Born This Way, Express Yourself

I tried comparing Lady Gaga’s Born This Way and Express Yourself by Madonna to see if they were very similar like everybody says.

Here’s Madonna’s Express Yourself
Here’s Lady Gaga’s Born This Way

Even lyrically, they are a bit different. Express Yourself is about how the best way for a girl to get a guy is to be herself. Born This Way is about how Lady Gaga was born freaky and that’s ok. The common theme, of course, is “be who you are.”

I didn’t think the two songs sounded that similar. Fortunately, there’s a mashup to help make that decision (Madonna’s song is speeded up for beat matching purposes):

What I gather from the mashup is that structurally the songs are very close; both are upbeat numbers. But isn’t this the way with a lot of pop/dance? I would give GaGA a pass on this (there are lots of other ways to criticize her music). No doubt that Madonna is an influence, but who didn’t Madonna influence?