Gaga and Beyoncé: Are they pop music's Bird vs. Magic?

Gaga and Beyoncé: Are they pop music's Bird vs. Magic?

This is a story about two improbably ambitious, singularly driven and world-bestriding women at the pinnacle of an industry that tends to cannibalize its young. So instantly recognizable are these two music icons (and yes, they most certainly are) that they don't even require the use of last names -- or even their real names, for that matter. In case you haven't already guessed, the topic of today's discussion revolves around two singers who require virtually no introduction: Lady Gaga and Beyoncé. Their "musical collaborations":http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVBsypHzF3U -- and the "occasional fisticuffs":http://theurbandaily.com/music/theurbandailystaff2/is-lady-gaga-trying-to-start-a-war-with-beyonce/that seeps into various and sundry gossip blogs -- has some comparing them to a modern-day incarnation of the "rivalry":http://www.thegrio.com/sports/how-race-has-played-a-role-in-celtics-lakers-rivalry.php spearheaded by basketball greats "Larry Bird and Magic Johnson":http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120053152. Both women have been described as music royalty: a flattering _New York Times_ profile bestowed upon Gaga the title "queen", which is appropriate given that she's the industry's reining figurehead of all things outrageous. As "wife of hip-hop's enthroned king":http://www.thegrio.com/entertainment/beyonce-booed-at-met-gala-red-carpet.php, Beyoncé clearly has her own claim to the crown. Gaga's latest album, featuring the anthemic (but ultimately derivative) "Born This Way" is being released today, just as Queen Bey scheduled June 28th for the "release of her fourth solo effort":http://www.thegrio.com/entertainment/beyonce-names-new-album-4.php, _4_. The dueling calendar dates have created an opening for many industry watchers to feed a rivalry between the two women. The career heights spanned by the two singers lend themselves easily to speculative frenzy. Bey and Gaga's pervasive influence of both Bey and Gaga -- both of who seemingly came from nowhere to conquer musical ground that it took artists of yesteryear decades to achieve -- that they've even managed to shape the cultural lexicon around their outsized personas. The bodacious former Destiny's Child frontwoman birthed the "bootylicious" neologism; meanwhile, Gaga has managed to completely redefine the word "monsters" in a way that simultaneously brands and empowers her legions of followers. Despite a penchant for what cultural critic Camille Paglia acerbically termed "compulsive overkill", Gaga is clearly filling the creative vacuum left by the aging, "cougar-esque":http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-03-15/madonnas-boyfriend-lucky-star/ and increasingly irrelevant Madonna. For her part, Beyoncé has fashioned her career in the image of "Tina Turner":http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-513554/The-thighs-Tina-Turner-Beyonc-wow-Grammys-crowd.html -- vampy, multitasking, and a stage presence ("Sasha") that belies a demure church-reared upbringing. While the two basketball icons professed an initial love-hate relationship with each other from the outset, there's no evidence that either Beyoncé or Gaga ever shared any such mutual disdain for each other. Both women have more in common than anything else. Stefani "Gaga" Germanotta attended the same upscale school as Paris and Nicky Hilton (although she stresses her working class roots), while Beyoncé was raised in Houston by an upper-middle class couple that could afford to channel her singing ambitions full-time. No doubt that a wellspring of friendly competition flows between both Beyoncé and Gaga. However, the musical influences and stylistic flourishes of both women are dissimilar, even though both are prone to missteps that court controversy.