After watching Lady Gaga and Beyonce Knowles in their music video "Telephone," I couldn't help but notice some the similarities between her video, and the video "Like a Prayer," by Madonna. Both women have something to say about the current state of affairs, Madonna commenting on racial injustice and Lady Gaga commenting on women's roles. Lady Gaga, like Madonna before her used shock value and startling imagery to hammer her point home. Where Madonna used burning crosses, Gaga used a women's prison and next to naked female back up dancers, rat poison and the "Pussy Wagon" from Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill I and II. At this point, the shock value with Gaga is to be expected, it's what she has built her career off of, so to see it in this video was not surprising. What worked the best was that she used the shock value in a satirical way, going so over the top that one couldn't help but notice that gender roles she his highlighting. Once thing that did bother me was the add placement. Periodically she would pull out her cell phone, and would clearly flash the screen so her network carrier, Virgin Mobile was visible. This was obviously intentional, so my question is whether is product placement, or shes making a comment about something else. Below is the link to the explicit version of the music video, enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQ95z6ywcBY
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I couldn't believe the "Telephone" video when I first saw it. Its explicit content was overwhelming. I am personally not offended but the thought of both Lady GaGa and Beyonce's younger fans watching the sexual actions throughout the video is shocking. The video itself is the ultimate publicity move that has apparently worked through and through. The video was the main topic of discussion on major music broadcasting television shows, radio channels and talk shows. Even if an individual would not normally be attracted to pop music videos, they were immediately curious by the public reaction.
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