As a follow up to her Edge Of Glory iTunes promotional release and leading up to her album release next Monday, Lady Gaga has released a new song off her album, titled “Hair”. However, unlike Edge Of Glory, I don’t see pop radio jumping on this one and having it labeled as her next single, after Judas failed to do well on radio.
Produced by RedOne, the person responsible for Poker Face, this is basically a song that brings back Lady Gaga to her dance music self. However, and I don’t want to sound like a broken record with this, is it really as good as her previous dance-music songs? Is this as good as Just Dance and Poker Face?
The answer is a succint no.
The message behind the lyrics is quite simple. Girls can definitely relate more to the comparison she draws in the song but she’s basically inviting people to be as free as their hair, which I’m assuming is when your hair flies in the air, not caring the direction it goes in.
Now, the message itself is empowering: be whatever you want, don’t care about what other people think, etc… and it fits with the “Born This Way” brand she’s been trying to sell with this album. However, I just felt the whole comparison of freedom to hair, although it gets the message across, to be simply ridiculous. Wasn’t there something else she could compare having a free opinion to?
Moreover, I do not really feel the beat of the song. I think it takes away from the lyrics, regardless of how corny those lyrics might be. Lady Gaga even sounds a little drowned out at some points. And I believe the track was overproduced at certain points, especially with the overuse of beats and auto-tune.
The strength of “Hair” is that it’s a relatable song. We’ve all been through events where we wanted to make our decisions freely and had people breathing down our necks to go one way or another. “Hair” fails, however, in being more than a song getting this message across. And there are plenty of songs out there that have a similar theme. So you’d expect that, when you want to rehash a topic, to make your work stand out and offer new things to the table. The Edge Of Glory had great lyrics and an awesome saxophone breakdown. This, however, doesn’t have anything that could make me want to play it willfully. I just hope the album has better songs where Lady Gaga doesn’t want to “lots of friends inviting her to their parties”.
Listen to Hair here:
A Separate State of Mind | A Blog by Elie Fares 
Are you insane?? Clearly you know nothing of Lady Gaga. Its not when you are dancing and your hair flies about, its the fact that for many people, its the only thing they feel safe to change about themselves. Furthermore, she does not use autotune to pitch correct, just look at her live performances, does she really need it? Clearly you do not understand the song properly, and the rhythmic layout… plus, i would like to add, how does it sound overproduced? I am just showing my opinion that i believe that this review is unjust, for a song that clearly has a strong melody and a hard hammering beat, and lyrics that everybody can relate to.
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The song uses auto-tune at some point and it feels, at least to me, overly produced. Your idea of overproduction can be different from mine.
And as I said, I do not disagree with the message of the song and neither does your statement contradict mine.
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it doesnt use autotune very much; her voice sounds raw here
but i agree a little too overproduced
i prefer edge of glory
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Yeah, it doesn’t use autotune a lot but it is there. A previous comment said it’s not even there so I’m glad you noticed it as well.
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Agree 100% with this review. And to add to it: the lyrics are plain terrible. The intended audience is obviously young teenage girls, which is fine, but it wreaks of pandering to immature high schoolers who will cling to any message of self expression thru something as pure as a new hair do. I’m not looking for profundity in gaga’s music, but the lack of subtlety just makes it so dull. The music is absolute blah
And…I am sure of this: the song was written entirely with the idea of using it for commercial purposes. My money is on Garnier Fructis.
I adore gaga and think she’s incredible. But this is one song she should have sold off to a diff artist. It does not belong on her album!
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Honestly, I’m not sure if the teenage audience (mostly teenage girls) should be in her audience. Leave them to be catered by Justin Bieber and Disney people.
And yeah, imagine this being played to a hair commercial :p lol
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Most Lady Gaga songs first get reviewed as ‘not as good as her last one’. This is my fave off the album so far. Sure the lyrics are corny, but I see this more as an anthem for tweens, jumping about their bedroom singing it into a hair brush. Melodically I think it’s the catchiest one from the new album yet, I was so so about Born This Way, and thought 50% of Judas was good and the other half a Bad Romance clone, but the last two songs have been ace. Dig the 80’s movie soundtrack throwback and I’ve always dug the sax so happy to see it brought back into pop.
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Not really. I don’t think her songs have decreased in level one after the other. I like Poker Face more than Just Dance. I like Bad Romance more than Lovegame.
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Yeah, Gaga shouldn’t have compared freedom of opinion to hair. That was too obvious, wasn’t it? She should’ve compared freedom of opinion to, like, flag on a pole during a windy day, or something. That would’ve made this rehash of the same topic stand out.
