Madonna Says 'Imitation Is the Highest Form of Flattery': Is She Bitter About Lady Gaga's Fame?

I don't think "bitter" is the word. A certain amount of envy of Gaga's phenomenal success is understandable. But she dedicated her song "Masterpiece" to Gaga and has said she loves her, although saying "imitation is the highest form of flattery" can be taken two ways. Gaga obviously was inspired to a large degree by Madonna's concepts but so is every great performer who builds on the ideas of those who came before and showed it was possible. Would Madonna have said "I love her, I do lover her" if all she meant was that she was a great imitator? Maybe. Tina Fey isn't a great comedienne because she can do a great imitation of Sarah Palin. She's a great comedienne because she destroyed Sarah Palin by doing a great imitation of her and using that to show her to be the ignorant laughable fool that she is.That's a lot harder to and still be funny, because Fey never was doing that for political reasons.That's why she came off so damn funny but not mean.

Gaga also took Madonna's ideas to an entirely new level. "Born This Way", for example, could never have been written by Madonna. And the same is true of her dancing and singing, but mostly her song writing and flair for operatic drama and inventing a new look every time you see her.

The only true originals in this world, if you believe in that, were Adam and Eve. So, without Madonna, there wouldn't be Lady Gaga ..... certainly not the same Lady Gaga, anyway. So she may be envious,but she shouldn't be, because Gaga is certainly far more than a Madonna imitator and deserves her success and I think Madonna may be realizing that.

Tune in next time, to see if Madonna really does love Lady Gaga or just wants to set fire to her hair!!!

No, of course being a freak isn't creative on it's own. It's not creative at all. Anyone can be a freak. There are lots of "stars" that I might call freaks who may appeal to immature kids but they aren't really creative. But Gaga is no freak. She's a creative genius who built her career only partially on Madonna's ideas and took them to a whole new level precisely because she wasn't trying to simply copy her. That wouldn't be hard to do, you know. Madonna herself has said "I know I'm not the best singer and I'm not the best dancer.... I'm not really interested in that". Madonna is an original, but once that's done, simply copying the original is not that hard, with a little bit of talent, of course.

But I gave an example of her genius when I said that Madonna never could have written "Born this way" and one of the reasons is, that song came from Gaga's own life experience feeling like a freak in high school,like she was never good enough and it became an anthem for all "freaks" who feel that way, and it really was about racism and prejudice. And the choreography in the whole video was incredible. Poker face is one that I didn't even like at all till I saw a video of some older guy dancing to it, teaching his moves to young dudes, and the song started growing on me. That never happened to me with Madonna's songs.

A lot of Madonna's stuff is very commercialized. Gaga is far more creative and authentic because she's more talented, in everything from her songwriting to her creative costumes, makeup and hair styles! Sure it's the people who do it for her but she's still in control of all of it. It's like you're seeing a different person every time yet it's still her personality. Maybe you've never seen pictures of her just hanging out. You'd never even know it was her. She's no freak, it's who she is on stage that you're seeing, even in an interview she speaks very normally and respectfully but the costumes are always there "to please my fans" and it's just plain fascinating to see those different looks.... it's amazing to watch her. In a documentary, before a show, she started crying because she still has moments when she feels like a freak back in high school when she never felt good enough and all she wants to do is please her fans. That's someone who's always going to do it better than the last time - that's no Madonna imitator.

To be honest with you, I never liked Madonna's singing at all, but I did think her choreography, costumes and creativity made her a star- the singing was commercial garbage. And I'm not especially into Lady Gaga either. But I'm still fascinated by her phenomenal talent from her songwriting and singing, to her costumes,hairstyles make up, her flare for operatic drama to her constant drive to do it bigger and better.

One great talent of Madonna's was her ability to reinvent herself. She's a master of that. But Gaga does that everyday, whether it's a show or an interview she's constantly inventing something.

If you try to understand what she's doing and why, you still might not like her but at least you 'll see her talent. I understand why you feel that way, but I also think there's a lot more to Stefani than that. It's easy to criticize, but think about it. If all she was doing was ripping off Madonna, then how did she achieve so much more fame in such a short time? Madonna's not dead yet, you know, she's still active and nobody wants to see a cheap imitator. Do you really think the kids don't know who Madonna is?

I'm really heavily into jazz and years ago I couldn't stand the sax playing of John Coltrane but I was a drummer and I was trying to understand his "genius" So I went down to a legendary jazz club and watched him live for six hours. I felt as though my guts had been bounced around the four walls of Birdland, and I still didn't like Trane that much but I finally understood why he was, in fact, a genius.