And Finally Artist News Beef Of The Week

CMU Beef Of The Week #170: Lady Gaga fans v Katy Perry fans

By | Published on Friday 16 August 2013

Gaga Perry

Being a fan of a musician is a strange thing. Sometimes I say to people about an artist, “I’m a big fan of their music”. But then I look at teenage ‘big fans’ of popstars and I feel stupid ever even thinking that I might like an artist. The strength of feeling amongst certain pop fans is so strong that it seems all consuming.

The picking of sides in pop is not a new thing of course, but as we saw right here in the Beef Of The Week column just two weeks ago, and on Channel 4 last night, the internet has helped this type of uber-fan come together en masse; even forming warring splinter groups amongst people who idolise the same act. Though that doesn’t mean you don’t still get some good old fashioned fan feuding, ie when fans of Big Pop Act One square up to fans of Big Pop Act Two.

And so it was, over the last weeks, that Lady Gaga fans went head to head with Katy Perry fans, after learning that Perry had dared to release her third album slightly before Gaga’s. And their grievance isn’t about the major labels bunching too many major releases into the third quarter of the year. No, this is about OMG I CAN’T BELIEVE KATY PERRY IS TRYING TO UPSTAGE LADY GAGA.

In fact, the battle between these two fan groups actually dates back to the last time their respective idols released albums, when Perry was accused of copying Gaga because they’d both dressed as mermaids and used generic themes about overcoming adversity in their lyrics. And now this? This whole new release date thing was the final straw.

Fans on either side took to the streets – if by ‘streets’ you mean ‘social networks’ – and began bad mouthing each other with increasing ferocity. This has only increased this week, as the rush release of Gaga’s new single, ‘Applause’, due to a leak over the weekend, has meant that she is now competing with Perry’s ‘Roar’ for the number one spot in the single charts in most territories around the world (not the UK though, as for some reason ‘Roar’ isn’t out here until 8 Sep).

Though fighting has reduced somewhat since Gaga attempted to put a complete stop to it over the weekend.

In what might seem like a bizarre thing to have to do (because it is), Gaga wrote in a comment on the official social network for her fans, littlemonsters.com: “I really want the second half of 2013 to mark a change in pop, when music is not mangled by trash talk and tabloids. I support pop music and more artists putting out new music just means more for music lovers to enjoy. Don’t fight with Katy’s fans, or anyone. STOP THE DRAMA. START THE MUSIC. Pop music is fun and these ‘wars’ are not what I’m about. I wasn’t people to focus on my new music, not gossip”.

Perry for her part also played down any rivalry, telling Carson Daly on AMP Radio: “It’s all about the music and I really agree with [Gaga’s] message. I’ve always been a fan of hers and I like to see her evolution. I think that it’s also nice that we’re all in the same kind of cycle together because it really keeps us both on our toes. It’s not that we feel competition, it’s that we keep each other on each other’s toes and it’s a healthy thing”.

The two then talked nice on Twitter, while Gaga instead tried to convince her fans that the real enemy was anyone with a blog who might dare to think that her new music wasn’t up to much. Only fans and “music scholars” know the truth (ie Gaga is awesome).

And Gaga has further harnessed the power of the devoted fan. She informed her devotees this week that whoever bought, played, and generally promoted ‘Applause’ the most would win a trip with her to her performance at the iTunes Festival in London next month from anywhere in the world. Which is slightly suspect. As are claims that there’s no need to formally enter the competition because she is watching everyone already.

Now, focussing your fans’ negative energy onto critics is a wise move. And encouraging them to wax lyrical about your new work at every possible opportunity is a good marketing strategy too. Though in doing so the Lady might have exposed the fact that a certain level of Gaga-fandom isn’t really anything to do with “the music” at all anymore. As we now have a sea of Gaga fans online defending and raving about an album which they are yet to hear.

As Gaga’s new single went online, a shell page for the album was created on iTunes, allowing fans to pre-order the long player and get an instant grat download of ‘Applause’. But, in an unusual move, other track names and lengths are not revealed on the iTunes page.

There is, however, a reviews section, and Gaga fans have flocked in their hundreds to leave glowing five star reviews for the record (which, remember, they have not yet heard), talking up its high chance of winning a whole load of Grammy Awards.

Of course, there are also some less positive reviews, from people who bought the single and just didn’t like it, and Ellie Goulding fans who feel that by releasing her single early Gaga might have scuppered their fave singer’s chances of getting her first number one single, and, you know, from some Katy Perry fans who weren’t listening earlier this week.

Now, maybe it was Gaga’s music that secured her an early fanbase (and the same is likely true of any pop star who didn’t launch via a reality TV show), but a large part of any pop act’s longevity is getting people to buy into the world of the act, and not just their music. And the more someone buys into that – the more they’re unwilling to even entertain the idea that their favourite star’s music might ever be any less than the greatest music ever recorded – the less it actually becomes about the creative output of that person.

Indeed, that pop fan becomes more like a football fan. The focus becomes the success of the team (or popstar) a person has picked. The most important thing is for them to get to the top of the league (or charts) in order to prove that they are indeed the best. Then that’ll show everyone. And then you get the bizarre anger when the team (popstar) doesn’t perform as well as had been hoped in whatever league or cup (chart or awards bash) the fans decide they care about. And of course, there’s even more anger if someone dares to suggest that a rival team (popstar) is a bit better.

Now, if someone could redub ‘Football Factory’ to be about Lady Gaga and Katy Perry fans for me, that would be awesome.

But while we’re waiting for that, let’s watch the lyric videos for the two singles in question. And I’ll put them in the order they came out, so that there can be no accusations of favouritism. That means we begin with Katy Perry’s ‘Roar’, which has already sparked its own parallel beefs, with people claiming the singer has plagiarised both the song and video idea – the latter by two different artists. Fun, fun.

And now on to Lady Gaga’s ‘Applause’, which has only been accused of being a Madonna rip-off, so no change there.



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