The Gaga is Born Edition

Summary

Hit Parade – "The Gaga is Born Edition"

Host: Chris Molanphy
Date: January 25, 2019
Focus: How Lady Gaga went from club oddity to dominant pop superstar, her artistic pivots, and how her real-life trajectory mirrors the showbiz tale of A Star Is Born.

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Episode Overview

Chris Molanphy dives deep into Lady Gaga’s rise and enduring presence in pop music, tracing her chart achievements, reinventions, and the parallels between her journey and the iconic Hollywood narrative A Star Is Born. The episode explores what makes a hit, how Gaga shifted the musical landscape of the late 2000s, and why her ability to rewrite her own script continues to capture audiences a decade after her initial ascendance.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Gaga’s First #1 and the Industry at the Time

• Lady Gaga's “Just Dance” (released 2008, hit #1 in January 2009) marked a major shift:
  • At the time, hip-hop and R&B dominated, and electronic dance pop rarely crossed over to the mainstream.
  • Critics and industry insiders saw her as a “delightful fluke.”
• [00:00–07:00]
  • Quote:
    • “At a time when hip hop still ruled the Billboard charts and electro dance pop was mostly for clubs, this chart topper was infectious, irresistible, and probably impermanent... Yeah, about that.” (Chris Molanphy, 00:37)

2. A Star Is Born: Hollywood Mirrors and Meta Commentary

• Gaga’s casting in A Star Is Born is significant not just for her acting/singing but as a meta-narrative for her own career—a reflection of previous icons (Janet Gaynor, Judy Garland, Barbra Streisand) whose careers were rebooted by the franchise.
• [02:25–11:00]
• Assessment of how each A Star Is Born version (1937, 1954, 1976, 2018) relates to the real trajectories of its lead actresses.
  • Standout: The “rising female star wins major award, eclipsing her male mentor/partner’s decline,” a motif Gaga essentially lives out.
• Memorable Moment:
  • Inclusion of Judy Garland’s musical plea, “But if you knew of all the years of hopes and dreams and tears, you’d know it didn’t happen over...” – “Overnight.” (Judy Garland & Chris Molanphy, 10:41–11:05)

3. Authenticity vs. Artifice: Pop vs. Rock Debates

• Gaga’s career and the film’s storyline prompt big questions: Is pop music less “authentic” than rock?
• A Star Is Born’s narrative tension between rootsy authenticity and commercial dance-pop reflects ongoing music critic debates (rockism vs. poptimism).
• [16:03–20:02]
  • Quote:
    • “It seemed to say pop music is meaningless and devoid of any authenticity… but Rock music is the enduring one. That’s the one that matters.” (Karen Gans, New York Times, 18:51)
    • “That ballad that she sings at the end... that’s not rockism. That is reaching the upper echelon of pop.” (Karen Tongson, 19:35)
• Molanphy observes:
  • “We will not solve this conundrum… it may well be that Bradley Cooper’s A Star Is Born is a canvas upon which we project our own biases and beliefs about rock and pop.” (Chris Molanphy, 20:02)

4. Gaga’s New York Roots & Struggles to Break Through

• Pre-fame struggles included studied acting, dropping out of NYU due to stifling auditions, and hustling in the downtown scene as a songwriter and performer.
• [21:23–23:00]
  • Quote:
    • “I was frustrated with the system… so I decided to go off on my own, pay my own rent, work three jobs, make my own music, and record in my apartment.” (Gaga, via LA Times, 21:34)
• Lady Gaga’s musical inspirations were eclectic (Lennon, Bowie, Madonna, Warhol).
• She cycled through several record labels before being signed by Interscope and finally given a proper debut.

5. Industry Context: Dance Music Amid Hip-Hop Dominance

• The 2000s charts were dominated by hip-hop; pure dance tracks were rare on Top 40.
• “Just Dance” was an anomaly—electro club music during a rap/R&B reign.
• Akon played a pivotal role in giving Gaga her shot at mainstream radio.
• [26:22–28:00]

6. Breakthrough: The Fame & Fame Monster Era

• “Just Dance” grew slowly, but by early 2009, it reached #1, followed by “Poker Face” (another #1), “LoveGame”, “Paparazzi” (top hits throughout 2009).
• [28:00–33:00]
  • Poker Face became 2009’s top-selling global single (nearly 10M copies).
• Gaga established herself as a shapeshifter, shifting between dance, hip-hop, disco, and pop.
• Created “House of Gaga” to cultivate her visual and performance identity.

7. Superstardom & the EDM Revolution

• Gaga's success directly led to the mainstreaming of EDM in American pop.
• DJs and producers recognized her as the one who "put four on the floor back on American radio."
• [40:26–41:45]
  • Quote:
    • “She put four on the floor back on American radio. Up until that moment, there was nothing resembling that.” (DJ Zane Lowe, via Molanphy, 40:42)

8. Born This Way: Anthem and Backlash

• 2011’s “Born This Way” was an explicit LGBTQ empowerment anthem and debuted at #1.
• Critics argued over whether it borrowed too much from Madonna’s “Express Yourself”—debates over homage vs. plagiarism.
• [43:45–45:30]

9. Rock, Pop, and Respectability: From Stadiums to Standards

• Gaga's imperial phase allowed her to explore rock influences: “Edge of Glory” with Clarence Clemons; alter-ego Joe Calderon at the VMAs.
• She began to pivot toward American Songbook material, collaborating with Tony Bennett (Duets II, Cheek to Cheek), garnering critical praise and upending pop expectations.
• [47:07–55:24]

10. Physical Toll, Artpop, and Reassessment

• After “Born This Way,” relentless touring led to injuries (hip surgery, fibromyalgia).
• “Artpop” (2013) saw mixed reviews and sales, marking a relative career low and a period of public and personal reassessment.
• Standout: Her stripped, emotionally raw performance of “Dope.”
• [53:00–54:18]

11. Cheek to Cheek & Oscar Reinvention

• A full album of jazz duets with Tony Bennett—#1 debut, critical affirmation of Gaga's vocal chops.
• Her “Sound of Music” medley at the 2015 Oscars got widespread acclaim, prompting public reappraisal.
• [55:42–57:00]
  • Quote:
    • “Simply remember my favorite things, and then I don’t feel so bad…” (Lady Gaga, 55:42)
• Reinvention as a “respectable” vocalist and performer.

