When rock stars fake it

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Taking scam to a new level

Originality is, in its own way, a sign of authenticity: only Bowie could be Ziggy Stardust, because the character, however elaborately garbed and alien-seeming, came from within. Lady Gaga is more like a collection of quotes than a singular performer. Every move she makes, every crazy ensemble she wears, can be easily traced. She's a human mash-up, a sample bank, recycled and reused.

To Gaga's detractors -- and, I suspect, to dance floor veterans 30 and older, who say she makes them feel old -- the borrowed quality of her act undermines her obvious smarts, decent voice and endearingly overwrought sense of purpose. But what pop innovator hasn't also been a borrower? In the permanent state of Gaga, "new" is a false category, just like "real." Every thought's been had by someone who came before and is searchable through Google. Every image has been minted and uploaded to YouTube.

"I know I'm a magpie, right?" Gaga says in another of her well-staged behind-the-scenes videos. "I see shiny things . . . I'm like, waaaa." And she grabs for the air. This is one way forward in the age of too much information, when even the drug of novelty has been exposed as a placebo. The evidence is before us now, that every artist is a borrower, every genius a liar.

Why pretend otherwise?

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ann.powers@latimes.com