My Thoughts on the Reaction to Lady Gagas Bowie Tribute Ten Years Later

[27monster27 15,083]

Ten years of Lady Gagas controversial Bowie Tribute on February 15th, 2016. Here are my thoughts. (This is long, yes, but this is important to me):

Ten years ago today Lady Gaga did her David Bowie tribute at the Grammys, and in retrospect I have some thoughts. First, to get this out of the way: yes I am aware that Lady Gaga did the tribute even though she was advised not to. I do not agree with that. That is not why I am making this post though. I am making this to discuss an issue I have in music, and I want to clarify the points I have made over the years about this.

I am specifically referring to the reaction from many fans of David Bowie and the music styles he did. This controversy was my first true introduction to rockism, which is the idea that rock is founded on ideals that make it more genuine than other genres like pop and rap. I know people want to focus on the decision to do the performance in the face of people like Duncan Bowie, but there is more to this. All of the hate comments on the post were directly insulting her by saying that she was “unqualified” to do the performance because she’s a pop star. So many comments by people were full of statements like this. It has to do with prejudice against pop music. The idea that the genre is not worthy of respect like others is a huge issue in music that also affects genres like rap and dance music. This is rooted in the idea that pop is a “sell out” genre. A lot of this is because pop is a genre that is stereotyped as being “feminine”, and that women (among others) often are not taken as seriously as men.

Many people in the world are not a fan of anything that can even be remotely interpreted as “feminine”. Obviously women are included in this (duh), but so are gay men. With many popstars having large LGBTQ+ followings, people often negatively stereotype pop as being “gay” (in a derogatory manner); we all know this because of the stereotype that you had to be gay to like Lady Gaga during the 2010s, and how this negatively impacted her career. On the other hand, rock music is considered by many to be a more “masculine” genre. Because of this, it often is viewed as more sincere and of higher quality. This played a very clear role in my opinion of how she was perceived. We know how women are sometimes not seen as being sincere when they talk about serious issues and wanting to “sell out” like I mentioned with pop music earlier (Madonna with politics and social issues, Halsey with her cancer, Lauryn Hill's mental health struggles, etc.). On top of this, Lady Gaga also got hate because she tried to more closely showcase David Bowie's style.

Lady Gaga tried to emulate his style (in a good way) to showcase what he was to the masses. She wanted to make an accurate tribute. She dressed like him, danced, played the piano, etc. In the eyes of people, I feel like she was seen as “wanting to be like a man”. Compare this to Lorde. This is no shade to her, but let’s face the facts: with her tribute she stayed in her lane as a woman.* She did what people would want a woman to do, not appear to be taking over a man's role in music and keeping it simple, which sadly fit into peoples wants. Madonna only got hate even though she did the same thing at the Rebel Heart tour because she’s Madonna. Madonna has pushed hard and aggressively for expanding what women should be seen as capable of, so she was naturally going to get hate anyway. Back to Lady Gaga, it’s clear that because she wanted to pay more tribute to him by trying to emulate him that misogyny was going to be the response.

I’m mad because of how rockism hurts. It’s not okay to look down on other music genres with prejudice because of people's bigoted beliefs on aspects of culture, which is a problem too. I’ve seen how this hurts people. How being in college as a pop musician I would sometimes not be taken as seriously as people doing other genres. How this rockist hate played a role in pushing Chester Bennington to end his life. How so many artists are constantly viewed as not being "true" artists because they make pop music even though it’s great like Britney, Christina, Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Justin Bieber, Madonna, Beyonce, etc.** I am tired of it. The reaction to this performance (aside from her doing it against the family's wishes, although Duncan could’ve been more polite), was bigoted and my introduction to rockism.

----

*I am speaking from the perspective of the public. I am not using this language to be bigoted; I am using it to show how the public would view it.

**This is a "No True Scotsman" fallacy, which is a logical fallacy in which one suggests that someone does not fit the characteristic of something based on what they do/something that describes them.

[Ladle Ghoulash 36,990]

As a huge Bowie fan, I can honestly see why some folks might not have liked it. She sounded great, but the whole performance felt a little like a schlocky Vegas drag king interpretation of Bowie and, as you mentioned, leaned much more into the campier/poppier elements of his image, so if you’re more into his somewhat avant garde side and his edginess, the performance would certainly miss the mark from that angle.

That being said, I loved it, thought it was fun and a fitting tribute to him considering who she is and her POV, but the issue is honestly largely that Bowie is many things to many people given how eclectic his catalogue and aesthetic is, so it would be very hard to capture every dimension of his persona in one 10 min performance.

Edited February 15 by Ladle Ghoulash

[elsamars 6,967]

Who advised her not to do it? 

[Anderson123 40,900]

I love and respect Gaga for doing that tribute because he's been a huge influence on her but looking back, yeah she should not have done it. She was kind of still a new artist back then and she wasn't really close to Bowie, in fact I think he didn't even like her? Or they didn't meet at all so I can see why the fans would react like that. If I put myself in the position of those fans I guess they were probably like "Ah the meat dress girl doing this?" or "Why does she have to make it all about herself?" in the sense that Gaga was doing TOO MUCH with that tribute in a "look at all of this I can do" way.

Gaga has been one of those performers you're always going to wonder "what is she going to do now?" because of how big she does these things so maybe that was a turn off for people. 