12. Acting Acclaim, Joanne, and Being Heard

• Gaga won a Golden Globe for “American Horror Story” (2016), realizing her original dream of acting stardom.
• “Joanne” (2016) saw a country/rock turn and positioned her for A Star Is Born.
• “Million Reasons” became a highlight of her 2017 Super Bowl halftime show.
• [58:36–61:00]
  • Quote:
    • “I wanted to be an actress before I wanted to be a singer, but music worked out first.” (Lady Gaga, 58:25)

13. A Star Is Born: Full Circle

• The success of “Shallow” (2018) merges Gaga’s pop performance and country-tinged authenticity:
  • Producer Mark Ronson appreciated her vocal quirks: “Who else can do that? I always love the Gaga-ness of the way she plays with words. It makes songs so weirdly interesting.” (Mark Ronson, via Molanphy, 62:00)
• Gaga recognizes the dialogue—especially in “Shallow”—is about women being heard.
• [63:14]
  • Quote:
    • “This is a conversation between a man and a woman…and he actually listens to her. And I think we live in a time when this is something that’s really important to women. Women want to be heard.” (Lady Gaga, 63:14)

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Memorable Quotes & Moments

• “Gaga faked it so real she was beyond fake. In this, her actual Star Is Born moment, Gaga covered all the a-words: artifice, authenticity, agency.” (Chris Molanphy, 33:40)
• “One thing you gotta remember about Lady Gaga—she put four on the floor back on American radio.” (DJ Zane Lowe, via Molanphy, 40:42)
• “We will not solve this conundrum on Hit Parade…[the film] is a canvas upon which we project our own biases and beliefs about rock and pop.” (Chris Molanphy, 20:02)
• “I wanted to be an actress before I wanted to be a singer, but music worked out first.” (Lady Gaga, 58:25)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:00–04:00: Introduction and context: Gaga’s first #1, initial critical reception, and doubts about longevity.
• 10:14–12:00: “A Star Is Born” historical context; the archetype of the meteoric female star.
• 16:03–20:00: Pop/rock authenticity debates; A Star Is Born as battleground for critics.
• 21:23–23:00: Gaga’s pre-fame struggles in New York.
• 28:00–33:00: Breakout with “Just Dance,” “Poker Face,” and comprehensive shapeshifting as a pop artist.
• 40:26–41:45: Mainstreaming of EDM and “four on the floor” in American pop.
• 43:45–45:30: “Born This Way” controversy and LGBTQ anthem status.
• 55:42–57:00: Oscars Sound of Music performance; widespread recognition of Gaga’s talents beyond pop.
• 58:25–58:36: Gaga wins Golden Globe, fulfilling her acting ambitions.
• 63:14–63:26: Gaga describes “Shallow” as a dialogue underscoring the importance of women being heard.

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Episode Takeaway

Lady Gaga’s story is one of continuous reinvention, blending authenticity and artifice with agency, and subverting industry, critical, and public expectations. Her journey mirrors the myths of A Star Is Born—a tale of talent, struggle, rebirth, and the constant tension between spectacle and sincerity. By 2019, as awards season looms and critics debate her legacy, Gaga remains a singular pop star: resilient, shapeshifting, and perpetually relevant.

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Transcript

[Chris Melanphy]

You're listening ad free on Amazon Music. Welcome to Hit Parade, a podcast of pop chart history from Slate magazine about the hits from coast to coast. Hi, I'm Chris Melanphy, chart analyst, pop critic and writer of Slate's why Is this Song Number one? Series on today's show. Ten years ago this month, the Queen of the Little Monsters scored her first number one hit in America. And at first, all she wanted us to do was dance. In January of 2009, it was easy to think of Lady Gaga as a delightful fluke. A young new artist singing party music, a song with just dance right in the title. At a time when hip hop still ruled the Billboard charts and electro dance pop was mostly for clubs, this chart topper was infectious, irresistible, and probably impermanent. Surely, going into a new decade, nobody would be talking about Lady Gaga for long, right? Yeah, about that.

[Lady Gaga]

In the shadow. Shadow. We're far from the shadow.

[Chris Melanphy]

In January of 2019, we're still talking about Lady Gaga. Her cultural impact has been astonishing, but over the last 10 years, her influence has waxed and waned. Gaga was loved, imitated, but also scorned. It was total drama, the stuff of cinema.

[Lady Gaga]

That's why they can far from the shallow now.

[Chris Melanphy]

There's something fitting about Lady Gaga having her first official frontline movie role in A Star Is Born. It's not just a showcase for Gaga's skills as a singer and, remarkably, as an actress. It's because A Star Is Born is Hollywood's ultimate meta movie, a reflection of the lead actress's own career in real life, whether that career belonged to a stage and screen legend, and all because.

[Lady Gaga]

Of the man that got away.

