As far as ability goes, Lady Gaga is undoubtedly one of the most talented contemporary vocalists in pop music. Whether you are a fan of her music or not, it is impossible to deny her capacity for vocal range as well as skill on the piano, drums, and guitar, plus original songwriting. Following the release of her latest album, Artpop, Gaga was featured as a guest on the Howard Stern morning radio show. As I listened to the show on my way to school, I was mesmerized as Gaga proceeded to play some of her new songs in an impromptu concert for Howard and Robin. Although I have never loved her music, hearing her rich, raw, and pared-down live interpretation actually gave me chills. For the first time, I considered giving Gaga’s music a second chance. However, the understated nature of radio as a non-visual medium suits Gaga’s talent better than some of her other televised performances.

This past week, Gaga performed songs from Artpop, at SXSW in Austin, Texas. A full departure from the humble songstress crooning on the radio, this Gaga writhed and shook across the stage like the victim of an exorcism gone wrong. The show opened with the song “Aura”, which Gaga belted out while hanging on a giant barbecue spit as dancers poked and basted her roasting flesh. Between the cloak of fog and distracting spinning of the spit, Gaga’s music took a back seat. After the initial spectacle, Gaga relaxed a bit, jumping around the set and throwing sausages and beer into the audience. Then, for her onstage rendition of “Swine”, Gaga was joined with performance artist and vomit painter Millie Brown, who guzzled a liter of green goo and regurgitated it on Gaga’s white apron. The two then mounted a scary-looking mechanical bull on which Brown downed another liter of goo – this time black – and added to Gaga’s already splattered ensemble. While Millie Brown is a relatively widely respected artist, watching her repeatedly stick her fingers down her throat onstage came off as a glamorized and colorful window into the behaviors of bulimia. After watching the whole unsettling performance set, I was left with feelings of confusion and disgust and an urge to laugh at the whole seemingly obvious ploy to sell more copies of Artpop, whose sales were lower than expected for the artist. In other words: What?

Gaga’s continual quest for the avant-garde and special consistently overshadow her real talents as an artist and activist for LGBT rights. Plus, Gaga’s obsession with theatricality is nothing new to the pop scene, and Gaga’s unrelenting attempts to convince consumers that she is special are unnecessary and questionable. In our society of social media and instantaneous validation, we are taught that we are special. Occasionally, however, our desire to be special can be polarizing and exclusive. Instead of focusing on acting in a way that attracts just for spectacle, artists should sometimes remember that art that transcends the human desire for individuality by relating and connecting is the kind that sticks around for more than Warhol’s 15 minutes.