Poker Face: The Rise and Rise of Lady Gaga by Maureen Callahan

Poker Face: The Rise and Rise of Lady Gaga Reviews

• 
  Josu Diamond

  La definición de desastre.
  
  He leído las suficientes biografías/investigaciones/academic papers (etc) como para saber que esto es un absoluto desastre. Para realizar mi Trabajo de Fin de Grado de la universidad he tenido que empezar a documentarme sobre Lady Gaga más a fondo, ya que es mi objeto de estudio. Y, sinceramente... la peor decisión posible ha sido empezar por este libro.
  
  No voy a negar que hay datos e ideas interesantes, referencias que he anotado o detalles que me han resultado curiosos. Sin embargo, ¿me servirán? Me temo que no mucho, ya que tengo que contrastarlos. ¿Os dais cuenta? ¡Contrastarlos! ¡Viniendo de una biografía llena de citas y referencias! Venga, os cuento por qué.
  
  Para empezar, la autora no es la más fan de Gaga que pueda haber. Se nota su desdén, su odio, su incomprensión casi desde la primera página. Y eso, obviamente, no es bueno. Señora, si no le gusta la persona sobre la que va a escribir... NO LO HAGA. Además, se basa en fuentes anónimas y personas que pasaron por la vida de Gaga sin pena ni gloria para desmitificarla o sacar detalles escabrosos que, además, nunca vienen al cuento. Un ejemplo -no real- de esto que os cuento sería tal que así:
  
  

  "Lady Gaga rompió con los cánones de la moda y todo el mundo quería vestirla: desde McQueen a Versace. Sin embargo, según un compañero suyo de una clase optativa de la escuela de arte en la que Gaga estuvo tres meses y con la un día se cruzó en el pasillo, ella vestía en vaqueros. Esto nos hace pensar que es todo falso y su imagen construida sobre algo meticulosamente calculado."

  
  
  Y, literalmente, podemos encontrar este tipo de frases cada dos páginas. Es surrealista hacer una biografía así, ignorando hechos reales (como notas de prensa, ventas de entradas, premios, etc), y superponer este tipo de fuentes o confesiones como si fueran la verdad absoluta cuando... poco tienen que ver con la supuesta intención de la biografía.
  
  Aparte de eso, el libro está fatal planteado. De repente, Gaga tiene un novio, y de repente, en ese mismo párrafo, han pasado dos años y ya no se hablan, pero volvemos atrás y su primera demo se la dedicó a él, pero en verdad no, porque ese verano estaba con otro novio, aunque justamente al año siguiente retocó la demo para que tratara de otra cosa, y aunque aún no había firmado con la discográfica, tenía el dinero del contrato... Y un largo etcétera. NO TENÍA SENTIDO. Había saltos temporales continuos con los que era imposible enterarse de algo, no hay orden cronológico ninguno.
  
  
  
  De todos modos, estamos en 2020. Este libro lleva una década publicado y de poco sirve leerlo si quieres saber más sobre la vida de Gaga, ya que por aquel entonces no había tenido el suficiente recorrido como para realmente comprender ni las implicaciones de su carrera ni de su arte. Ni, mucho menos, de su legado.
  
  En fin, un desastre. Un absoluto desastre. Y, encima, la traducción al español no ayuda... porque también lo es.
• 
  Joel

  Es una biografía que abarca a Gaga desde sus inicios en 2006 hasta principios de The fame monster en 2010.
  Le encuentro mas puntos malos que buenos: nombres y luegares muy abundantes, datos erroneos, errores de impresión o edición en las últimas páginas.
  
  Lo Mejor: Me enteré de detalles que no conocía.
  
  Lo Peor: El desfile infinito de personas y lugares de poca relevancia.
• 
  Meryl

  This was one of the worst biographies I've ever read. The author is so negative and derogatory. If you don't like the subject, don't write the book. I'm not even sure this should be called a biography. The majority of the book is quotes from people who met her once, along with other unnamed sources. It's more like a bunch of random events that happen out of order, interspersed with what these people thought of her. Not only that, several times the author wrote about things that may or may not have happened, things that these sources couldn't agree on. What happened to fact-checking?! She even guessed about how old she thought Lady Starlight was. It's not like we live in the era of Google or anything!
• 
  Aaron

  This quick read was a pretty interesting look at Lady Gaga and how she came to the fame that she is currently experiencing. The book starts with a look at her younger years (as Stefani Germanotta), when she started life off in a well-to-do family, attending an expensive private school in New York City, and loving her music. From their, the book takes the reader through the timeline that covered her evolution into Lady Gaga, a stage persona, through hard work and dedication.
  
