The Lady will perform on September 13 at this year's MTV Video Music Awards, and she's planning something big. In an interview with Newsweek's Ramin Setoodeh, she says: "I'm going to be performing one of the most recent singles off my album. But it's going to be a different and more dramatic interpretation. And it is most certainly rooted in New York-style performance art." Setoodeh asks — and who could blame him — "What does that mean?"

Gaga explains:

It's less of me singing the song, and more of an art installation. A performance-art piece. It's very well-designed and thought out, and we've been planning it for months and months. It is for me a very meaningful performance, [for] where I am in my career, as well as the experiences I've had, as well as the co-headlining tour I'm going on in the fall. […] I sort of have this philosophy about things: there's never a reason to do something unless it's going to be memorable, unless it's going to change things, unless it's going to inspire a movement. With the song and with the performance, I hope to say something very grave about fame and the price of it.

Does that clear anything up? Hell no. But even more cryptic is her answer to the question, "what are you going to wear?"

I would say that the fashion for the performance is a representation of the most stoic and memorable martyrs of fame in history. It's intended to be an iconic image that represents people. I think after watching the performance and maybe studying it after you watch it on YouTube, you'll see the references and the symbols come through.

And, when talking about her lighting scheme, Ms. Gaga says: "I like it to be moody. I like it to evoke an idea more than light my face. It's not about what you see. It's about what you don't see, and sometimes that vacant space can be very scary."

Perhaps you find it tiring to hear about her "philosophy," her "art," "symbols" and "meaning." Maybe it would be easier if she just said, "I'm going to dress like Joan of Arc. It's gonna be dope." But the other women topping the chart right now? Miley Cyrus and Taylor Swift. Those two aren't exactly… interesting.

Back when that song "Beautiful" was all over the radio, a DJ friend of mine once said, "The devil didn't invent rock and roll for James Blunt." And I can't help but agree, as a woman raised on filthy Prince lyrics, Madonna writhing to "Like A Virgin" (at the VMAs!) and sexual innuendo in George Michael hits. Lots of people can sing. Lots of people write songs. Pop music should be more that that. Not a lot of people sing well, or write catchy songs; Lady Gaga does both. But more importantly: Lady Gaga makes it exciting. Titillating, unexpected. With Muppet coats, teacups, awful (untrue) hermaphrodite rumors and general pantslessness. Without her, pop would be a bland landscape right now. And think about it: People mocked what David Bowie and KISS wore, too. In addition, she uses her Haus of Gaga to "propel" friends and young designers into the spotlight, using her fame to further their careers.

You might think Lady Gaga is pretentious, a phony. But if she is, it's as someone once said of Holly Golightly: She's a real phony… She honestly believes all this phony junk that she believes. Asked, "How old were you when you first wanted to be famous?" Lady Gaga replies:

I think I was in my mother's womb. But it's not about fame, you see. It's about "The Fame." It's about a life of glamour. I believe in a glamorous life.

Lady Gaga Will Rock the VMAs [Newsweek]

Earlier: Questions About The High Fashion & Domestic Violence In Lady GaGa's Video
Before The Teacup & Blonde Wig, Pants Were Still A Problem
Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore
Lady Gaga Visits The View

Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh surveyed a group of 711 ninth grade students at three large urban high schools, reports EurekAlert. The teens were broken into groups by how often they listen to music. Those who listen more than 17.6 hours per week were classified as "regular"listeners, and those who listed less than 2.7 hours per week were classified as "not listening often". Students reported their favorite artists, then researchers calculated the percentage of each artist's popular songs containing lyrics describing "degrading sex." Researchers wouldn't name specific artists but gave the phrase "I'm gonna beat that pussy up" as an example of a lyric being studied. (Though researchers won't name the songs, we assume they are referring to the charming song "Wait" by the Ying Yang twins; lyrics here.)

Two thirds of the students were virgins when the study started, and, of those students, the group exposed to the highest number of sexual lyrics were more than twice as likely to have started having sex by the end of the study, compared to the group that listened the least. (The numbers were equal for girls and boys.) Lead researcher Dr. Brian A. Primack concludes that, "among this sample of young adolescents, high exposure to lyrics describing degrading sex in popular music was independently associated with higher levels of sexual behavior."

The BBC quotes Primack as saying:

"It is tempting to say music is just 'teenage stuff' ... I am not saying parents should try to ban such music, that is unlikely to help. But they should be talking to their children about sex and putting these sorts of lyrics in context."

Of course parents should be talking to their kids more, but some experts are calling the study's conclusions into question. A spokeswoman for Brook, a UK charity for teen sexual health, tells the BBC:

Obviously the cultural environment plays a part, but that is not to say there is a causal link. It is far too simplistic to say just because someone listens to this music they have sex. There are a variety of factors that influence decisions.

