Janes Blog: Lady Gaga Confounds Fans With Born This Way Cover

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Lady Gaga Confounds Fans With Born This Way Cover

"I don't really understand what the album cover has to do with the theme of the album," writes one fan.
By Gil Kaufman

Lady Gaga
Photo: Ian Gavan/ Getty Images

Lady Gaga lives to confuse. From her interstellar stage costumes to her alien-like facial ridges and meat couture, Mother Monster keeps her fans on their toes. Take, for example, the recently revealed cover art for her hotly anticipated Born This Way album.

In addition to instantly spawning a legion of goofy parodies, the Gaga-as-motorcycle image has also done exactly what the pop star likely intended: set the Internet on fire with lively conversation, argument, conjecture and just a bit of unfocused rage.

Here, then, are what a few of Gaga's many opinionated followers had to say about the Born This Way cover art:

"I don't really understand what the album cover has to do with the theme of the album which is supposedly about being yourself (born this way)," wrote fan AB in reaction to an MTV News story on the image, a surreal assemblage depicting Gaga as the front fork of an "Easy Rider"-style chopper. "Obviously she wasn't born to be a motorcycle lol also the font on the cover and the picture was just done really bad they could have done a much better job."

In a nod to the obsessive nature of Gaga fandom, however, Windrider countered with exactly why the cover makes perfect sense. "She foreshadowed this type of design perfectly in two remarks that her fans SHOULD be recalling by now: 'I don't want to be part of the machine. I want the machine to be part of me.' From her appearance on Google Talk," wrote Winrider, referencing Gaga's Google interview with fans in early March.

"The second is the entire discussion with the Haus in Gagavision #42 about the covers, when they talk about the DIY aspect of cover design (e.g., 'Judas') and doing something that is a 'f--- you' to the over-commercialized graphic design aesthetic. And of course, it's Gaga doing the very LAST thing you'd expect her to do."

Tamara totally agreed, dubbing the woman/machine blend a fitting metaphor for Gaga's relentless professional drive. "Gaga is so energetic and does so very much all the time ... she is a MACHINE, and an amazing, fast, stylish, revved up one at that!! Go Gaga! Nobody can top her," she wrote.

And there you have it. Nothing happens by chance in GagaLand, and her fans see meaning in every word and deed. That said, not everyone was convinced. "Not too fond of the album cover but honestly, not like many album covers from other musical stars are much better," wrote Doodlebug. Vjuggalo, meanwhile, didn't think it was creepy, just "uninspired" and, frankly, a hack photoshop job with "horrible" perspective and scaling.

Others were just plain confused about what the motorcycle had to do with the album title (was Gaga born ... a motorcycle?) and suggested other images that would have made more sense. "I'd rather have seen a naked newborn baby on the cover! At least it would fit," said Cathy. "I remember when album covers actually meant something, and often matched the concept of the album or album title. It is the ugliest CD/album cover I've ever seen and Lady Gaga looks like she walked off a horror movie set."

Even Paul Teutul Jr., the "American Choppers" alumnus whose life is dedicated to creating monster machines, was on the fence about Gaga's metal meld.

"Looking at it, I would've made it more of an integration of her into the bike. It would be more seamless. In other words, it would be her and the bike morphed," he told MTV News. "If you're Born This Way, then it almost has to look kind of mermaid-ish, in the sense that there's this fusion between the actual mechanical aspect and the human perspective. ... It's a little cut-and-paste looking. I would've done something even integrated throughout the bike that would've been more 'Lady Gaga.' "

What do you think of Gaga's Born This Way album cover? Let us know in comments below.

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