Lady Gaga’s ‘BBC Culture Show’ Interview Is Really Something Else: Watch

Carl Williott | November 14, 2013 11:44 am

Lady Gaga recently sat down with Miranda Sawyer for the BBC’s Culture Show, and the result was one-third performance art piece, one-third revealing interview and one-third the ramblings of someone who spent the past 48 hours working with Robert Wilson. But it was 100% compelling. Between questions, Gaga would close her eyes to “center” herself, and she had a vacant look on her face most of the time. The fact that it took place in a white room littered with statues covered in white drapes certainly added to the chat’s surreal aspect, a far cry from the playful interviews she’s been doing in recent weeks. But it was what Gaga said that really intrigued us.

Basically, this was her Kanye-on-the BBC moment. (BBC’s really kicking our Yankee asses when it comes to getting pop stars to unleash their inner art nerd.) She spent more time talking about art than she did talking about her own career and album, and at one point admitted, “The corporate music world is terrifying. I hate it. Because they try to tell me what to do.”

While Gaga has always been a student of art, here she reveals it was the hip injury that caused her to fully embrace it. While she was recovering, she first realized how dependent she was on performing and on the adoration of fans (saying she felt “dead” during this time). But that dark stretch forced her to find new sources of pleasure, leading her to delve deeper into the art world.

Mother Monster also commented on the complex relationship between pop and sex. She feels sexuality is given a “one-dimensional quality” in pop culture, so she tries to add depth and meaning to it. At this point she also revealed the following: “Most of the time, I don’t particularly find myself to be very sexy, actually.”

Part of that perspective, Gaga said, had to do with her sexual history. “My earlier experiences with sex were quite perverted, and… scary. Terrifying,” she said. “But now I have really great sex.” This was followed by a profane and wildly accurate interpretation of the entertainment industry:  “[Pop] is like a cumshot. It’s quite masturbatorial.”

Whether or not you’re buying into Gaga’s shtick, you have to respect the commitment. There is perhaps no other pop star right now who is simultaneously so authentic and so manufactured, who is equal parts pop traditionalist and iconoclast. Perhaps it is best summed up by this Gaga quote from the interview: “I don’t know what I am. I don’t even know if it’s any good. And I don’t know that that matters. What matters is that it is. Is that it’s there.”

And we weren’t the only ones who were fascinated by the chat — Gaga herself loved it so much she tweeted it out and praised the interviewer.

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