I am going to be honest here; if I was put in a room with a gun to my head and told to name three Lady Gaga songs or I would die, it would be time to write my obituary.
I even had to Google how she spells her name before continuing this piece.
I just have not cared about her. I wondered over the last few years of her fame about my lack of enthusiasm concerning her.
I now know the reason. I was there for the original. Or at least the original of "my" generation. I had Madonna.
Yes there are differences between the two; one wore cone bras, the other sirloin dresses.
Upon reflection It is actually their similarities that suddenly make me care about Miss Gaga. Not the fact that frankly neither can truly carry a tune, or that they are attention whores, or that they try so desperately for a shock factor.
They are both educators.
Madonna taught us things, besides how to bleach our hair to a point of damage no conditioner could save.
Madonna taught us it was okay to have sex. Yes I said it. Madonna gave us permission to not only have sex but for the love of God ENJOY it. She taught us sex could be a fun thing, (or maybe that was George Michael.)
In 1991 Salt-n-Pepa wanted to talk about sex. So now we have a generation that not only had sex, enjoyed sex, but could also talk about sex.
At about that time I had been having so much sex that I was a mother raising a bunch of kids, and my personal music choice came from a purple dinosaur. I did raise my children on the soundtrack to RENT as it was (and still is) my favorite musical. You have not heard anything until you hear your six year old singing the lyrics, "Sodomy, it's between God and me."
At some point the kids grew up and went through their own musical choices, and I was right there with them shedding a slight tear when Baby Spice said she no longer wanted to be part of the group. I helped hang the Backstreet Boys Poster on my daughter's wall. When my son got knocked down, he got up again.
I used to say that my children would be hard pressed to find a genre of music I did not like. I was proven wrong when my oldest began blaring ICP from her room. Yet I never told her to turn it down.
There seemed to be a lack of sexuality in the music my children listened to. It was all good clean fun.
When we played Ani DiFranco in the car on the way to school my five year old sang along, and as parents WE were the ones saying she could not sing, "Fuck you" unless she was in the car with us and the song was playing.
They each found their own music in their own way, from dubstep to Bowie, to One Direction (yes I think Liam looks cuter with his hair longer).
And now we are back to Lady Gaga. She has not seemed to hit the radar of my children as much as other musical acts have. They know the songs, and can sing the lyrics, but they are not shocked or impressed or moved much at all by her music in any way that I can tell.
I figured out why. My children were raised in a house where yes we did talk about sex, but we also talked about homosexuality. All five of my children were taught it was perfectly fine and normal to be gay. They grew up knowing this even if a dinosaur did not sing about it.
I may not follow Lady Gaga's latest song or outfit, but I follow her politics, and she has done something Madonna did not do. She has said it is okay to be who you are, no matter what gender, race or, sexual orientation.
Wow. That is something I can respect about her.
A torch has been passed yet again and Miss Gaga is using her platform shoes to proclaim that people should chill out and accept who they are, and other people should have acceptance and tolerance as well.
I may not dance to her songs in a unitard with the bikini bottoms on the outside of the unitard (thank God). But I do give her credit for the message she is delivering in such a way that is reaching the children and teens of today.
It is a crazy idea but maybe it is true that all we need is love.
