13009668 A Close Analysis of Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” “Just Dance” 1 – Does Lady Gaga Matter? Lady Gaga is an American pop artist, who in 2008 made a “striking entry into the pop music scene” (Click et al, 2013). From the outset of her career, Lady Gaga “grabbed the pop spotlight with her outrageous persona, built from an eclectic collection of characteristics including unpredictable theatricality, avant-garde fashion, gender-bending performance, and GLBTQ activism” (Click et al, 2013), which is all present within Gaga’s music. However, this project will focus only on her music, using aspects of her identity as a backdrop to see how a Twenty-First century female pop singer presents gender and femininity in pop music. However, the limited research that has taken place on Lady Gaga puts more emphasis on larger aspects of Gaga’s identity, 2 with less being written solely on Gaga’s musical output. Regarding her music, it must be noted that while her performances are more avant-garde, Gaga’s music is designed first and foremost to dance to, while still presenting a certain theatricality. 3 This project seeks to examine that tonal features, tropes and meanings present in Western Art Music are also present within dance music, and can be analysed in similar ways. 1 “Just Dance” (2008) Album: The Fame 2 Research often comes from many subject areas; one can see this in a collection of essays edited by Melonie Marshal (2014) 3 Throughout this essay I will refer to this music as ‘pop’ music rather than the academic term ‘popular’ music in order to differentiate this music’s purpose. 1