Tag Archives: Lady Gaga

Hair (Single Review) – Lady Gaga

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:

Edge Of Glory (Single Review) – Lady Gaga

Lady Gaga has been what you would call pretentious in her “Born This Way” era so far. In what way? well, she calls people to embrace who they are and yet, her image is fake, her covers are filled with prosthetic additions to her face  that make you cringe and her songs are anything but a simple manifestation of artistry.

More often than not, she writes songs that serve as a vehicle for her shock value entertainment, follows them up with a video that has nothing to do with the song, extends the video to about ten minutes and people go gaga over it. And it has been working for her except Judas isn’t doing as well as they thought it would, especially on pop radio.

Now, as part of an iTunes countdown to her album, Lady Gaga has released Edge Of Glory. I have mixed feelings about this. While I like the departure from the “religiously-controversial” and “born this way” themes to much less controversial stuff (such as love), I feel the song is simply deja vu.

Has Lady Gaga lost her touch? This is a song that doesn’t rely on techno music and electronic beats as much as it relies on simple pop music and it’s simply not as strong a tune that you would expect from someone who has given the masses hit after hit, some of which are quite good quality-wise.

Now, I’m not the best person to consider when it comes to Lady Gaga. I have yet to immediately get hooked on her songs. They usually get “stuck” so to speak due to radio overplaying them. But that’s not to say that “Edge Of Glory” isn’t catchy. After all, Lady Gaga knows how to write a crafty hook. And I especially like how the saxophone goes into play there. But I think when Lady Gaga tackles the issue of love for the first time in a single, I thought it would be more like this song (Captivated) before she went all gaga:

Regardless of what I think, her fans will eat this up. Watch it become #1 on iTunes in a few hours and debut high atop the Billboard Hot 100 next week. But selling truckloads of singles isn’t always a sign of quality. And I think Lady Gaga has become too indulgent.

Listen to Edge Of Glory here:

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Carrie Underwood Going Viral

Who knew that the person that would be taking YouTube by storm these days would not be Justin Bieber or Lady Gaga or Britney Spears… but Carrie Underwood.

Showing everyone that you don’t need legions of teenagers and sexed up music to get the attention of the masses, she has gone in the totally opposite direction: gospel music.

Carrie’s first video to be considered a viral success was her duet with Steven Tyler at the ACMs on the Aerosmith song “Walk This Way”.

Becoming the top video in music on YouTube for a few day and also topping out the most watched videos lists in many countries around the world, “Walk This Way” stands in less than three weeks at more than 4 million hits.

And for those that might say the only reason Walk This Way became viral was the presence of Steven Tyler, Carrie indirectly replied with a breathtaking performance of How Great Thou Art.

Not only did she blow everyone away with her voice but her performance has actually reached the masses with the video currently standing at a little less than 2 million hits, a mere four days after her performance. How Great Thou Art is a gospel song, praising God… and it is sung in a divine way and people want to listen to it. Maybe other artists should take note?

Moreover, Carrie is now the #1 trending topic on Yahoo!, fueled by the growing popularity of her How Great Thou Art performance.

Read the Yahoo! article here.

A singer’s job is to sing, not to show skin in order to get attention. People are beginning to call Carrie Underwood this generation’s best vocalist. And that is not something to take lightly. She has no way to go but up… and as the pop masses would say: Get it, Carrie!

Lady Gaga’s Judas. This Is Getting Ridiculous

Unless you’re living under a rock, which is actually good for you at this point, you definitely know that Lady Gaga is releasing a new album this May.

Her first single, Born This Way, has already gone to become her biggest hit and she’s now prepping her second release off the album, a song titled “Judas”.

Set to be released on April 19th, during Holy Week, the song is about the betrayal of a loved one. Lady Gaga has released the cover art for the single and here it is:

Continue reading →

Carrie Underwood and Brad Paisley Duet: His New Single?

Carrie Underwood and Brad Paisley are best buddies in the country music scene.

She was his opening act while promoting her debut album “Some Hearts” and they ended up recording a duet “Oh Love”, an awesome song that was never released. A huge missed opportunity, may I add.

Now, it looks like they have recorded another duet together. And I believe it will be the upcoming single of Brad Paisley’s upcoming album “This Is Country Music”.

First, Carrie’s latest single, Mama’s Song has peaked about a month ago at #2 and it has been rumored that she will not be releasing anymore singles from Play On. The rumor was questioned at first, but the longer we go without a single on the radio, the lesser the chance of continuing the Play On era.

Second, if no Carrie single is released from now till August or September, assuming a predicted November release date for her fourth album, it will be the longest period that Carrie has gone through without an active single on the radio. Far too long if you ask me.

Third, Brad Paisley’s current single “This is Country Music” is racing up the country charts and looks poised to peak at #1 in the coming two or three weeks. It currently sits at #3 on the charts, with a remarkably fast 13-week run, one of the fastest Brad Paisley singles to do so.

Fourth, Brad Paisley’s album is to be released late May, which means that if the current single peaks around early March, it would leave a two month period of no single on the radio to promote his album. A second single being issued is a certainty.

Fifth, Brad Paisley will be competing with Lady Gaga on his first week of release and while he will not beat her, releasing a second single that sparks wide interest among country listeners is sure to provide him with high sales numbers.

Sixth, with the huge success duets and group singles are seeing on country radio (Need You Now, Don’t You Wanna Stay, If I Die Young), it looks like the trend of having more than one singer on a track is paying off. Now get together the genre’s leading vocalists and put them on the same track and you have the recipe for a smash hit on country radio, one that will sustain Carrie through the wait for her fourth album and one that will provide Brad with the needed buzz for his album release.

Also, another thing to note is that with Carrie not having any single on the radio, she will not be able to sing anything at the ACMs and I doubt Brad would want to sing “This Is Country Music” there after debuting it at the CMAs and after it would undoubtedly have peaked.

So it looks like Carrie’s team has prepared a bombshell for us with an awesome single that will undoubtedly take the Country Music scene by storm. One can only hope the song is as awesome as we all think it will be.