Was The Colorful Smoke In "Applause" A Nod To The Wicked Witch Of The West?

[Edonis 25,920]

3 hours ago, EdgeOfGloryGa said:

How do y’all know this though?

It's been talked about and I mean...LG loves to reference stuff like this all of the time. You see a lot of the influence in the back drops of the video and even in some of mannerisms.

There's a cute Buzzfeed article about it too, and a lot of it is pretty spot-on.

https://www.buzzfeed.com/azafar/every-cultural-reference-you-probably-didnt-catch-in-lady-ga

It's all very high camp and old-school glamour and art. My kind of video

 

[Edonis 25,920]

And in terms of The Wizard of Oz references in that performance, I think it has more to do with ARTPOP as a concept than any particular song. I mean, she does mention Dorothy's ruby slippers in Gypsy and in her Swine Fest performance before MANiCURE. But I think that has to do with the grand-camp that is the album, more than any specific theme. The ridiculous, over-the-top, queerness of the album. ARTPOP in and of itself is pure camp and tongue-cheek 90% of the time. I think LG recognized it when assembling the album and ran with it.

Ugh, ARTPOP is such an incredibly underrated album.

 

[Edonis 25,920]

7 minutes ago, EdgeOfGloryGa said:

Well yes of course I am aware that she likes to reference things.

Oh ok from BUZZFEED, that’s all I wanted to know I haven’t seen this article!

This one is a little better though :

https://www.out.com/entertainment/music/2013/08/20/art-history-guide-lady-gagas-applause-music-video

(Although the Swan is likely the Koons sculpture reference. I didn't see the Picasso in it but that's just my opinion lol

[G U C C I 5,128]

5 hours ago, OG Gaga Stan said:

It's a reference to the special effects used in old silent films, like this one:

 

Thanks so much for this I had no clue! 

 

6 hours ago, bxr said:

That would be low-key major meta as a play on ARTPOP’s vengeance on the former era’s proverbial corpse … The Fame through BTWB as the wicked free bxxch from the east (or something to that effect) … “who killed my sister,” “who shot candy warhol,” “where is LG6?” (the pertinent questions playlist)

Also, something about that connection feels like some full circle nod to the “knife under the hood” sent to hollywood … like the Aura as / of Gaga’s california gold rush epoch (her career kind of pivoted definitively westward since ARTPOP … so i guess, her hollywood takeover would read like a wicked witch to the industry that pretty much left her former self for dead …) and Applause leading the charge …

Tbh, my commentary doesn’t make half as much sense in print as it made it my head, nor as the parallel does in relation to the narrative since ARTPOP … but the smoke of oz nod is a fun concept

 

Love this interpretation though.

[Pop Music 20,522]

5 hours ago, joemayzin said:

we were ha poppy flowers that day 

 

 

thats me second bottom right 

I remember waking up and watching this at GMA. Omfg that was a TIME to be a monster

[Joshie S 5,477]

Yeah it could be, it should be. Perhaps even Gaga didn't put it together.

I always saw the smoke/constant changing as obviously she's like an ENIGMA and that she's a magician with her magic hat, constantly changing with smoke and mirrors to fool us (the audience) in this magic show which is LADY GAGA.
 

[not a french fry 1,565]

7 hours ago, ChromeAngel said:

Seems likely. Now I need to watch this movie in full. It was my favorite growing up 

Omg sis same! I BEGGED my parents to let me be Dorothy for halloween. Unfortunately, I had to go as Harry Potter

[bxr 1,016]

2 hours ago, Edonis said:

This one is a little better though :

https://www.out.com/entertainment/music/2013/08/20/art-history-guide-lady-gagas-applause-music-video

(Although the Swan is likely the Koons sculpture reference. I didn't see the Picasso in it but that's just my opinion lol

Think Gaga gave nod to the swan was this one (I like Out’s Picasso incorporation though, art is of and for everyone after all …)

Edie was one of Warhol’s preeminent muses (and kind of a personified reverse warholian expedition in her own life), and the swan aesthetic feels so very Edie

 

and the swan’s exaggerated lines might be echo Edie’s emphasis on accentuating the scar she got in a car accident:

(Someone recounting an encounter with Sedgwick) “… There I saw the most incredible creature I have ever seen, and it was this young woman with alabaster skin, incredibly pale, paler than me actually, which was difficult to do. She had short, Jean Seberg kind of platinum hair… So I was looking at this creature… and I see her in the mirror with an eyeliner pencil, painting a scar on her forehead in black with cross-stitches… I don't know what it meant, but I was terrified.”

but … just notes on art(pop) history fwiw

 

 

[Edonis 25,920]

4 minutes ago, bxr said:

Think Gaga gave nod to the swan was this one (I like Out’s Picasso incorporation though, art is of and for everyone after all …)

Edie was one of Warhol’s preeminent muses (and kind of a personified reverse warholian expedition in her own life), and the swan aesthetic feels so very Edie

 

and the swan’s exaggerated lines might be echo Edie’s emphasis on accentuating the scar she got in a car accident:

(Someone recounting an encounter with Sedgwick) “… There I saw the most incredible creature I have ever seen, and it was this young woman with alabaster skin, incredibly pale, paler than me actually, which was difficult to do. She had short, Jean Seberg kind of platinum hair… So I was looking at this creature… and I see her in the mirror with an eyeliner pencil, painting a scar on her forehead in black with cross-stitches… I don't know what it meant, but I was terrified.”

but … just notes on art(pop) history fwiw

 

 

Oh wow I completely overlook this 

Now that you explain it, I'm fairly certain that may have been one of the inspirations behind that scene. I'm actually quite shook right now lol  thank you for explaining this!

[bxr 1,016]

5 minutes ago, Edonis said:

Oh wow I completely overlook this 

Now that you explain it, I'm fairly certain that may have been one of the inspirations behind that scene. I'm actually quite shook right now lol  thank you for explaining this!

Haha, education is the motivation! And thanks again for the Out rundown; the sheer breadth of references … it takes a village

[Ziggy 10,340]

8 hours ago, Edonis said:

Yeah, it's actually this.

The entire video pays homage to German Expressionism and some of the art films of the early 1900s.

Probably one of the reasons why I love the Applause video. Probably a top 5 for me in videography

Yeah when people pay it dust I’m like “THE LAYERSSSS”. It’s SO chock full of amazing content that art nerds would get. It’s easily the artsiest Gaga video ever. It really shows the depth of her artistic knowledge, not just more recent pop cultural.

[Edonis 25,920]

9 hours ago, Ziggy said:

Yeah when people pay it dust I’m like “THE LAYERSSSS”. It’s SO chock full of amazing content that art nerds would get. It’s easily the artsiest Gaga video ever. It really shows the depth of her artistic knowledge, not just more recent pop cultural.

Yeah, it was incredibly impressive to see and learn how much she and her team really immersed themselves into art. Ugh, I wish this carried out into the ARTPOP era entirely but sadly...well we know what happened 

[Edonis 25,920]

2 hours ago, Im You said:

You never know she has teased writing a book about it hasn’t she? Or was that DJWS? it’s crazy that there’s not only a whole ass documentary recorded that we never got to see but also a TOUR, HER SURGERY. Let alone a whole mother 2nd act to ARTPOP 

Terry Richardson was involved so...yeah...I don't think it's ever happening lol