gaga

[solarpsychedelic]

One thing led to another and I ended up also watching the new Lady Gaga video “Abracadabra.”

And… WOW. That was EPIC.

My reaction after a few viewings:

Gaga’s talent is to combine meaningful melodies with poetic lyrics and place them on top of club beats. This is no exception: a beautiful song you can boogie to. I’d love to hear the acoustic version if she does one.

The chorus, the hooks, the variations in her vocals! I like the quiet beginning and then how the chorus opens up. The songs showcases a voice that starts in the back of the throat and then reaches operatic heights. Then there’s the mix of sostenuto with staccato. I also like the resolution on the final note on “moonlight.” And oh, that ghostly pulsing effect on the opera part and how that contrasts with the chanting/shouting!

The choreography is fire. I definitely wanted to dance along. The movements and costuming also gave me Codex Seraphinianus vibes, like these are people from that mysterious world engaged in one of their mysterious activities that’s also kind of terrifying.

Something I picked up on a repeated watch: the pulsing vocals draw in the phantom of the dance floor; I can feel the music pulling her in as the dancers form a V with the phantom at the peak. Then the following shouting/chanting is accompanied literally by throwing hands gestures. Pull, then throw back. Interesting contrast, like maybe the phantom is rejecting the lady in red’s commands, which might account for the lady’s bummed out expression at the end.

And yes, the color contrast and relationship between the lady in red and the lady in white, aka Phantom of the Dance Floor. Is the Lady in Red commanding the spirits or asking something from them that she can’t do herself? Also, lady in red is associated with tragic love stories and paranormal activity in theaters and hotels, so her positioning in the video makes sense. What is she attempting to conjure or simply relate information to the audience? It also seems that for a moment the phantom becomes the lady, then rejects that experience.

Something about the cane dance is giving New Orleans while the dance floor is on fire sounds Brooklynese.

Then there’s the emotional impact. The song took me back to 2009 and how “Bad Romance” changed pop music. How different things were fifteen years ago, what I was doing, what I hoped for… and how different things are now.

And even deeper, something about the beat and the production somehow took me back to listening to dance music on the radio in West Germany in the 1980s. I think it’s an Italo Disco influence.

Again, WOW. That was a treat.