Disease MV interpretation

[Hennycomb 3,121]

Hello. I know a lot of people have been discussing already, but I've been listening to Disease and watching the video a lot in the past week and I interpret visuals and lyrics very slowly, and there's a lot to digest, it's a full plate. I also have been reading some interpretations that made sense, so it helped build mine. We can keep helping each other to (over)analyze this video. I wanted to share my interpretation of some things that I haven't seen people connect. Feel free to disagree with me and to add up to the discussion with more/other theories.

 

To begin:

I think this character represents fame and the dark parts of it. Her inner demon. The right eye is peeking through, linking to The Fame era, with the crystal sunglasses on the album cover, the bowie lightning and the fingers in a circle all around her right eye (the "illuminati" symbol people loved to throw around at the time).

 

The eye being bloody represents the dark part of fame, the monster. And it’s the realization of a vision she had for the Paparazzi 2009 VMA performance that she couldn't fully do, there’s an interview where she says she was bummed that she couldn’t put more blood in her eyes for that. Also, she starts the performance by singing a little bit of Poker Face and then “amidst all of these flashing lights I hope that fame won’t take my life”. So this bloody-eyed character represents the monster of fame.

 

Now, the dark hair Gaga with the pink nails is early Gaga. It's the 2007 Lollapalooza Gaga, she was still a brunette but already using the Lady Gaga moniker. It was the birth of Lady Gaga. The Gaga that wanted to make it, working very hard to be a pop star. She talked about how at this time, around her dropping out of college, her dad gave her an ultimatum, she had to make it as an artist, that he was going stop helping her soon. So she had this fire to make it work, she had to make it.

 

And then she does, she is struck by fame like a car crash. The character of fame even opens the mouth zipper to sing "screaming for me, baby". 2007Ga was screaming for it. But in no time, Gaga starts confronting this character through the windshield, looking at it right in the eye. That's her talking about the bad parts of fame only 3 years into her career.

 

Then, ARTPOPGa with the flannel shirt comes and grabs 2007Ga. Maybe around ARTPOP she started confronting her past self on why she wanted fame in the first place. She started having bigger issues with it because of its demand around BTW and the health issues it caused. "Won't be a slave to the blonde".

 

Then: 

In a Chromatica interview, she said there was a time she wanted to "kill Lady Gaga", how she thought her persona was the source of the problems she was having. But, here, they both look the same, their hair being black and blonde can mean what she says about the Lady Gaga persona being indivisible from her true self, how Stefani is Gaga and Gaga is Stefani, so in the end she was uselessly just beating herself down. That's when the one on the ground gets up and grabs the locked one by the neck, it can represent her coming to that realization of them being one in the same. All while fame watches. Later, in a short scene, they're both locked up and dancing in front of each other.

 

The snippet part is a flashback of fame hitting her.

 

Then, the fame monster character starts being blown, being rejected and confronted even harder. When she confronted that inner demon, it vomited out the ChromaticaGa, the beginning of the internal revolution of her feelings about fame while writing Chromatica, so she hugs it. But not quite embraces it yet, she runs when the fame monster shows its face and its teeth (the truth), it's her uncovering another layer of that inner demon after getting closer to it and trying to embrace it, so the discovery of this new layer makes her run from it again.

 

She dances and the walls open, she feels free, but pain comes and the walls close, preventing her from doing what she loves. The monster of fame is watching in the back, causing it. The walls keep closing, until she stops shaking, during the Chromatica Ball she realizes she's now free from it, ready to begin the next chapter of her life.

 

And then fame walks back to the car with an attittude.

 

To finish, she already knew the issues around being famous, but that didn't stop her from having a hard time with these issues. Even though she was aware, it still hit her and took her on a traumatic and chaotic experience. Her relationship with the public at the beginning of her career was always based on people wanting to know "why" she did what she did. Apart from the fans who loved her, the rest of the world reacted to her aggressively or confused, until we arrived at a point where people can finally appreciate and respect her, giving space for her to get better after going through all of it.

 

All of I what I wrote is a 'maybe'. I am dying to hear her talk about this song and video in an interview so we can glue the right pieces together, so please be gentle I'm a sensitive baby and insecure in my interpretation, let's build it up and refine it together.