[Chris Melanphy]

Or the top singer of her day, powering her way to film stardom. Like all of these women, maybe even more than any of them, Lady Gaga in A Star Is Born asks the public to reflect on her Persona. The movie is a funhouse mirror of Gaga's career, covering virtually every phase of her rise and fall, but often confounding the timeline and rewriting Gaga's script. Walking out of the movie movie, you can't help but reflect back on how a decade ago, she shifted the sound of the radio, pivoting America toward female centric digital pop. At her peak in the early 2010s, Lady Gaga was not only the Queen Queen of Pop, she was the queen of pop spectacle, a sleight of hand she deployed to her own benefit. And then, halfway through the decade, she seemed to pivot the other way, seeking a new kind of respectability in Olden.

[Lady Gaga]

Days, a glimpse of stocking was looked down as something shocking. Now heaven knows anything good.

[Chris Melanphy]

It appeared to be an about face Gaga turning away from the art pop that had brought her to stardom. Yet for her, it was all of a piece. Not only did both versions of Lady Gaga, the Slicked up and the stripped down, top the Billboard charts, every phase reflected the breadth of her fascinations and her talents.

[Lady Gaga]

When the sun goes down and the band won't play I'll always remember us this way Lovers in the night as.

[Chris Melanphy]

We enter 2019, Lady Gaga finds herself in the hunt at the height of awards season. Next month she could win some frontline Grammy Awards. And as we learned this week, she is also up for multiple Oscars. What will it say about Lady Gaga's so called respectability if she pivots successfully from pop stardom to acting glory? Is the Persona of acclaimed actress just another costume change in Gaga's Monster's ball? Maybe this latest role, which is in a musical drama and after all, will itself be a fluke. Then again, many of us were wrong about her 10 years ago when the woman born Stephanie Joanne Angelina Germanotta was ready to dance. And that's where your hit parade marches today, the week ending January 17, 2009, when Lady Gaga reached the top of Billboard's Hot 100 with Just Dance kicking off a multi year run as America's Queen of Pop. Like most Star Is born moments, Lady Gaga's moment looked like it had happened overnight. Critics of 2008 and 2009 can be forgiven for not knowing either how long she had worked to arrive at this breakthrough or the breadth of the talent she possessed. When Just Dance topped the charts, critics were charmed, calling the song catchy and comparing it to recent hits from the likes of the Pussycat Dolls. But they were also bemused, even a bit scornful. Some took issue with its celebration of inebriation, the lyrics about getting blackout drunk How'd I turn my shirt inside out? Where are my keys? Given this frothy single, it would have seemed laughable in 2009 that this new pop star, who by the way had named herself for an hit song by Queen, Would one day walk in the footsteps of Janet Gaynor, Judy Garland and Barbra Streisand, the lead actors of the previous three versions of A Star Is Born. The story of showbiz boom and bust was was one they knew all too well. Here on Hit Parade, we focus on music charts, not on Hollywood. But A Star Is Born does provide guideposts to understanding a career like Lady Gaga's, it's worth spending a few minutes walking through its tropes. Primarily, I am interested in two aspects. First, how A Star Is Born rebooted these famous women's careers. And second, what happened when it shifted from movies to music. The subtext about careers was present from the start in 1937. That's when the first version of A Star Is Born hit movie screens, starring Janet Gaynor as Esther Blodgett. Gaynor needed A Star Is Born as much as any of her successors. She was a silent era film megastar in the 1920s, the first best actress winner in Academy awards history in 1927. But Gaynor had fallen off by the mid-30s and was looking for a comeback. Given this history, it is perhaps poetic that her version has an Academy Awards scene. In fact, she codified what became the highest drama moment in all of the films. The scene where the rising female star wins an award and her spouse, the declining male star, drunkenly interrupts her acceptance speech.

[Judy Garland]

All I can do is to say them to you from my heart. All I can do is to keep on saying them.

[Lady Gaga]

Hey, that's fine.

[Chris Melanphy]

That's a very pretty speech, my dear. Very pretty. A Star Is Born wasn't just a story about luck in Hollywood. It was about the work it takes to keep a career going, as Judy Garland sings in the 1954 version.

[Lady Gaga]

But if you knew of all the years of hopes and dreams and tears, you'd know it didn't happen over.

[Judy Garland]

Overnight.

[Chris Melanphy]

Garland's version turned the story into a musical, and of course, it starred one of the most legendary singer actresses of the 20th century. Even though the 1954 A Star is Born is still about the movie business, Garland's version of Esther Blodgett is. Is a power vocalist who dreams of a particular kind of stardom, one combining music and movies. For perhaps obvious reasons, we here at Hit Parade love the scene where Judy's version of Esther describes her dream.

[Judy Garland]

One night a talent scout from a big record company will come in and he'll let me make a record.

[Chris Melanphy]

Yes, and then.

[Judy Garland]

The record will become number one on the Hit Parade. Be played on the jukeboxes all over the country, and I'll be made.

[Chris Melanphy]

Both Gaynor and Garland were Oscar nominated for their versions of Esther Blodgett, and in both cases, the film briefly won them a comeback, albeit a temporary one. What about Barbra Streisand? Her version was a Smash hit, the third highest grossing film of 1976. Even though most Critics dismissed it. By and large, they still do. The 1976 A Star is Born is ungainly, with Barbara playing the renamed Esther Hoffman, overshadowing her co star Kris Kristofferson's John Norman Howard to an extent, even the script didn't call for. Some of that can be chalked up to Barbara's own star power and, of course, her legendary voice. But that brings up the other new wrinkle of the 1976 version. Streisand's is not just a musical like Garland's. It is about the music business, not the movie business. For example, in the dramatic awards show scene midway through the film, Barbara's prize is a Grammy, not an Oscar. But also Streisand's A Star Is Born is about the creation of music itself. Oh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

[Judy Garland]

Oh, that was so good. I asked him what you were doing.

[Chris Melanphy]

I forgot my own song.

[Judy Garland]

Can we continue?

