It is set in common time, and Gaga's vocal range spans from a low-note of G3 to the high-note of E♭5. The verses are in the key of C minor while the chorus is in the Key of A flat major, and the song is a tempo of 116 beats per minute. The song has a moderate electro-synth groove. 'Paparazzi' has a similar up-tempo composition to the previous singles ' Just Dance' and ' Poker Face' and carries a sultry beat. It's a love song for the cameras, but it's also a love song about fame or love – can you have both, or can you only have one?

It's about the media whoring, if you will, watching ersatz make fools of themselves to their station. The song is about a few different things – it's about my struggles, do I want fame or do I want love? It's also about wooing the paparazzi to fall in love with me. Well I'm so glad there are a few different interpretations, that was the idea. When you have love, when you have fame, when you have both, it's all of those issues in one record. Your Papa-paparazzi.' The thing is, I will chase you because I'm a star but I'm going to chase you if you're the star. There's no other superstar you know that I'll be. I'll follow you until you love me, paparazzi. At the same time, the lyrics are very confusing. They're not necessarily doing fine arts – something they put in the museums – but it's an art form. What am I really trying to say here? What will the act of me writing this song really do? Me making a conscious decision to write about the paparazzi – I thought about performance art and shock art and how Paris Hilton and her sister and Lindsay Lohan and Nicole Richie are shock artists in their own way. I just thought that it was turning into a constant problem, so what's more important thing to write about than the absolute hugest part of media culture? The paparazzi. Bill Lamb from concurred that 'the song is a tribute of sorts to the symbiotic but ultimately fake and 'plastic' relationship between stars and their trailing paparazzi who, for better or worse, are there to document and, in a sense, create the stardom.' To the Australian Daily Telegraph, Gaga explained that the song was also about struggling to balance success and love. When Ron Slomowicz from referred to different interpretations of the single, Gaga responded:

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