Let’s admit it, we love it when musicians give their opinion about other musicians, especially when it is not a compliment. Because of her eccentric and extravagant clothing style, Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Karen O was asked by the Guardian about Lady Gaga, and she wasn’t that kind when the newspaper assumed she may have a sort of kinship with the fame monster:
‘No, no, no! I feel there's a core authenticity or originality lacking there. It's so referential. I mean, everything is referenced, but when you read Just Kids by Patti Smith, there's idol worship towards poets or Jim Morrison or whoever, but it seems to be processed through her filter and it ends up becoming very Patti Smith. That's different from just picking what you like from what other people do and presenting it as your own.’
I really like the fact she was honest and not trying to kiss Gaga’s ass, as a lot of other people have done it in interviews. And I agree, Karen O can dress the way she wants, she will always have her own unique style,… whereas Lady Gaga's style is all over the place, she has worn about everything that exists at the surface of the earth and every time it looked like one hundred people had gathered around her to build the most extravagant and puzzling thing ever seen, as she always seem to have escaped from a vampire ball, a superhero fanclub meeting, a wizard of Oz convention, or a Vatican secret mess.
Plus I totally get what Karen O says about appropriating stuff from others and making that stuff yours, some can really do that, some don’t, there’s no other way to put it. Everyone steals from previous art and other artists, but you can’t fake authenticity, some people will never have it for some reasons. And the ability to distinguish between the two types is not always easy, anyone can be fooled for a while, but when the vision of a meat dress comes to mind before a song, there’re a lot of chances authenticity is not the artist's first preoccupation.