So, I've had this conversation back and forth on Twitter with the lovely lindywasp a couple of times, but I'll say it here: I really do believe Lady Gaga's at a point in her artistic project where the songs are just a vehicle to see how much ridiculous the popular culture will absorb. I think the thing that perhaps codified that for me was the "Bad Romance" performance in this week's Glee, the whole episode of which I haven't watched yet, but which is pretty enjoyable on its own.
The video made me realize why Lady Gaga's so popular, and why she's been seized on as a symbol: she represents something absurd and nonsensical that people can embrace, love, and refuse to explain, without suffering any consequences. I think rebellion is often about a desire not to be understandable, legible, and easily dissectible, it's about wanting to build an inner logic that no one can penetrate or refute. It probably doesn't make sense for say, a 16-year-old who gets pregnant to keep the baby with the intent to raise it. It also doesn't necessarily make a lot of sense to go crazy over a girl who wears lobsters made out of glasses. But unless that going crazy gets carried to some damaging extremes, there isn't anything remotely harmful about digging on those lobster glasses. There are consequences, to say, drinking excessively, or getting pregnant accidentally.
And there I think lies a perfect market: Lady Gaga wants to see what all she can put out there into the market. There is a real teenage hunger for this kind of absurdity without risk-taking. And everyone thinks the product is the pop music.