Lady Gaga's Vanity Fair Cover

The most revealing thing about Lady Gaga is the latest edition of Vanity Fair?

She’s really tiny.

Other than that, you probably already know the rest: outrageous fashion statements, infectious hit singles, and obligatory controversy. For someone my age, it’s déjà-vu all over again, having experienced all of this before a quarter-century ago when the world was focusing the same camera eye on another female singer with a made-for-the-charts name.

But as the article correctly points out, Lady Gaga is no Madonna.

She’s better.

Before you get your corset in a pinch or feel the need to justify your love, you should know that there is nothing that will take away my own love of the Material Girl. She’s from my generation of pop artists, so I will always have an affection towards her and will always rank her higher than Lady Gaga.

Because without Madonna, there would be no Gaga.

And without Grace Jones, there would be no Gaga.

And without David Bowie, there would be no Gaga.

And without Boy George, there would be no Gaga.

You get the picture.

But Lady Gaga is a better vocalist than Madonna, and as much as my affection towards Madonna is strong, I cannot dispute this. What’s striking is how all of the blatant following of Madonna’s blueprint of controversy is still at a fever pitch, with the same old-school conservative dipshits tossing out headline-grabbing threats.

You will go to hell if you touch that disco stick.

One would think that if people had real issues with Gaga, they’d just stop talking about her. In fact, that’s probably the most devastating thing that could be done to her: completely cut off the attention that she so obviously craves.

And I love how after-even in this digital age-people, and I mean people with the luxury of having media work for them-still whine about how Lady Gaga doesn’t conform to their ideals of how a star should act.

Remember when Jerry Seinfeld was all pissed at Lady Gaga for her behavior at a baseball game in New York? Now I love Jerry and I enjoy baseball. I completely understand that there is a particular protocol that one needs to follow when attending a game. It’s that same protocol that prevented me from letting him join a bunch of kids around his age in the grass area next to our seats. It’s an area where people can put down a blanket and watch the game, and a place where the kids all congregate and do anything but watch the game. The old security people come around and hassle the kids when they get to rambunctious-which is exactly what happened to some of the kids that my son wanted to squirrel around with.

The point here is if you don’t want to the kids to misbehave, then you don’t give them free suites, free booze, free access, and then put a bunch of cameras on them to document how they act.

Isn’t Gaga responsible too? Well, sure. But it’s also Gaga’s job to sell as many records as she cans-which she does very well by being talented, acting zany, and getting people to pay attention to her.

What is ironic about all of the coverage on Lady Gaga is that she has taken plenty of notes on Madonna and how to work the media to her advantage. Meanwhile, Gaga’s distracters have seemingly done no homework or just don’t understand that when they use the media to voice their displeasure, they are merely doing her work for her.