Monster Loyalty: How Lady Gaga Turns Followers into Fanatics

She may be the Queen of Pop, but she does so many things that make her fans feel like royalty—things like sending tired and hungry fans pizza while they wait in line overnight for an album signing or stopping the tour bus and inviting fans in

I start to think about all of the people that have tried to stop me, and I get this, like, super-intense fury. Yeah, then I think about how I don’t

She explained in an interview with The Advocate magazine, “I care only about what I can change. What can I push forward? How can I be a part of the fight for modern social issues? How can I change young people’s lives? How can I create a show and an album that is a portal to surreality, to free ourselves of all of our insecurities and to be proud o

She’s told fans on the Born This Way Ball Tour that she’s recently learned a lot about negativity and people trying to tear you down. She says she doesn’t want to fight back because it’s more important to focus on her fans and writing music. The lesson here is that when you try to change the status quo or the industry norm, some people will not lik

imagery by understanding the power of images already out there and manipulating them to fit her ethos.

She connects so well with her fan community because she is one of them. She understands their struggles and communicates that understanding to them. She has made herself, in essence, a peer.

Gaga says she feels her audience is an army of outsiders. “It’s funny because some friends of mine from New York, they all came out to see [last weekend’s] show in New York. And they all said to me, ‘Gaga, your fans are all of the misfits. They are all of the kids in school that everybody makes fun of,’” she explained to MTV. “All of the weird kids

And so a name for her most loyal fans was born. Gaga has used high-profile events to show her dedication to these Little Monsters. Gaga performed at the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards on January 31, 2010. She was to sing for the first time with Elton John and had commissioned a special piano for the performance.

“My love for my gay fans is just pure, authentic love for them as supporters of me from the beginning, and me feeling connected to their struggles as someone who is a part of their fight,” she has said. She has advocated for

When the album Born This Way was nominated for three Grammy Awards in 2011, Gaga thanked the fans. She tweeted, “I’m humbled + honored to have a Trinity of nominations from the Grammy’s, including Album of the Year for Born This Way. I love u so much.” In a follow-up tweet, she said, “#PawsUp for our album’s being nominated three years in a row. I