All these Illuminati comments are ridiculous. I can't tell if those people are genuinely serious or just trolling. Anyways, this actually a very intelligent and well-written song. As Gaga has stated in multiple interviews, the song is about being open minded to different ways of thinking and being accepting of other religions. Understanding that others may view Jesus as Black even though you yourself may not.
Basically, like I said above, it's about being open to new ways of thinking. New ways of looking at things.
Most songs on Born This Way are about some sort of equality: Americano is about Latino equality in the US, Scheisse is about women's rights, both Born This Way and Highway Unicorn are about equality in general, etc. Following that pattern, Black Jesus seems to be about religious freedom/religious equality as well. Once again, the idea of understanding that different people have different religious beliefs.
Because this is a Lady Gaga song, she likes to incorporate fashion imagery to her songs (ex: Bad Romance is not a song about fashion, yet there is the famous line towards the end "Walk, walk, fashion baby, work it". Lady Gaga just really likes fashion).
She is using the idea of a fashion show ("On the runway, dressed in his best... On the runway, work it, Black Jesus...") to metaphorically say that Jesus Christ is modeling, not clothing, but his religion. Jesus is on the runway "modeling" his teachings the way a model models her clothes.
The whole point of beginning the song with "I grew up in New York City [...] moved downtown when I was just nineteen..." is to state that she was introduced to this new way of thinking when she moved downtown. That part is obviously true and biographical. The whole song is about having a new way of thinking and being open minded and she is just saying that she became open minded when she moved downtown.
"Dancing is my revelation, underground pop civilization" simply means that dancing was how she expressed her individuality in an "underground" pop scene ("underground" meaning that pop music wasn't very popular there so it was underground, yet she liked to dance to pop songs. This was her revelation. It was how she revealed to others who she really was. She was Lady Gaga and she liked pop music and dancing to it, even if everybody else didn't).
"Concrete poetry to feed my mind" is obvious. It means she enjoys reading poetry. She's always said she's a huge fan of Syvia Plath's poetry as well as Rainer Maria Rilke's poetry. She even has a line from one of Rainer Maria Rilke's poems tattooed on her inner left arm (that huge text tattoo with German writing she has).
Basically, think of it like this: she's the weird kid in the neighborhood who listens to pop music and reads poetry and is open minded while everyone else is listening to hip hop, don't care about poetry and classical literature, and probably are close-minded..
"Old symbolism was left behind" means that this generation will leave behind old-fashioned ideas. For example, homosexuality being a sin and gay marriage being morally incorrect is, according to this song, a concept that is going to be left behind.
Additionally, the idea of the cross being a symbol for Jesus Christ might also be left behind. (But you could probably argue that this wasn't what she was going for when she wrote the song). Gaga herself has used the cross in her work (like second album, The Fame Monster) and has used it as a symbol for R.I.P. tombstones and death. NOT as a symbol for Jesus. So the old symbolism (cross = Jesus) is being left behind as more and more people are giving the cross other things it could mean other than just Jesus. Just like a snake can be a symbol for evil and temptation, it can also be a symbol for medicine. The color red can be a symbol for love and passion, or can be a symbol for sin. Old symbols are being left behind, and new ones are being used. Gaga herself left behind the traditional symbolism of horns to mean something of demonic nature and has replaced it to mean "you're beautiful no matter how you look. you're beautiful even if you have ugly horns on your face". (Seriously, that was the whole point behind the horns in the Born This Way music video). Old symbolism was left behind.
Lastly, being a Christian herself, Gaga is saying that Jesus is "the new black." Jesus goes with everything (as another commentator said). She is pretty much saying that Jesus is cool. Jesus is dope. Jesus got swag. Jesus is tight. Jesus is all right in my book.
She's trying to make Christianity appear cool and not a big deal if someone is Christian (the same way she has made being weird or being gay not a big deal and, in many ways, cool). She is probably doing this because Christianity has a really bad reputation nowadays. If you identify as Christian, most people will assume you're old fashioned and homophobic and that you're not okay with contraception and abortions, even if you're actually fine with all that and you accept gays. Gaga is just saying that if you believe in Christianity, that's cool. If you don't, that's cool too. But Christianity is cool (according to Gaga) so don't hate on them Christians.
Pretty nice song. Has NOTHING to do with the Illuminati.