[Chris Melanphy]

And because it is the first A Star Is Born to come out in the rock era, Streisand's version is the first to wrestle with questions of rock and roll legitimacy. Of course, in 1976, Barbara was pretty damned legit. She was at her imperial peak, smack in the middle of her run of 70s chart toppers from the Way We Were to you Don't Bring Me Flowers. But Barbara did want something career wise from A Star Is Born respect, both in Hollywood and in her music. Streisand's Esther in A Star Is Born wants the swagger, the perceived cultural authority that comes from being a rock star. Even if, to be frank, what Barbara sings in the movie is an odd, bespoke blend of show tunes, diva, balladry and rock. Its category, you might say, is simply Streisand. In essence, the 1976 version of a Star Is Born is what actor director Bradley Cooper chose to remake in the 2010s. No version of the movie wrestles more with questions of musical and artistic legitimacy than the 2018 version. Bradley Cooper plays an Erzatz version of Kris Kristofferson's country flavored rocker character as he guides his discovery towards stardom. Cooper's character, Jackson, Maine, wants Lady Gaga's ally to find her voice.

[Bradley Cooper]

Listen to what you're saying. Listen to what you just said. People want to hear what you have to say. That's the stuff right there. I can't take it in.

[Chris Melanphy]

In one scene, Jackson tells Allie, quote, you don't tell the truth out there. You're. And in the movie's edgiest, most foul mouthed Scene, Jackson accuses Ally of not even knowing herself.

[Bradley Cooper]

And you know why? Because you're too worried about what everybody else is thinking.

[Chris Melanphy]

You can't even concentrate on one thing.

[Karen Tonkson]

That's right.

[Chris Melanphy]

The question is what Allie has done with her music that makes Jackson so disdainful, so concerned that she is not being truthful. The film is not explicit, but it seems to reserve particular scorn for Ali's turn toward highly produced dance pop. In a scene where Ali is the musical guest on Saturday Night Live, Jackson turns away from the stage ruefully when she begins performing her current single, which leads off with, why do you look so good in those jeans? The question is how we as moviegoers are supposed to feel about this. Jackson, Maine. Is far from a reliable arbiter. We are meant to take his opinions with a grain of salt. Most important, how does Ali feel? If the movie is about the war between artifice and authenticity, it is also about a third a word agency. In the film, Allie is seen standing up for herself, everything from her hair color to what she performs. Ally even wrestles with her self image and Jackson's ideas about authenticity in her songs. For the record. Critics whose job it is to assess art and ideas cannot agree about what all this means means discussions of A Star is born among music critics, specifically those who have spent the last two decades debating concepts like rockism and poptimism. The debate among these critics has been heated. On the New York Times popcast, for example, critics Karen Gans and John Pereilles contend that the movie is fundamentally pro rock, even rockist.

[Karen Gans]

The other thing that I have a huge issue with was how the movie treats pop music versus rock music, which was very problematic for me because it seemed to say that pop music is meaningless and devoid of any authenticity and cannot possibly be invested with any durability or real emotions or a point. But rock music. Rock music is the enduring one. That's the one that matters.

[Chris Melanphy]

The movie posits Jackson, Maine. Is a truth seeker. But then the movie makes the argument that truth is guitars and real voices and power ballads. Whereas on Maximum Fund's Pop Rocket, author and critic Karen Tonkson argues that pop in the end wins out in A Star Is Born.

[Karen Tonkson]

I have a real bone to pick with all the music critic geeks who I know argued that the outcome of the film is very conservative insofar as it revalorizes rock music over pop. Like that ballad that she sings at the end in a ballgone with an orchestra. That's not rockism that is reaching the upper echelon of pop. And that's where she finally lands.

[Chris Melanphy]

We will not solve this conundrum on Hit Parade. It may well be that Bradley Cooper's A Star Is Born is a canvas upon which we project our own biases and beliefs about rock and and pop. But one thing we can all agree on the movie is enriched by Lady Gaga. Not only her acting and her singing, but her journey. Like Janet Gaynor, Judy Garland and Barbra Streisand before her, Lady Gaga brings her own story to A Star Is Born. And if there is one thing Ali Maine and Lady Gaga have in common is it's that both of them paid their dues. By the time the Stephanie Germanata Band played the legendary Greenwich Village nightclub the bitter end in 2006, its lead singer had been in the trenches of the entertainment industry for more than half a decade. Growing up on New York's Upper west side, Germanotta had first wanted to be an actress. Music was her backup plan.

[Lady Gaga]

But when I walk down the street I hear them say, there she goes, that crazy girl.

[Chris Melanphy]

She'd even studied at the storied Lee Strasberg Theater and Film Institute. Admitted into New York University's Musical Theater Conservatory and Theater Company, Gaga dropped out after only a year, exasperated by the fruitless auditions she'd been on. That recurring theme in A Star Is Born of Allie being told she didn't didn't have the right nose. Germanotta experienced a version of that. I was frustrated with the system, gaga later told the Los Angeles Times. So I decided to go off on my own, pay my own rent, work three jobs, make my own music and record in my apartment. Fortunately, Gaga was a capable and versatile songwriter in a range of modes from heavy metal to cabaret and piano bar.

[Lady Gaga]

If everything was everything, but everything is sober, everything could be a result.

