sammi says

I'm fed up with everyone hating on Christina Aguilera claiming that she is ripping off Lady Gaga in her new video "Not Myself Tonight."

Christina's been pushing the boundaries of acceptable expression of sexuality since 1998. She's been dressing slutty since Lady Gaga was in grade school. She wasn't the first, and she won't be the last pop star to dress like a whore. Don't get me wrong, I love Lady Gaga, but truth be told, I've loved Christina longer.

I can certainly appreciate people, especially the younger crowd, seeing Lady Gaga as a great innovator and ground-breaking artist...And I wouldn't necessarily disagree. But I can also remember when Christina wore ass-less chaps, wrote a song called, "Dirrty," and showed up to award shows wearing ridiculous costumes.

When Lady Gaga first hit the radio with "Just Dance," I remember thinking, "Wow, she's going to blow up...She reminds me of Christina Aguilera." And she was a welcome replacement to fill my pop music needs while Christina got married and had a baby. But now Christina's back and I think we need to make room for our old favorite and quit pitting them against each other.

Has it occurred to anyone that Christina acting like other pop stars (or porn stars for that matter) in her video, "Not Myself Tonight," was intentional? It is called, "Not Myself Tonight," after all. The song title is not exactly an enigma. Perez Hilton, is one of Gaga's main supporters and is ripping Christina to shreds because of this video. Look at his side by side comparison of Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" and Christina's "Not Myself Tonight." I don't know, I can certainly see some similarities, but I also think he's grasping at straws....Lady Gaga wore red, Christina wore red. Gaga's video featured a hot guy on a bed, clearly, groundbreaking in a music video. And somehow Lady Gaga made wearing sunglasses original. Please.

Here's a cheesy slideshow showing the long line of borrowed fashion trends on pop stars.

Can't we put on our favorite wig and leotard and all be friends?

It's also best to remember that while I'm insisting that Christina has done it all before Gaga, we have to remember that Britney and Beyonce have done it too, and Madonna did it before everyone else...

...and Christina is vocally superior to all of them.

Last Thursday I was fortunate enough to attend the Lady Gaga concert in St. Louis. In the weeks leading up to the concert there was all kinds of talk that Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church (based out of Kansas City) would be protesting the show because of many reasons but mostly because she's a gay-loving whore. If you're unfamiliar with Westboro Baptist they are the fools who protest soldiers funerals with signs that read, "God Hates Fags" and say the war and soldier's deaths are God's punishment to us for our acceptance of homosexuality. It's pretty messed up and I really don't care to talk about their diluted beliefs. Many liberal, open-minded St Louis citizens decided to start their own protest of Westboro Baptist (organized through Facebook, very official) saying all concert goers and everyone else willing to stand outside should head to the Fox Theatre and participate in same-sex makeout sessions, yell and scream vulgarities and all kinds of other debauchery to piss of the protestors. Now, I started to get excited about not only going to the concert but being a part of a social movement and seeing young people standing up for their lifestyles. Then a huge snowstorm hit most of the midwest and Westboro Baptist didn't see fit to travel in the poor conditions. Victory is ours!

On to the concert. The show was opened by Semi Precious Weapons who I had heard of, but never really heard their music before. It's definitely in the same vein as Lady Gaga. Their showmanship was entertaining. A good warm up. Next was Jason Derullo. An absolutely terrible performance. This guy is a joke. For starters, the song, "What You Say," makes me wish I was deaf. The rest of his music sounded exactly a like and he put on a pretty lame set with a few dancers. All the high schoolers in the audience seemed to love him. I found the fifteen Michael Jackson songs played over the sound system before the show a much more entertaining. Everyone was clearly excited for the show, especially this woman. She got a standing ovation from the entire balcony when she was finished dancing.

Finally, it was time for the main act. The show opened with "Dance in the Dark," not my favorite song, but I was glad she did it early on and saved some of my favorites for the end. The stage was framed and set up with three large screens (two on the side, one in the back) that were playing images and interesting backgrounds that changed continuously throughout the show. Turns out, a live band was behind those screens which we saw when they were slightly raised towards the middle of the show. The next song was "Just Dance," in which Gaga, wearing a light-up dress was raised above a glass box playing a keytar. During "Love Game" Gaga was wearing a sort of marching band hat and even had a baton/disco stick. Crazy costumes ensued for "Alejandro," "Monster," "So Happy I Could Die," and "Teeth."

