The greatest barometer of freshness in today’s insta-cycle of pop culture consumption is the “301+ views” tag on a YouTube video. The hits haven’t even registered yet (though the clip already has 11,570 likes, according to post time) but the new Lady Gaga video is already pretty much everywhere. “Applause,” the first actual single off Gaga’s new LP ARTPOP, is a pretty-straightforward electro-pop spinner, a sharper and less mixed-up EDM-gasm than “Aura” or “Burqa” or whatever the hell was floating around the internet for seven eternal seconds last week.
The “Official Lyric Video” for “Applause” features a gaggle of drag queens doing their thang, and having a good time in a place that looks way more swank than Jacques Underground Cabaret. The single almost feels “too safe,” but may ultimately just serve as a re-introduction to Gaga as the months count down to ARTPOP‘s release November 11.
But you know, you can almost feel the “Applesauce” parodies gestating as we watch this. A drag queen covered in apple sauce? Now we’re talking.
RELATED: Listen to what may or may not be a new Lady Gaga track, called ‘Aura’, August 6, 2013