Lady Gaga Bad Romance

Lady Gaga is a female recording artist well known for her theatricality; this is included in her personality during interviews, fashion sense and more importantly, her music videos. Andrew Goodwin’s “Dancing in the distraction Factory” (Routledge 1992) expresses how music videos demonstrate genre characteristics. The conceptual and performing music video of  “Bad Romance” (produced by RedOne) is well known for its theatrical, pop burlesque genre which is demonstrated mainly through her eccentric costume, make-up, dance routines and use of unusual narratives. 

Directed by Francis Lawrence, the narrative of the video at a first glance is unclear, however, when reading an interview with the director, the video tells a story of how Gaga is abducted by supermodels who drug her and sell her off to the Russian Mafia for a million Rubles.

 Although not clear at first, the narrative is shown through aspects of the mise-en-scene, revealing relationships between the music and the visuals. Just as the video begins a close up on vodka bottles is shown; this is as the lyrics “caught in a bad romance” are sung; alcohol is something that usually comes between relationships and so a connection is made. Vodka is  also the main alcoholic drink associated with Russia and text appears on the screen saying "bath Haus of Gaga" indicating that the film video is set in a wash room in eastern Europe. There are also various shots showing her wrestling women whilst in a bathtub and being forced to drink; although this could be done to allow the voyeur of women to the audience, it ties in with the narrative to show he feeling of being trapped.

 

The costumes shown in the video is the main ingredient to the extreme theatricality of the video; the pointed crowns and white latex (designed mainly by Gaga) has an intertextual reference to the children’s book "Where the wild things are" where the wolf costume inspired Gaga and her designers. These costumes are said to represent her inner monsters and show her dark views expressed in this song. The costume also contributes towards the narrative as props; she is forced to stand in front of this group of men and has a long brown coat ripped off of her to show revealing underwear made out of jewels to impress the Russian buyers. This again ties in with Goodwin’s analysis which expresses how there is frequent reference to the notion of looking, displaying Lady Gaga as more of an object than a person.  Some of her costumes (or lack of) add to the idea that she is on sexual display; her white and black latex suits cling on to her figure showing her silhouette and her face is covered, suggesting that her facial expression is not relevant, its her body that is the main focus. The other costumes are mainly underwear, some are worn with a giant polar bear coat and others are made entirely out of diamonds; this contributes to the company wanting the audience to focus on Gaga as a sexual figure.

The camera work also contribute to Gaga being on sexual display; the film video is made up of a great variation of shots, close ups on her crying face exaggerate her pain and suffering she is feeling. They also show the suggestive and lustful looks of the men in the room which could possibly reflect Gaga's view on typical male characteristics. The long shots in the music film allow the dancers and the chaos of her emotions to be seen altogether. The pace of these shots also eventually speed up towards the end of the song to show the build up of madness caused by the drugs she was forced to take. It then suddenly slows down as the bed she is walking towards bursts into flames which could possibly represent her finally rebelling and taking control of the situation.

The company is able to sell this track mainly because of Gaga’s well-known reputation as an unconformable artist. Her amazing “shock factor” motif immediately captures the audience and so the excitement builds for her next project. This is because she never does the same thing twice; her clothes, dance routines, hair styles and music video settings are always different making her unpredictable music videos exciting every time you watch it. Therefore, the music video is made up mainly on close-ups on Gaga, according to Goodwin’s analysis, the demands of the record label (Streamline) will need to emphasise the fact that this is Lady Gaga’s video as she is a star with a large fan base.

There is more intertextual references to the video “Thriller”  (directed by John Landis), shown in Gaga’s dance performances. Lady Gaga’s long-armed claw-like movements throughout the video show her and the dancers as monsters, contributing to the narrative to show the evil in people.

I enjoy watching this video as it explores the many emotions felt during relationships and the need to have control over your life and actions. This very deep underlying message is shown through the madness of the music video with the amazing use of eccentric costume, varied shots types and dramatic dance routines.