Text: Dai Man

Twenty-two year old Lady GaGa has released one of the most calculated albums I’ve ever heard. The Fame is a collection of songs about just that, fame as well as of course money and sex. Talented though she obviously is, The Fame is aimed squarely at a young audience who will dance along appreciatively to songs called Paparazzi, Money Honey, Beautiful, Dirty, Rich and I Like It Rough without seeing any of the obvious irony. GaGa identified her audience and went after them with every cliché the average 19 year old in 2009 would lap up. And she’s done a great job; this album is full of well written and well crafted pop songs. Some, such as Boys Boys Boys and Poker Face are excellent but the calculated nature of the whole product has produced an album that is appealing and forgettable in equal measure, as if a whole load of statistics about youth were fed into a computer that was then charged with writing 15 three and a half minute pop songs. The Fame’s constant reference to sex and fame creates the same feeling as when listening to young hip hop stars who only ever sing about how talented they are with the ladies; a queasy stomach. Lovegame and I Like It Rough manage to make both dancing and sex sound mechanical but one highlight is the ballad Brown Eyes, perhaps the only song here that wasn’t written by a machine and therefore retains some much needed charm..