Each week, I inherit the previous week’s New Yorker from my husband. Why not read the online version the day it’s published rather than wait to get the hand-me-down print version, you ask? Well. That’s the topic of another blog. So, for now, let’s just go with this – I just really like knowing someone’s been through those articles already and that I’ll have someone to talk with about whatever topics and ideas those articles stir up.

Despite our unspoken hand-off routine, a few weeks ago, I got to the issue first! Sasha Frere-Jones, The New Yorker’s pop music and cultural navigator / critic, has an article on one of my latest fixations – Lady GaGa. I saw her live last fall as an opening act, and ever since, have been trying to figure out what’s behind her magic. And since Frere-Jones picked up on this, too, I now feel like I can take being gaga for GaGa public. So, here goes . . .

First, she’s weird. I never really got Prince’s brand of pop strangeness nor am I really taken with Katy Perry’s pinup girl, retro-y-ness, but Lady GaGa is far enough off-center for me to take her seriously. And her back-up dancers essentially picked her up and moved her around stage when I saw her live – an unexpected commentary on her as a pop singer and performer, perhaps? I like to think so.Next, I feel like GaGa has really earned her success – which is something we don’t hear a lot about these days. She knew what she wanted early on in life, did what it took to develop herself and got where she presumably wants to be. She doesn’t appear to have had a ton of advantages like business-minded or wealthy parents, and she hasn’t gotten popular exposure by being just 1 degree away from Mickey Mouse (Britney, Xtina, Justin, Miley, etc.).

Instead, she got accepted into NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts (Go Violet and White!) at 17 and studied music before taking up burlesque dancing, performance art and other creative outlets before writing some hit songs for hit artists and being signed to some lesser known labels until relatively recently making her mark on US pop culture. Maybe this is simply a selling point for me, though, because I can relate (to the arts education – not the burlesque, of course!). Either way, I feel empowered by supporting her, something her brand strategists should really be pleased by!

Finally, Lady Gaga really makes some sort of pop sense to me because her songs are soooo different from one another and are some of the highest quality pop songs ever (in my opinion, of course!). Having a creative – not just vocal – range like that while keeping an audience engaged is not a simple thing to pull off. Not only that, but her songs actually have a ridiculously awesome sense of humor to them, and don’t we all need to be reminded to “just dance. gonna be okay,” when we find ourselves with our shirts turned inside out?!?! I mean, seriously. Where else are you gonna find great advice like that in a pop song?

But none of these reasons why I love Lady GaGa so should really surprise me. How could I not love a talented ingénue who learns the notes and the ropes before being accepted into the studio / pop music community and making it big? She’s who I want to be when I grow up – wigs and all!