[Chris Melanphy]

Her idols were John Lennon, Yoko Ono and Andy Warhol, and she picked up music and fashion from across the spectrum, from David Bowie and Led Zeppelin to Madonna and Grace Jones. Living on the Lower east side, she toured the New York downtown scene, taking part in underground burlesque shows with her performance artist friend Lady Starlight, and writing songs that glamorized her bohemian lifestyle like Beautiful, Dirty, Rich. There is no one Jackson main figure in the story of Lady Gaga. Several people played that role. They include Wendy Starland, a singer songwriter who doubled as a talent skill and caught Stephanie's rock band in a club, or Rob Fusari, the producer songwriter to whom Starland introduced Stephanie Fusari had co written number one hits with Will Smith and Destiny's child and he was looking for his next star. Also, unlike A Star Is Born, there wasn't just one record company, Chieftain celebrated Music executive L A Reid signed Gaga in 2006 to Island DEF Jam, then the leading label group in the industry, and then dropped her three months later, unsure of what to do with her. A year later, another executive, Streamline president Vincent Herbert, introduced her to Interscope's Jimmy Iovine, who finally signed Gaga. When her debut album eventually came out in 2008, it would have five different label and distributor affiliations. Given all the cooks in the Lady Gaga kitchen, Gaga's talent was obvious to all of these label chiefs, talent finders and producers. But their confusion was over how Gaga would fit into the music industrial complex of the 2000s. Hit music in the mid aughts certainly wasn't dominated by the classic rock Gaga grew up with, nor by the art damaged post Madonna dance music she had adopted. In fact, generally at the time, if you said club music, folks in the music business assumed you meant this. The 2000s were a very hip hop driven decade. R and B singers like Usher adopted the crunk sounds of Southern rap music and even centrist pop stars were adopting hip hop styles to score hits from Gwen. To of course Beyonce. In general, the aughts were not a strong decade for pure dance music on Top 40 radio. Every year or two a straight up club record would cross over, such as Cascada's Every Time We Touch Cause every.

[Lady Gaga]

Time we touch I get this feeling and every time we kiss I swear I can fly can't you feel my heart?

[Chris Melanphy]

But follow up hits would prove elusive. Techno, house and trance beats simply couldn't thrive on the radio at a time when number one songs sounded more like.

[Bradley Cooper]

This they see me rolling, they hating patrolling and trying to kiss me right.

[Chris Melanphy]

Rappers gradually began to incorporate electronic music into their hip hop such as the auto tuned voder vocals of T Pain or the cutting edge hits of Kanye West. But the Heat hip hop figure who would prove most instrumental to taking Lady Gaga the last mile in her quest to get on the radio didn't sound like he had much in common with her at all. A Senegalese American R and b singer with loping pop rap hits and a high keening voice, Akon was one of the leading singers of crossover pop and hip hop of the mid to late aughts. At his peak more than a decade ago, Akon scored a dozen top 10 hits, including two number ones as a lead artist, I Wanna Love youe and Don't Matter and he backed Gwen Stefani on her pop smash the Sweet Escape. It was Akon who provided Gaga's final pre fame boost. Hearing a reference vocal she did in the studio, Akon was was floored by her talent and he insisted on signing Gaga to Khan Live, his new vanity label with Interscope. Akon's involvement started with Gaga's very first single, which was being helmed by Moroccan producer Nadir Khayat, AKA Red One. And in a final touch, Akon brought in a teenage vocalist also signed to his label named Colby o'. Donis. If, as they say, success has many parents, several of those parents are shouted out in the first 10 seconds of just Dance. In the hip hop tradition of audibly branding one's producer and label at the start of a track, Just Dance kicks off with the words Red One for Gaga's producer, convict for Akon's label and Gaga's own name. Last. Released in the early spring of 2008, Just Dance grew slowly. It took until the summer to reach number two on Billboard's Club Play chart and another two months after that to even debut on the Hot 100. In a year dominated by Lil Wayne, Flo Rida and T.I. just Dance sounded like nothing else on the radio. A New York dance club record in a sea of southern rap, the song entered the top 40 in November 2008, the same week Gaga's album the Fame landed on the album chart. A month later it was in the top 10. And finally, in January 2009, nearly half a year after its chart debut And a full nine months after it was released, Just Dance reached number one on the Hot 100. Lady Gaga had finally topped the charts after years of striving and years of reinventing herself. Like Ally in A Star Is Born, she had pivoted from stripped down rock to choreographed dance pop on her album the Fame. Named not only for Stephanie Germanotta's ambition but also for Andy Warhol's idea that ordinary people can remodel themselves into stars, Gaga proved a quick study and a shapeshifter. She hedged her bets on the album, recording in a variety of pop modes to cover all possible commercial bases. One track paired her with rapper Flo Rida, a hip hop banger with auto tuned vocals, a concession to the urban radio marketplace. But on the very same album, Gaga also proved she could emulate Gwen Stefani's Sun Kissed California alt pop if she wanted to. And for her burgeoning club audience, Gaga threw back to the disco of an earlier era. All this as she continued to give interviews attesting to to her love of Bruce Springsteen for inspiration from David Bowie, her worship of John Lennon. Would the real Lady Gaga please stand up? Was there even a real one? If I may paraphrase Courtney Love, Gaga faked it. So real she was beyond fake. In this her actual Star is Born moment, Gaga covered all of the a words, artifice, authenticity, agency. The Gaga Persona was a creation, a facade, but it was also somehow authentic to Gaga's eclectic pop influences, an expression of her drive and ambition. Within weeks of the release of her album, she launched her own creative brand, the House of Gaga. Modeled after Andy Warhol's first Factory, her House of Gaga team would begin devising not only looks for future music videos, but also costumes and sets for her first global tour. Of course, all of this activity would have run aground if Gaga couldn't follow up her chart topper. But she had saved what turned out to be the album's best remembered hit, a song about Gaga's very inscrutability, about the impossibility of reading her face. The irresistibly robotic Poker Face became the top selling global single of the year, shifting nearly 10 million copies in 2009 worldwide. In the US alone, it has sold more than 7 million digital downloads, as has Just Dance, making Gaga the only performer with two of the top 20 digital singles of all time. Poker Face topped the Hot 100 in April 2009, becoming Gaga's second consecutive number one hit hit and setting her up for a year of chart dominance. By the summer, she had a third smash when the Doom Dance Jam Love Game reached the top five. And in the fall, the airy, dreamlike Paparazzi peaked at number six. Critics praised Paparazzi Paparazzi as Gaga's most nuanced single yet, a meditation on the yearning for what Gaga called the fame and the price it exacted in the age of the reality star. This string of smash singles hurdled Gaga's album the Fame into the top 10 of the Billboard album chart, where it stayed for most of 2009, ultimately peaking at number two. Moving quickly to capitalize on the fame's success, Interscope commissioned Gaga to put together a follow up mini album, a cross between an EP and an lp. Eight new songs which could be packaged with the Fame and sold either on its own or as a brand extension rather than a full blown follow up album. This, by the Way was a common industry practice in the late aughts and early tens. A last ditch effort by the music industry to prop up the compact disc, a decade after its peak as a format, critics and the public generally regarded this as a ploy to keep flogging an aging album. And it was. It just needed to sell. It didn't need to be great. Here was the twist. This mini album by Lady Gaga, which by the way, at more than 34 minutes was as long or longer than most Beatles LPs, wound up being Gaga's most acclaimed, most eclectic album. It would eventually, on its own, be nominated for a Grammy for Album of the Year. She called it the Fame Monster, and she led it off with her most iconic single of all time, with a pounding beat, a soaring chorus and irresistible nonsense words that belong alongside a Wap Babalula in the pantheon of rock and roll gibberish. Bad romance reached number one in more than 20 countries on the Hot 100. It peaked at number two, held back only by chart toppers from jay Z and Ke$ha. Its music video, co starring a cast of Gaga's so called Little Monsters and featuring homages to Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange and Michael Jackson's Thriller video, would go on to win Video of the year at the 2010 MTV Video Music Aw. Gaga showed up at the VMAs to collect her Moon man statue wearing a dress made entirely of raw meat, which she called a statement in protest of the US Government's don't ask, don't tell policy against gays, the military. The Fame Monster kept Gaga riding the charts deep into 2010. Within weeks it spun off another top 10 hit with Telephone, a collaborative single with fellow diva Beyonce. Because Gaga could do no wrong at this point, the Telephone video was a nine minute mini movie portraying Gaga and BAE dancing in and busting out of a woman's prison, and it was littered with product placements, everything from Virgin mobile phones to Miracle Whip and Wonder Bread. By the summer summer, Gaga was back in the top 10 with the Europop infused ABBA and Ace of Bass homage Alejandro, further establishing the depth of the album but maintaining the beat. The string of hits from the famed monster convinced the last skeptics that Gaga was more than a flash in the pan. Her global Monster Ball tour was a must see spectacle and one of the top grossing tours of the year. On the 2010 Grammys, Gaga reinforced her live chops by performing the Fame Monster track Speechless Live with Sir Elton John.

