AUSTIN, TX: Twelve hours after headlining a show for Doritos, Lady Gaga took an anti-consumerist stance at her SXSW keynote interview. Fuse’s John Norris led a softball interview that allowed Gaga to wax poetic about her art vs. commerce philosophies. Much of her speech was critical of the music industry, including the Billboard charts and her record label, Interscope, as well as technology as a whole: “As you get more successful, they push the rule book at you more.”
Little actual news came out of the 75-minute conversation, except that Gaga made a second part of ARTPOP and that she’ll release a new video next Saturday (March 22) shot at Hearst Castle. However, here are a few highlights and interesting quotes from Gaga’s SXSW 2014 keynote:
– “I’m not saying vomit is gonna change the world” re: last night’s performance, which she said brought the Frito-Lay head honcho to tears.
– “The real ‘Bold Mission’ is what Pussy Riot did” re: standing up to Russian government. (Was a Doritos reference really necessary? Is nothing sacred?)
– Gaga knows she has skeptics, but to her critics she says, “You don’t know fuck about the music industry.”
– Also speaking of journalists, Gaga chided sensationalism in headlines (oops!) and traffic-whoring methods. “No one’s gonna remember your web content in a week.”
– “Stop taking selfies, it’s not gonna make you a star” re: new artist strategy.
– “Without sponsors, we won’t have any more artists in Austin because record labels don’t have any fucking money,” she said, mentioning that she personally paid for her artRave release party for ARTPOP, which supposedly cost millions.
– She spoke about her early days performing in the Lower East Side and said she would rather do that than do something she doesn’t want to do. “I will retire from the commercial market if I have to do something besides be myself. I will be myself until they close the fucking coffin.”
– “I’m sorry I didn’t sell a million records first week… I’m held to such an insane standard… I don’t know what fuck-all I have to do with Katy Perry.”