Andy Rooney: Who Is Lady Gaga?

This commentary was first published on May 9, 2010.

It may be what everyone thinks of themselves as, but I consider myself to be an absolutely dead center, normal average American. You'd think my experience growing up, going to school, serving in the Army, getting married, having kids, buying a home, would make me perfect if Hollywood was looking around for an average American male.

The things I write and read on television are for regular, normal, average, everyday Americans, I mean like myself. Or so I think.

My question then is this: If I'm so average American, how come that I've never heard of most of the musical groups that millions of other Americans apparently are listening to? I've heard of Sting and The Rolling Stones, but someone sent me Billboard magazine and I looked at a list of the top 200 performers and nobody I know is on that best seller list.

The singers I know have been replaced by performers like Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga and Usher. I mean who? They are selling millions of songs by singers that I've never heard of and that must mean I'm out of the American mainstream and definitely not average. I know age is the obvious divider, but age doesn't separate Americans in other areas.

We all like comfort, beauty, ice cream, a sunny day and a win for our favorite team.

Why should our tastes suddenly diverge when it comes to the sound of music?

I think of myself as a musical ignoramus who doesn't hear or like the nuances of sound that other people hear and do like.

I don't know who Lady Gaga is and kids today probably don't know who Ella Fitzgerald was. Maybe we should call it even.


Written by Andy Rooney

[babooph]

Gaga is silly entertainment for the young-Rooney is the same for the old...

[tsigili]

Andy.....as we age....we lose the desire to hear noise, and we prefer to hear tranquility. That's all.

[greenizsmiling]

Crazygutgut and Jayseekay... If you were 91 freakin years old and had your own TV feature... yeah, then you can criticize. Give the guy some credit! And in case you missed it... he's funny!! He's acting! Oh and by the way... He's got more clues than most of us could buy! I don't relate to him, but I respect him and I'm entertained by him.

[crazygutgut]

Have you ever seen Andys appearance on the ALI-G show? Hes not "acting" he is genuinely and old grumpy "irrelevant" man.

To Jayceekays point. He is a dinosaur, yet a woman of his age would never be allowed to have that segment. Why are are there so few women news anchors over 50? Why is it Mel Gibson, Paul Newman, Jack Nicholson, etc get love interests in their movies that are more than HALF their age?

Andy Rooney represents something that is seriously wrong with American TV networks and their ability to decide what "we want to see".

Retire Andy Rooney, and add another minute of commercials, that's more entertainment value for me.

[rwsmith29456]

I'm in my early 50's and if I didn't have a young son I wouldn't know those people either. When I first heard somebody named "Lady Gaga"?? WHO?????????

[Kaiya666]

I have to agree - Andy is an old curmudgeon that needs to broaden his horizons. I'm 36 years old, I know who Ella is, Nina Simone, Frank, Dean, Bessie Smith, Nat King Cole, Sophie Tucker - some of the truly greats. I also know who Garth Brooks is, Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, and Taylor Swift. Although I don't have a musical background, I look at music of the times as an expresion of the times. Each one is unique and each on should be considered while keeping an open mind. I may not like Lady Gaga as much as I like Nina Simone and Taylor Swift, but millions of folks can't be all wrong. Andy - open your ears.... You might just hear something you like.

[crazygutgut]

Jayseekay is correct, Andy is a grumpy old man that should retire, and at a bare minimum get those eye brows waxxed.

The funniest thing in this article is that Andy Rooney says that he is an "Average American"
Andy Rooney is 91 years old, by age, he is in a group with only 1% of Americans.
He has been in broadcasting since the 40's
He is reported to make 500k to 1 million a year (again another group only 1% of Americans are in)
He is also still making a regular pay check for his one minute of complaining once a week, at age 91 (a group I could not find any numbers for)

Andy Rooney is not the Average American...

[Jayseekay]

Regardless of what all our music tastes are, Andy Rooney is Clueless and should retire. Seriously, this guy works in media and has never heard of Lady Gaga? I seriously can't listen to him anymore, he's like the borderline-senile old man at family reunions we all smile and nod at.
Why is it that the (few) women in high-ranking news positions have to not only SOUND good but LOOK good, while this old geezer babbles nonsense and still gets a segment? Time to retire....

[porcine_aviator]

Andy: being out of the mainstream is a good thing, because all that floats by in the main stream today is garbage and junk.

"Lady" Gaga, Justin "Duh What's Germany" Beiber and Ush-uhhhh are all worthless hacks. The music industry today composes music through focus groups and "reality" TV show spinoffs. Add in a few synth chords, set the drum machine beat to whatever the tempo du jour needs to be, autotune everyone's voice to sound like they can sing, and presto! you have something the MP3 '**** generation will devour voraciously.

For whatever reason, the parents of the current generation hate their children so much they've decided that it's not necessary to teach them anything, let alone how to sing, play an instrument, etc. So, you have fake music for fake people.

It's no loss to you, Andy, to not understand it. Anyone not drowning in Adderall or Prozac would refuse to listen to this tripe.

[Henri_Rochard]

I'm in my late 50s and have always listened to Rock 'n Roll. Music, to me, is 2 guitars, bass and drums. OK, you can add a keyboard.

My favorite 'new' band is Metric. One guitar, bass, keyboard and drums coupled with good writing.

I've also started getting back into classic alternative -- stuff like Depeche Mode and Elvis Costello.

Lady Gaga is fun to look at, but her songs are instantly forgettable.

[flagwavrblue]

I have heard of Lady Gaga and Ella Fitzgerald and I would take Ella over Gaga any day. I'm pretty sure lady Gaga would say the same thing, but there is money to be made peddling crummy rehashed disco and dance music into a pop music vacuum. The current trend in pop music really is the triumph of style over substance.