Lady Gaga In Applause Analysis

In most contexts, composers of music tend to want their work to be thought of as products of pure talent and a little bit of hard work. McIntyre’s outlook in Rethinking the creative process: The systems model of creativity applied to popular songwriting however, seems to pose a contrary approach about music composition, especially in the context of pop music. Or rather, he seems to be trying to explain what constitute to the so-called talent. And while a component of natural acumen plays an important role, according to McIntyre, a lot of it is rather psychological in nature, both from the perspective of the artist and the listener. Good music, to McIntyre, has environmental influences ranging from early life experiences to the artist’s perception

From the onset, Applause becomes the manifestation of McIntyre’s “confluence-based approach where it is seen that multiple factors must coalesce for creative activity to emerge” (McIntyre). Gaga’s past experiences with the influence of pop music on art in Russia and her involvement with artists such as Koons coupled with her perception of pop music as an art form drove her thinking towards the composition of the song, and especially the making of the video. Nonetheless, she strived to break from the constraints of the social context of pop culture, not only in Applause but in all her songs. This break from convention is why some critics don’t take to her music very fondly, the kind of critic she mentions on the track. Her break from the rigidity of composition and standard structure, however, is likely a representation of a deeper psychological and subconscious break from the limitations of her psyche and her perceptive comfort zone. In effect, Gaga breaks from McIntyre’s “constraints”, avoids regenerating “antecedent conditions provided by the inherited tradition, domain or field of works of contemporary western popular music,” and still manages to create a “unique variation [or] a valued addition to the domain of contemporary western popular music”