Despite my best efforts, it’s stupidly difficult to believe that Joanne Stefani Germanotta was ever in the position of being dropped from a record label. “It just wasn’t working for them,” 22-year-old Germanotta has explained of the brief period she spent at hip-hop label Def Jam, and for all I know her reasoning may be perfectly valid.
But even so, I can’t help but toy with the possibility that executives may have made a terrible mistake by terminating her recording contract after three short months – because, as I write this, everyone seems to have gone a bit, err, gaga for the self-confessed fashionista (better known, of course, as Lady GaGa; a stage name derived from Queen’s hit ‘Radio Gaga’).
And rightly so. For one, ‘Just Dance’ – the completely irresistible piece of pop currently basking in a second week of number-one shaped glory – invites one to do just as the track instructs. And while The Fame doesn’t seem to be a showcase of thirteen instantly infectious and unforgettable tracks, it certainly doesn’t disappoint either. Sure, the Gwen Stefani similarities are plentiful, but occasionally the New York-based solo star breaks out of the mould into her very own strain of pop-cum-dance, and it is this which proves most interesting. “I don’t want to be one song,” Lady GaGa has said of her career. “I want to be the next 25 years of pop music.” A little ambitious, perhaps; The Fame definitely doesn’t guarantee her this. But the debut record has its moments and has set her on the right path at least. Not bad at all.