Meaning of Bad Romance, The Fame Monster, Lady Gaga
We are approaching to unravel the secrets of Bad Romance, a well-known song by Lady Gaga that belongs to the album The Fame Monster. So are you ready to know the meaning of this hit?
In Bad Romance we are told the feelings that love provokes taken to its maximum exponent. It is a harmful, sick love, and Lady Gaga knows it. However, even being aware of this, what she wants is for this "bad romance" to happen.
That is why we find verses in the song that say "I want your ugly", "I want your disease" or "I want your horror" (I want your ugliness, I want your disease, I want your horror). This means that loving someone so intensely means wanting everything about that person, accepting not only their defects, but that person as they are, thus including the darkest aspects of her being.
BAD ROMANCE VERSE BY VERSE
In the song, Lady Gaga feels that she is the one who can love the person to whom she directs these verses the most, because she is capable of making even aspects of the human personality that are not desirable. Gaga's desire for him is such that she does not care that he is committed to other people, or that he maintains relationships with lovers other than her, as we can see in the following verse that is repeated in several stanzas:
"I want your love, and all your lovers revenge"
"I want your love and the revenge of all your lovers"
That is, Gaga wants to be the reason why he forgets about the rest of her lovers, and so they want to take revenge on her.
On the other hand, a recurring element in the artist's songs are references to the world of fashion, so this time there is no exception, as we see in this fragment:
"walk, walk, fashion baby, work it move that bitch crazy" (x3)
"walk, walk, fashion baby, work it I'm a free bitch baby"
"walk, walk, fashion baby, work it, move that fucking madness" (x3) "
"Walk, walk, fashion baby, work it, I'm a free bitch."
All these verses refer to the relationship that Lady Gaga has with fashion, she is free to wear whatever she wants, no matter how extravagant her outfits are.
Having analyzed the lyrics of Bad Romance we can conclude that it is indeed a story about love without limits, even reaching the term of sickness given the magnitude of the feeling. On this occasion, Mother Monster uses a video clip loaded with information, but leaving aside the symbolism that will later characterize her on the BornThis Way album.
BAD ROMANCE HISTORY
As is usual in her, Lady Gaga tells us a story in the video clip through which she transmits her verses to us, therefore we will try to relate it step by step.
The sick love will be characterized in the role of Gaga herself in the music video, as well as the head of a Russian mafia, which kidnaps the artist since he is obsessed with her. Lady Gaga chose the figure of this mafia for the video because she composed Bad Romance after a concert in Russia.
Therefore, we find a relationship between love and obsession through the figure of the Russian kingpin, who wants to have Gaga at all costs. This is basically what we will be told during the video clip. However, the first scene of this one refers to the end of the story, so we will analyze it later.
After the scene in which Gaga is sitting on a throne, another shot begins in which a monster (Lady Gaga) comes out of a kind of white sarcophagus that is in a bathroom along with many others. This symbolizes that fear is becoming latent, that fear of love is emerging in the singer. It should be remembered then that in the album The Fame Monster each of the songs represented a type of fear.
Then, when the chorus begins, we can see the artist in a bathtub, after two women have undressed her and forced her to drink from a glass of vodka. This scene leads us to suppose that Gaga has indeed been kidnapped and drugged, as her dilated pupils suggest.
In some moments, such as when Gaga appears looking in the mirror or when she is naked in the shower, they inspire a feeling of sadness and want to convey that the protagonist is having a really bad time.
Already in the second verse of the song, we can see how Gaga is brought before the members of the mafia so that they delight in watching her dance. The fact that they are bidding indicates that they are auctioning Lady Gaga, so when she dances for the man who wears a kind of "golden jaw", he raises the bid by being the winner and acquiring the star. This symbolizes that, although the media is unorthodox, he wants her so much that she is capable of acting in the most selfish way in order to get it, regardless of the girl's feelings.
In the next scene we see how the camera rotates around Gaga while she remains surrounded by diamonds before the members of the mafia. This is how the lust that men feel for her is represented, to the point of ceasing to see her as a woman but as a jewel.
As we have said before, in the song Lady Gaga also refers to fashion. This corresponds to the scene in the video clip in which we hear "walk, walk, fashion baby ..." while the artist wears a golden outfit. We can see that she with her hand makes the gesture of a shot, giving way to the final scene.
The video ends with our protagonist approaching her bed where the man who bid for her is waiting for her. This, impassive, takes off her jacket and glasses with a gesture of indifference. The scene intersperses the final dance, with Gaga dressed in red and lying on the floor, and in the apotheosis Gaga remains lying on a bed full of ashes with her lover burned by her.
The meaning of all this is that love, however passionate it may be, if it is based on obsession or lived in a sickly way will inevitably lead to self-destruction.
That is why at the beginning of the video we see Gaga sitting in the mob, making it clear that although she has previously been treated as an object, she will not allow herself to be handled. She has defeated the monster.
