It's only in sitting here and listening to acoustic lady gaga that I realize I never want to post about music in this forum again. It's actually a pretty awful experience all around, and the forced justification to discuss the things that I may or may not like is incredibly repelling. Yes, I do need to consider that the site and comic were launched as an indie-elitist haven, but given that indie-elitists tend to pride themselves on their intelligence, the total lack of tolerance is quite indicative of the opposite. It's like when atheists take their beliefs to a dogmatic level only comparable to radical muslims or the catholics without the slightest touch of irony.
That said, Lady Gaga's new cd is really great. I get the selling factors and the cult of personality that surrounds her, and I am thankful knowing that she's talented enough to back up the hype. I'm calling it now that she'll be around for a while, barring unforeseen extreme events.
On the flipside of overexposure, after 2007 being dubbed the year of Timbaland, Shock Value 2 has been an underwhelming pile of shit, with the only mentionable collaborating artists being Chad Kroger and an army of pre-legal teenaged girls. Result: generic and played out, even for him.