Eight minutes and forty-three seconds. That’s the amount of time you’ll have to devote to sitting through Lady Gaga‘s music video for “Alejandro”. Oddly, it will be over before you even know it, and you’ll be left wanting to hit the replay button (whether you’re enjoying it all over again or merely trying to figure out exactly what the fuck just happened).
As you may know, Gaga previously explained the video as such: “It’s about the purity of my friendships with my gay friends, and how I’ve been unable to find that with a straight man in my life. It’s a celebration and an admiration of gay love—it confesses my envy of the courage and bravery they require to be together. In the video I’m pining for the love of my gay friends—but they just don’t want me to be with them.”
Do you think Gaga and director Steven Klein successfully depicted this concept? Are the comparisons to Madonna‘s “Vogue” video accurate? What did you think of all the military-themed and religious imagery? And most importantly, how much do you want to bet that a few queens will know all of this choreography before the weekend even hits? Let the discussion begin!
– Dewitt
To watch the music video for “Alejandro”, follow the JUMP:
interesting but yet disturbing …
1. the video hardly got anything to do with what she describes it to be. the only reference to homosexuality is the first dude with a gun u see when the video starts and two guys slightly touching each other by the end of it
2. the religious themes are rather cheap. and quite unpleasant to watch, even though i’m an atheist
3. that scene where she ‘dances’ on the bed with a guy is rather disturbing. that skin-coloured underwear with that haircut.. eww.
4. choreography is very similar to poker face, bad romance and telephone. maybe it’s just her style that she doesnt change though
5. madonna and janet references are ok. that vogue look at the end is really good, but the screen keeps annoyingly flashing during it…
6. overall very gaga-esque. nice new black theme and military looks, but i think the song just doesnt fit the theme… at all.
7. bad romance is the most viewed video on youtube ever with around ~225million views <<<< unrelated information lol 🙂
All the people who make comparisons to other videos (Oh, telephone was better… oh, it’s no bad romance… etc, etc…) really need to stop. What’s great about Lady Gaga’s videos are that each one can stand alone in their artistic forms. Yea, we have a story going on between Paparazzi and Telephone, but watch either completely separately and you don’t need the other!
Totally blows Madonna out of the Vogue water in my opinion. Cones to Rifles, it’s Gaga’s time to shine.
And so what if I’m already practicing the dance steps? Teehee. It’s all about the dance in the clubs! (Remember when people learned Madonna’s “Hung Up” dance? People were arm rolling all night long!)
I say, continue to push envelopes! Give us military, God, Pussywagons, money, greed, murder and all the things that people are afraid of!
#littlemonsterforever
Wow, that is an amazing video. Such interesting imagery. IT would be hard to walk in the gun bra.
ummm wtf?!?
its like Nazi Germany meets gay leather bar meets alice in wonderland meets someone idk
TRIPPY
I saw someone post the comment on the video on other site, and I like it.
“It’s about gay rights. It’s about gay men not being able to come out and being trapped in fake marriages with women (hence the puppet strings) and about how religion and society play a role in this entrapment – hence the mob imagery and the Christian(primarily Catholic) symbolism. The way their throwing her around is about them fighting back and taking their resentment out on the women they marry.”
I won’t go as far to say that it’s my favorite video from her, but I get it and it’s a lot better than Telephone. Telephone seemed to have been about consumerism/greed(hence all the fucking product placement) and how it’s killing Americans(they kill everyone then dance in “patriotic” outfits.) That was a good message I guess, but this one hits a lot closer to home.
So yeah, I liked it. Not my favorite video by her, but It good none the less.
*was good*
Not perfect, but definitely interesting. There are some conceptual borrowing from Vogue and Like a Prayer (and if you want to push it, American Life) but it managed to form a coherent whole and present a vision, unlike ‘Not Myself Tonight’, which borrow imagery whole cloth and never seems to gel together.
(BTW, I am not a Christina hater. I bought every single one of her album. Her latest effort just seems baffling and beneath her immense talent.)
ever since I found out that this would be the single I wondered if the video would have any relationship with Alejandro Bulaevsky, the lighting designer that was found dead a while ago in NY… partly because whenever I hear that song I remember of him. in a way it does, all the latex suits and the funeral…
have my doubts about the video.
