Here's the thing about Lady Gaga.

She's brilliant.

Have you watched the video? You should watch it. Yes, blah blah, product placement, blah, derivative, forgettable song, blah. It's fucking entertaining, period. Fun to watch, sexy as hell. So it's one long Tarantino homage, as if directed by James St. James: it's supposed to be a pop culture pastiche. Plus: pasties! Girls making out! And Tyrese is in it, but all he does is choke to death. It's putting a foul-mouthed, outre, gay sensibility into the center of mainstream pop music, and that's awesome. And it's only because it's so damn entertaining. And it even makes Beyonce interesting! (Seriously, she's cute, has a really nice voice and a great marketing team, but she's so boring.)

Lady Gaga is like Liberace and Madonna, not just in aesthetic terms but also in that she is 100% self-actualized. She's a downtown New York art star who used to go-go at the Slipper Room; I don't know Lady Gaga personally, but I KNOW Lady Gaga. And that's why she's amazing; she's putting that NYC realness-weirdness on the Hot 100 and teenage girls (and boys) in Ohio are eating it up. Tell me that's not to be celebrated.

And watch it again, seriously.