Lady Gaga Judas video incites the wrath of God

Posted on 11 April 2011
By Matt Barden
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Lady Gaga has yet again set the headlines and net buzzing with the announcement of her forthcoming single and video, Judas, the second single from her upcoming album Born This Way.

The Poker Face singer has revealed that the video will be her interpretation of the Bible. She will play the role of Mary Magdalene alongside Norman Reedus (The Walking Dead) playing Judas.

The video won’t be aired until April 19th but has already come under fire from various religious groups.

President of The Catholic League For Religious and Civil Rights, Bill Donahue told Hollywood.com: “She is trying to rip off idolatry to shore up her talentless, mundane and boring performances.”

So with Easter just around the corner is this just another publicity stunt that glosses over another bland pop song?

Gaga goes to great lengths to stand out from the overcrowded pool of pop. From offering a pixelated view of her private parts in Telephone, to wearing a meat dress to the MTV Music Awards.

The dress was worn as a political comment. Gaga stated that “If we don’t fight for our rights, pretty soon we’re going to have as much rights as the meat on our bones.” Others have commented that the dress merely represented her status as a piece of ‘meat’ for the media.

In a 2010 interview on Jonathan Ross a telephone wearing Gaga told Wossy: “I am still an outcast in the music industry because what I do is so different.” She then went on to class her music and style by saying: “They have said there is a place for you in the Avant-Garde world.”

The problem is that it’s difficult to pin-point exactly which part is different to anything we’ve seen before, even the use of religious imagery to cause a stir has been done, specifically in Madonna’s Like a Virgin, an artist that Gaga has been accused of emulating in the past.

She also claims Avante-Garde status, an experimental and innovative art form that pushes boundaries, spits in the face of commercialism and is exclusively saved for marginalised artists.

But when you really listen to the lyrics it’s hard to find any traces of the Avante-Garde. Lines like ‘My telephone/m-m-my telephone/cause I’m out in the club/and I’m sipping that bubb’ and ‘This beat is sick/I wanna take a ride on your disco stick’ hint that the songs are really just like any other pop song from the last ten years, just dressed up in outrageous costumes and shock values to disguise the fact.

Not to mention it’s hard to wave the flag for anti-commercialism with several Diet Coke cans in your hair (as well as scores of other product placements creeping, sneakily into her videos).

Lauriean Gibson, Gaga’s creative director, has stated that the video for Judas will visualise a “huge and groundbreaking message.”

But we maybe in store for just another generic pop song, dressed up with the deep and meaningful and shrouded in controversy, to help it stand out form the crowd.

Gaga recently treated fans to a few lines from the upcoming song via Twitter; ‘I’m just a Holy Fool, oh baby he’s so cruel, but I’m still in love with Judas, Baby.’ It does sound like a groundbreaking message.

Have your say on the Gaga debate by leaving a comment in the box below.

Judas will premier April 19th

Born This Way hits stores May 23rd

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