Lady GaGa wasn't afraid of people's opinion at the beginning. She just tried her thing and it worked as we can see since 2008.
But talking about "influential"... maybe she's influencing many normal people and "some" singers (not all)
but she didn't invented anything new to call it hers. I don't say she ever said that but some people and fans of her do so
and act like as if she would have been the very first person who did this kind of music and this crazy style + outfit things.
When I saw her video for "Poker Face" the first time (I didn't noticed "Just dance"...) there I thought, she sings a bit like
Christina Aguilera, the song itself had something of "Daddy Cool" from Boney M and otherwise like a 90's pop song
and her odd outfits reminded me of a female sexier version of the glam-rock outfits from the 70's or some space movies...Lol
(= nothing new or original). But now so many people are saying about other artists that they're copying Lady GaGa
(it annoys me to read that on almost every dance song video of an female artist nowadays...) but that's just not true because as long as she wasn't the very first person to do something, she isn't the person who's copied (simple thing). So in the end I just wanna say, respect for her success - but some of her fans should learn about music history before they judge other musicians about originality!
Am I right, Mr Bowie (alias Ziggy Stardust)...?!
http://i27.tinypic.com/6foxt5.jpg