Insider is looking back on the last decade of musical greats with a series of opinion essays. Next up: Lady Gaga.

It's 2010, and everyone is angry. Lady Gaga, you see, has stepped out at the MTV Video Music Awards artfully smothered in raw beef.

The "meat dress," as it came to be known, immediately entered the pantheon of infamous media moments, drawing condemnation and fascination. It was a bizarre and delightfully garish example of Gaga's signature talent for breaking the rules. It also marked the beginning of a decade she would come to dominate.

That's the thing about Gaga: She's a mover and a shaker, and she elevates the conversation. You can argue that the meat dress was a savvy stunt that it was nothing but an attention grab but you can't argue that it didn't work. She's an entertainer in the purest sense of the word, and oozes glitz and glamour from every pore. And while she may draw comparisons to Cher or Madonna thanks to her audacious style, she's a true original in a decade populated by carbon copies.

Mother Monster is more than just a pop star she's a pioneer. Her unparalleled sense of who she is and uncompromised artistry make Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta the most influential artist of the decade.

Unlike the inoffensive bubblegum pop and monotonous club-happy dance music, Gaga's hits had personality and edge. The essence of her music loud, flamboyant, unignorable made her someone you couldn't take your eyes off of.

She's also no stranger to breaking records. At the top of the decade, she scored the most MTV Video Music Award nominations ever in a single year, when she was nominated 13 times. More recently, Gaga broke another record, when she became the first female artist with four No. 1 albums this decade.

What makes her special, though, is that she's crafted a career that far exceeds the boundaries of music. Gaga's creative genius has seeped into cinemas, runways, television screens, and even retail stores.

In 2019, she stole hearts and scooped up a number of awards thanks to her evocative performance in "A Star Is Born." She took home the award for best original song at the Oscars after writing and recording the much-memed "Shallow," and was also nominated for best actress. She also starred as a vampiric countess on "American Horror Story," and the dark role proved that she was capable of being as much of a chameleon onscreen as she is on the radio.

She's a bona fide fashion icon and a muse to countless designers. She even launched her own beauty line, Haus Laboratories, in 2019 and it's rooted in the fact that the power of makeup is what inspired her artistry to begin with. (She's said she'll "never" become a clothing designer herself because she respects their craft too much.)

Accolades and ostentatious public persona aside, her fans know that Gaga's true self is quite separate from Stefani Germanotta the person. "It's a bit of a creation," as she's admitted, but if you peel back the layers, the woman underneath is just as interesting: Take, for example, the time she stripped everything down to the core for 2016's "Joanne." With the more minimalist side of Gaga exposed to the world, she delivered some of her most personal songwriting to date.

The record proved that Gaga isn't afraid to kick her persona to the curb at times. In her earlier years, she demolished the pop star stereotype with her daring ensembles. (Billboard's collection of her wackiest outfits has a whopping 120 entries on it.) In more recent years, however, she quietly turned herself into a jeans-and-white-tee-shirt woman. And all the while, she manages to maintain her instantly recognizable Gaga-ness.

The name she has given herself says it all: "Mother Monster." Part of her cultural power comes from her innate ability to make people she's never even met feel like friends. She has the uncanny ability to make all of her 38 million Instagram followers feel like she is speaking directly to them, even when she's not, and they cling to her messages of love and empowerment.

One of the most impactful ways she's made a difference is through her relationship with the LGBTQ+ community. In 2011, she and her mother created the Born This Way Foundation, which focuses on community building and advocates for acceptance. While she's received criticism in the past for the shifting language around her own identity she publicly came out as bisexual in 2009, but has also called herself an ally it has also opened up conversations about bisexual erasure within the LGBTQ+ community.

Her most recent endeavor is the Enigma Las Vegas residency, following in the footsteps of Celine Dion, Diana Ross, and Mariah Carey women who have arguably had many more years to build up their careers.

In a world of diet tea hawkers, Instagram personalities, and high-profile "influencers," Gaga has maintained an authenticity that can't be taught. Lady Gaga embodies the qualities a pop star should have, and as this decade comes to a close, she's still just getting started.

Brandy Robidoux is a contributing writer for Insider. In addition to Insider, her words can be read at HollywoodLife, Billboard, Elite Daily, Stylecaster, and more. Say hi to her on Instagram: @thebrandybaye

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Lady Gaga is the artist of the decade - INSIDER