Originally Posted by Skaligojurah

I disagree entirely. I feel the only reason the quality of her music shines is because of weak competition. I mean, when your competition is people who made their way through youtube gimmicks, and being Disney child stars, and you have been pampered with high end art degrees(or rather drop out to "do your own thing", and then latch on the nearest record producer to help you entirely reinvent your image, and embellish you with hundreds of thousands of dollars to make music videos), yeah, you'll look like diamond encrusted platinum in comparison.

However, I think it's increasingly obvious that Lady Gaga is only in it for the money, and her style of songwriting comes off as almost insultingly dumbed down(obviously almost to the point of self parody) to be digestible to the masses. She has enough education to churn out a simple formula perfectly as it should be, but lacks any of the true traits which make great music as made by people who make music for the love of music.

Essentially, she just machine churns out a predetermined formula at low risk. However, she's one of a million who do the same, and, of the million, sells a million times more. The only thing that truly sets her apart his her imagery, and the budget required to present it.

You, and I are essentially coming to the same conclusion, judge her on her music, not her imagery. However, I've come to the conclusion that her music is nothing all that spectacular, and behind the ridiculous imagery, and padded portfolio, there's absolutely nothing that gives it any true distinction.

However, she - and the people behind her - are marketing geniuses, and do deserve credit for their prowess in manipulating a mass audience. Which is what really sells her music.