This is less about Vogue than a pastiche of “middle era” Madonna videos — it owes more to “Express Yourself” (monocle, military, half-naked wrestling men, etc), but also includes major references to The Truth or Dare “Like a Virgin” video (the bra, the bed sequence — with a man substituted for the bolster in the masturbation scene, the “group grope” sequences), Evita videos, Like a Prayer, plus apparent quotes from the later American Life video (military themes again, the screened background battle sequences).
On the whole, Gaga’s Madonna “tribute” is less successful as a video than Christina Aguilera’s “Not myself tonight” which borrows not just from Express Yourself, but lots of the Human Nature/Bedtime Stories heavily sexualized videos. Alejandro comes off as mostly an exercise in button pushing self-indulgence….
Great minds, B1! I was apparently writing my post the same time you were! 🙂
The overall steampunk look can be attributed to Express Yourself, I suppose, but I think it may be a bit over reaching to see too much Madonna in this video. Surely, the gun bra and the catwalk-like sequence starting at 5:38 is obviously a Vogue reference. Gaga’s goggle look evoke more of the Red Queen in Alice in Wonderland then Madonna in Express Youself. The military theme can just as easily be attributed to Rhythm Nation. The bed sequence at around 3:50 reminds me more of Justify My Love, especially with the color palate and the f-up haircut of the male dancers.
I think the good point of the video is that its influences is more nuanced. ‘Not Myself Tonight’ is, lack of a better word, a much more blatant copy of the imagery.
I really don’t like this video. And I’ll compare it to her other videos all I want because they all share something in common, GAGA. Her other videos soared beyond expectations, this one just didn’t do it for me…=/
i thought this video was a delightful tribute to madonna. i was worried when i seen the the video was almost 9 minutes since i thought it was gonna be like the telephone vid where it stops and does some scene, but instead it continued with the long (via loop, but whatevs).
machine gun tits > cone tits
nice madonna tribute, took long enough for dewitt to post borders on gay porn lol
Unsure what bothered me the most:
1.Gaga sodomizing a vaguely Spanish nancy boy.
2.A nun-like gaga fellating a rosary.
3.AK47 bra.
4.The inverted cross covering up Gaga’s mythical penis.
5.The fact that I wasted over 8 minutes of my life watching that pretentious crap.
AMAZING….loved it
I think her and her videos are fucking stupid. In my opinion this was the worst of them all.
She’s trying way too hard. Sometimes Pop Music is just meant to be fun without hidden meanings and an agenda!
Shouldn’t the promotion of this album be winding down?
The video is cool visually but not the picture you get mentally from the song at all. I thought it would be something sexy with latin men she’s torn between.
ahhhhh….little Madonna!
wow.
when you see after finding out it’s about what she says it’s about, the imagery really becomes clear. i think it’s a beautifully made video.
and as far as comparing it to her others, i think this IS a better video than telephone, because it at least presumes to have a theme, and even a message…where telephone just struck me as being brightly colored shock vaule.
could not have said it any better than nex. the cheap, gratuitous religious iconoclasm is just….i dont know. redundant?
she said all this stuff about how it was going to be a statement for her support of *us* and her frustration, bla bla, but i have to say…thematically i dont get it. maybe it’s just me.
id consider watching it again a few times to look for some sort of metaphor but:
*its 300min long
*i hate bowl haircuts
*i wish it was different 🙁
Would have to watch it again to catch all the imagery and symbolism.
More importantly, when is the single Monster going to drop? Quite possibly THE BEST song Gaga has made to date.
I agree with Texas…I’ll have to watch it more than once…Love the song tho.
wow it was fkn amazing!!!….after,found myself getting pissed @ all the neg crap written…but i have to take into consideration that most of the gays im faced w/are angry miserable bitchy muscle queens, the over weight flam haters who aren’t happy w/anything…and the 1st to put someone down 4 doing there thing….humm, nasty circle is how i see it.
MIND BLOWING!! I totally thought this video would take place in Mexico or Spain and have some sexy hot latino men…but No GaGa did something way better and actully worth watching. Im just happy that she takes risks and makes videos that can stand apart from every other artist out there. Cant imagine the music world without her!!
