Lady Gaga-Bad Romance - Research

Lady Gaga aged 23, has established herself as someone who is impermeable to predictions especially within the music video department. She makes statements with her music videos as they are all wild, theatrical, often tongue in cheek and frequently labelled as ‘Shock Art’ performances. “It’s not just about the music. It’s about the performance, the attitude, the look; it’s everything. That is where I live as an artist and that is what I want to accomplish.” –Lady Gaga.



Bad Romance is the first single from when she re-released ‘The Fame’ changing the name of the album to ‘The Fame Monster’ and the music video which accompanies this is the product of her ‘weirdest and most psychotic ideas’ as she has told MTV. The Album has been split into two parts, on being electro-pop and the other part rock convoying with disco and burlesque and ‘generously poured it into the figurative martini glasses of the world in an effort to get everyone drunk with her fame’.

Throughout the video of Bad Romance Lady Gaga is concurrently paying respect to two of the most well known film directors of all time; Stanley Kubrick the American director, producer, writer and photographer where visually she emulates one of the scenes from his award winning film ‘The Clockwork Orange’, and Gaga lyrically appreciates Hitchcock’s work as she take the names of several of his most classic films (Psycho, Vertigo and Rear Window) incorporating them into her lyrics ‘I want your psycho, your vertigo stick, want you in my rear window’.

Francis Lawrence directed her Bad Romance video as she said ‘I knew his ability as a director is so much higher that what I could do’. The popular American music video director has worked with the likes of Britney Spears, Enrique Iglesias, Jennifer Lopez, Jay-Z, Destiny’s Child, Will Smith, Aerosmith, Janet Jackson, Gwen Stefani, and Pink.

The main story behind the video to ‘Bad Romance’ is to demonstrate the cause and effects of sexual trafficking within Europe. Opening the video is an establishing shot of Gaga positioned on a white throne surrounded by both men, women and also a dog all dressed in outrageous outfits and all wearing some form of mask shielding their face, possibly to hide their identity. Perhaps suggesting her being in a position of authority as she is the centre of the scene and appears to be protected and is of high importance or adoration. This vastly cuts to the ‘Bath Haus of Gaga’ showing several white pod-type cocoons which look to be coffins, several people begin to emerge from within these ‘pods’ wearing white futuristic PVC body suits and a white crowns. As they come into sight their mannerisms suggest that they are almost non human as they jolt around and display jerky movements. Throughout this clip chiaroscuro lighting has been used which we believe to be suggesting another side to this story, a twist that has not been yet seen. This conveys with the forms and conventions of Lady Gaga’s previous work, however the mise-en-scene of the video is more shocking than any of the rest that we have so far seen of her music videos. As the people in the PVC suits begin to dance its continually cutting to clips of Gaga in the bathtub in a white enclosed room which appears to be sterile and spotless, perhaps suggesting she has been sectioned and put in a psychiatric asylum or hospital.

Her hands seems to spasm out of control whilst in the bath and her eyes are extremely immense and her pupils are massively dilated showing effect of being intoxicated by drug use. Contrasting with the dancers in the bright white room the next shot is of Gaga standing looking at her reflection, where she is seeming to be admiring herself. She is dressed all in black and is wearing black sunglasses and a black crown which symbolises royalty and importance. As black and white are opposites and are often seen as good and evil, here Gaga seems to have taken on the role of both sides.

After showing Gaga in a bathtub, symbolising her “washing away her sins” she is then kidnapped by a group of supermodels who force vodka down her and drug her up before selling her off to the Russian Mafia. The representation of the supermodels is negative here, as they are shown as the bad people who force the alcohol down Gaga’s throat before she tries to rebel and spits it back out. Many close up shots have been used here to show her emotion, as it flicks between this clip and shots of her looking naturalistic with no make on this illustrates her vulnerability.

This next scene is where she is restrained by the models in white leotards, she shows her moves in strategically placed chain mail, in several skimpy outfits while wearing some killer heels, in another establishing shot. The scene rapidly switching between shots of the group dancing and Gaga shown in what appears to be a contemporary shower cubical, where her vertebrae is exposed from her back, in this shot she looks extremely gaunt and emaciated, which reflects upon the subject of the importance of image whilst being a supermodel, giving out a negative message to the younger female audience, as they may feel pressure has been put upon them to make themselves fit in with this category of women. We see her dancing in front of a group of men watching her, as if there judging her in some way, It seems as though she is being made to perform to the group of males, whilst they are bidding over her, which is a form of sex trafficking. Here she is represented purely as a sex object, promoting the fact that sex sells, which is one of the main attractions for the target audience. Later in this scene she approaches one of the males in a seductive manner and begins to perform a lap dance on him. Which then sends the bidding contest up and we see a close up shot of the computers being shown, flashing up with the word ‘sold’. This again is continually backing up the fact that sex sells, and showing Lady Gaga as just an object.

In the following scene Gaga is wearing black revealing lingerie covered in diamonds with black 12” heels on. Here a panning shot is used to circle her as the Russian mafia are all seated around her. The narrative of this is to show the audience she is being sold, the mise-en-scene let us know this because of the way she has been dolled up, in skimpy underwear covered in diamonds and jewels, also, she has some form of mask caged around her face signifying she’s now been branded and sold.

Subsequently the next scene is different in relation to the rest of the music video, it can almost be viewed as a bridge scene. Gaga has been made up to look like a model in and outrageous and unusual outfit that a model might be made to wear for a catwalk or a fashion shoot. The atmosphere makes its feel as if she is under pressure to walk perfectly down a catwalk and there are flashing lights going off as if they are camera flashbulbs. The clips are cut precisely to the beat of the music giving a new edgy feel to it.

After this gaga is shown walking toward the bed where there is man waiting for her, looking expectant. She is wearing a real polar bear skin fur coat and there are also two dear heads mounted on the walls in the room, these things symbolise the male showing off his wealth and power and the fact that he now ‘owns’ the character of Lady Gaga. This is why she is now wearing expensive looking clothing and in contrast to the previous shots of her naturalistic look from earlier on, she is now obviously covered in make-up and is wearing thick red lipstick which is emphasising the fact of her sex and how he only wants to use her as an ‘object’.

Within this scene the male is sitting at the edge of the bed with his legs positioned spread far apart, this psychologically suggests that he is looking to have sexual relations, for this a long shot is used. Contrasting with this, the last part of the scene is where she ends up in bed with pyrotechnics shooting from her breasts alongside the charred skeletal remains of a lover, showing just how bad a romance can be. The scene has changed from being a crystallized white to a burnt, polluted bed set. This is representing quite literally a ‘bad romance’.

The forms and conventions displayed within this music video have been diverse in comparison with her other music videos as it has shown the true quirkiness of her personality and peculiar side to her character. In some way it has been quite similar to the rest of her music videos, but this is only because of the dance scenes and the extravagant costumes used. By far this is the most eccentric music video Lady Gaga has produced. The purpose has been to entertain yes, but also she has performed a visual show, and informed the audience of the dangers of sex trafficking. The music video is not just about the music, it is more about the cabaret and the art within that.
We think that these types of extreme music videos are graphically shocking, from researching this we believe that Lady Gaga makes her music videos as individual and excessively dramatic as they appeal to her target audience and they are attracted to the bizarreness of her video’s, the public want to be shocked, seeing something fresh and controversial is what they get from Lady Gaga’s music videos.