6 Degrees of Lady Gaga
Lady Gaga, music's biggest new name, isn't famous for her dancey pop songs or piano skills (though the girl certainly has chops). She's famous for being a fashion instigator — for diverting our attention with increasingly out-there outfits, which have, in the past, included oddball face masks, insane-o hair extensions, pants-less-ness and heels that could double as stilts.
But when it comes to music style, we're living in the post-post-modern age. It's tough to conceive of looks that haven't already been mined by rock's sordid forbearers. Through the decades, we've been "shocked" by the likes of David Bowie, Freddy Mercury, Prince and Bjork — provocateurs whose subversive personas not only rocked the establishment, but altered the course of culture and fashion forever.
So how is Gaga, a nice Italian girl from New York, making such a splash with her beekeeper masks and turbans? By aggressively (and ingeniously) borrowing looks from fashion freaks of the past. We connect the dots...
SILVER BELLES: Lady Gaga, left, and Dale Bozzio.
Lady G. looks so much like Dale Bozzio, lead singer for 80s band Missing Persons (both physically and fashion-wise), it's hard to believe her "homage" to the 80s pop star isn't intentional. Bozzio's style legacy includes pioneering the Sexy Space Traveler look, which is a stone-cold fave of Gaga's.
SCARY STUFF: Lady, left, and Marilyn Manson.
Macabre-flavored fashion certainly existed before Marilyn Manson came along. But no one pushed the envelope to the repulsive, horror-show extremes that the gangly goth-rocker did. And while Gaga is obviously more fun to look at — when her face isn't streaming with faux blood, that is — she can thank Manson for taking bondage, man-boobs and bloody eyes mainstream.
PURPLE PEOPLE EATERS: Lil Kim, left, and Lady Gaga.
But Gaga isn't all death and depravation. Often she's purple locks-and-glitter bodysuits. And we can thank Lil Kim (in her pre-prison, pre-nose job days) for breaking the seal on pasties in public. Gaga's nearly bare boobs seem tame in comparison.
IN THE HOOD: Gaga, left, and Grace Jones.
No female artist, before or since, has rocked gender-bending freakiness quite like 70s singer Grace Jones. It's a look Gaga conjures frequently. Lady's occasional nudity can also be traced back to Jones. The former model seemed to perennially be in the buff, and famously performed in nothing but tribal body paint. Leotard, shmeatard.
HANGIN' OUT: Siouxsie Sioux, left, and Gaga.
Siouxsie Sioux, influential singer of 80s goth-new wave band Siouxsie and the Banshees, came out of the box a fashion renegade (clock the swastika arm-band and unsheathed breasts) — and everyone from Karen O. to Madonna has copped elements of her style. Gaga isn't half as hardcore, but there are telltale odes to Ms. Sioux: heavy, slashing eye makeup, bondage-y underthings and artsy dog collars, to name but a few.
MAKING UP: David Bowie, left, and Lady Gaga.
Okay, so you'd be hard pressed to name a modern pop star not influenced by David Bowie's gender-defying Ziggy Stardust persona. And Gaga's not immune. From the makeup to the glittery spandex, she's constantly taking a page from the Spangly One.