Lady Gaga - Bad Romance & its Occult Meaning & Symbolism

Lady Gaga’s videos and performance are extremely symbolic and filled with hidden messages. Her latest video, named “Bad Romance”, describes the dark and ritualistic inner-workings of the entertainment industry, by symbolically depicting Gaga as a sex slave. This article examines the occult symbols present in the video and its hidden meaning.

The video for the song Bad Romance is a mix of deep symbolism with sheer randomness, creative fashion with corporate product placements and modern day decadence with religious imagery, all rolled up in a great big music industry celebration. Gaga uses her odd-ball theatrical presence to its full extent, to shock, creep-out and fascinate the viewers. If you’ve read my other articles on Lady Gaga (see my previous blogs on Lady Gaga) you’ll already be aware of the occult symbols permeating her imagery. I’ve mentioned the presence of mind control elements, of the horned god Baphomet, of secret societies and so on. Far from steering away from those themes, Gaga’s latest offering incorporates all of them in this video, which is a great big metaphor for the music industry. Let’s look at the song.

Concept of the Song

Bad Romance is the first single out of Gaga’s Fame Monster album. If you look back at her past works, the main message of her music is that she is willing to do anything, even sacrifice herself, to obtain fame. The video continues in the same vein by depicting Gaga as a willing victim in the music industry’s shady inner-workings. She wants to live a Bad Romance with the abusive, cruel and satanic music industry. She’s aware of all of its flaws but she still desires to be part of it more than anything else. She is a Fame Monster…she feeds from fame…she enjoys being famous…if she is not famous, she’ll die or something…you get the picture. At face value, the song lyrics seem to be about her wanting to get “banged” by a kind of psychopath, but the video reveals that the psychopath is in fact the music industry.

The song starts with a weird chant that goes

Rah-rah-ah-ah-ah-ah!
Roma-roma-mamaa!
Ga-ga-ooh-la-la!
Want your bad romance

This is the type senseless crap drunk people like to yell in those disco dance parties you crazy kids go to. Is there a deeper meaning to it? Gaga announces it in a weird, gothic accent, in the manner of a ceremonial/incantation, a little like the “Bum-bum-bedum” of Rihanna’s Disturbia. Ra as the name the ancient Egyptian sun god is still of a great importance in today’s occultism (see the “Eye of Ra”, the All-Seeing Eye). Roma may be a reference to the roman catholic church, but I’m not sure. This could be interpreted in many ways so I won’t linger on it.

I want your ugly
I want your disease
I want your everything
As long as it’s free
I want your love
(Love-love-love I want your love)

I want your drama
The touch of your hand
I want your leather-studded kiss in the sand
I want your love
Love-love-love
I want your love
(Love-love-love I want your love)

Right away, it is obvious that the love that Gaga is seeking is wrong and sick. She’s a sex slave and, apparently she likes it. She knows that the industry is ugly but she still wants in. There is an obvious sense of sadomasochism, as she seems to know that this love (of success in the music industry) will hurt her and treat her badly, but she’s up for it. As we will examine in the video, there is also a spiritual meaning to the lyrics where fame equals submitting to the dark, satanic side of the music industry. In other words, the song is also about submitting to evil and the imagery of the video corroborates this fact.

I want your horror
I want your design
‘Cause you’re a criminal
As long as your mine
I want your love
(Love-love-love I want your love-uuhh)

I want your psycho
Your vertigo stick
Want you in my rear window
Baby you’re sick
I want your love
Love-love-love
I want your love
(Love-love-love I want your love)

Here again, there is a mix of the “horror” of evil with hardcore sex references, which convey the fact that she wants to be “penetrated” by this evil influence in order to gain its favors. There are references to Hitchcock movies (Psycho, Vertigo) that are cleverly turned into sexually explicit lyrics.

During the bridge, Gaga sings emotionally “I don’t wanna be friends“. She does not want to be an outsider of the music industry, she wants to be part of it. Later she says “I want your love and, All your lovers’ revenge”, which means that she wants all of the attention of the music industry to the point that she also wants the “hate” of the artists who are jealous of her.

Of course, the lyrics are open to interpretation but the visuals of the video really give a particular meaning to the words. Gaga is not singing to person, but to a group, an entity, an organization. She is signing to the Illuminati, to the music industry, to Baphomet: to the ones that have the power to make her famous. She wants to be part of that sinister and corrupted system and write a Bad Romance with it.

Analysis of the Video

The video is dense with symbols and odd images. Some are significant while others seem to be random. It is however obvious that the whole concept is a huge allegory for the reality of fame. She plays the role of a mind-controlled and drugged sex slave who is prepared to get auctioned to members of the Russian mafia. Here’s the video.

Main Story Line

The video starts with Gaga emerging from what looks like a high-tech coffin or maybe a sensory deprivation tank.

At the beginning of the video, she is deprived of her senses. Either her eyes, her ears or her nose are covered. Sensory deprivation is a torture technique used on prisoners or mind controlled slaves in order to “break” them and to facilitate their re-education. She is a beginner, an amateur and she doesn’t really know what she’s doing.

Gaga can’t see or hear anything

In one scene, she is wearing thick sunglasses and talking to herself through a mirror.

This is reminiscent of The Who’s Tommy movie, where a deaf, dumb and blind boy only becomes responsive when staring at the mirror.

The Who’s Tommy is a movie about a boy who becomes deaf, dumb and blind after a traumatic event.

Gaga then bathes herself to “wash off her sins” as Gaga said in an interview about the video. She is “wide-eyed” and innocent but we’ll see that she’ll gradually turn into a “Fame Monster”.

