Lady Gaga's most underrated song

Many of Lady Gaga's songs became defining hits of the 2000s and 2010s. Unfortunately, one of the “Bad Romance” singer's best songs has languished in obscurity. Here's a look at a song with unusual meaning and some of Gaga's most obvious Madonna references to date.

1 Lady Gaga's song is partly a tribute to celebrities who met a tragic end

There were some dark undertones in Gaga’s debut album, The fame. Oh my goodness, Paparazzi is about lazing around. The darker elements of that record, however, came out on the accompanying EP. The fame MonsterHere Gaga managed to combine uncomfortable emotions like fear and sexual shame with danceable beats. In other words, we wouldn’t have had Lorde or Billie Eilish without The Fame Monster.

Three songs from The Fame Monster — “Bad Romance,” “Telephone,” and “Alejandro” — became top-five singles on the Billboard Hot 100. “Speechless” attracted some attention because it was Gaga's first foray into arena rock. Hidden on the album is “Dance in the Dark,” one of the best electropop songs of its time.

“Dance in the Dark” is a song about a woman who is abused by her husband but finds relief in “dancing” – and the dancing seems to be a metaphor for something more salacious. The song is one of Gaga's best feminist moments. The bridge is a pseudo-rap in the style of Madonna's “Vogue”. Instead of naming old Hollywood stars, Gaga names a number of women who met tragic ends, such as Judy Garland, Marilyn Monroe and Sylvia Plath. Brilliant.

The song has a sexual subtext

In a 2009 interview with the Los Angeles Times, Gaga explained the meaning of “Dance in the Dark.” “The record is about a girl who likes to have sex with the lights off because she's ashamed of her body,” she said. “She doesn't want her husband to see her naked. She'll be free and let her inner animal out, but only when the lights are off. She doesn't feel free without the moon. This lyric is a way for me to talk about the fact that I think women and some men feel inherently insecure all the time. It's not like that sometimes, it's not like that during puberty, it's always like that.”

Gaga said that “Dance in the Dark” is a positive song because it acknowledges the darkness. “This song in particular is about me wanting to live – but it's also not called 'Dance in the Light,'” she said. “I'm not a gospel singer trying to jinx people. What I'm saying is, 'I get it. I get you, I feel the same way and it's OK.'”

Lady Gaga’s “Dance in the Dark” wasn’t even a single

Gaga never released “Dance in the Dark” as a single and it never charted on the Billboard Hot 100. What a shame. After all, “Dance in the Dark” is much better than “Telephone,” one of the other singles from that era. The song’s predecessor EP, The Fame Monsterreached number 5 on the Billboard 200 and stayed on the charts for 74 weeks. It remains one of her most popular records.

“Dance in the Dark” is not one of Gaga’s biggest hits, but it is considered one of her greatest achievements.