[Lady Gaga]

Never Talk again well boy you left me.

[Chris Melanphy]

Moreover, the fame and the Fame monster solidified Gaga as not only the new Queen of Pop but also the woman who changed the sound in indeed, the rhythm of the radio, Disc jockeys and club aficionados began to acknowledge that Gaga had both returned pure dance music to the hit parade and brought about the mainstreaming of electronic dance music or Edmund in an interview with producer Calvin Harris, DJ Zane Lowe said, quote, one thing you gotta remember about Lady Gaga, she put four on the floor back on American radio. Up until that moment, there was nothing resembling that in pop music. Indeed, the songs that were now reaching number one on the Hot 100 post, Gaga went deeper into EDM than ever, from the electro house producers far east movement. To pop and EDM hybrids from the likes of Kela. Heading into 2011, anticipation for Lady Gaga's full proper follow up to the fame could not have been higher, so it was not surprising when her first single of the new year exploded onto radio playlists and the charts. Taking advantage of her global cultural platform, Gaga used her imperial moment to offer an Omega homage to her little monsters and make a statement. Born this Way was both the lead single and title track of Gaga's second full length album. It debuted all the way up at number one on the Hot 100 in February 2011 and stayed there for a month and a half. Audiences embraced the song's message of self empowerment, LGBTQ rights and an embrace of difference, all of which, by the way, would later inform the opening scenes of A Star Is Born, in which Jackson discovers Ali singing in a drag bar. Musically, the song was an homage to dance and disco music from decades before, particularly Madonna Gaga's dance pop forebear. Well, to some critics, homage was kind of many accused it of outright pilfering the structure and the chord changes of one Madonna hit, in particular, 1989's Express Yourself. Other critics, however, defended the song as a pastiche, noting that it borrowed more melodic and lyrical motifs from a range of vintage dance floor hits like Born to Be Alive by Patrick Hernandez. Whether praised or pilloried, Gaga now had the world's ear and could afford to be more outre than ever. The second single from the Born this Way album was a cross between a straight pop banger and lurching cutting edge electro house. Despite its radio unfriendly refrain, Judas hit the top 10 anyway. Born this Way not only debuted on the album chart at number one in May of 2011, it sold 1.1 million copies in its first week, a rare sales level more typical of the music business of a decade earlier. Indeed, anticipation was so high for the album that Amazon priced the download version of Born this Way at a cut rate $0.99 sense more than 400,000Americans bought the album at that price, leading critics to argue that Gaga's million sales week was a stunt and a mirage. But even without that fire sale, Born this Way would have outsold every other album on the chart by a more than 5 to 1 margin. Born this Way also featured some of Gaga's most rock oriented music. Her breakthrough as a pop and dance floor dominator had given her license to explore elements of the music she'd grown up with, from Bowie to Bruce on the edge of Glory. She even teamed with legendary Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band saxophonist Clarence Clemons for a vintage 80s style sax solo. Clemens shot the video for Edge of Glory with Gaga in June 2011, just six days before he died at age 69. The single peaked at number three on the Hot 100 that summer, a final chart homage to Clemens.

