Lady GaGa is known for her controversial music videos and her ability to convey certain messages through her music. The certain video that I will be analysing within this evaluation is 'Bad Romance'. It is the first single off of Lady GaGa's album 'The Fame Monster', and depicts an ideology that she is willing to do anything, even sacrifice herself to obtain fame. There are also messages of what it is like to be succumbed by the entertainment industry, as GaGa proves by acting symbolically as a sex slave.
The genre of the song is dance-pop, however I feel that the video contrasts the music itself and how it is of the pop genre. There are still many factors to how it can be categorized as a pop video, an example would be the artificial lighting that is used throughout. The lighting clearly shows GaGa and other background dancers and highlights how they are dancing in unison, almost robot-like. The dance moves are lively, which is necessary in terms of the pop genre, because most audiences would be willing to dance to pop songs as they are upbeat and lively.
The narrative of the music video begins with a group shot, in which GaGa is centre focus wearing gold, whereas the others are all wearing black and white. This immediately makes GaGa stand out and represents her as a main character within the video in comparison to the others, as she is the only one wearing gold, which is also luxurious colour and may depict her as somebody of importance. As well as this, when the group shot changes to show GaGa close-up, the audience can see that she is the only person amongst the others looking into a different direction, showing that she does not use direct address upon people who are also manipulated under the music industry. GaGa looking away marks her independence and will-power to resist the temptation of being part of the entertainment industry connoting how the music industry uses up and coming artist's for their own good, similar to the sex slave trade, hence why GaGa has portrayed herself as a sex slave throughout the video.
Within the music video a Sphinx is shown towards the end hissing. This represents how Gaga and other singers identities have been stripped due to entering the music industry, likewise to the cat who has no hair, which is notorious for the fact that is the only type of cat like this. A Sphinx can be considered to be god-like through Egyptian references, as the Egyptians worshipped cats. One other Egyptian reference is shown throughout the music video when GaGa repeatedly sings 'RA!', which is the name of the Egyptian sung god, who is also the major god in ancient Egyptian religion.
The mass audience viewing the video 'Bad Romance' will have opinions that vary. As a group we feel passionate towards the video and agree with the message it conveys. In contrast to other artists within the music industry that conform to the typical views concerning the general consensus, Gaga opposes and demoralises the philosophy and ethics of the music industry. Visibly this video is aesthetically pleasing and effective due to messages such as; religion, death and the idea of Gaga being exploited to the music industry in a negative manner. These factors are glamourised throughout the video to make it appealing for the audience. Others may oppose the music video and not necessarily understand her nature through the costumes and the way she acts. Viewers may think that she's trying too hard to be controversial through the structure of the music video alongside the complicated ideology, which may be to broad for viewers to grasp from the five minute video.
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