Dance in the Dark

I think this song is about a girl who's in an emotionally abusive relationship with her boyfriend, and whenever she dares to feel good about herself he always tries to make her feel bad i.e. calling her a mess, and a tramp. When she dances in the dark, out of sight from the guy, that's when she gets to free herself and feel alive again. I love how GaGa portrayed the themes within this song. It really is incredible. =]

I agree with what everyone else has said, but I also think there's another level to this song. "She looks good but her boyfriend says she's a mess" I think the girl in the song is brilliant but nobody is seeing it, she can't let it out in front of people and when she does she gets put down or goes unnoticed through no fault of her own. Even the people closest to her don't see that she's great and they also don't see that she's being really hurt by the fact she's constantly being underrated. So she's brilliant but deeply hurt, and I think dancing in the dark is a metaphor for both of these things. She's basically living her life unattended to and lonely, and nobody - including her, is seeing either her loneliness or brilliance, it's LIKE she's dancing in the dark. Doing something extraordinary where nobody can see it, because she's afraid to try and show herself because every time she does she's knocked down. But I think her lack of confidence is her dark. Her brilliance is cloaked in her own disbelief in herself, so she LOVES to dance in the dark as it's all she and anyone else thinks she can do. Apart from Ramsey, the girls mentioned in the song (Marilyn ect.) are all women who's downfall was bought about by the way they danced in the dark. They were loved, but their real self was in the shadow of their popularity and image, or in Sylvia's case she had her demons which broke her and she knew she could be a famous poet, but unfortunately, when she died, her career was only just lifting off. Nobody ever got to see what any of these women would have really become, or who they truly were , because everything they did overshadowed them.

This song has brought about questioning and translations of all different sorts around the world. Here's a basic run-down of what the artist intended. "I'm a free, bitch. I'm a free, bitch." --------------------------------------- The first questionable line from the song relates directly to Lady Gaga's personal slogan, that being the said quoted line. It's like in, "Just Dance" - "Red One, Convict, GaGa!" She starts the song by saying the names of the three contributing factors. While the statements are different, the concept is the same. Representation. "Some girls won't dance to the beat of the track" ------------------------------------------------- The, "beat of the track" symbolizes a common flow of life. "Girls" is a term that relates to, "Girls night out." However, girls is, in essence, "everybody." Some people don't live by the normal standards of living the 90% of America is accustomed to. "She won't walk away but she won't look back" --------------------------------------------- Taking what we were informed of with the above lyrics, the translation here is simplified. We as individuals tend to try and fit in and we won't second guess our actions because all we want is for people to like is, even if we are not being true to ourselves. "She looks good but her boyfriend says she's a mess" ---------------------------------------------------- Some people have commented the girl is in an emotionally abusive relationship with her boyfriend. If we took the song on a basic interpretation, yes, this would be true. However, the, "Girl" and the, "Boy" both symbolize something deeper as mentioned above. "She looks good" We look good being someone who we aren't, "But her boyfriend says she's a mess" but now there some force out there, more often then less another human being, criticizing something about us. "Baby loves to dance in the dark 'Cause when he's lookin' she falls apart" ----------------------------------------- Every individual is, "baby." We love "dancing in the dark" (being secluded and doing things ourselves, SOMETIMES) because there is no one there to judge us on how we act, behave, look, or do things. "he" is symbolically, the society the judges each and every one of us. "Second Verse" -------------- The entire second verse to this song is simply the "girls" in society trying to retaliate against the, "boys" of our society, and being mocked even more so to bring back terrible self esteem. The chorus repeats, followed by the most difficult part to decipher. "Marilyn" -------- Marilyn Monroe "Judy" ------ Judy Garland "Sylvia" -------- Sylvia Plath "Interpretations By Line" ------------------------- "Tell 'em how you feel girls." - All the women mentioned are dead. Things were different in their time. "Work your blond (Jean) Benet Ramsey" - A young beauty pageant girl (murdered - dead) JonBenet Ramsey "We'll haunt like Liberace" - Television / Singer (Dead) Died of pneumonia by AIDS "Find your freedom in the music" - Dance, "bitches." "Find your Jesus," - Find your sanctuary (jesus, not necessarily religious) "find your Cupid" - This should be "Kubrick" Stanley Kubrick designed a mask for Gaga. "Find your design" "You will never fall apart" - Don't let society eat you "Diana, you're still in our hearts" - Princess Diana (dead)"\ "Never let you fall apart" - Hold yourself together, be true. "Together we'll dance in the dark" - Partial contradiction. If we are truly dancing in the dark, how can we do so together? In other words, unify your differences and love your enemies. Lady Gaga's message is strong in this song. It's truly about being yourself. Find it in yourself, to be yourself. Someone that nobody else is. If someone disapproves, who cares. Move on and find someone who does care, and loves you for who you are! Thanks Lady Gaga!

for some reason, whenever i hear the song. i hear, "She looks good, but her boyfriend says she's a tramp, she's a tramp, she's a vamp. But she still does her dance, she's a tramp, she's a vamp, but she still gives a damn."