  While Gaga was lucky enough to have wealthy and caring parents, it seems that her willingness to really dedicate herself to a love of music and her drive for a successful career in the music industry has played a big role. Of course, it didn't hurt that her father had some great connections in the entertainment industry, but she also made good use of networking and her friendships with people to gain access to arenas to perform and music executives. Callahan highlights how some of these friends, particularly those who no longer consider themselves to be friends of Gaga, would say that they were used and taken advantage of during Gaga's climb to stardom.
  
  Callahan does provide a good deal of balance in her presentation. While she highlights Gaga's talent, she also highlights the former Stefani's fear of being alone and failure, her overly dramatic romantic life, the debate of whether her fashion style or even her music is original or stolen from those who went before, and her potential abuse of friends for their connections. An interesting result is a mix of praise and heavy criticism for Lady Gaga.
  
  Callahan, who was an editor and writer at the New York Post for a number of years has also done a nice job of highlighting how the music industry works. Readers see Stefani as she kicks off her music career in some grungy clubs in New York and works her way up to being the opening act for other big name artists before getting the starring slot of her own. She is often on the edge of exhaustion as she balances the demands of touring, including interviews and performances, and record making. For the most part, her personal life seems to take a back seat.
  
  In a way, that represents the only real disappointment I had in the book. You really get little sense of who Stefani/Gaga is in real life. Is Lady Gaga a stage persona that fades away when she is living her everyday life or is she really a representation of the real person? I would have liked to have more of that type of coverage. I think that it doesn't happen because the author does not seem to have had direct access to Gaga as she researched the book.
  
  While there is clear use of research in the form of newspaper articles and interviews with friends (both former and current) and music pundits, there doesn't seem to be anything taken directly from the star. The result is a presentation that seems to be drawn from the concert audience rather than a real connection with the subject.
  
  With that said, I did enjoy the book a lot. Of course, I would probably consider myself to be one of Lady Gaga's little monsters so I am probably a bit biased.
• 
  Joshua

  Being an unapologetic fan of Lady Gaga, I'm desperate to find a great biography of her. This book wasn't it, but by the end I had learned more about Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, a woman who was obviously flawed but wanted something enough to fight for it.
  
  If the reader is interested in really digging into the life of Gaga, trying to understand her motivations, reconcile her humanity while balancing her public persona, and understand what exactly is her cultural relevance to the times she is living in, they are likely to find sparse bits of these criteria throughout the text. Reading this book I was able to determine that there was some effort to understand Lady Gaga, but the sensation of reading this book was akin to observing third-party here-say from middle school girls, which is unfair because even Middle school girls have the decency to telling the story so that it is possibly interesting. I pushed myself through the last few chapters catching the odd bits of interesting facts, and so I can say this book gave me some real insight into Stephanie Germanotta. The book was not a waste of time, but the methodology of this book is flawed.
  
  The reader of this book should know going into this book that the purpose of this book is not so much to understand, celebrate, or contextualize Gaga, so much as to reveal the woman underneath and also to simply observe her rise to fame. Though, again, if one really is interested in that one should simply watch the Bad Romance video as they're far to get a more direct and far more entertaining read.
• 
  Anne Hendricks

  This book is exactly what you expect: a celebrity biography. I knew the basics of Stefani, but what I have seen her BECOME took me to the BEGINNING as this book was a thrift store find.
  
  I like her better now.
  
  Now, she seems more real and approachable.
  
  She seems to have grown as a person.
  
  I like Lady Gaga of NOW better than the one in the time period of this book, published in 2010. I can see from how this book reads, you'd never think of her in A Star Is Born. In this book, she is hungry and ready to become a star - with a very lucky background of privilege of having great vocal coaches and support of a loving (and wealthy) father. But she's talented - very much so - and what does she need to do to be discovered? Tie fashion from here, borrow from everyone, and make it her own at a piano. BOOM! She's talented and thrives on shock and wants to be a star.
  