We have to agree. Every few years a study comes out blaming rap music or video games for everything that's wrong with kids today, but often the research gets boiled down to headlines like the Daily Mail's "Degrading Rap Songs Drive Teens To Sex." Even the EurekAlert article starts out by saying:

With sexual activity among adolescents in the United States resulting in over 750,000 teenage pregnancies each year and reports of up to 25 percent of all female adolescents in the US having sexually transmitted infections, researchers and public health officials are looking for those factors that might increase sexual activity in teens.

Songs with degrading lyrics about women are disgusting, but are they really one of the top factors leading to teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases? Degrading images of women and depictions of sex are present throughout the culture, not just in pop music. It's questionable whether preventing kids from listening to Britney's "If You Seek Amy" is going to change the behavior of children and teens but, of course, it's easier to get alarmed about children listening to explicit rap music than to sit down and talk to them seriously about safe sex.

Sexual Lyrics In Popular Songs Linked To Early Sexual Experiences [EurekAlert]
"Wait" By The Ying Yang Twins [Song Meanings]
Music Linked To Teen Sex Habits [BBC]

Variety:

There's no denying that the album sounds youthful. Producers the Neptunes, Timbaland and Justin Timberlake, and Timbaland protege Nate "Danja" Hills give the album a very of-the-minute sheen; the overheated "Incredible" bowls you over like the first lusty phase of a relationship; "Give It To Me" rides along on an insistent synthesizer bounce that could make it a summer favorite. [...] But for the most part, the album is suffused with a predatory desperation that's not pretty at any age. Here, it's as taut and affectless as the Botoxed faces of "The Real Housewives of Orange County."

Given hip-hop's long-standing ubiquity, Madonna is arriving late to this particular party, suggesting that she might be slowing down in her advanced age. But even if she's not starting any new trends in following the lead of Nelly Furtado, Gwen Stefani and such, Madge still manages to sound perfectly at home in the hip-hop world, where her sharp pop sensibilities — particularly her ability to craft killer hooks — are given a mostly fresh rhythmic framework. If it's not the boldest move of her career, it's still a successful gambit from one of the great all-time shape-shifters.

Between the fountain-of-youth dalliances and hookups with hip-hop kingpins, we know what you're thinking: Just how massive is this midlife crisis of hers? Pretty major, probably, but she makes it work with this surprisingly rejuvenated set. Now 49, Madonna has spent the past decade unevenly exploring moody trip-hop, chilly Eurodisco, and ethereal electronica — all of which are absent here. Candy finds her dropping her Kabbalah string on the dance floor and readopting an American accent to offer up an unpretentious, nonstop dance party.

Perhaps Hard Candy is simply one last roar before Madonna mellows into the autumn of her years, reflecting upon all she's accomplished and throwing down wisdom instead of a gauntlet. But even if she gets this latest fight out of her system, Madonna already might be done with nostalgia. Her last album, the house music-warmed Confessions, was as sweet as Hard Candy is lip-puckering. Madonna knows better than anyone that looking backward is dangerous for pop stars, especially women. It can lead them into the most vicious competition of all — with their younger selves.

Sex is always lurking — but not just where you bump and grind it. It's a form of self-expression and liberation, like dancing, which "makes me feel like the only one the light shines on" in the percolating Heartbeat. It's a feeling that every woman aspires to in some way, but few get to experience on a regular basis. With Hard Candy, Madonna at least lets us sample the sweet sound of success.

Timberlake and co's approach is firmly rooted in R&B. It's about grooves rather than memorable songs, and Madonna just doesn't make for a convincing soul diva.

But the days of Madonna bending the mainstream to her enormous will apparently are over. Her latest album, Hard Candy (Warner Bros.), in stores Tuesday, finds her working with established collaborators in an effort to keep up with trends, instead of starting them. Mega-star collaborations always look promising in theory, but rarely live up to expectations. The same can be said for Madonna hooking up with four of the biggest names in pop on Hard Candy: Timbaland, the Neptunes, Justin Timberlake and Kanye West.

The album's weakest moment is its most emotionally vapid. Madonna dips into Español for the painfully literal "Spanish Lesson." She has said the music was inspired by a Baltimore dance called the Percolator but seems more indebted to Timberlake's fast-strummed "Like I Love You." Fortunately, there's also the bass-popping retro-boogie "She's Not Me," where Madonna imagines her lovers feeling buyers' remorse for being seduced by a copycat who "doesn't have my name." The offender who's "reading my books and stealing my looks and lingerie" could be any young pop starlet. But it also seems like an oddly timed barb at Madonna's now-fallen successor, Britney Spears, who has teamed up with many of the guys on Hard Candy — Pharrell, Danja and (ahem) Timberlake — and Madonna herself.

"Hard Candy" is released today.