Lady Gaga Gives SXSW Keynote: Dont Sell Out to This Business

Publish date: 2024-07-03

Nearly 12 hours after a wild show at Stubb’s BBQ, Lady Gaga emerged wearing clear trash bags Friday morning for her SXSW keynote and had anything but applause for the current state of the music industry.

“As you get more successful, they push the rule book at you more,” the pop singer said of record executives.

Gaga, known to her fans as Mother Monster, said the underwhelming performance of her latest album “Artpop” only highlighted the fact that the industry’s priorities were upended.

“I’m very proud (of the album)…I’m held to such an insane standard and it’s almost like everybody forgets where the music business is now,” she said. “The sad part is at some point you have to look at those people who believe in you and say, ‘My talent matters more to me than the money does. What I have to say matters more to me than the money does.’ I would give it all up tomorrow if I had to sell my soul. I will retire from the commercial market if I can’t be myself.”

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Hosted by former MTV VJ John Norris, the hour-long discussion featured questions from the audiences while the singer also explained her “Swine” performance from Thursday night, during which “vomit painter” Millie Brown forced herself to throw up all over the singer.

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“I’ve known Millie (Brown) for I think like five years now and we’ve actually collaborated before…she was just in town and so we thought we would collaborate again,” she explained. “It was just exciting to see people talk about performance art on the internet. We really just did it because we believe in the performance and we believe in what it meant to the song.”

Gaga, speaking at the Hilton Hotel in Austin, revealed she will be releasing her next music video next Saturday.

“Don’t sell out to this business,” she told the audience. “Sell in.”

The 27-year-old later dismissed comparisons to fellow artists including Katy Perry, whose single “Roar” dropped on the same day as Gaga’s “Applause.”

“I don’t know what the fuck I have to do with Katy Perry. My music is so completely different and I couldn’t be more different,” she quipped.

But perhaps the most exciting bit of news for Gaga’s “little monsters” was that new music will soon be on the way.

Said Gaga, “I have a whole second act of ‘Artpop.’”

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