It’s become too easy to applaud pop artists for just taking a risk, as if the status quo has become a simple formula (EXAMPLE: hook-first song, hopefully produced by Timbaland and written by Dr. Luke + in-the-club dumbing out video + a remix with a popular rapper = success!). So why does it feel so fresh when Lady Gaga puts out a video?

In her new video, “Bad Romance” (which premiered Tuesday and was directed by “I Am Legend’s” Francis Lawrence), Gaga emerges from a coffin, strips, appears sans (obvious) make up, dances sensually and oddly, wears impractical heels and over-stylized sunglasses, cries, nonchalantly causes a fire and acts, you know, Gaga-like.

Every scene, costume change, set detail feels wholly Gaga in tone and vision. The opening shot of Gaga surrounded by characters in her earlier videos is a high-fashion advertisement uprooted by a hilarious sense of shock. She sells her disgust when forced to consume swanky vodka (points for viciously spitting it in her enemy’s face, too). I don’t even know what to say about this:

Inspired by a praying mantis?

Gaga has positioned herself as a star as concerned with her aesthetics and image as she is with her music (the latter being pretty good, too). She’s shown flashes of her eccentric tendencies in other videos (”Paparazzi” is strange) and at awards shows (double for the VMA’s performance), but “Bad Romance” is the first video where GAGA GOES IN. I won’t be adding “Bad Romance” to my iPod probably ever, but I was transfixed on this video, and have watched it at least five times this morning. It’s fantastic (worthy of its Web-site-crashing hype) and I hope it’s only a sign of things to come.

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