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Music

Madonna Hates Lady Gaga (Again)

Slugging it out, Queen Of Pop style.

My guess is that Madonna sees herself as the Queen Heather of pop or something. She sees it as her job to put all the skinnier upstarts in their place. It certainly seems that way in this fan shot video from a gig in Israel. It shows the 53-year-old covering Lady Gaga's "Born This Way" before slipping into the chorus of "Express Yourself." It could have been percieved as a totally innocent move, had Madge not previously described any comparison of the two songs "amusing," and then branded Gaga's hit "reductive." I think "reductive" is a polite way of her saying: "Thanks for making a cheap knock-off of my shit."

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What do you think? Homage or pot-shot?

To be fair, "Born This Way" was a complete rip-off, but it's kind of pathetic how much Madonna cares. I don't give a shit how much flesh she shows, or how old she is, she can do what she wants; buuuuuuut, she needs to quit ragging on younger pop stars if she wants to appeal to any non-gay below 23.

It was very different a decade ago when she was happy to make-out with Xtina and Britney - sprinkling them in fairy dust. Back then, in 2003, pop was centered around deferential puppets like X, B, Mandy Moore, and Jessica Simpson. Madonna's stock was high as well, she'd just released American Life (which sucked, but was popular) and was just about to release Confessions on a Dancefloor, her best album in about 20 years. In this climate Madonna stood out as a powerful, sophisticated, cosmopolitan woman surrounded by trashy little girls, she wasn't threatened by them, so she was happy to endorse them.

Unfortunately for Mads, the world moved on. Pop singers stopped wanting to be lil' girls, they wanted to be women. Ladies, even. Gaga may have ripped off Madonna's single, but more importantly, she resembles the Madonna of old in that she is a young woman who's calling the shots. The same goes for M.I.A., who Madonna tried to co-opt in a similar way to Brit and Xtina at the Superbowl. But when M.I.A. flipped off the cameras, Madonna lost her shit. The majority of the planet really couldn't have cared, and it left Madonna siding with Christian pressure groups moaning about something really, really insignificant.

Basically, it didn't leave Mads looking cool. And neither does starting fights with Gaga. You know what would look cool? Releasing a decent song for the first time in seven years.