The Phenomenal, Bizarre, and Unprecedented Superstardom of Lady Gaga

While it takes the average 20-something female pop star at least 8 to 9 years to reach international fame and acclaim (it took Madonna 14 years to win 5 Grammy Awards), Lady Gaga has done it in the dizzying span of two very short years (she already has 5 Grammys). What is it that has propelled Lady Gaga to superstardom in such a short span of time? The first part of the answer can be found in the title of Lady Gaga’s second album, “The Fame Monster”, which is an apt description of her attitude and her persona – her bizarre, over-the-top, but highly memorable style, along with her quote, “I’ve always been famous, I was born famous” – paves the way for the second part of the answer, which is social media. Lady Gaga has such an innate understanding of how social media works within the context of pop culture and how to use it to her greatest advantage that the proliferation of her presence across the web has reached a point of saturation unrivaled by any of her contemporaries. All the bits and pieces of herself that she has sown across the web have now grown into a massive, unstoppable force of continuous self-promotion. Lady Gaga makes you believe you have an intimate, personal relationship with her whenever you receive a new tweet, Facebook status update, or photo snapshot she has just sent out. But what sets her apart is that you know it’s genuine – this is not the voice or marketing ploy of some PR guy on her team, it’s really Lady Gaga – and it feels like any of the other tweets, status updates, or photos your friends would post, except she’s famous and has nothing to hide (and there really is nowhere to hide anyway). The traditional walls between a superstar and her fans have been smashed to dust: Lady Gaga has single-handedly spawned a new breed of super-fame.