Remember That Bet You Made With Lady GaGa When Her Album Came Out Last Year? Looks Like You Owe Her Twenty Bucks

I’d like to make something perfectly clear. I am in no way, shape or form the target demographic for Lady GaGa’s music. And there’s a very strong chance that you out there, reading this right now, are not either. In fact, I can’t say I completely understand who the target demographic actually would be. But apparently it includes a whole lot of people, because that’s exactly who is propelling the dance music star into the stratosphere right now. 

In fact, while you were mourning Michael Jackson last week, or pledging money to your precious college radio, or maybe sitting in your beatnik hippy club listening to a new record by The Beardheads (is that a real band name?), Lady GaGa snuck in behind your back and put herself in a prime position to make American pop music history.

You see, GaGa is set, according to MTV UK and Entertainment Weekly, to become only the third artist (and first American) to score three number one hits on the Billboard Mainstream Top 40 chart from one album. The other two? Ace of Base (Swedes) and Avril Lavigne (Canadian). GaGa’s “LoveGame,” from last October’s album The Fame, will likely this week follow former number ones “Poker Face” and “Just Dance” to the top of the list. 

Is it just me, or does it seem weird that Lady Gaga is going to cement such a milestone? I think it’s safe to say that we’re never going to put her in the same league as Elvis, or Springsteen, or U2. But while Bruce, Elvis and Bono all rose to the top on the virtue of their music and word-of-mouth, Lady GaGa has the benefit of releasing singles in the era of massive commercial PR, social networking sites, Extra, and the integration of musical soundtrack into virtually every hip-and-now television show. So here’s the discussion question: how much does that count for? Especially when you look at her contemporaries on that esteemed list, artists who also were very flavor-of-the-month. Is is that people love Lady GaGa? Is it that she has a great press department? Or is is just that mainstream audiences swallows what’s fed to them?