Lady Gaga Gets Swallowed By A Wolf

On left: Alex Noble Outfit. On right: Lady Gaga wearing Alex Noble outfit during a performance of "Monster."

You may have thought that Lady Gaga’s song “Monster” was about a wolf swallowing up Gaga as if she were Little Red Riding Hood, but truly it’s about mirrors.

Pay close attention to “Monster” and you’ll realize that it’s autobiographical like all of Lady Gaga’s music. “Monster” is about Gaga looking in the mirror and seeing her reflection, and wanting to become the reflection. When Gaga performed “Monster” in Stockholm, Sweden on May 8, 2010, she gave a clue of what the song is really about.* Watch the performance
^[FOOTNOTE]


The intro to “Monster” is the main clue to understand the song’s meaning. It starts out:

Don’t call me Gaga
I’ve never seen one like that before
(she giggles)
Don’t look at me like that, you amaze me
Hook: He ate my heart, he a-a-ate my heart
You little monster)
He ate my heart, he a-a-ate my heart out (you amaze me)

By saying “don’t call me Gaga,” she is saying that she wants to be someone different, which is the person she sees reflected back at her. Now, you might wonder who’s the “He” that ate her heart, and that He would be her, meaning Gaga. In other words, the reflection Gaga sees is aggressive and masculine, so when she becomes her reflection she becomes like a man. Likewise, in an interview, Gaga explained that “Monster” was about “a guy with a big dick,” and that the song reflected her experiences with bad boys who she knows will only end up hurting her. As a result, Gaga said she would lose sight of her womanhood by becoming more like a man. So when Gaga starts singing the first verse, she sings “Look at him, look at me,” what she's doing is creating a visual of the reflection (“Him”) looking back at her. Further, she sings “He’s a wolf in disguise/but I can’t stop staring in those evil eyes,” and she creates two more visuals: Firstly, the wolf is a man disguised as Gaga in blond hair and makeup, and secondly, Gaga stares into the mirror looking into her reflection’s “evil eyes.”


During a performance of “Monster,” in Stockholm, Sweden wearing an outfit designed by Alex Noble, Lady Gaga reinforced the mirror reflection concept, by making her hand into her trademark Monster Claw and turned the Claw inward in front of her face as if her Monster Claw was a mirror. Accordingly, she sang “Could I love him?,” translating into “could I love this new transformation of myself?”


All in all, Lady Gaga made “Monster” a song about transforming into a person she doesn’t recognize, and it becomes a loss of identity. As you know, Gaga’s songs are always adaptable and easily interpreted in many ways, and one obvious way is the way it also functions as a love letter to all you Little Monsters out there believing that she’s talking to you, especially when she says “I’ve never seen one like that before, you little monster, you amaze me.” What beautiful words, and knowing Gaga, she has said these words to thousands of her fans.



*FOOTNOTES

Gaga's performance of "Monster" in Stockholm, Sweden.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyLUP4S0jJQ

Link to more information at Gaga's Outfit:
http://gagadaily.com/fashion/2010/02/alex-noble-for-monster-ball-tour/





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