New Lady Gaga “Film” Is Mostly Just Her Face

Edgy art film or old-fashioned commercial? You be the judge

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Lady Gaga’s new album ARTPOP isn’t shy about its lofty goals. Gaga aims to invoke comparisons to pop art, while blurring the line between fine art and pop music, with lyrics like “Pop culture was in art, now art’s in pop culture in me.”

So it should be no surprise that the album’s release has also brought on the release of a “film” to accompany the album. But though Gaga dubs the video clip “An ARTPOP Film Starring Lady Gaga,” and it is in fact a video in which the singer talks about the album and shows off some of her signature outlandish costumes, it doesn’t have any of the other hallmarks of short film (eg. narrative, character, duration longer than a typical pop song). It does have, on the other hand, most of the signifiers of a not particularly edgy advertisement. The line blurred here is between “film” and “commercial,” rather than between art and pop — not that her fans won’t be excited anyway.

And there’s new evidence that she’s not short on fans: Billboard has now announced that ARTPOP officially debuted at No. 1.

(REVIEWLady Gaga’s New ARTPOP Doesn’t Always Live Up to Title)

Lady Gaga’s new album ARTPOP isn’t shy about its lofty goals. Gaga aims to invoke comparisons to pop art, while blurring the line between fine art and pop music, with lyrics like “Pop culture was in art, now art’s in pop culture in me.”

So it should be no surprise that the album’s release has also brought on the release of a “film” to accompany the album. But though Gaga dubs the video clip “An ARTPOP Film Starring Lady Gaga,” and it is in fact a video in which the singer talks about the album and shows off some of her signature outlandish costumes, it doesn’t have any of the other hallmarks of short film (eg. narrative, character, duration longer than a typical pop song). It does have, on the other hand, most of the signifiers of a not particularly edgy advertisement. The line blurred here is between “film” and “commercial,” rather than between art and pop — not that her fans won’t be excited anyway.

And there’s new evidence that she’s not short on fans: Billboard has now announced that ARTPOP officially debuted at No. 1.

(REVIEWLady Gaga’s New ARTPOP Doesn’t Always Live Up to Title)