Noel Gallagher on how Madonna took music to “the edge”
From the very start of his career, Mancunian guitarist Noel Gallagher has never held back from slagging off people he doesn’t think too highly of, which is basically the majority of his peers.
His portfolio boasts some of the biggest names in the business, from Phil Collins to Maroon 5 to The 1975, and through the years, he has admirably stood by his word for the most part. On the one hand, while being criticised by the chief is to be expected and almost an honour in some ways, on the other, a compliment from him carries far more weight than that of the average nice-guy rockstar, so for him to praise a blockbuster popstar is quite a huge deal.
To that point, artists like Jack White, The Strokes and Kneecap are among the distinguished lot who have dodged Gallagher’s craftily worded negativity, and given who he is and where he comes from, most of these picks do make sense since they align with his character. However, not all his endorsements belong to the same space he operates within, since he also seems to have a taste for non-rock pop music.
Of course, there first needs to be a sacrifice for him to pay someone a compliment, and in this particular case, it was Lady Gaga and her decision to wear a dress made entirely out of raw beef to the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards. The cultural impact she would ultimately have on the music circuit was yet to fully take shape at the time, and Noel simply couldn’t look past the theatrics of her public persona back when she only had two albums to her name.
During a 2011 interview, he took a moment to share his thoughts on the singer’s bold antics and said, “I don’t give a fucking monkey’s about Lady Gaga. It’s all about the meat suit and the controversy. Is it about music? Really? She’s got the publicity side sorted, but where’s the fucking music?”
Admitting that his daughter plays Gaga’s tunes at home, he didn’t seem the least bit convinced that she would have any longevity in the industry, seeing the newcomer as a cheaper and less compelling version of those who paved the way for her, and he singled out one name to emphasise his point. “Her album gets played a lot around my house by my daughter, and it’s Madonna-lite,” he added, “Madonna was hardcore. She took it to the edge musically as well as everything else”.
Whereas a lot of people may justifiably disagree with his take on Gaga in hindsight, what he said about Madonna is almost impossible to dispute. Being subversive and groundbreaking, she has somehow remained a mainstream fixture one decade after another, and even if she didn’t directly inspire every pop artist that came after her, she certainly cleared up a lot of room for all of them. Noel’s admiration of her starts to make sense with that in mind, especially since he and his brother also had the odds stacked against them as working-class lads from Manchester.
In 2011, he didn’t have the foresight to see any value in what Gaga was doing, even though she has since come quite close to Madonna’s level of stardom, artistry and influence. “20 years from now, will we listen to Lady Gaga?” he asked, “No. She might think she is making a stand for the freaks and the weirdos, but they’re not going to have any decent fucking music to play, are they?”
Well, Noel was right about one thing and wrong about the other, which is fine since you can’t always predict the future to a T; he’s human after all.