I LOVE THAT VIDEO, Y0U DID A HELL OF A JOB..
HOT
I feel like it’s a bit reminiscent of Madonna, but I think that’s great! It feels like a tribute to the originality that Madonna brought to the music video scene, but it’s still very much Gaga. I love them both and appreciate the showmanship. I enjoyed the video, and frankly I don’t try to read too much into the symbolism. Artists aren’t always completely understood, but I don’t really think that’s alsways necessary to enjoy the work.
express yourself 2010
It rocks! You go girl
It is funny how many people dont get it, and thus complain about it. People – it WENT OVER YOUR HEADS!!
This is a stunning piece of art. The message is subtle, and not rammed in your face like most idiotic cheap tv is.
It makes you THINK. It CHALLENGES.
The end shots with the bowl cut and solo b&w dancing are actually NOT evocative of Vogue – lol it is of Gwen Verdon doing a Bob Fosse style choreography – it is much closer to Chicago and Liza Minelli than it is to Madonna!! Check your references people – its not all about 1990 onward you know!
Gaga you are the atheists GOD
An awesome choreography and exquisite cinematography. Madonna’s all over the video and I love it.
ms. Gagas got her shit down that song and video was so hot she will be laughing all the way to the bank she is the new monda you go girl from one o.g.
Madonna and Klein have worked together a lot…. the bed scene is almost exactly like “the beast within”…. but the difference is that Madonna leaves a lot of this more experimental artsy stuff for the concerts…
still, there r tons of references to “express yourself” “i’ll remember” “rain” “la isla bonita” “like a prayer” and many many Madonna tours (like blond ambition)… some say there is also some inspiration from Cabaret… but c’mon, Nazi and Catholic references in 9 minutes? trying a bit too hard?
the sound is like Ace of Base with dashes of Abba and again, Madonna… I find it all a sort of repetition that is completely pointless and extremely self indulgent…
I am all for self indulgence, and I believe that the young crowd needs to find their hero, like some of us had in Britney, Madonna, Cheer, Bette Middler, May West, Josephine Baker, Sarah Bernhard, etc…
so enjoy Gaga, enjoy the video, but I still think it sucks…..
I just hope her next video isn’t twice as long as the song! In my opinion, this is definitely one of the inferior tracks on The Fame Monster and I was surprised she was even releasing it as a single. I think the video doesn’t really fit the song and the endless loops to prolong it make me never want to hear the name Alejandro again!
I still love GaGa though. She just needs to release ‘Dance in the Dark’ and ‘Monster’ as singles and I’ll be happy.
If she’s going to rely on visuals to make up for the music, then she should make them good. This bored me.
Is the rifle bra a Vogue reference? it looks closer to a “tank girl” one myself, the haircut the outfits and the men… all very 90’s counter culture, especially in animation and comics, maybe a link to the original cartoons of Aeon Flux?… i myself enjoyed the video, i enjoy all of her videos. i find gaga’s style to be very eclectic of imagery.. but most artists of our era are.
i understand the symbolism of the gays and military entrapment..but whats with the casket..and the dissected heart
It was great but in the start it looked like a commercial for a video game lol
I’m relatively new to following Lady GaGa’s work, but I first heard this song on the radio and fell in love with it. Bought it on iTunes as soon as I got home and now I can’t get it out of my head. The music reminds me a lot of Ace of Base, with a generous helping of Madonna’s “La Isla Bonita.”
Then I saw the video. Honestly, I’ve stopped trying to figure out music videos, especially Lady GaGa’s. I do agree with what a number of posters here said … this is a work of art (more as a description of the piece instead of a compliment). The artist has her vision of the work, and it’s up to us as the viewers of the work to draw our own opinions of it, which may or may not synch up with those of the artist. The video doesn’t alter my affection for the song one bit. It’s not my favorite music video, but it’s far from my least favorite.
Like it or not, one must admire Lady GaGa’s knowledge of the media and her audience. This is one smart chick.
Horrible video for a just as equal horrible song , she is just now trying to hard to shock the audience . Lady gaga needs to be gone for a while , she is getting annoying !
Children, Meet the new Madonna…..