  End of book, years pass: What we got NOW is a woman of honesty about her depression and a heart for helping people. This didn't come across in this book - I think I preferred the growing up of Stefani than the creation of Lady Gaga.
  
  So, I found the biography to be more of a tell-all, but a great understanding on how the creation of "Lady Gaga" came to be. It was a great afternoon read. I was often going online during the reading of the novel to "check facts" and even went in search of some of Callahan's points. She was 100% well researched.
  
  
  I'd rather read Lady Gaga's own words in an autobiography.
• 
  Lisa

  This biography of Gaga is readable and appears to shed light on the megastar's rise to fame. The numerous quotes from unnamed sources seem a bit sketchy though. Gaga comes off as being extremely driven. No surprise there, but I appreciate success earned through hard work. Overall this account of Gaga's story seems reasonably even handed: self described fans or "little monsters" criticized this book for being overly negative, while I felt the author at times came off as fawning, so in reality the book is probably closer to something in between.
• 
  Mr. Nickler

  I think this book is an interesting read for most anyone who is a fan of Lady Gaga or finds her remotely interesting.  Many will feel the tone of book is negative toward its subject; however, I walked away from the book feeling very positive. There some factual inaccuracy's leading one to wonder what other mistakes are in the book.  All and all, It seems the overwhelming theme of the book is how hard Lady Gaga has worked for this moment.
• 
  Tammi

  I don't like how this book jumped around, it should have went in order chronologically. Also I have no idea how reputable this book is or what to believe. I found some errors in it.
• 
  Ben King

  This book was written in 2o10, only a year Gaga has been big, so right away I was skeptical about how much information was going to be in here. I'm a hardcore Lady Gaga fan, owning all her albums and listening to her music almost every day.
  Poker Face was really disappointing, as Callahan was sloppy with her writing, making it hard to follow along.
  In all, I believe that she could have done a way better job and maybe waited to write this book, so she could write about her other successful albums, and her amazing performances.
• 
  Lexi

  Tenía unas ansias tremendas de leer este libro, y leer una biografía de Gaga, puesto que durante mi etapa escolar fui muy fanática de Lady Gaga. Pero este texto está lejos de ser una biografía completa. Tiene una falta de orden cronológico, con fuentes no identificadas, e incluso sentí que era escrita con creatividad hacia Gaga.
  
• 
  Inma

  Sólo puedo definirlo como interesante. Poco más. Un montón de fechas, anécdotas que no se saben de dónde han salido (la mayoría de "fuente cercana"). En capítulos, la autora critica a LG abiertamente y en otros parece que la envidia.
  Y algo que ODIO: un montón de faltas gramaticales y de sintaxis.
• 
  Drago Mir

  Great biograophy that looks at Lady Gaga's life before and after she becomes famous. Would have given 4* if it wasn't for the negative tone towards Gaga I could feel from the author, before the last few chapters. Still, I think it's worth to be read from every fan of hers.
• 
  Janica Herrema

  Fijn om nieuwe feitjes te leren, maar als Little Monster kon ik er wel wat foutjes uit halen. Jammer.
• 
  wendy

  mediocre. nothing really important. more like a LONG magazine article.
• 
  Dusan Puskarov

  Poker face in daily life
• 
  Laura Jaakkola

  What an amazing story. Sometimes hard Work pays. Kinda makes me go and watch all those music videos and Tours now!
• 
  Blog on Books

  You know you’ve made it as a pop star when the books start coming out. After all, demand begats new titles and after her explosive rise to the top of the pop charts, Ms. Gaga was well ripe for one. (well at least three now, actually.)
  
  There is no room for margin in estimating Gaga’s ambition, from a yearbook dream of performing at Madison Square Garden to her vow to overtake the music world “one sequin at a time,” New York Post reporter, Maureen Callahan chronicles the life, dreams and ambition of a young Stefani Germanotta, who was fiercely determined to make records and become a pop phenomenon.
  
