Considering I felt "Born This Way" was kind of an okay but not amazing song, I wasn't sure what to expect from the video. Well, it's here, and it's queer—and by that I mean queer vs. gay. A song that sounds like it should be lip-synched on a float at a pride parade has been paired with a wildly inventive, unsparingly dark sci-fi clip by Jonas Akerlund Nick Knight that has precious few "she stoled that from Madonna!" moments. (I'll try to predict: Maybe a touch of "Bedtime Story" in the beginning, a visible effort to avoid outright vogueing during the "Vogue"-esque part and maybe the bikini will remind some of Madonna's damage-control Esquire cover from '94. Am I warm? Those are all stretches, BTW.)
All Maximed up
But my favorite (and the video's only) for-sure-Madonna moment that fans will undoubtedly point out is at the end, when GaGa has the audacity to appropriate Madonna's missing gap:
"You got rid of it, Madonna, don't blame me for taking it out of the trash!"
...reminds me of Madonna from "I'll Remember."
But enough about Madonna, because this is not even close to a Madonna-style video. Though I can speak for at least some Madonna fans in saying I wish she'd return to wowza videos, even if I'm not clamoring to see Madonna in skullface makeup, one of the most arresting and alarming images in "Born This Way."
I love the entire, tacked-on beginning with its preposterous space tale about good and evil, something that would make L. Ron Hubbard roll his eyes. The imagery is grotesquely beautiful, which seems to be the theme of the video if not her entire career to date.
For me, the video's only weakness lies in her and her director's inability to do anything other than a rather standard-formation dance routine during parts of the song; it's what everyone does. But she looks fantastically fit and at ease with her body, which, after all, echoes the song's sentiments.
But if anyone thought GaGa would be moving away from her over-the-top style, they were dead wrong.
Video after the jump...
COMMENTS
Skeleton Keys
We are all the same under our skin, right?
Considering I felt "Born This Way" was kind of an okay but not amazing song, I wasn't sure what to expect from the video. Well, it's here, and it's queer—and by that I mean queer vs. gay. A song that sounds like it should be lip-synched on a float at a pride parade has been paired with a wildly inventive, unsparingly dark sci-fi clip by Jonas Akerlund Nick Knight that has precious few "she stoled that from Madonna!" moments. (I'll try to predict: Maybe a touch of "Bedtime Story" in the beginning, a visible effort to avoid outright vogueing during the "Vogue"-esque part and maybe the bikini will remind some of Madonna's damage-control Esquire cover from '94. Am I warm? Those are all stretches, BTW.)
All Maximed up
But my favorite (and the video's only) for-sure-Madonna moment that fans will undoubtedly point out is at the end, when GaGa has the audacity to appropriate Madonna's missing gap:
"You got rid of it, Madonna, don't blame me for taking it out of the trash!"
...reminds me of Madonna from "I'll Remember."
But enough about Madonna, because this is not even close to a Madonna-style video. Though I can speak for at least some Madonna fans in saying I wish she'd return to wowza videos, even if I'm not clamoring to see Madonna in skullface makeup, one of the most arresting and alarming images in "Born This Way."
COMMENTS