Monster Loyalty: How Lady Gaga Turns Followers into Fanatics

Lady Gaga and I then thought it would be great for the hands to be claw-like, in dedication to her fans making a claw-shaped ‘monster hand.’

Gaga is a master at just such community building. There are five key ways she does this: Connect with like-minded people Be authentic Create a collective experience Celebrate milestones Encourage collaboration

“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

“The instrument that I never learned how to play was my fans. You know, they are the part of the story that nobody teaches you. I just want to do the right thing; I want to be a voice with them, among them.”

“We identify with each other, I see myself in my fans and my fans see themselves in me. I call them little monsters because they are my inspiration.” —

for something and illustrate it through your art. Gaga explained to Anderson Cooper in a 60 Minutes interview, “I’m a true academic when it comes to music and when it comes to my style, my fashion. There’s nothing that I’ve ever put on my body that I didn’t understand where it came from, the reference of it, who inspired it. There’s always some sor

And as Eric Ryan tells Stengel, “As human beings, we all want to be part of something bigger than who we are and what we are. When you articulate an ideal and create a cause, it gives people, including myself, the ability to do so much more . . . Everyone—founders, employees, partners we work with, consumers—finds it motivating that there’s this co

earlier, Islamic extremists in Jakarta, Indonesia, threatened violence if she went ahead with her concert in the city. Christian youths in the Philippines protested Gaga’s concert tours, saying that they were offended by her music, particularly the song “Judas,” which they said mocks Jesus Christ. Christian groups in South Korea also protested her

“I . . . try to create things that are quite easy for my fans to replicate . . . and that bonds us in a way. It’s quite nice to have this connection to them outside of everything else.”