  Beginning by moving to New York and begging for the chance to play gigs at Manhattan’s lower east side hipster clubs, Gaga (named after the Queen song, Radio Ga-Ga) worked her way up the ranks, while still being derailed by poor attendance and thus having to take the occasional job at a burlesque club to pay the bills. Yet, by plying her craft, writing songs in her sparse futon lined apartment, working with her small coterie of DJs and producers, Gaga finally got her break. Yet even after performing at Chicago’s famed Lollapalooza concert, Germanotta was still confused by many for Amy Winehouse and it was not for nearly another year that the young star was on her way to truly becoming a household name.
  
  Throughout the book, all of Gaga’s issues and foibles are brought to light; her insecurities, her ever changing fashion sense (mainly in response to the execs that thought she didn’t have the natural beauty to ever make it big), the revolving door of players in her inner circle, etc. What comes across is a woman who is as genuine as she is manufactured, as confident as she is frail, yet determinedly ambitious from beginning to end.
  
  Callahan’s coverage seems through and informed by all the right people, and for an early phase biography, the book will serve as a history sure to be debated as her fame expands further. There is, of course, no assurance that Gaga will maintain as a cultural phenomenon, but even if she does, “Poker Face” will surely not be the final word on this rise of this performer. Of course, if she fades from here, will anyone even care? A quick read mostly for the here and now.
• 
  Penelope

  While I wouldn't consider myself one of Gaga's "Little Monsters", I do find her work intriguing...in a I-would-love-to-write-an-art-history-paper-about-her sort of way. That is, in a critical sense...she is really interesting to pick apart as a living piece of art, a true spectacle.
  
  That said, her formation as an artist and the creation of Lady Gaga is a bit disappointing at best. Ultimately it seems that her success--the part of it that she personally has had control over--is due to her unrelenting drive and calculating nature (I do mean calculating in the best way possible), with a bit of raw talent thrown in. Aside from that, it seems to have been a matter of money and connections.
  
  While this does tend to shatter the epic "myth" of Lady Gaga, it is a reminder of one very important fact: she is human. And behind all the make-up and fashion, she is a 24 year old celebrity whose position was secured through a process that involved much more than her own personal vision and determination. As attractive as the idea is of her emerging, fully formed, as a self-created masterpiece of art, fashion, and music, the truth is that Lady Gaga is the work of many different people.
  
  The idea of a board-meeting being held to come up with the name "Lady Gaga" is particularly uninspiring, but it sums up the effect of this biography. It's a reality check. It takes you behind the spectacle to see the man behind the curtain, so to speak, but in this instance the "man" is an entourage compiled of record company execs, family members, personal friends, professional acquaintances, etc. That's not to say that Gaga hasn't had anything to do with her fame. The author makes it clear, through her own descriptions and quotes from interviews, that Gaga is an exacting artist who demands perfection and is constantly tuned in to the importance of detail. Nonetheless, Callahan calls attention to the many others who have helped create Lady Gaga.
  
  An interesting, quick read.
• 
  Dollie

  How a slum goddess from the Lower East Side became a heavyweight global pop icon monster. Actually, she wasn’t a slum goddess from the Lower East Side (title of an old tune by The Fugs), she just lived there. I saw this on my online library and I’m a fan, so I decided to read it. It was written by Maureen Callahan, editor and writer for the New York Post. I thought it was enlightening. This book covers the beginning of Lady Gaga's career and it sounds like she worked very hard at it. She appears to be a shrewd business woman and continues to work hard at her craft. I like her music and she is pretty dedicated to her act and there’s nothing wrong with that. More power to her. This wasn't the best biography I’ve ever read, but it was quick and had a lot of information about her early career. I saw Lady Gaga’s Art Rave show at the TD Garden in Boston a few years ago. A Korean girl group, Crayon Pop, performed. Ahhhh, okay. Then a break. Then someone who is mentioned throughout this book, Lady Starlight, DJ’ed for an hour (seemed like hours, so I ducked into the bar). Ummmm, okay. Then another longer break to set up Gaga’s stage. So, although I’m a fan, I’ve been to a lot of concerts and I thought it was an exceptionally long time to wait for a performer. I don’t think I’ll ever bother traveling to Boston again to see her. I’ll save my money and go see P!nk (again) instead once she's back on tour.
• 
  Megalion

  37% read before I finally threw in the towel.
  
