Just Dance” Nominated for a

Grammy for Best Dance Recording in 2008

Reached number one on the Billboard Pop Charts

“Poker Face” was the second single

Both songs were produced by Akon’s affiliate RedOne,

The Fame Monster

The major success of The Fame grew into 2009 and spawned a EP of the album: The Fame Monster.

Ablum title and track listing exploits the darker side of fame

Fame Kills tour with Kanya West canceled.

Monster Ball Tour took its place.

Monster Ball Tour

The Monster Ball Tour held over 200 performances all over the world within a 18 month period

Grossing over  $227.4 million and drew in 2.5 million people.

HBO filmed the final shows to air as a television special titled Lady Gaga Presents the Monster Ball Tour: At Madison Square Garden

Mostly featured songs from The Fame Monster and Born This Way

Monster Ball Tour Pictures

Born This Way

Born This Way that was released in May of 2011.

Characterized it as "something so much deeper than a wig or lipstick or a fucking meat dress".

Born This Way features the title song “Born This Way” along with “Judus” and “Hair”.

Little Monsters

Devout following of fans called Little Monsters.

Encouraged to ‘Put up their claws and show teeth’

Huge fan base within the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered community

Teamed up with several charities that help the gay youth

The Haus of Gaga

The Haus of Gaga is her production team behind her styles and design concepts for her concerts.

Raw Meat Dress at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards.

Born This Way egg she incubated in on the red carpet at the 2011 Grammy’s

Personal Life Gaga tries to keep her personal life out of

the limelight but has been connect to several men over the last few years.

Gone on to say that she considers herself married to her little monster and to her craft.

Her parents play a major role in her life “Edge of Glory” from Born This Way is a tribute

to their everlasting love. Attributes a lot of her life to the city in

which she grew up in, New York City.

Bad Romance Bad Romance is from Lady Gaga’s

second album The Fame Monster.. Feel victim to an uncompleted

version being leaked on to the World Wide Web to become pummeled by critics. .

The finished version made debuted at her friend, Alexarder McQueen’s, fashion show at Fashion Week in Paris, October of 2009.

The song went on to sell over 9 million singles and was ranked 9th best song of 2009 by Rolling Stone.

Won Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance at the 2009 Grammy’s

Bad Romance Listening Guide

0:00-Intro: The intro begins with vocals with an elongated “oh” before a synthesized hum come in underneath.

0:17: The intro continues with a with a major synthesized hum dropping out and just a synthesized beat as the lyrics “Rah-rah-ah-ah-ah-ah!/Roma-roma-mamaa!/Ga-ga-ooh-la-la!/Want your bad romance” repeats itself twice

0:33 First Verses: The beat lightens up a bit but still is very prevalent

1:07 Bridge: The beat pattern changes to a lighter sound and the vocals become almost whispered. The melody changes as well to a lighter tone.

1:14 First Chorus: The first chorus sets up the way all the chorus’s will be repeated throughout the song.

1:46 “Rah-Ra” bridge: The melody changes again, reintroducing the “Rah-Ra” lines that were introduced in the intro.

Bad Romance Listening Guide

1:54 Second Verse: All the same changes and elements as in the first verse make a return here

2:27 Bridge: The bridge here is almost identical to the one earlier in the song

2:35 Second Chorus: The second chorus is identical to the first chorus: rhythms, melodies and all.

3:08 “Rah-Ra” Bridge: This “Rah-Ra” bridge is identical to the first one.

3:23 Walk Walk Fashion Verse: The Melody changes dramatically, along with the rhythm and beat. Everything slows down extensively

3:39 Retard Verse: The melody and rhythm retards into a slow moving verse.

Bad Romance Listening Guide

4:12 A cappella: The underlying music drops out for just 2 seconds but makes a powerful statement putting all focus on the lyrics “Want your bad romance”

4:15 Last Chorus: The last chorus becomes a little more violent with the beat, Almost like a heavy stomping motion is happening

4:45 A cappella “Rah-Ra’s”: We get one more set of Rah-Ra’s but all the music has dropped out for the remainder of the song

4:54 End of Song

Paparazzi Featured on Lady Gaga’s first

major album The Fame. The song is almost a ballad

type. The music video portrays a

struggling starlet. The music video won 2 MTV

music video awards in 2009 Best Art Direction and Best

Special effects. There is no official word, but

the song and music video is believed to be a diary type song, telling the story of Lady Gaga’s rise to fame.

Paparazzi Listening Guide 0:00 Intro: The sound of this

Lady Gaga song is a lot different then what she is more commonly known for

0:09 First Verse: The verse really sets up the vocal tones for the remainder on the song

0:41 First Chorus: The rhythm pick up a little bit but nothing to substantial

1:15 Musical interlude 1:24 Second Verse: The

second verse is the same melody and rhythm as in the first.

Paparazzi Listening Guide 1:57 Second Chorus: The

second chorus stays the same as the first

2:30 Third Verse: This verse is heavy in the lyrics almost like a rap

2:47 Chorus Retard: The chorus repeats here but a slower

3:05 Chorus continued: The melody and beat picks back up

3:21 There are a few bars of the familiar melody

Born This Way

The song is a freedom anthem, much like those of the 1990’s Think almost Cindi Lauper’s

“True Colors” but more upbeat.

The song has become a staple within the LGBT community

Not everyone fell in love with it right off the bat.

The bigger controversy surrendering this track is some people believe it is a rip off of Madonna’s “Express Yourself”.

Born This Way Listening Guide

0:00 Intro: This song starts out with just vocals with a reverb

0:14 Musical Bridge: This bridge sets up the heavy beats that are found throughout the song

0:27 First Verse: The story starts to be reviled here that this is a song about empowerment within yourself and knowing that you are a superstar

1:29 “Drag” Bridge: All the vocals, beat and melody take another sharp turn here becoming more tribal as the lyrics state “Don’t be a Drag, Just be a Queen” several time, over and over, with a heavy beat

1:38 Second Verse: The second verse is set up very similar to the first

Born This Way Listening Guide

2:07 Second Chorus: The second chorus is set up the same as its former

2:39 Musical interlude: This musical interlude is brief but has a major role in setting up the next verse

2:49 “List” Verse: The melody, rhythm and beat take another major change to become second to the lyrics, almost becoming a rap

3:03 The beat again gets lighter along with the melody and the rap continues for the previous selection

Born This Way Listening Guide

3:19 Third Chorus: The chorus repeats itself for a last time but with a brighter, more optimistic tone.

3:49 A cappella Section: The phrase “Born This Way” is repeated in a group of voices

4:05 Bridge: There is one last bridge of music to finish up the song

4:20 End of song

Work Cited “Lady Gaga” Billboard Web Feb 18, 2012

< http://www.billboard.com/#/artist/lady-gaga/1003999> “Lady Gaga Biography” Biography.com Web Feb 18, 2012

< http://www.biography.com/people/lady-gaga-481598> “Lady Gaga Lyrics” Elyrics.net Web Feb 18, 2012

<http://www.elyrics.net/song/l/lady-gaga-lyrics.html> “Lady Gaga was surprisingly normal!” In Touch Magazine

Web Feb18, 2012<http://www.intouchweekly.com/2009/12/in_touch_exclusivelady_gaga_wa.php>

Grigoriadis, Vanessa “Growing Up Gaga” New York Magazine Web Feb 18, 2012

< http://nymag.com/arts/popmusic/features/65127/>All images found in this presentation were found in various

pubic domain websites.