I'll let someone who's more of a Beyonceologist address the Beyonce part, but I don't think this is entirely fair of Lady Gaga. At least, not Early Gaga, when she was in her imperial phase. The whole point of what Lady Gaga was doing was bringing relatively avant New York art student BS into pop - not that what she was doing was necessarily groundbreaking, exactly, in the wider scope of things, but it was certainly pushing the boundaries of what was common and acceptable and familiar within the pop ambit. So I definitely wouldn't describe peak-period Gaga as basic.