Obsessively blogging about pop music, pop videos, pop stars, and pop culture from inside the MTV headquarters in Times Square. We also have a slight Jonas Brothers problem. And a little fixation with Tokio Hotel.
Spankin' New Music Week is coming to MTV November 23 through 27. It's a celebration of five new mega-albums that are all being released in one big mega-week.
Beyonce has the Deluxe Edition of I Am, and on Tuesday, Britney's releasing the Deluxe Box Edition of The Singles Collection.
So what's in store? We have interviews with Gaga, Shakira and Rihanna, MTV News sat down with some of the girls as well, and we'll have performances, videos, and more. It's an unofficial "ladies week," but because we're not biased we're not forgetting that 50 Cent also recently dropped his fourth LP, Before I Self Destruct and we sat down and talked to him too.
Check in next week for more Spankin' New stuff on MTV, and, until then, watch Rihanna's "Wait Your Turn" video.
It should come as no great shock that Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" video was a massive undertaking. Directed by uber-stylish feature film director Francis Lawrence (I Am Legend, Constantine), the video has the high-end production value of a blockbuster movie.
In this behind-the-scenes look at the making of Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance," you'll see just how significant an endeavor the whole thing was. Francis Lawrence talks about CGI diamonds raining on Gaga, while dancers praise Gaga's relentless work ethic. And the swarthy, gold-face-masked Russian gangster at the center of the video gives some insight into his "character."
It's a fascinating look at what is, arguably, the video of the year.
Lady Gaga doesn't just change outfits a lot, she also changes vocal styles. Take, for instance, "Bad Romance," which features Gaga takes several different emotional stances: from the robotic chanting in the beginning of the song, to the hysterical neediness of the chorus, to the surly fashionista in the break.
For their remix of Gaga's latest smash, neo-disco masterminds Hercules & Love Affair (who put out lush, romantic dance floor lullabies on the DFA label) have added another wrinkle to her performance, assembling a kind of compilation of her various voices from the song.
The effect is beguiling; Gaga sounds disembodied, cut and pasted together over the lovely, stuttering, electro dance track.
The 2009 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show went down in New York City last night, and in case you're not familiar with the year event don't get it twisted -- the pieces modeled by famous hoofers like Heidi Klum, Miranda Kerr, Marissa Miller, and Chanel Iman aren't the stuff of Victoria's Secret mall locations. These ladies aren't showing off the polka-dotted cotton undies you stock up on at your location VS.
The Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, which will air on CBS on December 1, is always an over-the-top celebration of gaudy glitz and glam and beyond-perfect bodies. And the annual show is a guaranteed celeb draw -- Jay-Z, Russell Simmons, Jay Sean, Keri Hilson, the Kings Of Leon, Patricia Field, Zac Posen and Christian Siriano were in attendance this year -- but this year, the show's "Star Trooper" collection seemed to have stolen its style, or at least heavily borrowed some inspiration from Lady Gaga and the Haus of Gaga. Observe, won't you?
Selita Ebanks wears a gold-spiked white bustier that looks an awful lot like the gold-spiked dress Lady Gaga wore to the Y100 Jingle Ball in December 2008. And that white bustier leotard looks just like Gaga's outfit in Beyonce's "Video Phone" video.
Hm. This bubble dress SURE looks familiar...
The Pièce de résistance!!! Gaga's Nasir Mazhar orb outfit from the "Bad Romance" video is reinvented on the Victoria's Secret catwalk!
Huffington Post just posted footage of Lady Gaga performing at an NYU talent show back in 2005. In the video, Lady Gaga looks much like she did when she appeared on MTV's Boiling Points around the same time. There are no disco sticks, no bloody costumes, no "Bad Romance" creepy crawly models, not even a wig. Just Stefani Germanotta, a piano, and a powerful set of pipes. She wasn't Lady Gaga yet, but clearly she had the fame inside her. Tellingly, the pre-Gaga Lady Gaga sang out, "I'm gonna change the world with my lips."
Though Lady Gaga herself wasn't at the 2009 mtvU Woodies, she did receive a picture-perfect homage when 30h!3's Nat and Sean, who presented a Woodie Award while dressed up like Lady Gaga at the VMAs.
Nat wore Gaga's red lace outfit, completely with red lace mask and red crown (maybe he watched the make-your-own Lady Gaga red outfit video and DIY'ed it?), while Sean got the frilly, feathery white birds nest. Nat shouted out something about wearing soiled panties on your face, and then hilariously teetered off the stage in wobbly Gaga heels.
+ Check out more photos from the 2009 mtvU Woodies, and relive Lady Gaga in the original outfits at the 2009 VMAs after the jump. And don't miss the 2009 mtvU Woodies on Friday, December 4, at 10 p.m. ET on mtvU, MTV, MTV2, and Palladia.
Ever since Lady Gaga released The Fame last August she has established herself as the most vital new pop artist to emerge in recent memory. She's become a fashion icon, a regular tenant at the top of the charts and a cultural force to be reckoned with.
So it would stand to reason that she should be, at the very least, nominated for a Grammy in the Best New Artist category, no?
Well, due to a controversial technicality, Gaga is ineligible for said award, due to being nominated previously in separate Grammy category ("Just Dance" was nominated for Best Dance Recording last year).
To be honest, it's not like Gaga needs the exposure. But still! Give her props, National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences!
I don't know about you, but I feel like a petition may be in order. Someone register Gaga4Grammy.com, ASAP.
There has probably never been a more anticipated release of an album than Lady Gaga's The Fame: Monster, which, not incidentally, is the subject of this very special edition of MTV's The Leak.
Gaga has talked about the eight new songs (which can be consumed as an add-on to The Fame or as a standalone EP) being wrought from her experiences over the last year and a half. Gaga's become an absolute supernova, and you hear reference to it in the glam and paranoia of new songs like "Bad Romance" and "Dance In The Dark."
But what you also get is a sense of increased confidence that comes when an artist knows the whole world is listening. The Fame: Monster's songs have the swagger and bravery that can only come from a musician working at the height of their powers.
The Fame: Monster isn't out until Tuesday, November 23, but MTV has the official album leak. It's totally free, and it's a total monster. There's nothing left to do now then sit back and enjoy the show.
But you've never seen a fire like the one Beyonce causes in her brand-new "Video Phone (Extended Remix)" video, in which B's got guns -- and Gaga -- blazing. Kids, don't play with guns unless you're shooting fashion flames.
Watch Beyonce go fluorescent-futuro beast mode, show off her freaky-deaky Bettie Page side, and get in lockstep with Lady Gaga in a pair of white-hot one-pieces in "Video Phone (Extended Remix)," directed by Hype Williams, who lives up to his name, as always.
Gaga performed her new song, "Speechless," wearing a Prada fully bejeweled Prada chandelier skirt and a headpiece by Frank Gehry, at a pink, Damien-Hirst-designed piano (which happened to rotate, naturally... why have a pink piano if it's not going to move, right?), with dancers from Russia's Bolshoi Ballet in tow. She was part of a piece by Italian artist Francesco Vezzoli called Ballet Russes Italian Style (The Shortest Musical You Will Never See Again).
We got a sneak preview of her look for the show in the Italian Vanity Fair photos we posted last week. But needless to say, it seems like it was a performance that needed to be seen to be believed. These snaps from the night will have to suffice.
What do you think? Is the Italian-matron-meets-Russian-dancer-meets-Geisha Gaga's boldest, baddest look yet? Or did Gaga's bloody show at the VMAs trump all?