[Lady Gaga]

I'm on the edge of glory.

[Chris Melanphy]

Gaga was now playing on all sides of the cultural divide. Traditional rock, catchy pop and button pushing identity politics. At the 2011 MTV VMAs she even showed up to give a speech speech as a crotch grabbing, foul mouthed male alter ego named Joe Calderon.

[Lady Gaga]

It's like she covers her face cause she doesn't want me to see like she can't stand to have one honest moment when nobody's watching.

[Chris Melanphy]

Still in drag, Gaga performed her hit song youg and I backed by guitarist Brian May of Queen. But when I say Lady Gaga was playing all sides, I mean all sides. More quietly. In the fall of 2011, she contributed a track to a duets project that might have gone unremarked if it hadn't been on a chart topping album by a crooning legend. Tony Bennett tapped Gaga as one of his 17 singing partners on Duets 2, his second straight collection of American Songbook collaborations. Bennett was joined on the album by such luminaries as Aretha Franklin, Natalie Cole and Willie Nelson, but his pairing with Gaga on the Lady Is a Tramp was for many the standout. Critics remarked on the strength of Gaga's vocals and her obvious rapport with singing legend Bennett, who took a shine to her. No one could have known at the time, not the public, not Bennett, and possibly not even Gaga, that this one off duet held the key to her future. In 2012 and 2013, Gaga embarked on a year long concert tour she dubbed the Born this Way Ball, visiting parts of the world she had never toured before. Had the Born this Way Ball reached its conclusion and it would have ranked as one of the 15 highest grossing tours of all time. But Gaga's years of relentless activity were beginning to take a toll. After months of pain from her onstage dance moves, Gaga discovered she had developed a labral tear in her right hip. The last 21 dates on the tour were canceled, and Gaga underwent hip surgery. She was later diagnosed with fibromyalgia and began taking opioids to deal with her chronic pain. By early 2013, Gaga had already started work on her third album and even announced the title Art Pop. It promised to be her most daring spectacle to date. By the time the album was set to launch in the fall of 2013, Interscope Records had readied a massive promotional campaign, including an Art Rave album launch party held at the Brooklyn Navy Yard featuring Gaga in a flying dress. Rumors spread throughout the industry that the label had spent tens of millions of dollars just to launch the album. When the first single, Applause landed in August, Gaga encouraged her army of fans on social media to not only buy and request the song, but to leave it playing on repeat on Spotify, hoping to boost it up the charts. Applause peaked at a respectable number four on the Hot 100, but it was overshadowed by bigger late 2013 hits from Katy Perry, Miley Cyrus and Lorde. When the Art Pop album arrived in November, it debuted at number one, but with less than 1/4 as much in sales as Born this Way had generated in its first week in 2011. Critics were mixed on the album, many saying the songs were not as strong as on the Fame Monster or Born this Way. And while Art Pop's promotion had been cutting edge and artsy, the music was overly familiar, repeating themes and tropes from prior Gaga projects. As word spread in the industry that influence Interscope would be writing off losses from the album, which, by the way, did go platinum eventually thanks to streams. Gaga made every effort to keep the project aloft. She launched an Art rave tour in 2014, and she even performed on Saturday Night Live with disgraced R and B singer R. Kelly. Do what yout want was a no. 13 hit in late 2013, but Gaga would later come to regret the song. Years later, after further instances of R. Kelly's alleged sexual misconduct were revealed, Gaga apologized for and removed the track from her Art pop album, We Will Not Be Playing It Here, fans became increasingly concerned with the toll Artpop was taking on Gaga. At a late 2013 YouTube Music Awards live event, Gaga performed the album's simplest, most heartrending song, a ballad called Dope. The performance, which was streamed on YouTube enough times that the song briefly reached the Billboard top 10, was arresting and widely praised. But Gaga appeared to be crying, her voice shaking with emotion, and the performance made the truth troubling. Self bearing lyrics, I need you more than dope. Even more poignant, If A Star Is Born's Jackson main character works a real life person, he might at this juncture have advised Stephanie Germanotta to be true to herself. But what was Gaga's truth? Her will to power was what created Lady Gaga in the first place, and she had used the medium of mass market pop music to express universal messages of self, love and multicultural acceptance. Less for her art than for her soul, lady Gaga in 2014 needed a change, and she sought refuge in a project with her newest friend, a gentleman who genuinely appreciated her talent.

[Lady Gaga]

I can't give you anything but love.

[Chris Melanphy]

Lady, that's the only thing I've plenty of Tony Bennett's follow up to his Duets 2 album was another album of duets, all of them with Lady Gaga. Cheek to Cheek was a project Gaga and Bennett had been discussing after the success of their 2011 duet the Lady Is a Tramp. On the new album album's 11 tracks, Bennett and Gaga took on standards from such composers as Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, George Gershwin and Jerome Kern. Cheek To Cheek was Gaga's third consecutive number one alpha debut, debuting on top in October of 2014. Of course, it was also Tony Bennett's second straight chart topper as well, suggesting that he had helped Gaga as much as she had helped Bennett. But any doubt about Gaga's ability to sing like a classic vocalist were dispelled just four months later when this happened on live tv.

[Lady Gaga]

Simply Remember My Favorite Things and Then I Don't Feel so bad.

