A History Of: Initial Research

Biography
Lady gaga came to prominence following the release of her debut studio album the fame (2008), which included the hits "just dance," "poker face," "bad romance" and sold over 15 million copies worldwide. The album earned her six grammy nominations and two wins as well as a slew of other awards recognition, including a record setting thirteen mtv video music award nominations. Gaga is the first artist in history to claim four #1 hits from a debut album ("just dance," "poker face," "lovegame" and "paparazzi").  she is also the only artist in the digital era to top the 5 million sales mark with her first two hits. Gaga broke the record when her single "poker face" reached 5 million in sales after her debut single "just dance" accomplished the same feat the year before. She has over 1.3 billion combined views of all her videos online. She is also a staple in the social networking world. She's one of the biggest living people on facebook with over 33 million 'likes' and is #1 on twitter with over 9.5 million followers. Her third studio album, born this way, is scheduled for release on may 23, 2011. The first single from the album, title track "born this way", set a music industry record by becoming the fastest single in history to reach sales of 1,000,000 copies (five days after its february 11th release). Only the 19th single to ever debut at #1 on the billboard hot 100 (issue date february 26,2011), the recording was lady gaga's third #1 on the chart. On itunes, the song debuted at the top spot in 14 countries, including the u.s., and hit #1 in all 23 itunes stores worldwide its first week out. "born this way" was gaga's 7th single to hit #1 at top 40. The second single from the album, "judas" has eclipsed 500,000 in sales and lady gaga's latest single, "the edge of glory," went straight to #1 on itunes in its first day of release and stayed there for 3 days. Gaga is well-recognized for her outré sense of style as a recording artist, in fashion, in performance and in her music videos. Her contributions to the music industry have garnered her numerous achievements including five grammy awards amongst twelve nominations, two guinness world records and the estimated sale of 15 million albums and 51 million singles worldwide. Billboard named her both the "2010 artist of the year" and the top selling artist of 2010 ranking her as the 73rd artist of the 2000s decade. Gaga has been included in time's annual "the 2010 time 100" list of the most influential people in the world as well as forbes' list of the "the world's most powerful celebrities" in the world. Forbes also placed her at number seven on their annual list of the world's "100 most powerful women."

http://www.ladygaga.com/

http://www.biography.com/

Early Days

Lady Gaga was born Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta on March 28, 1986 in New York City to parents Cynthia (née Bissett) and Joseph Germanotta, an Internet entrepreneur. Descending from Italian and more distant French-Canadian roots, Gaga is the elder of two children. Despite her seemingly affluent upbringing in the family home in Manhattan's Upper West Side, Gaga has stressed that she did not come from a wealthy background, stating that her parents "both came from lower-class families, so we've worked for everything—my mother worked eight to eight out of the house, in telecommunications, and so did my father."

From the age of 11, Gaga – who was raised Roman Catholic – attended the Convent of the Sacred Heart, a private all-girls Roman Catholic school on Manhattan's Upper East Side.

Gaga began playing the piano at the age of 4, went on to write her first piano ballad at 13, and started to perform at open mike nights by the age of 14. Her passion for musical theatre brought her lead roles in high school productions, including Adelaide in Guys and Dollsand Philia in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. She also appeared in a very small role as a mischievous classmate in the television drama series The Sopranos in a 2001 episode titled "The Telltale Moozadell" in addition to unsuccessfully auditioning for parts in New York shows.

When her time at the Convent of the Sacred Heart came to an end, her mother encouraged her to apply for the Collaborative Arts Project 21 (CAP21), a musical theatre trainingconservatory at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. After becoming one of twenty students to gain early admission, she eventually lived in an NYU dorm on 11th Street by the age of 17. CAP21 prepared her for her future career focus in "music, art, sex and celebrity" where, in addition to sharpening her songwriting skills, she composed essays and analytical papers on art, religion, social issues and politics. Gaga withdrew from CAP21 at 19, in the second semester of her sophomore year, deciding to focus on her musical career. Her father agreed to pay her rent for a year, on the condition that she re-enroll at Tisch if unsuccessful.

She also began a band called the Stefani Germanotta Band (SGBand) with some friends from NYU. SGBand reached their career peak at the 2006 Songwriters Hall of Fame New Songwriters Showcase at The Cutting Room in June whereWendy Starland, a musician, appeared as a talent scout for music producer Rob Fusari. Starland informed Fusari – who was searching for a female singer to front a new band – of Gaga's ability and contacted her. While in collaboration, Fusari compared some of her vocal harmonies to those of Freddie Mercury, lead singer of Queen. It was Fusari who helped create the moniker Gaga after the Queen song "Radio Ga Ga". Gaga was in the process of trying to come up with a stage name when she received a text message from Fusari that read "Lady Gaga."

Gaga was signed to Def Jam in September 2006 with the intention of having an album ready in nine months. However, she was dropped by the label after only three months. In 2007, Gaga subsequently struck a music publishing deal with Sony/ATV. As a result, she was hired to write songs for Britney Spears and labelmates New Kids on the Block, Fergie, and the Pussycat Dolls. At Interscope, singer-songwriter Akon recognized her vocal abilities when she sang a reference vocal for one of his tracks in studio. Akon then convinced Interscope-Geffen-A&M Chairman and CEO Jimmy Iovine to form a joint deal by having her also sign with his own label Kon Live, making her his "franchise player."

http://en.wikipedia.org/

Haus of Gaga

"Haus of Gaga" is Lady Gaga's own creative production team. She personally handles the team, and they are in charge of creating a lot of her everyday clothes, stage clothes and hair style. Lady Gaga says that her interest in fashion derives from her mother.

Lady Gaga explains fashion's strong influence by saying "When I'm writing music, I'm thinking about the clothes I want to wear on stage. It's all about everything altogether - performance art, pop performance art, fashion. For me, it's everything coming together and being a real story that will bring back the super-fan. I want to bring that back. I want the imagery to be so strong that fans will want to eat and taste and lick every part of us." The Haus of Gaga has been said to "bring the performance art into the mainstream channels".

The "Haus of Gaga" should not mixed up with "House of Gaga Publishing" which is Lady Gaga's publishing company for her music, managed by Lady Gaga's father, Joe Germanotta. Lady Gaga said in an interview in Germany that the name is inspired by the German retail store "Bauhaus".

The Haus is clearly inspired by Andy Warhol's "Factory", a collective of inspiring and creative people. The Haus is dividing inte different project teams providing Lady Gaga with different fashion details. The latest years, all of Lady Gaga's clothes, on- and off-scene props (all of the different glasses, the monster ball rings on the poster for the "Fame Ball Tour", the Disco Stick etc.) have been created by The Haus of Gaga.