Lady Gaga’s ‘The Fame’ Turns 5: Stan & Deliver

Bradley Stern | August 19, 2013 5:30 am

Name: Carl Williott | Location: New York, NY | Twitter: @cwilliott

9. Starstruck (feat. Flo Rida & Space Cowboy): At first, Lady Gaga didn’t seem like a revolution to me. Then “Just Dance” came on at a work Christmas party in 2008, causing my drunken female colleagues to bust out an impromptu yet seemingly choreographed dance. Utterly confused, I sought out The Fame and haven’t stopped spinning it since.

You could say I was “Starstruck” (see what I did there?). This deep cut impressively matched minimalist electronics (they actually sound like twinkling stars!) with syrupy Auto-Tune synthetics and a beating-heart hook — a combo that would soon be ubiquitous thanks to 808s And Heartbreak. Then there’s Gaga’s turntable-as-body lyrics (“Put your hands on my waist, pull the fader…Cue me up, I’m the 12 on your table”) which gave the millennial pop set its version of Bruce Springsteen‘s “strap your hands across my engines” come-on.

But here’s the real testament to the quality of this forgotten gem: it made Flo Rida seem palatable.