Fame

Recording information: 150 Studios, Parsippany, NJ; Chalice, Los Angeles, CA; Cherrytree Recording Studios; Dojo Studios, New York, NY; Poe Boy Studios, Miami, FL; Record Plant, Hollywood, CA.Photographers: Pieter Henket; Warwick Saint; Candice Lawler.The times were crying out for a pop star like Lady GaGa -- a self-styled, self-made shooting star, one who mocked the tabloid digital age while still wanting to wallow in it -- and one who's smart enough to pull it all off, too. That self-awareness and satire were absent in the pop of the new millennium, where even the best of the lot operated only on one level, which may be why Lady GaGa turned into such a sensation in 2009: everybody was thirsty for music like this, music for and about their lives, both real and virtual. To a certain extent, the reaction to The Fame may have been a little too enthusiastic, with GaGa turning inescapable sometime in the summer of 2009, when she appeared on countless magazine covers while both Weezer and D