I watched Lady Gaga’s performances on the October 3 episode of Saturday Night Live, and I was shocked to discover that she can sing. Like, really sing. And play the piano. In case you can’t imagine what that would sound like, just watch the last two-thirds of this clip:

This performance contradicts the ongoing performance art of Lady Gaga’s public life. Almost everything she does—from wearing dresses made of Kermit dolls to equating love with being followed by papa-paparazzi—extends her effort to both mock and celebrate our cultural obsession with fame. Her songs, her persona, and her outfits all radiate self-conscious construction, so that we can’t forget that Lady Gaga is giving us an incredibly heightened version of what we’re supposed to want. She’s giving us an outrageous rock star freak show littered with sex and dance beats, and she knows that we know that it’s all just for show.

(What Lady Gaga might do next… after the jump)

And for now, that’s interesting. Her message and her medium are neither deep nor original, but they’re both well-executed. Listening to “Poker Face,” you can practically hear the blueprint the song was built on, but you can’t deny that the song is catchy as hell. Watching her perform, you can see the debts she owes to Madonna, David Bowie, and, frankly, contemporary female stars like Beyoncé, but you have to admit she’s got panache.

From practically the moment she arrived, however, I’ve been wondering how long Lady Gaga could last. An artist can only beat the same drum for so long before everyone gets bored, and it seems like she’s boxed herself into a creative identity that can’t really go anywhere. I mean, how many thunderingly insincere gestures can she make before we all yawn and move on? How many times can she insist that it’s all just a soulless game before we decide we don’t want to play?

Personally, I jumped out of the pool two singles ago, and I was only ankle-deep in the water to begin with. I like her mindlessly pleasing dance music well enough, and I’m interested by her live appearances, but I can’t get that invested in a performer who seems so convinced she’s got something to teach me. Particularly when she’s not really saying anything new. Until this SNL performance, I figured Lady Gaga had another hit album in her, tops, and then she’d be going the way of equally insincere acts like The Pussycat Dolls.

But now that I know Lady Gaga has legitimate musical chops, I’m hoping she drops the shtick and starts behaving like a real musician. That would be interesting.

And I don’t mean Lady Gaga should start singing power ballads. I just mean that her oddball energy would be much more engaging if it were applied to songs—even clubby dance songs—with actual melodies and vocal lines. Her persona would be much more effective, and much more likely to endure, if it sprang from the music first and the costumes second.

Because let’s face it: The world is full of attention seekers playing dress up, but the world is not full of talented musicians who use their skills to create genre and gender-bending art.

And I know that the current trend in dance-pop is to put focus on robotic production instead of human authenticity. It’s keeping Fergie from demonstrating her chops, too. But now that’s she’s got some pop cultural power, Lady Gaga could actually force the trend in a new direction. She could carve out space for a dance artist with avant garde aspirations who also uses her music to demonstrate musicianship.

She could. But will she? I don’t know, but I hope so. She keeps insisting that she’s got something original to add, so now that she’s got our attention, I hope she makes good on her word.