"I dunno about that - there was Peter Bellamy who reckoned he wanted to sound like an 18th century agricultural worker who had suffered a nervous breakdown on account of his land being enclosed. Thus the tremor in his his voice."

Not the same thing though. The salient words highlighted:

"I've yet to encounter anyone on the folk scene who does in fact GENUINELY BELIEVE they ARE a 19th century farm labourer, or even merely the reincarnation of one."

But the main point is that while it's interesting, it is ultimately irrelevant what was going through Bellamy's head - what he thought he was doing, whether he thought his art was more or less authentic than anyone else's. He may well have wanted to sound like that.

For all I know, that's what Lady GaGa wants to sound like too. It has little bearing on what they actually sound like. What's important is whether he succeeded in making convincing, potent, good art.