[Chris Melanphy]

On the 87th Academy Awards in February 2015, Lady Gaga was tapped to perform a tribute to Julie Andrews and specifically the songs of the Sound of Music, on the occasion of the Oscar winning film's 50th anniversary. Dragon dressed in a sparkling traditional ball gown, her hair flowing in long blonde tresses and in a very full, ripe voice, Gaga sang four songs from the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical the Hills Are Alive, My Favorite Things, Edelweiss and Climb Every Mountain. And both the audience in the Dolby Theater and millions on social media media were aglow in admiration. Dame Julie Andrews herself came out directly after the performance to embrace and thank Gaga. Between the Bennett album and the Sound of Music Oscars tribute, the launch of Lady Gaga 2.0 could not have gone much better. A star was reborn, of course, notwithstanding Gaga's unimpeachable singing talent, the cynic might argue that this version of Gaga was no less a Persona than the dance diva, just another role Stephanie Germanotta dreamed up for herself. Indeed, subsequent articles in Billboard and other media revealed that Gaga's makeover had been in the works for the better part of a year, especially after artpop underperformed, and that she had been rehearsing for the Julie Andrews troupe tribute for more than two months. But the key element is that Gaga envisioned and embodied this makeover. Depending on your opinion, this is either an affirmation of or a rebuke to the premise of A Star Is Born. Like Ali, Gaga contained multitudes and she put in the work. One year after her Oscars triumph, Gaga actually picked up a statue of her own. Not for her singing, but for her acting. Starring in the fifth season of the Ryan Murphy produced FXTV series American Horror Story, Gaga won a Golden Globe as best actress in a miniseries or television film. She was flabbergasted, and she composed herself long enough to express how much the acting award meant to her.

[Lady Gaga]

It's like one of the greatest moments of my life. I wanted to be an actress before I wanted to be a singer, but music worked out first.

[Chris Melanphy]

Nine months later, in the fall of 2016, Gaga completed the stripping down of her musical facade with her fourth album, Joanne. Named for her late aunt Joanne Germanotta and her own middle name. Gaga appeared on the COVID in a simple headshot wearing a pink cowboy hat, and the songs ranged more widely than on any album in her career, from dance rock to acoustic country music.

[Lady Gaga]

If you could, I know that you'd.

Stay we both know things don't work that way.

[Chris Melanphy]

Gaga did not entirely abandon her old sound. She delivered a danceable first single with Perfect illusion, a number 15 hit in the fall of 2016. But Joanne also found Gaga at her most introspective, more attuned to dramatic ballads than uptempo pop. The album's centerpiece and its biggest hit was the piano based country torch song Million Reasons, co written with Nashville songwriter Hilary Lindsay and British DJ producer Mark Ronson, both of whom would work with Gaga again on A Star Is Born. Million Reasons was Gaga at her most unguarded when she was asked by the NFL to headline the halftime show at Super Bowl 51. Gaga's live rendition of Million Reasons, watched by more than 117 million viewers, was the show's emotional climax.

[Lady Gaga]

Lord, show me the way to cut through all this worn out heather.

[Chris Melanphy]

One could argue that Lady Gaga had been auditioning for the role of Ally in A Star Is Born for nearly three years. Between the Tony Bennett duets, the Sound of Music tribute, the award winning TV role and the country inflected balladry of Joanne, all of it was baked into Bradley Cooper's script, which he tailored for Gaga's own backstory, and it was all poured into her performance and the music.

[Lady Gaga]

When the sun goes down and the band won't play, I'll always remember us this way.

[Chris Melanphy]

But then Gaga's whole life has been one long audition, proof positive that she is adept at a range of roles, a small army of personalities. Gaga version 1.0 is even embedded in Shallow, the real life smash hit that became the foundation of the mov. While Shallow mostly echoes the stripped down country rock balladry of the Joanne album, producer singer Mark Ronson encouraged Gaga to vocalize as she had on past hits like Poker Face and Bad Romance, the way she gave poker five syllables or made ra ra a a a thing. Ronson told Gaga that the word shallow could be polysyll. That's just Gaga, ronson told the Los Angeles Times. Who else can do that? I always love the Gaga ness of the way she plays with words. It makes songs so weirdly interesting. And for Gaga herself, the song is a means to finding her voice.

[Lady Gaga]

This is a conversation between a man and a woman and he actually listens to her. And I think we live in a time when this is something that's really important to women. Women want to be heard as we.

[Chris Melanphy]

Release this episode of Hit Parade, we are in the home stretch of awards season. The Grammys and the Oscars are still to come in February and win or lose, Gaga will be a major presence and at both. So how is Gaga campaigning for her golden statuettes? Well, does performing in Las Vegas count? Lady Gaga kicked off a two year Las Vegas residency at the MGM Resort in late December. The show, called Lady Gaga Enigma has drawn virtually uniform praise. Variety called it quote, a back to roots move for the superstar. If you consider her roots to be the art and artifice of being spectacular. Is this Stephanie Germanata's farewell to musical performance, a final victory lap before she focuses fully on movies? I wouldn't count on it for Gaga. The need to sing, the need to perform and the need to dance is innate. You might even call it authentic. Besides, when it comes to Gaga, we will probably always just want to take another look at her. I hope you enjoyed this episode of Hit Parade. My producer is Chris Perubin and we had help this episode from Melissa Kaplan. The manager producer of Slate Podcasts is June Thomas. Our senior producer is TJ Raphael and Gabriel Roth is the Editorial director of Slate Podcasts. Check out their roster of [e-mail] podcasts. You can subscribe to Hit Parade wherever you get your podcasts, in addition to finding it in the Slate Culture Gabfest feed. If you're subscribing on Apple Podcasts, please rate and review the show while you're there. Thanks for listening, and I look forward to leading the Hit Parade back your way. Until then, keep on marching on the One. I'm Chris Melanford.