Video of the Week: Lady Gaga’s “Alejandro”

Here’s Lady GaGa’s new video for “Alejandro” taken from her album, ‘The Fame Monster’:

My Review: Well, we really didn’t hear much about “Alejandro”, unlike the media blitz that came with “Telephone”. My initial reaction? I liked this video more than I did “Telephone”, but still, it’s not as good as “Bad Romance”. “Telephone” felt bloated and the plot far too confusing (it just didn’t make a lot of sense). “Alejandro”, on the the other hand, seems more streamlined – there’s no plot to follow, it’s all about the visuals, it’s just GaGa and no Beyonce to have to accommodate and feature and it stands on its own. While I really am curious if there’s anymore to the “Telephone” plot since it ended with “to be continued …” I didn’t really care by the end of this video.

What we have here is Madonna’s “Vogue” and “Like a Prayer” drenched in a military theme. It’s darker, has something of an apocalyptic vibe to it with GaGa sporting goggles and a red nun’s outfit while watching scantily clad military men dancing around. Early on, GaGa did say this video was a tribute to her gay fans, but then again, isn’t EVERY Lady GaGa video a tribute to her legion of gay fans? She also said this was dedicated to those who serve in the armed forces and are GaGa fans as well. Really, I think most of her videos should be accompanied by a brief or setup because I don’t think anyone truly gets what her aim is with each video. Is “Alejandro” what I expected? No. It’s far more darker and sinister than the frilly pop hit. The video is also longer than I expected. Like in “Telephone”, she took a 3 minute song and stretched it into a mini movie. She also collaborated with Steven Klein, a great photographer who’s known to be one of Madonna’s longtime collaborators. I wasn’t really surprised at all by some of the Madonna influences. I was a bit surprised that there wasn’t more fashion in the video. Things felt very stripped and toned down after the pop and colorful explosion that was “Telephone”.

In the end, I have to give props to Lady GaGa. She’s doing one thing right where a lot of artist are going wrong: she’s trying her best not to waste her music videos. Each one is a big event, turned from a mere promotional tool for a song to being its own moment and mini movie. It’s something that Michael Jackson started and that Madonna used to do back in the 1990s. After “Bad Romance”, “Telephone” and this video, I hope she closes out this era with at least one more single and video from “The Fame Monster” before moving on to new material. My vote? “Monster.”

Follow me on Twitter @Decaptain