Arachnophonia: Lady Gaga “The Fame Monster”

Editor’s note: Arachnophonia (“Arachno” = spider / “-phonia” = sound) is a regular feature on our blog where members of the UR community can share their thoughts about resources from the Parsons Music Library‘s collection.

All links included in these posts will take you to either the library catalog record for the item in question or to additional relevant information from around the web.

Today’s installment of Arachnophonia is by student manager Deisy (class of 2024) and features Lady Gaga’s 2009 album The Fame Monster. Thanks, Deisy!

Lady Gaga
The Fame Monster

Lady Gaga - The Fame Monster (album cover)

The Parsons Music Library has a collection of albums, LPs, and books that can help one expand their musical knowledge. In this digital era, there are many CDs that can be found and one of my favorites that I have reconnected with is Lady Gaga’s album, The Fame Monster.

Lady Gaga is one of my favorite childhood singers, her music was very experimental compared to a lot of the music my family exposed me to. And although I never considered myself a big fan of hers, now I hear her music and become nostalgic. The Fame Monster album in particular has many songs such as “Bad Romance,” “Alejandro,” and “Poker Face” which I consistently heard on the radio. As we get older, the songs that were once the most famous become ingrained in our heads and remind us of our childhood, and that is the case with Lady Gaga’s music for me.

Parsons Playlists: Best of Joji

Welcome back to Parsons Playlists! Today we’re featuring a playlist of music by Japanese R&B/hip-hop artist Joji, curated by Music Library student manager Brianna (class of 2024).

George Kusunoki Miller, who goes by the musical pseudonym Joji, is a Japanese singer, songwriter, and comedian. He began his career in entertainment on YouTube, releasing comedic rap songs under the name “Pink Guy”, and various other videos where he would often star in multiple roles. In 2015, he retired from his YouTube career and began making the music he had always wanted, now going by Joji. When asked how this was different from his previous musical career as Pink Guy, he said “I guess that’s the difference, Joji’s just me.” His debut album Ballads I made him the first Asain-born artist to reach #1 on Billboard’s R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart in 2018. His most recent release from 2020, titled Nectar, reached a peak of #3 on US Billboard 200. Here is a compilation of my favorite songs from Joji.

George Kusunoki Miller aka Joji

Run

Gimme Love

Afterthought

Daylight

SLOW DANCING IN THE DARK

YEAH RIGHT

TEST DRIVE

NO FUN

Will He

Here’s a link to the playlist on YouTube:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLU94rco57ZexQP5Fg5DRH4g207vMYUkxF

and here is the playlist on Spotify:

New CD’s added this week!

Electronic Music

Karlheinz Stockhausen – Complete Early Percussion Works

Jazz

Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society – Brooklyn Babylon
Jon Irabagon – Foxy
Masters of Jazz – Vol. 1, Traditional Jazz Classics
Masters of Jazz – Vol. 4, Big Bands of the ’50s & ’60s
Masters of Jazz – Vol. 5, Female Vocal Classics
Outright! – Jon Irabagon’s Outright!
Les McCann – Talkin’ Verve!!!
Mostly Other People Do the Killing – Slippery Rock!
Cecile McLorin Salvant – WomanChild

Concert Artistic Music (i.e. “Classical”)

Ian Clarke – Deep Blue
Newspeak – Sweet Light Crude
Now Ensemble – Awake
Frank Martin – Le Vin Herbé
Missy Mazzoli – Cathedral City / Victoire

Opera

World Music