[Z]

Madonna. She broke new ground that Lady GaGa can never break by virtue of Madonna coming along first; there is nothing left for a female pop artist to do that will open up a new territory of self expression because it's been done by other women, decades ago. Lady GaGa, to her credit, is a phenomenon and she deserves all the success she has attained thus far; her music doesn't really appeal to me but there are a couple of songs I enjoy, and if you're not splitting opinions then you're never going to reach the pinnacle of the music business. I think the gimmicks are rather tiring and I find the weirdness a bit over the top; you can't entirely fake being an odd person but it's very easy to exaggerate that, and I find her persona quite grating for that reason, because in some clips I've seen of her she seems quite funny and down to earth (American Idol) and at other times she's forcibly awkward and impossible to warm to (Jonathan Ross on one occasion, but quite funny on another occasion) - so I don't know what to make of her. Her voice is superior to Madonna's, but Madonna came first and did so much more for music than Lady GaGa ever will.