I think this song is all about the general publics' outlook on female figures. The whole first verse is her saying "I can do what I want, I could kill myself, and I don't care what you say." (in other words, "Inject me, I'm a Free Bit-") I've noticed that in most of her songs, Lady Gaga will put the main character as a male. (Like in Speechless, which was clearly about her dad, she says "That boy left me so speechless") I think she is saying "he" as in everyone. She's scared of when EVERYONE would see her true colors, what if they judge her for not being as perfect as she seems? I also think when her "boyfriend says a mess/tramp" she means what the public assumes about most Hollywood girls. I think that by putting her boyfriend, they mean actually people who are close to her even think she's losing her touch, and that makes her feel so lifeless. ("She's a vamp") The middle section (all of the girls); I think this is obviously these glamorous girls who really didn't have glamorous lives. I think that this is Gaga saying to let yourself lose; find your religion (Jesus), find your true artist (Stanley Kubrick). "Together we'll dance in the dark"-- We'll all let ourselves dance, let go, together. But we will never truly be free to show our true selves to everyone. I agree, I think that this is Fear of Confidence Monster. This song to me is the most interesting of all the songs off of The Fame Monster. After listening to it for a while, this is what I've come up with. Sorry that this is long and a little scatterbrained. :P I'd love to hear what you all think.

Yeah, this is definitely one of her best! Oh and btw, does anyone not hear the familiar tune/sound from Careless Whispers by Wham? Or is just me? Well anyways, I think this song could really just be about girls feeling insecure with themselves in general. I mean like, I know LadyG said it's about a girl preferring to have sex in the dark so her boyfriend won't see her body...but then she adds all these other people who all sort of relate to [their early death]and then she's like "we'll all dance in the dark together!" so for me, I'm getting this idea that maybe she means that all girls relate to insecurity in their lives? No matter where what point in our lives we are, or how different we may appear--there's always some insecurity in us. Not just when dealing with guys/sex, but other issues...like family pressure, fame, beauty...and in the end they found comfort in the dark (alone, with no one watching) And all these girls she named, were found dead, which proves how they couldn't handle their pressure that they were feeling. [Except the little girl of course, since she was murdered and all, but I'm sure she had to feel some pressure with her parents being that she was on TV and was very young.] idk that's what I think. And that's why I like it too. It's something I relate to; and though it may no be to the extreme, it's still about insecurity which we all as humans feel as some point. Even Lady Gaga.

From Mother Monster's own mouth: "Baby does her dance in the dark," Lady Gaga sings, " 'cause when he's looking she falls apart." If you thought the pop superstar was referring to something as simple as a night out at the club in "Dance in the Dark," from The Fame Monster, you don't know Gaga very well – and you're flat-out wrong. As she explained to The Los Angeles Times, the tune is about a rather more intimate experience – one that takes place not within the bass-blaring confines of a nightclub but between two people alone in a bedroom. "The record is about a girl who likes to have sex with the lights off, because she's embarrassed about her body," Gaga explained. "She doesn't want her man to see her naked. She will be free, and she will let her inner animal out, but only when the lights are out." The song goes on to reference two supernatural trends-du-jour – "Around her kiss is a vampire grin/ Moonlights away while she is howling at him" she sings – as a means to express how people rely on external cues to cope with internal anxiety. "She doesn't feel free without the moon," Gaga said. "These lyrics are a way for me to talk about how I believe women and some men feel innately insecure about themselves all the time. It's not sometimes, it's not in adolescence, it's always." And it applies to everyone, regardless of whether you have a string of Billboard chart toppers or you're listening to the track in your car. Though acknowledging that she's in a "deeper, more compassionate place" since writing her debut album, The Fame, Gaga made clear that she continues to struggle with issues of body image and self-doubt in her own life. "[T]he song isn't called 'Dance in the Light,' " she said. "I'm not a gospel singer trying to cross people over. What I'm saying is, 'I get it. I feel you, I feel the same way, and it's OK.' "

This reminds me of "Fake Plastic Trees". A girl who looks perfectly fine but wishes to change everything about herself. She's "free" to do whatever she wants and will do anything she wants to improve her self-esteem. Obviously the girl's in an abusive relationship, her boyfriend's opinion is affecting her self esteem. She was confident but now is repeating to herself that she's a mess in her head. She won't walk away from her boyfriend but she won't look back at how good her life was previous to him. He's changing her and she's becoming a nervous wreck. She's not comfortable dancing around people because her boyfriend tells her constantly that she's a mess. When no one can see her, she can finally let go. Marilyn Monroe, Judy Garland, Sylvia Plath, Princess Diana and JonBenet Ramsey all died young. They all seemed to have low self-esteem (though JonBenet was very young, those awful pageants making her put make-up on couldn't have promoted it). Sylvia committed suicide by sticking her head in a gas oven, Judy Garland died of an accidental overdose, JonBenet was murdered, Diana in a car crash and it's not known exactly how Marilyn died but the first three explanations have been given for her death. Sylvia Plath is believed to have been in an abusive relationship and her husband was cheating on her. Marilyn Monroe is thought to have been abused, JonBenet was, Judy Garland was in an abusive relationship and Diana was cheated on. Since they've all passed away, it seems as if she's trying to tell them what it would've been comforting for them to hear when they were alive.

I think that this song is about the relationship between gaga and someone when she was a burlesque dancer. All the women mentioned were performers who had died young. These lyrics.."(Saline) Around her kiss is a vampire grin The moon lights away, while she's howling at him" are just so deep clearly this song is very personal to her. In the backround right before the chorus..duh duh duh she says "i love fucking girls" I think gaga is definately emotionally invested in women but has never been in love or had it reciprocated so she doesn't know what she's missing. This fascination is her dance in the dark. And I am here waiting for her hahahahhaha :) But seriously this woman is fucking brilliant and so is this song definately my favorite and in my opinion her best. She is just growing and becoming the most talented artist in the industry...so fuck yeah :)

I don't think this song is about Lady GaGa's fear of fame; I think that she is talking about the downside to fame and specifically for a female. I love this song. I also think she says I'm a Free Bitch because the girl might refer to herself as a bitch because of the way her boyfriend treats her. She is not emotionally stable. I like the way the language was used in this song. I think it's very creative.