Musical definitions are so confusing these days. Just check out the Genre Shirt by Carles of Hipsterrunoff if you don’t believe me that any style is easily categorized. But what’s crazy is how nuts people go over mainstream artists.Lady Gaga recently rolled through Chicago, but not before creating a ticket fiasco in the process. The nowhere-two-years-ago-to-instantly-over-the-top artist apparently has too big of a production to fit in the rather large Chicago Theatre downtown and had to move it out to the suburban Rosemont Theatre. It didn’t really matter to me because I wasn’t going anyway, but I was intrigued by the number of fans who just kind of shrugged and jumped right back in line to see her.

I’m not really a fan of Lady Gaga. I think she is mostly a gimmick, especially when you consider what her image was like a few short years ago in college, and recently released pictures that she — or someone who looks exactly like her former self — participated in the MTV show “Boiling Point” back in 2005. But nevermind that. Gaga earned some major points in my book for her stop into Kuma’s — a place I previously wrote about — while she was in town in Chicago, and sans some kind of crazy attention-grabbing getup. That earned her major points in my book.

Another artist earning major street cred in many circles lately is Solange Knowles, better known as Beyonce’s sister. Back in November she released a cover of the Dirty Projectors’ “Stillness Is the Move.” It’s been noted that Jay-Z and Beyonce regularly show up at indie rock shows, giving all kinds of mainstream cred to bands that might have only been known in music elitist circles. The original version of “Stillness Is the Move” was Pitchfork’s No. 2 track of 2009.

Lady Gaga spotted on a cell phone cam at Kuma's in Chicago