Riffs: Kanye, Britney and Gaga: By their Twitter feeds ye shall know them

Hey y'all, try my new perfume! (Linda Davidson/TWP)

By Allison Stewart

It's practically in the Bible: And by their Twitter feed, ye shall know them.

As Slate recently pointed out in a recent, must-read faux-interview with Kanye West, Twitter has replaced the celebrity interview as stars' primary means of conveying carefully regulated snippets of personal information.

But can one really get to know a pop star through their tweets?

Click Track examined the Twitterverses of three of pop's biggest stars -- West, Lady Gaga and Britney Spears, to find out.

Who: Britney Spears

Number of followers as of Friday morning: 5,753,510

What she is like on Twitter: When she's off tour, Spears can go more than a week without tweeting. Her tweets tend to be impersonal and self promotional -- check out my magazine cover, check out my new fragrance. They seem like the work of a particularly forgetful publicist. Many are written by manager Adam Leber (kudos to Leber for not pretending otherwise), who complains about (and as a result draw attention to) various tabloid articles.

What her Twitter account may reveal about her real life: Ever since her breakdown, Spears has appeared oddly disconnected from the rest of the world. She rarely gives interviews or speaks in public; she's like a sphinx with hair extensions. Her rare personal tweets (she likes frozen yogurt! "Toxic" is her favorite song!) appear designed to remind everyone she's just folks, but they only serve to emphasize her otherness.

One tweet that pretty much sums it all up: At my photo shoot for the limited edition collection I designed for Candie’s! I think you guys will love it!!!

(Gaga and Kanye conquer Twitter, or at least most of it, after the jump.)

For Gaga, Twitter is serious business. (Reuters/Interscope Records))

Who: Lady Gaga

Number of followers as of Friday morning: 5,856,954

What she is like on Twitter: Gaga doesn't tweet with any great frequency, either, though her posts are livelier and less self-promoting that Spears'. They're also more socially conscious, with tweets condemning the Arizona immigration law and Prop 8. She praises her "little monsters" slavishly, to the point of overdoing it.

What her Twitter account may reveal about her real life: Gaga's tweets do exactly what a celebrity's Twitter feed is supposed to do -- make her seem like a real, relatable person, but not too real. It confirms all the things fans have long suspected are awesome about her (she hates prejudice, likes tequila and KISS) and leaves out the rest.

One tweet that pretty much sums it all up: A middle finger is more New York than a corporate ambush. I bleed for my hometown, and I'd die for my fans.

All hail the new King of Twitter. (AP Photo/Evan Agostini)

Who: Kanye West

Number of followers as of Friday morning: 828,636

What he is like on Twitter: A revelatory and hilarious mix of self-promotion, fashion and design pronouncements, life tips and good-old fashioned unfiltered crazy. Lots of name-dropping of minor celebrities (what's up, Samantha Ronson?). Helpful stewardess-related dating advice.

What his Twitter account may reveal about his real life: More than we want to know. West's effusive Twitter feed -- it's hard to think of a better one, ever -- has erased the remaining bad taste of the Taylor Swift debacle. But! Right now, 'Ye's got an album about to drop, he's busy, he's happy, he's in a good mood. But if things take a turn, well… something tells us we won't like Kanye when he's upset. And while his fondness for bling (manifested in tweets about the paltry size of his private plane, his dinners at Nobu and his Lanvin jogging clothes) currently seems aspirational, it could get insensitive pretty quick.

One tweet that pretty much sums it all up: Sometimes I get emotional over fonts