Lady Gaga: With the 'Telephone' video, she stars in her own mini-movie, and it's a natural born thriller

Oh and regarding the Telephone video, why does there have to be a plot or why does it have to make sense…it’s a POP MUSIC VIDEO, it’s not meant to make sense, it’s just a bit of fun. Most pop videos these days semm to follow textbook rules of what a pop video should be, which personally I find boring. I’ve seen enough boring dance routines of girls pouting and flicking their hair, and so I’m glad GaGa has provided something different. I remember when the Poker Face video came out thinking how funny it was there being mannequins surrounding her, because it seemed ‘weird’ and you’d never catch the likes of Britney or Pussycat Dolls doing that. Yet everything else about the video was ‘commercial’.

They say this showing 2 second stills of the vid where she’s not acting filty, disgusting or ridiculous. Denial or a stupid joke…i say.

Hi Mr. Gleiberman,

I have to say that I love the Telephone video. Every time I watch it I notice something different and I just can’t look away. I think it is an amazing work of art.

I have to admit though, that a s a promotional tool for a song, it fails. I’m so glad I heard the song Telephone months before seeing this video. If I had seen the video first, I would still love the video but probably wouldn’t care about the song.

The video is so amazing and over the top and choppy, it totally distracts from the song. Which is okay, if that is what Gaga was going for. But I have to say, there is something amazing about Gaga’s way of making an amazing song that’s just about the need to dance and get drunk and have fun. When I hear songs like “Just Dance” and “Telephone” I’m taken back to my undergraduate years, those years before the realities of the recession were a real threat and you could sweat out all your problems on the sticky dance floor of a campus bar.

I wonder if Gaga’s insistence on the over-the-top videos is a way of saying, “I’m not that shallow, I’m a *real* artist.” Hm.

As for your assertion that Gaga’s long-form style eclipses MJ’s, I have to disagree. It’s like comparing apples and oranges. There is no real need. MJ was a far more literal artist when it came to his videos. But with Thriller he made a video that actually made the experience of the song better. I think Thriller is one of MJ’s worst songs. But with that video, and that dramatic dance break, the song becomes something greater.

As for Bad, the video is rightfully “delirious”. It deals with a “delirious” problem in the black community, of intelligent black kids being pressured to “dumb down” by their own peers. Something that 20 years after the Bad video debuted is still a troubling issue.

This comment is rather rambly, but I guess ultimately my point is, the Telephone video is great on its own terms, I think the song is great by itself, and I don’t think it’s fair of you to say that Gaga is somehow perfecting the long form video that MJ pioneered. She’s simply putting her own take on it, which I love. Thanks for sharing your review of this video and expanding my appreciation for it.

do you not realize that this is based on a true story? A man gets obsessed with a woman and will not stop calling her. She actually ends up killing. This is why the video is relevant.