"Speechless" came towards the middle of the show. Gaga sat at a militarized looking, spinning piano. (At one point she even took out a fake machine gun and pretended to shoot the audience, not exactly great timing consider there was a shooting rampage in St. Louis that morning.) She dedicated "Speechless" to the audience but must not have been aware that the planned protest was cancelled or maybe she just assumed we all knew about it, because she kept making references to free love, acceptance and even said that we're (the concert-goers) are the normal ones and "the freaks are outside and we locked the f-ing doors." Which would have been especially poignant had there actually been protestors outside. Regardless, I enjoyed the sentiment and it fit well with a song like "Speechless."

Next came some of my favorite songs, "Fame," "Money Honey," "Beautiful, Dirty, Rich," "Pokerface," a real crowd pleaser and "Paper Gansta." Perhaps the most bizarre yet intriguing performance was "Papparazzi." The stage was dark with twinkling white lights in the background. Two dancers came out holding a pole horizontally above their heads with Gaga's hair attached to it. Her wig had two rings attached to it which made her able to slide up and down the pole. At one point she stepped out of the framed in stage and onto a lighting rig which was raised halfway off the ground, all while attached to this pole. It was definitely a spectacle.

For the encore Gaga was brought onto stage in her signature orb and performed "Eh, Eh (Nothing Else I Can Say," and of course, "Bad Romance," ending the show with a bang. The concert was amazing. It was a highly innovative extravaganza. My ears rang for days. It was one of those shows you leave and think, "Wow, I really just saw something." Easily worth my sixty bucks.

Lady Gaga recently released, "The Fame: Monster" a revamp of her hit album, "The Fame." I've already talked about the amazing track, "Bad Romance," but there's also seven other new songs. I love every single song on "The Fame" and I can't say the same about "The Fame: Monster." I'm about 50/50. "The Fame: Monster" is very techno and sounds like club music whereas "The Fame" was pure pop. The songs I love I really, really love. But there's a few tracks I immediately skip over. The Good- "Bad Romance," "Speechless," "Teeth," and "Telephone." The Ok- "Monster" The Bad- "Alejandro," "Dance in the Dark," and "So Happy I Could Die."

The songs I love, for the most part, are unlike anything I've ever heard before. "Speechless," is about as much of a ballad we'll probably get from Gaga. I hear the backstory about this song is that Gaga wrote it for her father who was refusing necessary heart surgery. She's mentioned on talk shows recently that her father received the surgery and is doing fine. This song translates to anyone who's dealing with someone who's giving up. "Teeth" is gritty. "Telephone" featuring Beyonce is an awesome poppy-techno track that is fun and catchy and makes for great going out music.

The ok song is "Monster." It's hard not to like a song with lyrics, "We french kissed on a subway train/He tore my clothes right off/He ate my heart then he ate my brain/That boy is a monster."

The bad songs sound like Madonna rip-offs or are too techno for my liking. Now don't get me wrong, I'm still fully behind Gaga 100% but I can't help but feel like the record company was just trying to capitalize on her recent success and wanted to buy a new album right away, regardless of the material.

You can buy "The Fame: Monster" on iTunes. Or if you want to just give it a listen you can stream the songs here.

I know you're probably tired of hearing me rave about Lady Gaga but you have to watch her latest music video. It's insane. Like, actually messed up and strange...and of course, I love it.



I think Katy Perry says it best, "Yep, Gaga's game is on point, she's on another planet that no one else can get to right now... She's eating, breathing, living it. RAD."

On another planet is an understatement! I mean, she kills the dude with her flaming boobs. Does it get any stranger or more interesting?

Here's a short "making of" video that kind of gives an explanation of what the heck is going on...

Lady Gaga is officially the first artist to have four number-one singles from a debut album (source). I think this should prove that she's not going away anytime soon and isn't all hype.

Lady Gaga's newest single "Bad Romance" was released last week and I'm obsessed. I'm super thrilled to see that she's still got it and didn't tap out her creativity on her first album, "The Fame." "Bad Romance" is the first single from the re-release of "The Fame," called "The Fame: Monster" dropping on November 23. "The Fame: Monster" will have eight new songs including the original 14 songs from "The Fame." I'm not exactly sure why she didn't just make a few more songs and release a brand new album, but I really don't care. "Bad Romance" is bad ass. The video is being released next week but here's a youtube of the song if you haven't heard it yet.




And just for kicks here's a picture of me rocking the Lady Gaga look on Halloween.

