Lady Gaga: ‘Everyone is so cynical… Do you know how much dirt I ate?’

I have to give Lady Gaga some credit, maybe? Yes, she’s desperate for our attention and yes, she’s still dressing up in costumes, hoping that we’ll discuss her. But she is SO much more low-key during the promotion of ARTPOP than, say, Born This Way. During the Born This Way promotion, it was all Gaga, all the time. Gaga on the cover of every magazine, Gaga saying bizarre sh-t in interview after interview, Gaga wearing prosthetic cheekbones, Gaga Gaga Gaga. But this time around, she’s spreading it out more. Of course, we still have a ways to go before ARTPOP is officially released. But I do appreciate the fact that Gaga isn’t hogging the spotlight for three solid months.

Anyway, Gaga covers the October issue of Elle Mag. The editorial is so blah – it does feel like Gaga is less interested in being “grotesque” (her word) and more interested in being “pretty”. How artsy. Some highlights from the Elle piece:

On handling pressure: “What are you talking about, pressure? I’m great under pressure. I’m a warrior. I’m Rocky, round 12.”

The difference between Gaga’s high-priestess act and the girl who spends time with her family: “I am—Stefani is—a perpetually tortured artist. That’s why I changed my name. I can’t be her in public. She would be a mess!”

On raging against the critics who question the authenticity of her early struggles: “Everyone is so cynical—that I can’t purely love my fans, or share an honest story about my past, without someone asking me if I really, truly struggled. Do you know how much dirt I ate? Do you know the men I had to crawl through, the people that disrespected my body, my mind, my heart?”

How she used her forced hiatus to “go back to the core” and prepare to prove herself all over again—this time not just as a pop star but as a pop artist to prepare for her new album Artpop: “I went to look back to myself being 19, with all my Warhol books and all my Yoko Ono and John Lennon CDs, my Rolling Stones CDs and my Bowie…, and I said, what would she want me to do right now? Well she’d want you to call Jeff Koons and Robert Wilson and Marina Abramović and Inez and Vinoodh…And that’s what I did!”

[From Elle]

I feel like dissecting that quote about cynicism. Let’s take it piece by piece. “Everyone is so cynical—that I can’t purely love my fans” – sure, and I for one don’t doubt that Gaga loves her fans. I’m not aware that people were really questioning Gaga’s love of her monsters, but we did suggest that her monsters sometimes behave in gross or bullying ways, and that Gaga’s messaging about her big “anti-bullying” issue is sometimes way off. It’s often less about “don’t bully” and more about “don’t bully Gaga, don’t say anything bad about Gaga.”

Next part: “or share an honest story about my past, without someone asking me if I really, truly struggled. Do you know how much dirt I ate?” I am one of those people questioning how much she really struggled. I think she was a “struggling artist” for a few years before she latched on to/developed this drag-queen persona, but at the end of the day, she was just a young, affluent white Manhattanite with a coke problem. It’s not like she’s the second coming of Nelson Mandela.

“Do you know the men I had to crawl through, the people that disrespected my body, my mind, my heart?” I believe that. I believe she had crappy taste in men. I believe dudes probably treated her badly. So… that’s basically how she struggled and overcame hardship: she was a rich girl with a coke problem and bad taste in men. MARTYR.

Photos courtesy of Elle.

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44 Responses to “Lady Gaga: ‘Everyone is so cynical… Do you know how much dirt I ate?’”

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  1. Jayna says:

    That’s why she changed her name? Lol. She changed it because her career wasn’t happening as Stefani. Does she believe the lies she makes up.

    • Pastyousayyouneverknew says:

      mte, after all this time, I still don’t buy this whole “tortured artist” crap, ugh, so glad Applause is under-performing.

      • Jayna says:

        She always has to have dramatic reasons for everything. She has given like three reasons for the meat dress, finally perfecting her story to give it deep artsy meaning, not the truth, wore it for attention.

    • Andrew says:

      I do like the pictures though, and I like what she says about pressure and how she does in a way admit that Gaga is an act (which everyone knows, but at least now she doesn’t seen quite as delusional)

  2. Sloane Wyatt says:

    Wow. With all the men she ‘had to crawl through’, maybe her stage name of Lady GaGa is more apropos than we know. *gag gag*

  3. Anki says:

    She’s still a rich girl with a coke problem.

    The people she works with are still bullies.

    She’s still annoying beyond words and I am so done with her.

  4. blue marie says:

    oh, poor, poor pitiful her.. save it, I’m not buying the crap you’re selling.

    as for the men thing, most woman have had a sh-tty boyfriend sometime or other, she’s no different from anyone else as much as she’d like to believe she’s special.

  5. Gia says:

    In Austin Power’s voice: Get. Over. It.

  6. Adrien says:

    On handling pressure: “What are you talking about, pressure? I’m great under pressure. I’m a warrior. I’m Rocky, round 12.”
    That’s better than Katy Perry’s Roar lyrics.

    • ZigZagZoey says:

      Thank you!! I hate that stupid song (Roar) and the lyrics. It is SO cliche and I hate the way she sings it and I hate the intro I hear before the song is played “Hi this is Katie Perry and he’s my new song Roarrrrr”. YUCK it is so unoriginal I hate it. Why not just sing a nursery rhyme next time.

      • NeNe says:

        I cannot stand her song either. Actually, I cannot stand any of her songs, nor can I stand her. 🙂

      • raincoaster says:

        Katy Perry never saw a bandwagon she didn’t want to jump on, so when female empowerment started selling, she decided to sell this big coming-out-from-victimhood schtick even though she’s never been a victim of anything except a terrible complexion.

      • juststeph says:

        Yeah that song is idiotic and cliche. I never like her songs.

