I lived through the beginning of rock n roll in the 50s. There were no lyrics glorifying Satan, or drugs, or communism in those days, I guarantee you. The whole cultural scene was downright corny and innocent by today's standards.
Yes, I know that much of jazz can be traced to whorehouses, but once it went mainstream there were only mildly suggestive lyrics, and again, no antipatriotic or Satanic lyrics. Even in raw old blues lyrics I don't hear explicit profanity, while today that is commonplace. No "pop musicians" pranced around the stage nude as does Flea today. Mainstream entertainment was not the same as the subculture of the slums back then. Today, some of the best-selling "artists" are straight from the slums, and wallow in flagrant use of the f-word, the n-word, the mf-word, incitements to violence, etc. etc.
hellbender,
I posted this lady gaga analysis up because this particular video wasn’t your average piece of pop. it’s not about her sensual moves or explicit lyrics—but the blatant occultic, Freudian, ancient spiritual, and Biblical symbols incorporated into several of the video’s segments.
The symbolism is so subtle, only people with some sort of expertise in the field would catch the details and make the connections. (Things like ram’s heads, egyptian cats, crucifixes, bath houses, etc...) Therefore, the power of the video is in the *subconscious* impact it has more than anything else.
I can’t be sure if Gaga is evem aware of the meaning of all the symbols, but it’s clear, the DIRECTOR does. He obviously has a strong knowledge of ancient spirituality, the Bible, and of occultic and Freudian concepts because he’s incorporated them in several other major videos he’s directed.