| Lady Gaga: Queen of Pop | |
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Book cover, UK edition |
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| Author(s) | Emily Herbert |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Subject(s) | Lady Gaga |
| Genre(s) | Biography |
| Publisher | John Blake Publishing Ltd. |
| Publication date | 2010 |
| Media type | Paperback |
| Pages | 288 |
| ISBN | 1844549631 |
| OCLC Number | 515459835 |
Lady Gaga: Queen of Pop is a biography of American recording artist Lady Gaga, written by Emily Herbert (pen name for Virginia Blackburn) and published in the United Kingdom by John Blake Publishing Ltd. It was published by Overlook Press in the United States, with the title Lady Gaga: Behind the Fame.[1] Additional versions under the Lady Gaga: Queen of Pop title were published in 2010 by Wilkinson Publishing of Melbourne, Victoria,[2] and by Gardners Books in the United Kingdom.[3] The book discusses Gaga's early life when she was known as Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta. It begins with her birth in 1986, and chronicles her education and travails leading up to her first experience with fame. The author covers her time at Convent of the Sacred Heart in New York, her early quests to nightclubs with her mother to perform at open-mic events, and her brief foray into the Tisch School of the Arts. Germanotta took on the name "Lady Gaga" from the song by the rock group Queen called "Radio Ga Ga"; she released her first album The Fame in 2008. Lady Gaga describes the musician's success in the industry, noting her business collaborations and appearance on the cover of Rolling Stone in 2009.
Lady Gaga received a mixed reception, and was described positively by a reviewer for the Orlando Sentinel. A review for the Herald Sun criticized the book's style of commentary and its chronological organization style. A book critic for the St. Petersburg Times commented in appreciation of the photos of the musician displayed in the book. The Phoenix New Times published a review of the book which characterized its style as tending towards a positive tone, and compared it to a Wikipedia entry. A reviewer for the Minneapolis Star-Tribune criticized the book for being predictable in nature. Ms. Magazine published a review which noted that the book describes the musician's business acumen and motivation to maintain control of her image. Writing for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, a reviewer of Lady Gaga noted that the book utilized multiple references, and presented a detailed biography of the musician.
Contents |
Emily Herbert is the pen name for British journalist Virginia Blackburn.[4] Blackburn wrote articles on Lady Gaga in publications including The Express,[5] and the Herald Sun.[6] Her biography of Katie Price, Katie and Peter: Too Much in Love, became a number one bestseller in the category of paperback non-fiction.[7][8] Other works by the author include Michael Jackson: King of Pop, Kerry: Story of a Survivor (about Kerry Katona), Robbie: A Life Less Ordinary (Robbie Williams), and Gok Wan: The Biography (Gok Wan).[9][10] Blackburn specializes in celebrity biographies; she motivates herself to write 5,000 words per day.[11] Overlook Press stated it was the first published biography on the musician.[12]
Lady Gaga is 288 pages in total, and includes 32 pages of photographs of the musician.[13][14] The author compares Lady Gaga to musician Madonna, noting that both are independent and work to assert control over their futures.[5] The book discusses Lady Gaga's early life and background, including her upbringing in a New York household with a businessman father.[5] Gaga attended the same high school as Paris Hilton.[5] Born Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta on March 28, 1986, she attended Convent of the Sacred Heart from age 11.[5] As a student she was not popular with other girls in school, due to her experimentation with exotic dance, drugs, and bisexuality.[5] By age 13, she had written her first song, and her mother took her to nightclubs in order to perform at open-mic events.[5] She gained entry to the Tisch School of the Arts in New York at age 17, but left and experimented with drugs while performing as a go-go dancer.[5] After a period of difficulty with her father, she ceased this behavior pattern.[5]
She took on a new name, "Lady Gaga", which came from the song "Radio Ga Ga", by the rock group Queen.[5] She learned that she could gain attention with a new identity, and appreciated the attention it garnered.[5] Her first album came out in August 2008 and was titled The Fame. It included the hit songs "Poker Face" and "Just Dance."[5] She had an emotional separation from a boyfriend named Luke, who was a heavy metal drummer, but her main focus continued to be her music and her work.[5] The Fame became a successful album worldwide, and Gaga started the group "Haus of Gaga" whose contributing endeavors include sound design, clothing, and stage production.[5] She appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone in May 2009, and performed with bands including Take That and the Pussycat Dolls on their world tours.[5]
Jim Abbott of the Orlando Sentinel described the book as "a breathless new biography" about the musician.[15] In a review of the book published in the Herald Sun, Blanche Clark was critical, and commented, "Herbert's loose timeline is irritating, as is some of her glib commentary, such as: 'When her parents took her out to restaurants, she would use the breadsticks as drum batons—music was clearly in the blood.'"[16] St. Petersburg Times book critic Colette Bancroft said of the images in the book, "I can tell you lots of the photos are fun, although a few are a little scary, like the one in which she looks like a space alien awaiting a gynecological exam."[17]
Writing for the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Kristin Tillotson characterized Lada Gaga as a "quickie, predictably vapid bio".[18] Noelle Williams of Ms. Magazine commented, "Emily Herbert’s Lady Gaga: Behind the Fame adds to the already familiar growing-up-Catholic-school-girl backstory new insight into Gaga’s artistic vision and business savvy. In an industry in which many women (and some men) are shepherded to stardom with little input, Gaga appears to be completely in control of her image."[19]
Writing for Phoenix New Times, Nicki Escudero compared the book to an entry on Wikipedia: "It's sort of like a really expanded Wikipedia entry, if you like that type of thing, though Herbert's voice shows that she's definitely a fan, and the book isn't completely unbiased—it's a very revering [sic] tale of Gaga's 24-year-old life."[20] Sharon Galligar Chance reviewed the book for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, and noted, "Using references from many, many different sources, Herbert has put together a fairly solid biography of the new pop icon".[21] She concluded her review, "Although sometimes redundant, Herbert, an English journalist with many of these 'star biographies' to her credit, does give the reader a full-bodied accounting of the persona behind Lady Gaga".[21]
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