Gaga is a lot more than just Madonna, she's Cher, David Bowie, Boy George, etc etc and the list goes on and on. You can trace everything Mike and Madonna did back too, they all had their influences. They were obviously more groundbreaking as pop artists than the pop artists of today, because that ground can only be broken once and that's why today's "greats" will always live in their shadow. Gaga I think is the singular most ingenious pop artist today, she has her flaws and her shortcomings, and a lot of what she does seems very contrived (I'm not making the case that she isn't, because her persona is a construction, but there are moments where you can tell who exactly she's imitating and what exactly she's trying to add to her canon). I forgot where I was going with this...