  I don't mind an unbiased biography that doesn't soft coat the flaws/faults but the author's not as unbiased as you're supposed to believe.
  
  Biggest clue: After acknowledging that all artists are usually inspired by others, Maureen goes on to say ad nauseum, that Lady Gaga stole stole and stole again from everyone.
  
  Given how easily it is to take facts and spin different stories on them by ascribing things that can't be known (Lady Gaga's actual intentions or thoughts, or those of others especially if they potentially have an axe to grind)... it's hard to take anyone's word for it because a lot of it ends up being he said, she said.
  
  And the subtle attempt to trash Lady Gaga belies any ability to believe lack of bias in Maureen. Therefore, a waste of time to continue reading any further.
  
  I give this 2 stars instead of 1 to give some benefit of the doubt that perhaps Maureen didn't intend to contradict herself that much.
• 
  Christopher Litsinger

  I used to follow the record industry fairly closely, and I'm quite fascinated with the 360 contract that Gaga signed. I hoped this would provide some insight into that contract, and what her meteoric success would mean to the record industry as a whole. Instead, this book is largely biography, a lot of "she said some stuff but she lied and she's really just a rich smart kid who created an image to make money and be famous and stuff" and a lot of name soup that I wasn't particularly interested in following.
  Each of the chapters seems a bit like an article in its own right, and some of the book may be reconstructed from the author's prior work for magazines and the New York Post. This doesn't help with the name soup confusion, and the book suffers a bit from the fact that the chapters are arranged by theme, causing some overlapping of dates that I found confusing.
  On the other hand, this was a light and quick book- I finished it in one day.
• 
  Forrest

  Being an avid fan of Lady Gaga and loving to read what different people have to say about her, I picked up Maureen Callahan's book with every intention of going in with an open mind. I don't take criticism personally unless it is personal, but this biography was very biased, almost negative towards Lady Gaga. The facts were not always correct, either. I wrote a letter to the author, a letter to the editor, and a letter to the publishing company laying out some of the errors with the book's facts using examples and sources due to the errors being so noticeable. Never once heard a response. Overall, worst biography read.
• 
  Sophie

  I really enjoyed reading this. I've read some reviews saying that it's unfair to Gaga, but I really cannot see that. The author does spend quite a bit of time showing instances of where Gaga has exaggerated facts or outright lied, but she also shows instances where other people have exaggerated or lied to make Gaga look bad. And let's be honest -- we knew all along that Gaga was making some things up.
  
  Although it's not particularly insightful into Gaga's music (and probably would have been more interesting had it been written post-Born This Way), the book provides some interesting background on how Gaga got her start. It's easy to read, and well worth it for any Gaga fan.
• 
  Kristen

  Dear Lady Gaga- I am sorry I have been cheating on you and all of your awesomeness. I don't know why I would be surprised that your book, much like your music, elevates my mood and confidence with your acceptance and belief on all of your fans? How do you do that? Even though sometimes I thought the author was making some jabs at you it felt like eventually you have won everyone over. Rock on, Mother Monster!
• 
  Steven Cole

  I picked up this book because I'm actually a Lady Gaga fan, and spotted the cover staring at me every time I wandered through the book section at Target.
  
  This is not ordinarily the kind of book I think I'd like to read, and wow, I sure should have stayed with the thought. This book was really nothing more than a list of names. There was no storyline here, no arc of growth, no insight. I'm really not sure why I even stayed with it.
  
  1 of 5 stars.
• 
  Eli

  I'm a huge Gaga fan and I was extremely impressed with the intimacy this biography reported on her. Callahan is a skilled interviewer and can mould her interviews into an extremly engaging book.
  It is a must read for little monsters as it tells us who she was before she was Gaga and the staggering changes and sacrifices she has made just to make music. We are very lucky to have such a dedicated and talented singer/songwriter in our midst. Paws up!
• 
  Tara van Beurden

  Another book bought at the $2 Rotary book sale. I’m not a huge fan of Lady Gaga but this was actually a really interesting read. I’m not sure how much I believe, as everyone always has a bias in these sorts of stories, but I learnt a lot from it, and even if there is an element of manufacturing to Gaga’s persona, its evident that she certainly has a handle on how to market herself. A short sharp read that I would definitely recommend to any fans or music lovers alike.