Book 73: Lady Gaga: Looking for Fame by Paul Lester
Book 73: Lady Gaga: Looking for Fame - The Life of a Pop Princess.
Author: Paul Lester, 2010.
Genre: Celebrity Biography. Music. Art. Fashion.
Other Details: ebook about 160 e-pages with pictures.
"She probably achieved, in three to six months, what Madonna took five years to achieve: total media saturation... You can plainly spot the influence in Lady Gaga, that's one of the fun things about her, I think. She's sort of the culmination of forty years of pop history." ~~ Paul Lester.
One of my enduring passions is art history, including conceptual and performance art, and when I first saw a Lady Gaga concert this past spring I quickly realised that what I was witnessing was a dazzling mixture of music and performance art and I fell a little in love. Naturally I wanted some background so when I spotted this pop biography on offer via my library's website I decided to try out the ebook format. I was aware of Paul Lester's writing on music in 'The Guardian newspaper so knew this biography was going to likely have more merit than one might expect from your average celebrity biography.
In terms of content it provided a solid overview of Stefani Germanotta's rapid rise to global stardom as Lady Gaga along with her musical influences and style. Lester also provided analysis of her early music and videos. With the ebook open on my laptop I was able to open YouTube and play the videos while I was reading these sections and see the points he was making. I could probably have done the same with a normal book but this way there was no need for a balancing act with book and laptop. I was pleasantly surprised that the ebook contained colour photographs.
The ebook did the job I wanted it to, which was to give me background on Lady Gaga's early career along with insightful analysis of her music including videos and concerts. Lester's background as a respected music journalist made both possible.
"Warhol would have loved her" - New Band of the Day - 427 Lady Gaga - Lester's Nov 2008 column introducing his readers to Lady Gaga.