Brand Lady Gaga

This book is about Lady Gaga’s branding-the stories that inform it and the ideas that shape her public image.

Who is Lady Gaga and how does she connect with her fans and audiences via storytelling? These questions guide Nelligan’s discourse and textual analyses of Gaga’s media interviews, product marketing, songs, albums and documentaries to reveal numerous themes and messages that inform her brand. These themes include: stories about monsters, self-love bravery, kindness and pride; distinctive and outlandish fashion and boundary-pushing performance art; LGBTIQA+ activism and support of queer communities; mental-health advocacy and philanthropy (which, as Nelligan shows, is powerfully underpinned by Gaga’s own mental-health challenges); and personal reflections on the significance of family and kinship in shaping her identity as a songwriter and artist. Nelligan demonstrates how Gaga, in a considered yet heartfelt manner, weaves these themes together to form the overarching story of Brand Lady Gaga, offering insights into the star’s extraordinary life and the dynamics of twenty-first-century branding in music.

Kat Nelligan is a proud Gamilaraay woman and Lecturer in Music Industry in the School of Media and Communication at RMIT University, Melbourne. Kat’s research interests include youth justice and music, music and social and emotional wellbeing, and Indigenous storytelling through music. She is a songwriter, music producer (Ableton Live), and performer who composes music under the artist name of Zaffiri.