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She said that: "When I'm writing music, I'm thinking about the clothes I want to wear on stage. It's all about everything altogether—performance art, pop performance art, fashion. For me, it's everything coming together and being a real story that will bring back the super-fan. I want to bring that back. I want the imagery to be so strong that fans will want to eat and taste and lick every part of us." The Global Language Monitor named "Lady Gaga" as the Top Fashion Buzzword with her trademark "no pants" coming in at No. 3. Entertainment Weekly put her outfits on its end of the decade "best-of" list, saying, "Whether it's a dress made of Muppets or strategically placed bubbles, Gaga's outré ensembles brought performance art into the mainstream."
Critical reception of Gaga's music, fashion sense and persona are mixed. Her status as a role model, trailblazer and fashion icon is by turns affirmed and denied. Gaga's albums have received mostly positive reviews, with critics pointing out her unique place in pop music, the need for new movements in popular culture, the attention Gaga brings to important social issues, similar artists and the inherently subjective nature of her art. Her role as a self-esteem booster for her fans is also lauded, as is her role in breathing life into the fashion industry. Her performances are deemed as highly entertaining and innovative, with the blood-spurting performance of "Paparazzi" at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards listed as an eye-popping performance by MTV. She continued such blood soaked performance at The
Monster Ball Tour, where she wore a revealing leather corset and proceeded to be attacked by a man dressed in black who gnawed on her throat, causing blood to spurt down her chest and into her cleavage. She then lay dying in a pool of blood. However, during the shows at Manchester, the performance faced opposition from family groups and fans, in the light of a mass homicide event, after a local taxi driver slaughtered 12 people. "It was extremely tasteless to see her pretend to be attacked in such a gory way. What happened in Bradford is very fresh in people's minds and given all the violence which happened in Cumbria just hours earlier, it was insensitive," said Lynn Costello of the organisation Mothers Against Violence. Gaga's treatment of her fans as "Little Monsters" has inspired criticism, due to the highly commercial nature of her