[Defmix100 6,714]

19 minutes ago, Anderson123 said:

I love and respect Gaga for doing that tribute because he's been a huge influence on her but looking back, yeah she should not have done it. She was kind of still a new artist back then and she wasn't really close to Bowie, in fact I think he didn't even like her? Or they didn't meet at all so I can see why the fans would react like that. If I put myself in the position of those fans I guess they were probably like "Ah the meat dress girl doing this?" or "Why does she have to make it all about herself?" in the sense that Gaga was doing TOO MUCH with that tribute in a "look at all of this I can do" way.

Gaga has been one of those performers you're always going to wonder "what is she going to do now?" because of how big she does these things so maybe that was a turn off for people. 

Come to think of it would it be a bit like Ava Max doing a tribute to Gaga with a hair bow and a meat dress

[princedeeblebleble 2,556]

Honestly as a fan of both, I wish she didn't do it or did it incorporating herself more. She leaned too much into Bowie in an odd messy way that wasn't flattering to her, nor Bowie. Idk she could have done a Medley of two of his most iconic songs and fleshed them out instead of the bizzare megamix that just went from A to Z in a few minutes.  And the look(s) was/were really not great. Then the tehical difficulties that popped up dragged it even further down 

[Gaga Scholar 183]

Thank you for your thoughtful post! I love these types of discussions. 

Re: rockism, you might be interested in this talk by Dr. Robin James (it's very old, because I've been thinking about these things for a long time ):

You make several strong points. I think sexism is always informing our interpretations of things, and Gaga doing drag was probably off-putting for people, whether they identified that as a reason or not.

It had been only four or five years since her "Yoü and I" performance as Jo Calderone, and people were shocked by that.

I think the androgyny in glam rock is lost on those who think it's just a style or costume to put on, relegating it to embarrassing haircuts to be left in the 1970s and '80s. 

Really makes you wonder whether Bowie's death/the reaction to her tribute performance changed the direction of LG5. 

[Oriane 21,838]

For what it's worth, this performance made me fall in love with Space oddity 

[MadArchitect 1,344]

13 hours ago, 27monster27 said:

This is no shade to her, but let’s face the facts: with her tribute she stayed in her lane as a woman.* She did what people would want a woman to do, not appear to be taking over a man's role in music and keeping it simple, which sadly fit into peoples wants.

you spilled the hot tea here, i never saw the gender dynamics of it tho, and i think you are actually on point too, i saw it more as her just meeting the conventions of tributes of people who recently passed, a sad, minimal, and subdued approach and arrangement, while selective pictures of the deceased appear in the background to touch the at the heartstrings of the people grieving, there's literally no difference between the formatting of that tribute or the tribute of any other random person you've ever seen a thousand times, other than that's a Bowie's song and his face on the pictures.

Gaga meanwhile chose to do a joyous approach, she chose to portray the emotions that he made her feel while he was alive, the colors, the fantasy, the happiness, she was celebrating his life, she made a party, and of course that can ruffle some feathers, most people don't see this as appropriate because this is just not in line with the philosophies around death in the western world or what they see as acceptable when it comes to honoring the dead, they won't take it seriously and will see this as some sort of clownery, i'm glad Gaga stuck with her gut, as she always does, cause it was amazing, i don't care what anyone says.

[pynkri 348]

I think people do miss the fact that this her perspective on Bowie's art. This is her interpretation of him (how he inspired her art) and the idea of tribute was never about her celebrating his whole career or something.

He had a huge career and you can not simply put every era of his in 10 min perfomance. 

If performing 1 of his song like Lorde was never an issue, I don't understand why people made such an issue of her performance.

Edited February 16 by pynkri

[Ultimecia 6,122]

In music just like in Chromatica, no one thing is greater than another. 

No genre is inherently lesser than, and anyone who falls into the trap of claiming otherwise shouldn't have their opinion taken seriously. 

[Cavadour 2,624]

For those who have nothing better to do than criticize, most of the time it's too much of this or not enough of that.

[rinasawachanta 3,298]

This is an issue that is always on my mind. I agree with most of the points, but I would like to emphasize one issue: as a general rule, the misogyny directed at Gaga is more intense. By this I mean that the problem is not being a woman in a position of “power” or centrality, but rather being a woman who holds such a position without giving up qualities associated with femininity. That is why, from my point of view, Madonna is not subject to the same kind of misogyny, because she has qualities and even an “energy” that are much more masculine. In that sense, Gaga ends up being the target of hatred from both men and women who perceive her as a threat (the other woman who could be more attractive, more feminine, more elegant, sexier), which doesn't usually happen with Madonna. I've seen this SO MUCH throughout my life that it's become a law of nature, haha. I can elaborate on this point if anyone would like me to.

[pachinko 10,638]

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZThQXV3W2/
 

full performance 

[nATAH 53,666]

if gaga has an objectively bad performance, this one fills that boot the most but that's only because a huge majority of her performances are great/superb to a high professional standard that's been deeply rehearsed

however this one feels rushed, messy, last minute and unedited. compare this to her recent grammy's performance which was literally last minute and rushed but pulled off incredibly well (bar some awkward camera shots) and with a more positive mindset towards music and her career, knowing what we know now about that period between ARTPOP and joanne

i think this performance just needed editing, it needed more time for them to take out what wasn't needed for a less is more approach but i imagine they absolutely didn't have the time given the circumstances and amount of technology involved that they had hyped up prior