'Judas' Upsets Religious Groups

Lady Gaga's 'Judas' Upsets Religious Groups
12:23 PM 4/16/2011 by Lindsay Powers



"She is trying to rip off Christian idolatry to shore up her talentless, mundane and boring performances," says the president of the Catholic League.

Lady Gaga is stirring up controversy with the lyrics and video for her new song, "Judas."

The tune features lyrics like: "I want to love you,/but something’s pulling me away from you/Jesus is my virtue, and Judas is the demon I cling to….I’m just a holy fool,/ oh baby he’s so cruel,/ but I’m still in love with Judas, baby.”

Fumes Bill Donahue, president of The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, in a statement: "This is a stunt... Lady Gaga tries to continue to shock Catholics and Christians in general: she dresses as a nun... she swallows the rosary. She has now morphed into a caricature of herself.

"She is trying to rip off Christian idolatry to shore up her talentless, mundane and boring performances. Another ex-Catholic whose head is turned around... Is this the only way to jet up her performance? This isn't random, we are getting closer to Holy Week and Easter."

Gaga plays Mary Magdalene in the forthcoming video, which her creative director, Laurieann Gibson (who was behind the Grammy egg), told The Hollywood Reporter that "Judas" shouldn't be offensive.

"It went through several changes and late-night debates because at one point, there were two completely different views and I was like, 'Listen, I don't want lightning to strike me! I believe in the gospel and I'm not going there.' And it was amazing because to have that conversation about salvation, peace and the search for the truth in a room of non-believers and believers, to me, that was saying God is active in a big way. And the place that it came to is surreal. We don't touch on things that we have no right touching upon, but the inspiration and the soul and idea that out of your oppression, your darkness, your Judas, you can come into the marvelous light. So it's about the inspiration and to never give up… We've created a new Jerusalem.

When asked if she would have walked away from the video if she didn't agree with the final treatment, Gibson said, "Absolutely. I do believe God inspired and worked on everyone's heart, but yes. I would have been like, “Good bye, I ain't doing it. No way.” But the place it came to is really magical. And she's dancing her face off.

On Saturday -- one day after it was released -- the video had 620,242 listens on YouTube by noon ET.

Forgiveness Man wrote:I agree that she's lame, boring, and mundane. She relies on shock tactics to get attention instead of real talent.

Tony Marino wrote:

Forgiveness Man wrote:I agree that she's lame, boring, and mundane. She relies on shock tactics to get attention instead of real talent.

Thats what makes her so unique, her shock tactics that seem to be working, her concerts are completely sold out. If she can sell out Madison Square Garden for 4 performances, the Lady is definetly HOT!!!

Forgiveness Man wrote:

Tony Marino wrote:

Thats what makes her so unique, her shock tactics that seem to be working, her concerts are completely sold out. If she can sell out Madison Square Garden for 4 performances, the Lady is definetly HOT!!!

It hardly makes her unique; it just makes her lucky. And a lot of very talentless people can become popular with the mindless masses. I never measure talent by success. Gaga is a joke, and a fad. American will move on to their next joke in due time.

Rockbird wrote:But she's so unoriginal. All of her songs sound the same, and the shine has worn off. Born This Way wasn't the hit she thought it was going to be, and it had nothing to do with the gay-theme; the song just sucks.

She's been reusing the same template since Day One. She didn't even come up with the Lady GaGa persona. What a joke.

Next up: Lady GaGa's SEX coffee table book. The only difference is that it will involve tentacles.

Tony Marino wrote:So you are saying I am mindless, o.k. lil bro I will remember that, the day you called your big bro one of the living dead.

Forgiveness Man wrote:

Tony Marino wrote:So you are saying I am mindless, o.k. lil bro I will remember that, the day you called your big bro one of the living dead.

I'm sorry! But hey, don't take things so personally. I'm your little Bro. It's my job to insult my Big Bro's taste in music.

Tony Marino wrote:

Forgiveness Man wrote:

I'm sorry! But hey, don't take things so personally. I'm your little Bro. It's my job to insult my Big Bro's taste in music.

You know I don't take it seriously

Forgiveness Man wrote:

Tony Marino wrote:

You know I don't take it seriously

I can't always tell.

Tony Marino wrote:

Forgiveness Man wrote:I can't always tell.

I would tell you privately so we could argue it out in private

Rockbird wrote:I can admit that Hungry and Union sound very similar, but Duran has also never been afraid to change their sound. Lady GaGa's songs, though, sound the same lyrically and sonically:

Repetitive syllables:
DA DA DO DO DUM - Just Dance
PA PA PA PA - Paparazzi
RAH RAH AH AH AH - Bad Romance
ME EH EH EH EH EH EH - Telephone
ALE-ALE - Alejandro
JU-DA-JU-DAS - Judas

RedOne's production, which is entirely one-note.

Autotune.

Then you add a music video that doesn't relate to the song (Bad Romance, Alejandro, Born this Way).

Fin.


There's nothing in here that shows her music is going to change anything. She's a Madonna clone mixed with Grace Jones and then just flat-out crap. Even her name was taken from a Queen song.

Rockbird wrote:I definitely saw it in Paparazzi. It's not just one thing. Madonna's took her inspiration from various sources, and she was a bit of copy cat as well. But what bothers me is that Lady GaGa's really only getting her playback from one person, and that's Maddy.

Paparazzi had the Metropolis-inspired robot (Madonna did that in Express Yourself/Blonde Ambition Tour)

Born This Way is a direct EY rip-off.

Her styling is beyond reminiscent of Madge's 1989-1991 style.

Judas seems to be her Like a Prayer, and Judas seems to only have been written to get the attention of religious fanatics so that she can point the finger again.

Bad Romance is also heavily inspired by Bond videos, which Madonna did in 2002 for Die Another Day.

And there were more than a few comparisons to Alejandro's La Isla Bonita (and Ace of Base's cover of Don't Turn Around, which, in my mind, is out and out plagiarism).

It just seems that everything GaGa is doing is based on something that Madonna previously did. It's boring because it's something she's already done, and she did it better.

With every pop star, there's always something about them that proves they have some sort of creativity. GaGa just seems to have a good management team.

femme fatale wrote:I think Lady Gaga is actually pretty talented (good voice and good piano playing) but her shock tactics lessen them IMO. These weirdo button pushing stunts are the sorta thing lesser talented people who can't rely on RAW talent pull for attention. "If you got talent you don't need a gimmick, your TALENT is your gimmick."