No one gets sick of the Weimar-era doom and gloom (with added notes of gay) unless you know what Fosse or Cabaret or even The Dresden Dolls are. In which case, "Alejandro" may seem shtick-y. But you can’t accuse Lady Gaga of shtick because the woman is a FAME MONSTER. Even so, the video is so redolent of typical Gaga imagery, you expect that to be some kind of pose, and that by the end of it Gaga will perform some kind self-annihilating act of identity: "Surprise, guys! I’m actually twenty-four and have no idea what I’m doing." But that doesn’t happen. Instead it’s a very beautiful, dark and suggestive little video. But for the sake of expounding on images that grad students will write about, here are a few frames:
The first minute of this video is amazing: it’s powerful, it’s visceral, there’s synchronized stomping, etc. Go on. Please.
Fade in: Lady Gaga as the White [steampunk] Witch. Weird…but not weird enough. Every frame in a Lady Gaga music video should be bolder and more coded than the last.
Gaga wants none of your hetero-normative-ness.
OR DOES SHE?
MadonnaMadonnaMadonna
Is it horrible that I am reminded 2000 Puerto Rican Day Parade.
And a flashback to a music video within that music video.
Alejandro.
