While the hype around Lady GaGa has much more to do with her insanely dangerous style choices than her music, she has been lauded as an icon of the YouTube generation. In spite of her classically-trained pianist skills, I suspect her success has a lot more to do with her quick-thinking and publicity-savvy management. Combining outlandish fashion statements, artsy performances and several internet rumours (some concerning her gender), 2009 has been the year of Lady GaGa.

I’m filling an enormous hole. There’s a wide-open space for a female with big balls to fill

Can you think of anyone in the pop industry other than Lady GaGa who would utter these words?! In the last decade there has been a sea of pop princesses with no opinions or attitude, and it can’t be denied that Lady GaGa stands out from the rest in the industry at the moment.

But, is she truly deserving of her innovative reputation, or is she merely a puppet of her management that controls every minute detail of her image? While her music is entertaining and has achieved high download sales, it is not exactly groundbreaking. Nevertheless, she writes her own songs and in fact started her career in the music industry by penning lyrics for other artists.

Her online presence is indisputable and is absolutely the key to her worldwide success. One website even went as far as saying that “those involved in online PR could learn a lot” from Lady GaGa.

Many comments in the blogosphere acknowledge that her persona is merely a character for the public eye, “it’s so much that I believe “the real GaGa” is the performance”, but what I find hilarious is how some people actually believe she is insane and needs help! Do they not realise that for every crazy outfit she wears earns her exponential media buzz and column inches/pixels on a screen?! Other commentators argue that she is “trying too hard”. It seems to me that many people have no idea that these eccentric fashion choices are merely to embellish her persona, and are not the kinds of clothing she would wear before she was famous.

The music industry is changing, and it’s well known that artists are turning to their tours and performances to help maximise revenue. Henry Tick wrote about the phenomenon in Intelligent Life, where ‘gigonomics’ is ever important due to “falling sales, rampant piracy, and digital distribution”.

Lady Gaga’s show-stopping attire and stage performances having everything to do with her fast rise to fame, and overall it is irrelevant whether it is orchestrated by the lady herself or a team of industry bigwigs.

It is a fame based on her notoriously crazy persona; most of the articles written about her aren’t focusing on her music but instead whip up fame through positioning her as a spectacle. No-one can deny that her outfits and behaviour instils curiosity and amazement in the readers of tabloids and gossip blogs, but for how long? To have a longstanding and successful career the Lady GaGa team will need to continue to shock and entertain its audience in relevant ways.

Here’s an idea – let’s see some pictures of Lady GaGa dressed in everyday clothing and I’m sure that will turn some heads!