All these Illuminati comments are ridiculous. I can't tell if those people are genuinely serious or just trolling. Anyways, this actually a very intelligent and well-written song. As Gaga has stated in multiple interviews, the song is about being open minded to different ways of thinking and being accepting of other religions. Understanding that others may view Jesus as Black even though you yourself may not.
Basically, like I said above, it's about being open to new ways of thinking. New ways of looking at things.
Most songs on Born This Way are about some sort of equality: Americano is about Latino equality in the US, Scheisse is about women's rights, both Born This Way and Highway Unicorn are about equality in general, etc. Following that pattern, Black Jesus seems to be about religious freedom/religious equality as well. Once again, the idea of understanding that different people have different religious beliefs.
Because this is a Lady Gaga song, she likes to incorporate fashion imagery to her songs (ex: Bad Romance is not a song about fashion, yet there is the famous line towards the end "Walk, walk, fashion baby, work it". Lady Gaga just really likes fashion).
She is using the idea of a fashion show ("On the runway, dressed in his best... On the runway, work it, Black Jesus...") to metaphorically say that Jesus Christ is modeling, not clothing, but his religion. Jesus is on the runway "modeling" his teachings the way a model models her clothes.
The whole point of beginning the song with "I grew up in New York City [...] moved downtown when I was just nineteen..." is to state that she was introduced to this new way of thinking when she moved downtown. That part is obviously true and biographical. The whole song is about having a new way of thinking and being open minded and she is just saying that she became open minded when she moved downtown.
"Dancing is my revelation, underground pop civilization" simply means that dancing was how she expressed her individuality in an "underground" pop scene ("underground" meaning that pop music wasn't very popular there so it was underground, yet she liked to dance to pop songs. This was her revelation. It was how she revealed to others who she really was. She was Lady Gaga and she liked pop music and dancing to it, even if everybody else didn't).
"Concrete poetry to feed my mind" is obvious. It means she enjoys reading poetry. She's always said she's a huge fan of Syvia Plath's poetry as well as Rainer Maria Rilke's poetry. She even has a line from one of Rainer Maria Rilke's poems tattooed on her inner left arm (that huge text tattoo with German writing she has).
Basically, think of it like this: she's the weird kid in the neighborhood who listens to pop music and reads poetry and is open minded while everyone else is listening to hip hop, don't care about poetry and classical literature, and probably are close-minded..
"Old symbolism was left behind" means that this generation will leave behind old-fashioned ideas. For example, homosexuality being a sin and gay marriage being morally incorrect is, according to this song, a concept that is going to be left behind.
Additionally, the idea of the cross being a symbol for Jesus Christ might also be left behind. (But you could probably argue that this wasn't what she was going for when she wrote the song). Gaga herself has used the cross in her work (like second album, The Fame Monster) and has used it as a symbol for R.I.P. tombstones and death. NOT as a symbol for Jesus. So the old symbolism (cross = Jesus) is being left behind as more and more people are giving the cross other things it could mean other than just Jesus. Just like a snake can be a symbol for evil and temptation, it can also be a symbol for medicine. The color red can be a symbol for love and passion, or can be a symbol for sin. Old symbols are being left behind, and new ones are being used. Gaga herself left behind the traditional symbolism of horns to mean something of demonic nature and has replaced it to mean "you're beautiful no matter how you look. you're beautiful even if you have ugly horns on your face". (Seriously, that was the whole point behind the horns in the Born This Way music video). Old symbolism was left behind.
Lastly, being a Christian herself, Gaga is saying that Jesus is "the new black." Jesus goes with everything (as another commentator said). She is pretty much saying that Jesus is cool. Jesus is dope. Jesus got swag. Jesus is tight. Jesus is all right in my book.
She's trying to make Christianity appear cool and not a big deal if someone is Christian (the same way she has made being weird or being gay not a big deal and, in many ways, cool). She is probably doing this because Christianity has a really bad reputation nowadays. If you identify as Christian, most people will assume you're old fashioned and homophobic and that you're not okay with contraception and abortions, even if you're actually fine with all that and you accept gays. Gaga is just saying that if you believe in Christianity, that's cool. If you don't, that's cool too. But Christianity is cool (according to Gaga) so don't hate on them Christians.
Pretty nice song. Has NOTHING to do with the Illuminati.