    • Maddie says:

      I prefer Roar to Applause but that really isn’t saying much. Both sound very generic and cliche.

  7. Eleonor says:

    Courtney Love was right she is going to be a lonely drag queen.

  8. Anna says:

    LOVE the cover. Like her music well-enough. Dont care much about the rest one way or the other.

  9. bondbabe says:

    D-R-A-M-A Q-U-E-E-N

    She’s exhausting.

  10. bns says:

    I would like her if she would close her mouth. Every time she talks I like her less and less.

  11. Frenzy says:

    Stick a fork in her… she’s done! Gaga is so 2010! Maybe no magazine/s want to cover her hence she’s not everywhere this time. People are so tired of Ms. Cokeface!

  12. LahdidahBaby says:

    I saw her on Watch What Happens Live a couple of nights ago–wasn’t planning to stay tuned because I’m so over her lately–but she was such a good sport, so unpretentious, funnier than shit, willing to roll with whatever Andy Cohen or his callers handed her–that I stayed to the end and ended up really liking her. If she’s a victim of anything, I’d say it’s our American love of building our stars up to unrealistic heights and then knocking them down to size.

  13. CPWbroad says:

    It must have been exhausting being a privileged NYU student who always acted superior to her classmates. Instead of choosing to work hard at a craft she chose to piggyback off Lady Starlight. Some of us do remember NYC back then…

  14. Kiddo says:

    She is trying WAY too hard to get respect through interviews. Focus on the work instead of talking about the work. Write a song about the pain of love. Paint a picture of it. She is very very defensive, which I understand on one level. But scrawling “artpop” across a screen doesn’t make it art. Art is felt as something genuine and raw, whether it be pretty or ugly. And even if it is fantastic, not everyone is going to “get it”. You may only end up with a small circle of enthusiasts, but so what? She does so much “selling” of her art that it comes across more like a shamWow than a da Vinci.

  15. Justme says:

    Wish she would STOP talking, I like her less and less each time she does. Sing the songs and spare us the tortured artist and my music is art blah-blah. I’d like her better if she actually had a sense of humour about music and her silly Halloween costumes, but she takes herself way too seriously, like she’s saving us from the evils of the world through the music. You are a singer, you sing pop/club music, pftt..it’s so silly to take it this seriously. She should pal around with Beyonce, another one with no sense of fun or humour about her music, but is an ARTist.

  16. Christo says:

    Despite the interview, this has to be one of her better photoshoots in a long,long time. In fact, I dare say it is the best she has ever looked.

  17. TheOneandOnlyOnly says:

    Superb comments all; the name dropping is laughable – she is not even in the same solar system with John Lennon. Rolling Stone has an issue out The Beatles Top 100 Songs (capsule summaries of the songs, great photos, and many insights) – she should read it and finally learn something about songwriting. If you have to talk about ART that much, you’re not an “artiste.”

  18. Bijlee says:

    “So… that’s basically how she struggled and overcame hardship: she was a rich girl with a coke problem and bad taste in men. MARTYR.”

    This made me laugh. Love it.

  19. Mar says:

    Ok- I guess I’m in the minority of people that find her kind of cool. I like her work and I like that she relates to regular people.

  20. MAC says:

    SHE came from major $$$$$$$$$$ and choose to be a stripper. She was not burlesque she was a stripped, back room and all.

  21. Happy21 says:

    I still like her. The shit she says sometimes makes me roll my eyes but these days pretty much every pop tart makes me roll my eyes – except Pink of course because Pink is just awesome all day everyday 😉

  22. snappyfish says:

    “Do you know how much dirt I ate? Do you know the men I had to crawl through, the people that disrespected my body, my mind, my heart?”

    join the club, honey.

  23. Bridget says:

    We would be having an entirely different discussion if Applause was a better song. And if Born This Way was a better album.

  24. kiyoshigirl says:

    I watched her on Watch What Happens Live a couple of nights ago. She claims to love her fans, but Andy Cohen brought one on to the set to share a round of shots with them. Gaga barely acknowledged the obviously star struck kid. Only after Andy sort of coaxed her did she even turn her face toward him to acknowledge his presence. After a few seconds her promotional gears revved up and she stumbled over and gave the kid a hug. When they then gave way to a commercial, she began dancing with Andy Cohen with her back turned to the poor kid the whole time. He stood there grinning from cheek to cheek, but it was obvious that he was embarrassed. It was very telling.

    • nicegirl says:

      I noticed the kid, too. He was thrilled and adorable. The bit was kind of a bummer all the way around. It made me sad, too, for Gaga, that she did not receive the true gift of the experience. The kid was truly present in the moment, and she was worried about the camera, it seemed. She missed out.

  25. Evie Rose says:

    UGH, she goes on and on about being such a tortured pop culture icon who suffers and bleeds for her music. No bitch, you’re a phony madonna wannabe Seriously, all of her music sounds the same. I would have more respect for her if she would change her name to Madonna 2.0 and stop lying about how hard her upbringing was on the brutal streets of Manhattan.

  26. Bread and Circuses says:

    You know, I still really like her. I get why other people don’t, but I still really do.

    She’s like Kanye–a narcissist, dazzled by her own image, but with genuine talent and a ferocious commitment to what she does.

  27. IceQueen says:

    Yeah, she loves her fans so much that she’s manipulating them to by her “Applause” couple of times over. That’s pure love people! From a tortured artist! Who only cares about art! For sure!

  28. Lauraq says:

    I really liked her singles from Born This Way…not as art at all, but generic dance pop music that’s great to work out to.
    The sad thing is she actually has a really beautiful, powerful voice, but it’s so autotuned to go with her dance pop music that you can’t really tell.
    Also, she is REALLY FLIPPING ANNOYING AND PRETENTIOUS.