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Not necessarily a flag on a pole. I mean the idea of freedom = hair is original, but not all original ideas are brilliant.
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Hahaha Elie you really should avoid the controversial topics of Lady GaGa on your blog. 😛
Even though I hate my hair since it’s all curly and weird,
I love the song because I love fun and crazy songs and this song fits with the whole album which I think is going to be all fun and crazy and empowering. But that’s just my take on it.
I understand where you’re coming from though. This song does serve its purpose though. It’s a promo single and it got its target (tweens) excited, just as Edge of Glory did for its target audience(adults). That’s the point of promo singles.
I doubt Hair will be a global favorite like Just Dance and Poker Face but then again not everyone is going to like every song on the album. Just wait til the 23rd 🙂
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lol well with this, Gaga’s audience is kinda divided. Some like it, others don’t. So I’m not in a minority, being trashed left and right :p
You like the song because I mean, you are a Lady Gaga fan after all. I would personally like anything Brad Paisley or Carrie Underwood put out because I like them both. But I really don’t feel this song at all. A friend wanted to send it to me as a gift on iTunes. I said no :p and that’s saying no to a free thing :p
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By the way it seems to me you have a certain fascination with Stefani. I don’t see you talking much about other artists out there. She must mean something to you then?
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I wrote this a month before the video was released, way back when it was mentioned that she will be kissing Jesus as Mary Magdalen.
I have not reviewed neither the song nor the video since then.
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Yeah I’m her fan but I don’t just swallow everything given to me and call it a masterpiece like some mega-stans out there. I actually only got into her when I watched her perform Paparazzi in the VMAs. I disliked half of “The Fame” album at first, but loved the singles instantly. I thought some of the “Fame Monster” was bad at first but then those songs became my favorite eventually. The only song from “Fame Monster” that I REALLY loved and still listen to regularly is Dance in the Dark. Now that’s a song.
This album is shaping up to have a more upbeat and uplifting song than the Fame Monster. I loved the Fame Monster but I’m a huge fan of this euro-pop style of music so I’m happy with it so far. I’m sure it’s going to alienate quite a few fans while attracting new ones.
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Interesting. I think some of her singles were awesome, while others were meh. I have yet to listen to all her albums in their entirety, to be honest. But I can appreciate her sometimes :p
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hmm…i meant to reply to the above post hahaha
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I’m lost now :p
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Lol she’s the only person releasing stuff currently :p I’d review I Wanna Go by Britney Spears but it would be a pretty bipolar review so I figured baleha. However, Brad Paisley releases his new album next Monday as well (and forgive me for saying this but I’m more excited about it :p) so I will be reviewing both albums then 🙂
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I think this record, for me, will not come up to par with the epicness of Bad Romance and Poker, but I wouldnt think twice if this song reaches up to her younger fans. It’s made for mainstream purposes and I think she’s trying to get some new fans. But I also think this song isnt bad at all, it’s cute and fan to dance with especially on pyjama parties haha
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Well, they’re saying the album will leak any minute now so I guess we’ll just wait and see 🙂
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Well, I’ll be short this time around: don’t like it at all. Her voice is indeed drowned out by everything else and I just feel it’s all filler without much purpose. The corniness of the lyrics were to be expected I think but it does make me cross my fingers that she’s not going to channel her inner tween ever again.
It’s funny that many fans are divided when it comes to this one (and surprisingly a lot of non-fans seem to like it). And yes, Pokerface and Just Dance totally beat it by about ten thousand miles.
Marry The Night is out now however, don’t know if you’ve listened to it already, but I found it quite a step up from this disappointment.
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We actually agree. I’m shocked :p
I have downloaded Marry The Night but I’m not sure how I feel about it yet. Do you think I should review it even if I didn’t like it? :p
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Me too! Gaga never ceases to make people feel shocked, you’ve just proven your own theory. 😉
Silliness aside, I think you should. 🙂 If you want to put the effort and time into it of course. But don’t you ever hesitate to put out your views if you want to, negative or positive. Gaga may be a touchy subject in the music world right now but it’s just very interesting to read people’s take on it and I’m sure many others think so too.
I have no clue if I’m going to end up really liking Marry The Night or not but I sure was relieved it wasn’t a Hair 2.0 or something. Oh, well, on to hoping the album’s better than this…
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I’ll give Marry The Night a go tomorrow. I’m busy obsessing over Remind Me now :p
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