Lady Gaga Outdances Evil In "Born This Way"

Packed with a unicorn, alien race, birth and "good vs. evil," the time that little monsters throughout the world have been waiting for has arrived! Lady Gaga has finally unveiled her seven-minute Sci-Fi epic, "Born This Way" on Monday morning. This song about love and equality, is the lead single and title track from Gaga's second studio album and third major release in three years. It was written and co-produced by Gaga with the help of Fernando Garibay and DJ White Shadow. The album was described as "a marriage of electronic music with major metal or rock 'n' roll, pop, anthemic style melodies with really sledge-hammering dance beats."
The pop star is building up hype once again for her latest song, "Born This Way," was a critical success, described as a "club-ready anthem," and the song title was inspired by Carl Bean's 1977 gay disco anthem, "I Was Born This Way," but faced criticism due to its similarities to Madonna's hit "Express Yourself," and specifically references race and sexuality. The Guardian wrote that the song "is a thumping, almost disco anthem that stomps along until the chorus crashes in with the weight of a discarded meat dress." Yahoo! Music, however, criticized "Born This Way," stating that the song was "overworked, overwrought, noisy, cheesy, and very, very derivative." It has also became became her third chart-topper on the Billboard Hot 100, and broke the overall airplay debut record with a first week audience of 78.5 million.
Gaga debuted the song live at the Grammy Awards on February 13 in a rendition influenced by her background in performance art. The singer arrived at the ceremony in a giant egg that was carried by fashion models, then three hours later she was 'hatched' on stage, symbolizing her 'rebirth,' before she proceeded to perform the tune. Gaga explained to Billboard magazine: "The Grammy performance was about many things, but ultimately the song 'Born This Way' is visually and thematically and lyrically about birthing a new race, birthing a race within the race of already existing cultures of humanity - that bears no prejudice and no judgment." The Grammys don't let performers do new songs very often at the ceremonies, but Gaga was the hottest thing going at the time.
The world seems to be building up a little bit of Gaga tolerance. Her videos usually have little to do with the context of the song, they are always very visually stimulating, well produced, and over-the-top. The Nick Knight-directed "profound, so inspiring and so incredibly beautiful" clip opens with narrative by Gaga herself telling the story of the cosmic birth of good and evil, complete with a very abstract and gooey birth scene. She looks really natural and pretty, aside from those alien bones sticking out of her shoulders and face that she was so fond of at the Grammy Awards. Then comes the zombies. The video did a great job of getting her message across. She could have gone really crazy with the concept, but instead chose to keep simple to get the important message in the song heard more clearly. The clip's wild images of creation have a joyous shock value, and the key element the song itself lacks: creativity!