 

Edited November 1 by Hennycomb

[HermesGr 1,161]

28 minutes ago, Hennycomb said:

Hello. I know a lot of people have been discussing already, but I've been listening to Disease and watching the video a lot in the past week and I interpret visuals and lyrics very slowly, and there's a lot to digest, it's a full plate. I also have been reading some interpretations that made sense, so it helped build mine. We can keep helping each other to (over)analyze this video. I wanted to share my interpretation of some things that I haven't seen people connect. Feel free to disagree with me and to add up to the discussion with more/other theories.

 

To begin:

I think this character represents fame and the dark parts of it. Her inner demon. The right eye is peeking through, linking to The Fame era, with the crystal sunglasses on the album cover, the bowie lightning and the fingers in a circle all around her right eye (the "illuminati" symbol people loved to throw around at the time).

 

The eye being bloody represents the dark part of fame, the monster. And it’s the realization of a vision she had for the Paparazzi 2009 VMA performance that she couldn't fully do, there’s an interview where she says she was bummed that she couldn’t put more blood in her eyes for that. Also, she starts the performance by singing a little bit of Poker Face and then “amidst all of these flashing lights I hope that fame won’t take my life”. So this bloody-eyed character represents the monster of fame.

 

Now, the dark hair Gaga with the pink nails is early Gaga. It's the 2007 Lollapalooza Gaga, she was still a brunette but already using the Lady Gaga moniker. It was the birth of Lady Gaga. The Gaga that wanted to make it, working very hard to be a pop star. She talked about how at this time, around her dropping out of college, her dad gave her an ultimatum, she had to make it as an artist, that he was going stop helping her soon. So she had this fire to make it work, she had to make it.

 

And then she does, she is struck by fame like a car crash. The character of fame even opens the mouth zipper to sing "screaming for me, baby". 2007Ga was screaming for it. But in no time, Gaga starts confronting this character through the windshield, looking at it right in the eye. That's her making The Fame Monster, talking about the bad parts of fame only 3 years into her career.

 

Then, ARTPOPGa with the flannel shirt comes and grabs 2007Ga. Maybe around ARTPOP she started confronting her past self on why she wanted fame in the first place. She started having bigger issues with it because of its demand around BTW and the health issues it caused. "Won't be a slave to the blonde".

 

Then: 

In a Chromatica interview, she said there was a time she wanted to "kill Lady Gaga", how she thought her persona was the source of the problems she was having. But, here, they both look the same, their hair being black and blonde can mean what she says about the Lady Gaga persona being indivisible from her true self, how Stefani is Gaga and Gaga is Stefani, so in the end she was uselessly just beating herself down. That's when the one on the ground gets up and grabs the locked one by the neck, it can represent her coming to that realization of them being one in the same. All while fame (the public) watches. Later, in a short scene, they're both locked up and dancing in front of each other.

 

The snippet part is a flashback of fame hitting her.

 

Then, the fame monster character starts being blown, being rejected and confronted even harder. When she confronted that inner demon, it vomited out the ChromaticaGa, the beginning of the internal revolution of her feelings about fame while writing Chromatica, so she hugs it. But not quite embraces it yet, she runs when the fame monster shows its face and its teeth (the truth), it's her uncovering another layer of that inner demon after getting closer to it and trying to embrace it, so the discovery of this new layer makes her run from it again.

 

She dances and the walls open, she feels free, but pain comes and the walls close, preventing her from doing what she loves. The monster of fame is watching in the back, causing it. The walls keep closing, until she stops shaking, during the Chromatica Ball she realizes she's now free from it, ready to begin the next chapter of her life.

 

And then fame walks back to the car with an attittude.

 

To finish, she already knew the issues around being famous, but that didn't stop her from having a hard time with these issues. Even though she was aware, it still hit her and took her on a traumatic and chaotic experience. Her relationship with the public at the beginning of her career was always based on people wanting to know "why" she did what she did. Apart from the fans who loved her, the rest of the world reacted to her aggressively or confused, until we arrived at a point where people can finally appreciate and respect her, giving space for her to get better after going through all of it.

 

All of I what I wrote is a 'maybe'. I am dying to hear her talk about this song and video in an interview so we can glue the right pieces together, so please be gentle I'm a sensitive baby and insecure in my interpretation, let's build it up and refine it together.

 

Gaga, is that you? 

Very on point!

[Johnny Wayne 5,491]

This is the best one I've read so far! All of it makes total sense to me, thank you for sharing!

[JoeMo 3,723]

I think of all the interpretations I’ve read, I like this the most 

[Nessun Dorma 2,383]

I love to analyze Gaga’s works and your analysis is so rich and full of insights I didn’t think about. All the “pieces” you put together make sense. Her brief explanation led me to believe the MaskGa was an inner demon, but it makes a lot of sense for it to be the fame.

