Lady Gaga's (Zeitgeist) 'Telephone' Video

From the Guardian UK, "Internet Agog for Lady Gaga's Provocative Video to Telephone":

Nine-minute duet with Beyonce already being touted by some as successor to Michael Jackson's Thriller.

With some grunts, G-strings, heavy product placement and an enormous amount of hype, the 21st century's take on feminism and social commentary arrived this week with the video to Lady Gaga and Beyonce's duet, Telephone. Within 12 hours of the video being released on the internet it had half a million hits and nearly as many blogs eagerly dissecting the possible meanings behind the nine-minute video.

Already being touted by some as the successor to Michael Jackson's Thriller, Telephone continues Gaga's tradition of elevating her songs with clever videos. This time she and director Jonas Akerlund have created a melange of Russ Meyers, Quentin Tarantino, Thelma and Louise and the brief incarceration of Paris Hilton to make a film about lesbian murderers, set to the lyrics of a woman complaining about people phoning her in a nightclub.

While Beyonce is clearly the more talented, her brand of sexiness looks dated next to Gaga. Bloggers have been decoding the meaning behind the sunglasses made of cigarettes, but one might just as well try to decipher the dress Gaga once wore made of Kermit the Frogs: she does it because it's funny.

Gaga, never averse to ascribing depths to her work where others might see shallows, has claimed that the video's meaning came from "the idea that America is full of young people that are inundated with information and technology". Her intention, accordingly, was to "turn it into something that was more of a commentary on the kind of country that we are".

There's more at the link. The video, for example, "feels very zeitgeisty."

It's clear that no one in current pop culture can touch Lady Gaga. She's bold and frequently outrageous (recall her blackface fashion turn), and she's both attractive while exotic, and her music's avante garde.

Mostly, though, what does it say about the culture. Music videos are at the leading edge of social hip, but no doubt mainstreaming female prison exploitation for today's youth is ahead of its time. And not even going on about the aggressive profanity -- sheesh!

And to think, I heard this song for the first time just this morning, while driving to pick up a new pair of reading glasses one my boys. They both had already seen the video. That's not how it used to work when I was a kid, but fortunately I'm in the loop -- and I've definitely had a talk with my kids about this. I'm okay with the culture as long as the lines, for them, are bright between fantasy and reality.

RELATED: At BuzzFeed, "10 Hidden Surprises In Lady Gaga’s “Telephone” Video."