Lady Gaga thinks her peers are lazy, doesn't care if fans download illegally

All work and no play should be making Lady Gaga cranky, but according to her, she'd have it no other way. The pop star, who is still on her never-ending Monster Ball tour overseas, spoke with Caitlin Moran of the TimesOnline.co.uk for a dizzying, thrilling article that features missed flights, discussions of lupus and religion, her new album and an excursion to a sex club in Germany. But even though Gaga's life might seem like Halloween every day, she takes her art very seriously and wishes other artists in the industry were as committed as she is. SOURCE: TimesOnline.co.uk

The conversation turns to the music industry. Gaga has an endearingly schoolmarmish belief that most acts are “lazy”.

“I hate big acts that just throw an album out against the wall, like ‘BUY IT! F*** YOU!’ It’s mean to fans. You should go out and tour it to your fans in India, Japan, the UK. I don’t believe in how the music industry is today. I believe in how it was in 1982.”

While on this huge, technically complex, sell-out world tour, Gaga has written and recorded the majority of her next album: “I don’t understand bands who say they’ll tour for one year, then record the next,” she exclaims at one point, going Thatcher again. “I make music every DAY!”

That might be a little much. Hard work is a sign of strong character, but so is balance. No human being is a machine and touring often for long periods of time is strenuous. On the one hand, Gaga's right that some artists seem unwilling to go the extra mile for fans. But on the other hand, if recording artists are to preserve any shred of sanity, they need to be able to walk away for a little while and not give away anything of themselves for a minute. If Gaga's not careful, she could soon find this out for herself. And what the heck does Lady Gaga know about how the music industry was in 1982? She wasn't even born then.

Speaking of giving away, Gaga isn't worried about illegal downloading of her music. Of course, that's likely because she's already sold 10 million copies of "The Fame" worldwide. If she were broke and saddled with merely a gold album, Gaga would likely be singing a different tune.

She explains she doesn’t mind about people downloading her music for free, “because you know how much you can earn off touring, right? Big artists can make anywhere from $40 million [£28 million] for one cycle of two years’ touring. Giant artists make upwards of $100 million. Make music – then tour. It’s just the way it is today.”

Jimmy Iovine, Akon and Interscope probably aren't gonna like that quote, but hey, Gaga's given her blessing so have at it, Little Monsters.