3 hours ago, Hennycomb said:

And then she does, she is struck by fame like a car crash. The character of fame even opens the mouth zipper to sing "screaming for me, baby". 2007Ga was screaming for it. But in no time, Gaga starts confronting this character through the windshield, looking at it right in the eye. That's her talking about the bad parts of fame only 3 years into her career.

Here you just changed my perception of MaskGa! What you’re saying makes every sense. 

I agree, the flannel shirt and blond wig is a clear reference to ARTPOP era and we all know how hard it was for her. And the vomited Gaga (this is so weird to write lol) seems to represent the start of her healing process, coinciding with Chromatica era. 

I really hope she talks more profoundly about her artistic vision for this work. This MV is already one of my favorites from her career, I was absolutely blown away by it and by the amount of vulnerability she put into it. 

[Hennycomb 3,121]

15 hours ago, HermesGr said:

Gaga, is that you? 

Very on point!

 

14 hours ago, Johnny Wayne said:

This is the best one I've read so far! All of it makes total sense to me, thank you for sharing!

 

14 hours ago, JoeMo said:

I think of all the interpretations I’ve read, I like this the most 

 

12 hours ago, Nessun Dorma said:

I love to analyze Gaga’s works and your analysis is so rich and full of insights I didn’t think about. All the “pieces” you put together make sense. Her brief explanation led me to believe the MaskGa was an inner demon, but it makes a lot of sense for it to be the fame.

Here you just changed my perception of MaskGa! What you’re saying makes every sense. 

I agree, the flannel shirt and blond wig is a clear reference to ARTPOP era and we all know how hard it was for her. And the vomited Gaga (this is so weird to write lol) seems to represent the start of her healing process, coinciding with Chromatica era. 

I really hope she talks more profoundly about her artistic vision for this work. This MV is already one of my favorites from her career, I was absolutely blown away by it and by the amount of vulnerability she put into it. 

I'm glad you guys think it makes sense! I thought I was tripping 

[IWantYourLove 1,100]

Nowhere near as deep, but I just said this in another thread about smth else bc I refuse to be the only one who thought it  this is literally a copy and paste of what I said LMAOO 

There were several parts in the video I was so sure she was going to kiss herself or smth like when she’s vomited up or whatever by herself on the road and she’s sinking back down to ‘lay you down like 123 eyes roll back…’ like grabbing her thighs and hips with her head real close to her own hooha 

[99people 31]

I dont know why nobody noticed this, but I think that the Gimp driving the car is literally the Fame Monster. It starts with the Fame (monster) hitting young Gaga (pink nails) out of the blue. What proceeds next is this young Gaga and all the pain/depression/abuse she had to face to be done in front of the eye( red eye of the camera) of the Fame. The peak arrives when it seems like the Fame Monster gives birth/vomits this new version of Gaga which she now embraces.

[M i K E Y 7,319]

love this theory! Idk if anybody has pointed it out yet but there seems to be two dark red eyed Gaga's. The one driving the car is blonde with the wires (?) on the forehead. The one on the street has long black hair. She also vomits the new one out but the unmasking shows the blonde. That is the part I wrap my head around

[Hennycomb 3,121]

15 minutes ago, M i K E Y said:

love this theory! Idk if anybody has pointed it out yet but there seems to be two dark red eyed Gaga's. The one driving the car is blonde with the wires (?) on the forehead. The one on the street has long black hair. She also vomits the new one out but the unmasking shows the blonde. That is the part I wrap my head around

I noticed that and couldn't make out any of it. The puked Gaga hugs MaskGa with black hair, but when she takes off the mask if you look closely, she is not blonde, it's the wig cap and tapes  but there are takes that MaskGa is blonde.

Edited November 2 by Hennycomb

[Ophelia 4,429]

Most of your interpretation is exactly how I've seen it and it all seemed very clear to me from the beggining.  We see 2007 Gaga struggling with upcoming fame (TFM) and all its demons, only to ARTPOP Gaga come and crash 2007 Gaga (her inner child basically) even more.

The only thing I see different is the torture scene. I feel like this is symbolic to Gaga overworking herself thorough her carreer and The Fame Monster is keeping an eye on her. She's performing until the point of broken bones and fibromyalgia.

She cannot quit, because she is handcuffed - to the contract, to her work addiction; being obsessed with an idea of dehumanizing herself as a walking piece of art.