While singing about the full body covering of Muslim women might be construed as shock tactics, if you listen to the lyrics of Lady Gaga’s leaked single “Burqa” you will realize that it’s quite a personal analogy.? Starting with a surf/guitar rock intro leading into electro dance-pop, the song compares the traditional hiding of awrah (intimate parts of the body) under the burqa (full body covering) with the attempt of maintaining a personal life in the midst of global fame.? While the intermittent usage of the words dance, sex, art, and pop as a chant cheapens it a bit, they seem to be more like twitter hashtags or digital noise. To those who see this as another reductive impersonation of Madonna, they might say it’s just a mashup of “Justify My Love” and “Like a Prayer” sharpened with more lyrical pelvic thrusts.? As a leaked demo of what will no doubt be an album track from ‘ARTPOP,’ it shows the Gaga is going to further than she did with “Judas” and really cross cultural boundaries.? Let’s see if “Applause” will live up to expectations when it’s released later this month.
SONG OF THE DAY: Madeon – “Technicolor”?
French producer Madeon is showing maturity way beyond his nineteen years of age.?? His new track “Technicolor” is a modern take on the art/progressive rock concept album – telling a story through tracks of different tempos and genres.? Rather than doing it on two sides of an LP, the journey takes six and a half minutes.? While electrohouse is the primary feel, elements of ambient, guitar rock, white noise, downtempo, glitch, and more segue together, as if it’s a mashup except expertly produced.? While it is definitely electronic, it feels more like listening music than dancing music.? While the track construction definitely tells a story on its own, I can’t help but wonder if it was originally meant to be used for Lady Gaga’s new ‘ARTPOP’ album.? Since they toured together, this track might have been something they collaborated on.? With the “Technicolor” title and the experimental nature, it definitely would make sense. On its own, it’s still quite a strong release from Madeon’s own popcultur collaborative label through Columbia.
Image Courtesy of popcultur/Columbia.
