Monday, June 20, 2011

Born This Way



To say that this video is a little odd would be an understatement; however, I think that the message is well worth it.  I'm not a Lady Gaga fanatic by any means, though I do like her songs.  This song, from her album by the same title, seems to be written for us, take the line "Don't be a drag, just be a queen."  I love that. Then again, I may just be a little odd as well.  On Saturday night, I saw Lady Gaga on The Graham Norton Show on BBCAmerica, and though she dresses outlandishly and has some weird videos, she appeared to actually be a very nice simple person at heart.  Something I think we should all aspire to be.  I was actually quite impressed with her. I had seen her on other shows and thought she was just too outlandish, but this changed my mind about her as a person (grant it, I don't know her from Adam's house cat, but she seemed nice).


Kitty Empire of The Observer writes of the album's music, "Born This Way runs big, timeless American themes – freedom, self-actualisation, the romance of the road, the Boss, even Neil Young – through the pointy prism of decadent European dance music." Dan Martin of NME views the album's sound as a departure from her last two albums and a reflection of Gaga's fanbase, stating "she wants to weld physically to her synthesisers as if to create one all-powerful dreadnought of self-empowerment. For the most part this is one relentless torrent of heavy-metal-rave-pop. At the very least it’s a triumph in sound engineering." The song "Born This Way" is about how everybody is equal, regardless of the color of their skin, their sexuality or their creed, and that every single person can fulfil their dream. The song, which has been compared with Madonna's "Express Yourself", was written by Gaga and Jeppe Laursen and was produced by Lady Gaga, Jeppe Laursen, Fernando Garibay and DJ White Shadow. The "Government Hooker" producer, DJ White Shadow, called it a thumping and sexy track. He said to MTV News: "To me, that song is my favorite song, and it's just a beast. I don't even know how to clarify it. [Born This Way] is not a pop baby book; it's a pop masterpiece of composition. If there was no category of pop composition, you wouldn't call it pop composition." He also revealed that they were in this studio in Vegas, and he was playing some "hip-hop stuff" and they [DJ Shadow and Vince] were talking about quicker songs, so Shadow sped it up and played it for Vince. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Born_This_Way)


And you know what, I do believe we are born this way; we are born to be gay.  Would any of us chosen to live the often difficult life of being gay, if we were not "born this way."  I love men, so don't get me wrong, but life would have been a whole lot easier if I had been born straight, or if (heaven forbid, I love my penis) that I had been born a woman.  I wasn't; I was born gay.  Nothing could change that and nothing will.  Whether I ever find the man who I will live the rest of my life with, I don't know.  I hope, but that is for the future is not ours to see. Que sera, sera. 


I had actually planned on starting a series of posts on religion and coming out for today, but the posts are not yet where I want them to be, so I decided to hold off and maybe start them next Sunday.  So stay tuned.  I know that some of you are not religious. You have questioned me about this before and to some extent criticized me for my Christianity. I won't be apologetic about it. I do hope that all of you will read these coming posts and that we can have a genuine discussion.  It has been an interesting journey of research and reflection that I want to share with you. More on that later.

3 comments:

WranglerMan said...

Happy Pride, Buddy!

Anonymous said...

Great article! I don't think I had actually heard Lady Gaga's song until you posted it and I am glad you did.

I cannot wait to read what you have to say on religion and coming out! Have a great day!

Joe said...

Thanks, WranglerMan.

Gay Paradox, I'm glad you liked the Gaga song. I really enjoyed the message of it. I think the religion posts came out pretty well. They are scheduled to start posting on Sunday.