Every Time Lady Gaga Thought She Was Being Original But Wasn't

By Diane Cho

October 12, 2014 / 10:00 AM

Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery but in reality, it's just plain annoying. Pop diva Lady Gaga has been called out by many for being a habitual copycat. But in her defense, nothing is original so maybe she just borrowed other people's ideas and tried to make them better? Madonna, Annie Lennox and Cam'ron may think otherwise. Revisit all those times Gaga thought she was being daringly original and instead should have given credit where credit is due.

Meat Dress

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It's hard to forget Gaga's strange meat dress at the 2010 MTV Music Video Awards. She gave an emotional acceptance speech after asking Cher to hold her meat purse and then belted out a snippet of her (at the time) new single,"Born This Way" on national television. While this whole uncomfortable spectacle went down, Canadian artist Jana Sterbak was probably at home, livid after Gaga had "forgotten" to mention that Sterbak did it first.

In 1987, Sterbak released her controversial "Vanitas: Flesh Dress for an Albino Anorexic" sculpture which was a dress made out of raw flank steak. The piece was created to reflect "the alienation humans feel from their own flesh, aging and mortality." It also symbolized the "you are what you wear" ideology and how more young women have been diagnosed with eating disorders because their bodies don't fit society's "ideal" type. When Gaga was asked by Ellen DeGeneres why she chose to wear meat, the singer said, "It has many interpretations, but for me this evening … If we don’t stand up for what we believe in and if we don’t fight for our rights, pretty soon we’re going to have as much rights as the meat on our own bones. And I am not a piece of meat." What she had failed to mention is that Sterbak originally made this same statement but maybe the rotting meat smell distracted her and made her forget.

Watch the Making of Jana Sterbak's "Vanitas: Flesh Dress for an Albino Anorectic" below.

"Do What U Want" Beat

Lady Gaga's "Do What U Want" featuring R. Kelly raised some eyebrows for a couple of reasons. First, they performed the song live while doing "sex push ups" on Saturday Night Live. Then TMZ released the original video that got scrapped after being too x-rated and risky to release since video director Terry Richardson was dealing with sexual assault and harassment suits and R. Kelly had a few child molestation cases himself and finally, the intro sounds identical to Dance With The Dead's "The Deep" demo. Not convinced? You be the judge and listen to the song below.

Cousin "Itt" From The Addams Family

It's clear to see that Lady Gaga can channel fashion inspiration from anywhere. Not one thing is off limits so it's not surprising that she wore this Addam's Family Cousin Itt inspired hairy full body suit... in public... and not on Halloween. If the Addam's family is what speaks to you in the style department, why not a Morticia Addams deep bold lip or Wednesday Addams braids?

Kermit Dress

[caption id="attachment_302010" align="alignnone" width="534"] Lady-Gaga-Kermit-Dress [Credit: Crisp Daily][/caption]People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, better known as PETA, is an organization famous for defending the lives of our animal brethren. In 2009, they blogged about Gaga "paying homage" to their "baby" coat by wearing a coat made of Kermits. Both PETA and Gaga wore these unique coats to protest against wearing fur. "Paying homage" is just a nice way of saying, this woman copied our baby jacket but she's famous so it'll be great press for us.

But how would Kermit react to this coat that basically looks like she's wearing a bunch of dead Kermits? We thought they were friends?

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Cam'ron's Signature Pink Fur

Rapper Cam'ron made this pink fur outfit a classic. His signature pink coat, hat, phone and shirt are instantly recognizable as this rapper's steez. So why try to take that title, Gaga? Wasn't a meat dress, Cousin Itt body suit and Kermit coat enough?

The answer to that question is: no.

Lady Gaga

Colette The Artist

In May 2012, film maker Josh Gilbert released "Looking for Lady Gaga/Looking For Originality in Art", a short film about the impact street artist Colette has made in the art world. He highlights a moment in January 2012 in the film that shows Colette staging a protest outside of Barneys. The luxury department store is famous for its lavish window displays and in the film, it had Lady Gaga's music and work featured in a multimedia display. Colette had enough of Gaga ripping off the art that had made Colette an icon so she staged a protest outside of the Barneys' window display. And to add fuel to the fire, while Colette was leaving her car to start her demonstration, she was greeted by curious fans asking her if she was Lady Gaga. (Awkward) Watch the clip below to see Colette's mission to declare Gaga as an imposter and how on-lookers came and went to stare and even try to report her to the police.

Annie Lennox at the 1984 Grammys

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Gaga appeared as her male alter ego Jo Calderone at the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards to perform her single "You And I". As she began her long opening monologue, singer Annie Lennox must have thought she was having deja vu because she had done a similar act at the 1984 Grammys. Watch Lennox's performance to see if she was overreacting or not. But from the side by side photo comparison alone, Lennox was definitely on to something.

Marilyn Manson

Marilyn Mason is also an artist who dares to be different. His peculiar outfits on red carpets and stages all over the world shocked fans and sometimes scared them so when Gaga decided to take some fashion cues from the master, people were not as amused. Rocker chic-- we've seen it. Military jackets-- yawn. Black leather thongs with ripped stockings-- Manson wore it better.

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Madonna

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The Lady Gaga and Madonna comparison is the most well-known of all Gaga burglaries. Madonna believes mother monster has basically taken her career and studied it like the bible. She has gone on record to say that Gaga needs to stop being obsessed with her and she basically wrote "Born This Way", joking at the fact that Madge thinks it's a clear replication of her song "Express Yourself".

While the original Queen of Pop finds the comparisons annoying, Gaga had the perfect response to all the hate: "As a punk-rocker from New York, I’ve basically been hoping that I would become so good that one day I would piss off Madonna!" Well lady, you've done your job.

[Photo: Getty Images]