All right, so we all had a chance to watch Lady Gaga's "Telephone" on E! News, right? (No? Watch it here!) Now it's time to discuss the deeper meaning behind it.
Speaking exclusively to E! News, Gaga says, "There's certainly always a hidden message in my music videos. But I would say most predominately, I'm always trying to convolute everyone's idea of what a pop music video should be."
When we think pop music videos, choreographed dances, costume changes and crazy editing are pretty standard, so what makes her video so different?
"There was this really amazing quality in 'Paparazzi,' where it kind of had this pure pop music quality but at the same time it was a commentary on fame culture. In its own way, even at certain points working with Jonas [Åkerlund, the director of both videos] really achieved this high art quality in the way that it was shot. I wanted to do the same thing with this video—take a decidedly pop song, which on the surface has a quite shallow meaning, and turn it into something deeper."
She also had the support of Inglourious Basterds writer/director Quentin Tarantino, which can't be underestimated.
"There certainly is a Tarantino-inspired quality in the video," she says. "I mostly love the way he uses different forms to create something new. His direct involvement in the video came from him lending me the Pussy Wagon. We were having lunch one day in Los Angeles and I was telling him about my concept for the video and he loved it so much he said, 'You gotta use the Pussy Wagon.'"
Ultimately, Gaga says her intent was to take "the idea that America is full of young people that are inundated with information and technology and turn it into something that was more of a commentary on the kind of country that we are."
At first glance, the country she portrays is all about dancing, mass murder, sexy lady jail and Polaroid. But we must be missing something...Is it about the high recidivism rates among felons exiting American prisons? Unsanitary kitchen conditions? Strong lady friendships kill men? Beyoncé's dangerous levels of fierceness? Or is this just another one of Gaga's masterful manipulations?
Tell us what you think Gaga's talking about!
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Need to slow things down to really analyze everything? Watch the "Telephone" video all over again right here!