Lady Gaga has earned quite a reputation for her forward-thinking song lyrics and strangely obscene fashion sense. Japan, in particular, is enthralled with the pop star and quick to embrace her Asian-inspired appearance and catchy tunes.
Now, in conjunction with Lady Gaga’s latest album release, residents of Japan will be able to literally accept the idol’s music and image into their arms, thanks to the creation of the GAGADOLL, an audio preview device in the shape of Lady Gaga, herself. This life-size doll has a softly playing speaker built into its bust, so when someone lays their head upon her chest they can hear her music in place of her heartbeat.
Lady Gaga’s latest album, ARTPOP hit the shelves just last month, on November 6. But rather than set up listening stations with simple, boring headphones in every music store, Lady Gaga’s Japanese marketing team called for the creation of many life-like Lady Gaga dolls to do the trick! The figures were created by the talented “love doll” manufacturer, Orient Kogyo, in conjunction with the digital sound engineering skills of the people over at PARTY. The body is made of a special kind of silicone to properly capture the super star’s facial features and skin texture. Inside, there is a speaker system that operates using “bone conduction,” meaning that one must rest their head upon the GAGADOLL’s breast in order to hear her music and a personal message. It’s quite intimate…
Recently, Universal Music Japan released a video on YouTube which captures how the GAGADOLL is made. It shows everything from the molds that recreate her face structure to the installation of the sound system. The video, other news, and information on renting out one of the dolls are all located on the GAGADOLL official website.
As strange as this all seems, meeting the mannequin in person or visiting the official site still aren’t the only ways to get information out of a GAGADOLL. Yahoo! Japan has their very own GAGADOLL website, wherein they project up-to-date information about the idol and her social networking sites on the body of a standing GAGADOLL.
▼ Every image on the doll’s clothing is a link to more information.
And how does the original idol feel about her army of look-alikes? Lady Gaga rates them as better than Barbies, to say the least.
▼ In a related Tweet she said, “Who needs barbies when you can own your own life size pop star that sings to you”
Source: Net Lab (Japanese)
Images: YouTube, Yahoo! Japan, Lady Gaga on Twitter
▼ If you’d like to see how the GAGADOLLs are made, you can watch the process here or on YouTube.
