**Many of you may not know this, and to be fair how would you, but I once wrote for NAU’s Lumberjack newspaper. While not everything I wrote was journalistic gold, there were a few gems that I still feel deserve a look at.**

Let me be the first to say I was not a fan of Lady Gaga. I just didn’t get it. She struck me as a typical wannabe superstar who was no different than any other pop singer we’d seen in recent years. Other than the rumors of her potentially being a man, nothing struck me as particularly interesting about her.

Yet something strange happened when I actually bothered to watch some of her music videos — I liked them. Apparently I’m not alone, either, because Lady Gaga now has the prestigious honor of being the first franchise to ever reach 1 billion views on YouTube. While it may seem like a frivolous accolade, one has to wonder why Gaga was the first to ever reach this milestone. Or perhaps more importantly, what does that say about the current generation’s mindset?

Underneath those over-extravagant hats lies the mind of a truly talented young woman. A keen eye will notice her music videos often have an atypical sexual undertone. While it’s no secret sex has been a huge factor in pop music for decades, Lady Gaga doesn’t limit her videos to sexual norms. Bondage, furries and other such “deviant” sexual ideas are rather common in her videos. With her achievement of reaching the 1 billion-view benchmark, it’s impossible to deny our generation is being exposed to these radical ideas.

Another important factor to consider is Lady Gaga’s open bisexuality. You’ll find no shortage of girl-on-girl action in her music videos. And unlike a certain other pop star who seems content to just sing about kissing a girl and liking it, Lady Gaga seems to take pride in her sexuality. She even attributes a great deal of her success to her gay fans, which isn’t something mainstream artists have been very open about before.

I think it’s safe to say Lady Gaga can accredit a great deal of her success to the increasing tolerance of our time. The music industry has always pushed the envelope on what is publically acceptable, going back as far as to when Elvis Presley’s gyrating hips drove parents mad. Yet despite how common sex has become in the mainstream media, homosexuality is still a big “no-no” in many circles. With gay rights becoming a bigger and bigger issue as of late, we should look at Ms. Gaga’s rise to fame more closely. With 1 billion views and counting, Lady Gaga isn’t just a pop icon or a gay icon, but a symbol of things to come.

[End of original piece.]

Since having written this in 2010, the Internet has continued to become a growing mecca of musical videos and “talent,” both good and bad, over the years. And while Lady Gaga hasn’t actually changed the face of music or anything special, I stand by my point that every generation or so needs artists like her. She may not be making headlines anymore, but in many ways, that’s kinda the point. Her recent stuff is no less ridiculous and over the top as her old stuff. I mean she spends part of the video for “Mary The Night” wearing nothing but panties and covering herself in Cheerios. Did that make headlines though? No. Why? Well frankly, no one really cares anymore. And that’s a good thing!

The truth of the matter is that she can do the most crazy stuff ever, net more than 34 million views on Youtube, and yet no one is surprised by it anymore. It’s beautiful.

So while the change in the public psyche may have been something more of a whisper then a deceleration of change, the change still happened. You could try to argue that niche artists do outrageous stuff all the time, and that Lady Gaga has simply fallen aside of the mainstream (and therefore hasn’t changed or affected future generations all that much). But like I said, a single video of hers can net millions of views. Clearly her content is reaching people.

Perhaps this is simply how things are going to “change” in the coming generations. We may never see the likes of The Beatles or Elvis in our lifetimes. Not because they don’t exist, but because the pace of our culture simply moves too fast these days for their impact to feel as meaningful. Who knows? Perhaps it’ll take a new kind of artist entirely to make the sort of ripples that the artists of old could.

I have no idea what the future of music will look like. And how could I? But I do know that I’m looking forward to seeing it unfold, even if I dislike the music itself with a passion. After all, it wont be my music anymore, but the music of the next generation. Let’s hope for the best everyone! Or at least hope that Youtube is still around for people to make parody videos of it all…