I can remember her progression from curiosity with a catchy song or two to full blown pop star hitting that apex point right at that moment. Let's not pretend that most of the Lady Gaga machine is fueled by women, women who like to get drunk and shout "RO MA RO MA MA" or whatever it is.

At the time of her appearance and performance, "Paparazzi" was just coming out. "Just Dance" had it's audience but wasn't REALLY a big deal. "Poker Face" was catchy, but most people either loved it or hated it. Gaga hadn't yet earned the cache to put out a song and, ike imcvspl is saying, have it accepted on name brand long before artistic, or even pop, merit.

But after those strange, eye-popping appearances, suddenly all the females with a confused outlook on her were looking up pictures of her on Google all day, studying her videos meticulously and turning TMZ into an hourly conversation. Suddenly, not knowing or enjoying at least three GaGa tracks was almost grounds for heresy, and somewhere between "Lovegame" and "Bad Romance" things just snapped in pop culture. Lady Gaga wasn't just a maybe-hermo with crazy videos and decent beats anymore; suddenly she was this generation's Madonna and a one of a kind artist we as a culture simply can't let slip through the cracks.

Like imcvspl, I'm also dubious as to the amount of control she had over this situation, as like he said the machine kept churning and churning for her at a point where it gives up for so many others. But I do applaud her for being creative enough to reach this point, because you can't say the labels are dreaming up the House of Gaga. That's all her, and she was doing it before Akon put her on.

http://potholesinmyblog.com/

http://rateyourmusic.com/list/Nodima/run_that_shit__nodimas_hip_hop_handbook