66 days until Lady Gaga's tour, "The Fame Ball" comes to St. Louis. Click here to buy "Bad Romance" on iTunes.

It's safe to say that last nights MTV Video Music Awards was the best VMA's in a long, long time. The performances seriously made the show amazing. I don't think I've seen so many great performances packed into one show before. I can honestly say that I thought everyone did amazing. I really don't remember who won what award but I know I was thoroughly entertained.
(click on pictures to see larger versions)

Here's the Good....

You've heard me say it before but I love Gaga. Yes, she's really, really strange, but you can't tell me she didn't sound amazing during her performance of "Paparazzi". While it was a strange performance, it was visually interesting and had me cracking up at the end when she was covered in blood. I also have to say her several costume changes throughout the show gave me a real kick.

Pink's acrobatic performance kicked ass but I couldn't help but notice her costume's resemblance to Lil Kim's VMA getup circa 1999.



Pink does not get enough respect for her amazing voice. I find her songs a little annoying after a couple weeks on the radio, but girl can sing.
Here's the video of her performance of "Sober."

Taylor Swift's performance of "You Belong With Me," was adorable. Nobody has really been talking about it, preferring to talk about the more dramatic portion of the evening. She performed on the subway and then ran out into the street in front of Radio City Music Hall. I can only assume the subway portion was pretaped, but exciting nonetheless.

Beyonce's "Single Ladies," was certainly a crowd pleaser and I expected nothing less.

Here's the iffy.....


The Michael Jackson tribute started off the show and I couldn't help but think Madonna's speech seemed a little off, I respect the sentiment and story she told but I can help but thinking it was not the right way to start off the show. The dancing portion was awesome. I really enjoyed it. Janet's portion was really the most hyped of the evening and I thought it fell flat. I felt more confused when I heard her prerecorded vocals than impressed or moved.

Green Day was ok. For some reason it just wasn't very memorable for me.

I was confused during Katy Perry's performance with Joe Perry. It was short and felt out of place. I thought she sounded pretty good considering the other times I've heard her sing live she sounds god-awful.

Here's the bad...

I won't go into very much detail because you've already heard all about it but Kanye West's interruption of Taylor Swift's acceptance speech was horrible. I felt terrible for Taylor and Beyonce, who looked absolutely mortified. Katy Perry pretty much summed up my feelings on her twitter, "F*CK U KANYE. IT'S LIKE U STEPPED 0N A KITTEN."

Kristen Stewart's hairdo was pretty bad. I found out today it wasn't cut that short but just pinned up to hide her Joan Jett mullet she's been sporting for the filmingof the biopic "The Runaways." I thought her dress and shoes looked great but the hair missed the mark. *On a side note, Robert Pattinson looked mega hot and man-child Taylor Lautner looked pretty good too.*

And the worst part of the night- Not enough Russell Brand! I felt like he was almost never on stage. I wished we would have seen much, much more of him.

(Info, pictures, and videos from mtv.com, usatoday.com and perezhilton.com)

A few weeks ago a friend texted me asking if I had heard the rumors that Lady Gaga was a hermaphrodite. I guess knowing that I have a supreme knowledge of celebrity gossip he felt that I would have an explanation as to whether or not this was true. I hadn't actually heard the rumor so I did some googling and one of the results was a video revealing the Lady's man parts.



Apparently around the 1:00 mark people swear they can see something that resembles a penis. There was also a fake quote circling the internet with Gaga saying how she's not ashamed. It made me start to wonder if it really was true, why would she insist on wearing skin tight leotards and tiny dresses with no undies? It just seems if it were true she'd take a little more precaution to not flaunt it.

My response to my friend was that I was unsure of the truth, but that if anyone could pull off being a hermaphrodite it's Lady Gaga.

As it turns out Lady Gaga just now came out and addressed the rumors on an Australian radio show, where she's currently touring, saying, "My beautiful vagina is very offended. I'm not offended — my vagina is offended....I've sold four million records in six months. I'm not embarrassed about anything." And that the rumor was probably generated by "Society's reaction to a strong woman — the idea that we equate strength with a man and a penis as a symbol of male strength."

Fair enough. So what do you think? Is she all Lady? I think the rumor probably started because she's not the cookie-cutter pop star we're used to and isn't the most attractive person in the music biz. All I can say is that I love Gaga and think she's ridiculous in an awesome way even if she does have a disco stick....annnnnd that I'm 80% sure I want to be her for Halloween.