Monday, July 11, 2011

Diversion 2.0 Thirty Day Song Challenge -- Day 28: Your Favorite Song This Time Last Year

Lady Gaga – “Alejandro"

I know what you must be thinking: “Andrew, what the crap is up with all of this Gaga?” An excellent question, and one that I ask myself nearly every day. I can answer this one, though: around this time last year, I was still coasting on my “Out for life!” mindset, and wanted only to rock all night and party e-va-ry day. What a fortunate time, then, for Lady Gaga’s brand of heedless, European dance music to be dominating the airwaves.

Also during this time last year, an amazing kerfuffle was starting to surround Lady Gaga’s next music video for “Alejandro.” Since “Paparazzi,” Gaga’s music videos had exited the typical “song intercut with a story” structure of music videos and had, instead, started to tread the ground of “Thriller,” where the actual song is ancillary to the visages and general weird s@$# that happens during the eight-to-ten minutes of running time. “Telephone” absolutely drove this notion home, and since the entire nation seemed to be going gaga (ha) over the young New Yorker, anticipation for her new video was reaching a fever pitch, including an appearance on Larry King where Gaga teased a small clip from the upcoming phantasmagoria of sight, sound, and other things that kids consider while waiting in bed on Christmas Eve.

The video, of course, was a bit of a letdown, but it was during this need for more info that I fully started to appreciate “Alejandro”’s sonic subtleties. Things like the off-time, pulsing synthesizers, or the three different competing melodies during the chorus. To top it all off, I had discovered a sweet mashup of “Alejandro” and Ace Of Bace’s “Don’t Turn Around,” which I adored both out of novelty and because it was rather well put-together.

To be honest, I can’t remember the exact favorite song I had at this time last year (though I had a list), but “Alejandro” was probably the closest I can come to guessing.

No comments:

Post a Comment