Innocent Gaga taking an innocent bath with her big innocent eyes

She is then roughly handled by two women. She fights them but she finally accepts her faith and even raises her hands in praise.

Throughout the video, there is a back and forth between her being forced to go through her duties as a slave and her willingness to go through them. She is then forced to drink some vodka, which is in fact an MTV-friendly substitute for drugs. Mind controlled sex slaves are heavily drugged to numb their thoughts and make them easy to manipulate.

Gaga is then undressed and forced to perform in front of a bunch of men. Those mafioso can represent the Illuminati, the dark force ruling the music industry. The masks represent their hidden nature. Each individual represents a record company, and they are bidding to see who will sign her.

Gaga seems to be well aware of what is happening and she chooses to charm a particular guy, who seems to have what she wants. The masked man seems to enjoy what is happening to him and bids to obtain her.

One second left to the auction for the services of Lady Gaga

Gaga is then required to fulfill her duties as a sex slave by…you’ve guessed it… having sex with the winning bidder. So she proceeds into a very symbolic room.

Her hands are strategically placed under the horned heads. Immediately after, a fire ignites the room.

On each side of the bed are gazelle heads, who symbolically refer to Baphomet, the horned idol of Western occultism.

If you’ve read my other articles on the music industry, you already know of the frequent use of the likeness of Baphomet in music videos and pictures. My past articles on Gaga have shown her posing in the same way as the image above. Strategically placed horned heads have appeared in her past videos and photo shoots. Having said that, the presence of those horned heads in that room is not merely decorative, it is very symbolic.

Gaga is “offering herself” at the altar of Baphomet in order to become initiated and accepted into the Order. She does not want “to be friends” with the music industry, she wants to be an insider (she’s not a “Fame Monster” for nothing). So this offering gets consumed by fire, and not sex, because it is about Baphomet and not the Russian guy. He was just a means for her to obtain what she wanted..fame.

When the fire starts, another scene plays simultaneously showing Gaga and masked dancers dressed in red, the color of sacrifice and initiation. The virginal white garments she wore during most of the video are replaced by bloody red, a visual confirmation of the fact that she is now initiated and accepted as an insider. On the 2009 VMA awards, we seen that Lady Gaga and Taylor Swift start out the show wearing white garments and, after a symbolic performance, they appear completely dressed in red. The codes of the music industry seem to be used over and over again, in videos, award shows and photo shoots.

Gaga then makes her trademark “Eye in the triangle” hand gesture after her initiation to make it clear who owns her now…the Illuminati.

The final scene shows Gaga lying in bed with the burned skeleton of the Russian mafiosi.

Notice how everything is burnt except the two gazelle heads. The real “intercourse” happened between Gaga and Baphomet. The guy was a tool, a middle-man who was sacrificed in the process of Gaga’s initiation.

So Gaga basically went through the steps a mega-pop star has to go through in order “make it big” in the music industry.  She ultimately got what she wanted and apparently played the game on her own terms. Let’s see how that works out for her.

Other Symbols

Aside from the main storyline, the video is riddled with numerous symbols and images which are occult in nature. Here are some of them:

Sun Symbolism

There are many symbols referring to the sun in the video. As said above, Ra is an Egyptian sun god who is mentioned many times in the magic incantation-like “Rah-rah” chant.  Sun worship has always been at the center of occult mysteries as it is considered to be the ultimate representation of God.

Image of the sun in the razorblade shades. She is wearing a golden dress. Gold is representative of the sun in occultism

Golden sun light bringing her back to life

Gaga at the center of planetary orbits

Anti-Christian Symbolism

Christianity has always been at odds with occult secret societies. Persecutions and accusations come from both sides and one often defines itself by the negating the other. This is also represented in the video.

The word “Monster” with a Christian cross underneath it creates a not-so-subliminal unconscious association

The cross associated with the word “Monster” is also seen on her promotional pictures

Notice the position of her hands. "Devil's Horns"

A cross placed right on her “private area”. No matter what religion you are, you know this is not a sign of respect

In this choreography, Gaga does what looks like the sign of the cross but her hand gesture describes a triangle instead (classic phallic symbol). Enjoy my brilliantly drawn triangle to help you visualize it.

Reptilian Monster Symbolism

Why is her spine glowing???

Bulging Spine and peep out her fingers... What's that all about?

Emphasis on her spine

Angry looking bat on her head

There is a great resemblance with the monster in this next painting.

I’m not sure of the origins of this painting but the monster looks like Gaga in some scenes.

In Conclusion

Lady Gaga’s Bad Romance is by far the densest and most symbolic video I’ve ever analyzed. It is a metaphorical yet accurate description of the steps which must be taken in order to become part of the “mega-pop-star machine”. Submission, control, business negotiations, initiation, secrecy and the embrace of dark forces are all represented in the video. Once decoded, the song describes indeed the Bad Romance of the music industry. The machine uses artists, it pimps them, it cheats on them with new, hotter artists and it finally dumps them when the initial appeal is lost.

Gaga, the “Fame Monster” wants to be treated that way, knowing that there is not other way to obtain world-wide fame. One might be extremely creative and talented, however fame can only be achieved through the exposure  provided by the media corporations. They are owned by a secretive elite,   represented by the masks on the faces of the bidders in the video.  Bad Romance, more than simply serving the required dose of subversive symbolism to the MTV generation, offers a chilling description of a music industry ruled by the elite. And now comes the hardest part: getting this damn song out of my head.