Well, little monsters, after 5 months of agonizing waiting, Gaga’s Born This Way was finally released this morning!  

This seems like a holiday for little monsters everywhere with the release of BTW, but apparently, it was moved up to coincide with the anniversary of Alexander McQueen’s death a year ago; this was very nice of Gaga, as she was quite close to this talented designer.

I was super excited to hear BTW and I was a bit surprised at the beginning to discover that it’s a dance song, as I have to admit that I was expecting a slow song like Speechless, due to the serious nature of BTW’s lyrics and the manner in which Gaga belted out a few lyrics of the track earlier at the VMAs last fall.

The next thing I noticed was Gaga’s talking to the listener, just like she does on previous tracks such as Lovegame and Dance in the Dark.  Although Gaga has been criticized before for “speaking out” like Madonna in such tracks, I still thought it was cool, because it further adds to what she has to express throughtout the song. 

When I reached the chorus, however, I was a bit disappointed.  I thought that it was quite reminiscent of Madonna’s Express Yourself! It seemed as if Gaga was singing the lyrics of BTW to the tune of Express Yourself.  As you can guess, the internet, especially Twitter, is ablaze with comments on how people cannot contain their disappointment with how BTW turned out to be and the hype over a ”rip-off” of Madonna. 

Fortunately, I still like the positive message within BTW and after a few more times listening to it, I am sure it will grow on me, as Gaga seems to be a master of creating tracks that stick like glue in your head! Time Magazine’s Newsfeed also expresses a similar sentiment along with the song itself.  

Out of the news articles I read online this morning though, I liked the thoughts expressed online in NyMag, as the author states, ”I guess I’d forgotten that this is the thing to do when you’ve reached the top, and everyone is celebrating you and awaiting your next move: Just sort of celebrate back. “Born This Way” is loose and uncomplicated and fundamentally just fun; it uses fans’ goodwill toward Gaga to throw a party instead of an art happening. After a year of everyone up to Camille Paglia bringing all kinds of intense critical thought to everything Gaga does — what does she mean, what is she saying, what is her effect on the culture — this is smart: Come raging back with something simple, gleeful, and straightforward.”  This sums up BTW nicely, as it really should be seen as a celebration of Gaga’s passion for her little monsters and her instilling confidence in her fans to be themselves with no fear.  Furthermore, maybe it’s a satire of how people have deemed Gaga to be a “copycat” of Madonna?

In a way then, perhaps people should be less critical of Gaga, and celebrate BTW for what it is, an “anthem” for loving yourself as is, and what does it matter if it happens to sound like Madge’s Express Yourself? In my opinion, every artist has been influenced by someone else, and imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right? Since this is only the first song we’ve heard from Gaga’s upcoming album, let’s hope that the rest of the songs will be just as good, but further explore the creativity of Gaga to silence the naysayers!