Would Gaga be as popular if she was black?

[Mills 446]

Even if Rihanna is basically quite pop already, you can't really imagine her get the Queen of Pop title do you? I can't  Wow, I can't imagine a black Gaga. Does this make me racist????

​If we've to define the 'Queen of Pop' as someone with the most successful hits on Pop radio, Rihanna could easily be argued as one. She was named by Billboard as the top Pop Songs artist from 1992-2012. And in terms of chart peaks and sales worldwide, she has become the most successful since the era of the likes of Madonna, Mariah Carey, Celine Dion, and Whitney Houston (i.e. she has the most #1 hits in almost all the major music markets and sold the most digital songs in history - all at a younger age than most of her contemporaries). In addition to that, both Whitney Houston and Janet Jackson were once called by various media outlets as the Queen of Pop too during the height of their popularity, and both of them are labeled as 'black'. The artist who's been given the title of 'King of Pop' was of African-American descent too. So for me, whether Gaga is black or not, if she makes pop music, then she could be considered a pop star. And if accompanied with massive commercial success (like she did with her first three years in the mainstream), then there's no stopping her to be regarded as a royalty of that genre. 

I guess the reason why most of us these days wouldn't associate 'pop' with people of color is mainly due to the boom of 'bubblegum pop' in the 1990s led by the N Sync, Backstreet Boys, and Britney Spears, and then followed by the teen pop stars created by the Disney hype machine like Hilary Duff, Lindsay Lohan, and later Miley Cyrus - all of whom are labeled as 'white'. Have it not with the decades-long domination of these artists, I'd say 'pop', both as a culture and a genre, would still be seen as not a 'white-exclusive' thing.

[Quartz 12,535]

​If we've to define the 'Queen of Pop' as someone with the most successful hits on Pop radio, Rihanna could easily be argued as one. She was named by Billboard as the top Pop Songs artist from 1992-2012. And in terms of chart peaks and sales worldwide, she has become the most successful since the era of the likes of Madonna, Mariah Carey, Celine Dion, and Whitney Houston (i.e. she has the most #1 hits in almost all the major music markets and sold the most digital songs in history - all at a younger age than most of her contemporaries). In addition to that, both Whitney Houston and Janet Jackson were once called by various media outlets as the Queen of Pop too during the height of their popularity, and both of them are labeled as 'black'. The artist who's been given the title of 'King of Pop' was of African-American descent too. So for me, whether Gaga is black or not, if she makes pop music, then she could be considered a pop star. And if accompanied with massive commercial success (like she did with her first three years in the mainstream), then there's no stopping her to be regarded as a royalty of that genre. 

I guess the reason why most of us these days wouldn't associate 'pop' with people of color is mainly due to the boom of 'bubblegum pop' in the 1990s led by the N Sync, Backstreet Boys, and Britney Spears, and then followed by the teen pop stars created by the Disney hype machine like Hilary Duff, Lindsay Lohan, and later Miley Cyrus - all of whom are labeled as 'white'. Have it not with the decades-long domination of these artists, I'd say 'pop', both as a culture and a genre, would still be seen as not a 'white-exclusive' thing.

​Oh, you are quite right with your King of Pop point. I never really looked at MJ's color before. I just looked at him as Michael Jackson, no color attached. Hmmm, so color might not be an issue. Still, I fell in love with her blonde Poker Face look so I don't think she'll have the same impact with me if she were black. (Unless she managed to pull off a unique look that slayed me as hard as that straight blonde wig) 

[Guest]

Gaga would have my support as any color!

 

If she were black, I imagine her with long natural soft curls & the same eye color, beautiful!

[ItsTommyBitch 12,640]

I think electro-pop and dance-pop would not have been so easily popularized by "The Fame" if Gaga released it as a black artist. She would be scalded for trying to be "edgy" and I wouldn't be surprised if ignorant critics were to tell her that she would sound better with R&B and less electronic elements .

Also, her being so LGBT friendly and vocal would have made her chance of a straight black male fan base basically nil... Her fan base would be smaller in general unless she demonstrated popular "black" traits, or was a trendsetter like Beyonce...

"Born This Way" could NOT have made it to its popularity if it had been done by a black female imo. It's an unfortunate truth, but in general several black denominations tend to be behind in the world when it comes to LGBT+ acceptance and rights  

[pink sushi 4,351]

Maybe if she was a rapper....  

[ItsTommyBitch 12,640]

Maybe if she was a rapper....  

​Stuntin' all day, swag on a hundred million  

[StrawberryBlond 14,873]

​Stuntin' all day, swag on a hundred million  

​That's another point. I was talking about this in another topic: songs like Cake are considered to be a pure joke if a white person releases them but are considered serious if it's a black artist. If Gaga had released Rihanna's B**** Better Have My Money, do you think it would be taken seriously? No way, it would be laughed at. She would be critised for bringing up every hip hop cliche in the book and being totally fake and going urban to get popular. Rihanna releases it and for better or worse, it's taken seriously. Personally, I think trap is far better when it's just instrumentals with one phrase repeated occasionally. Music designed for popping n' locking, twerking and getting high to, basically. But some rap artists have taken to making trap a full on sound for their album and putting whole verses and choruses to them. I don't think it sounds as good when this is the case and they're very hard to take seriously because every single lyric is a cliche that's been trotted out many times. After listening to some of the rubbish trap music Rihanna's put out lately, I think...if this can be taken seriously, why can't Cake Like Lady Gaga? It's simple: whites making music like this is considered the musical version of blackface. A lot of Gaga fans found J&D cringey and I couldn't help feeling it was partly because Gaga was white.

[Bear 7,515]

To be truthful, I'd imagine she'd have a harder time and her debut wouldn't have been big. 

But after a while I reckon she'd have achieved the same level of success. 

[SychosSoChic 9,995]

LMFAO! You're funny as ****, are you a comedian??... Lady Gaga is considered more popular than Rihanna. **** it, She's more popular than both Bey and RiRi combined. So keep your "Rihanna and Beyonce are considered more popular by many people" bull**** for yourself son. Go spew your nonsense somewhere else kid. 

​

The troll has come out from under his bridge to play I see 

[Tropico 4,145]

No. She'd be seen as a laughing stock. She wouldn't have made it tbh. 

[ItsTommyBitch 12,640]

​That's another point. I was talking about this in another topic: songs like Cake are considered to be a pure joke if a white person releases them but are considered serious if it's a black artist. If Gaga had released Rihanna's B**** Better Have My Money, do you think it would be taken seriously? No way, it would be laughed at. She would be critised for bringing up every hip hop cliche in the book and being totally fake and going urban to get popular. Rihanna releases it and for better or worse, it's taken seriously. Personally, I think trap is far better when it's just instrumentals with one phrase repeated occasionally. Music designed for popping n' locking, twerking and getting high to, basically. But some rap artists have taken to making trap a full on sound for their album and putting whole verses and choruses to them. I don't think it sounds as good when this is the case and they're very hard to take seriously because every single lyric is a cliche that's been trotted out many times. After listening to some of the rubbish trap music Rihanna's put out lately, I think...if this can be taken seriously, why can't Cake Like Lady Gaga? It's simple: whites making music like this is considered the musical version of blackface. A lot of Gaga fans found J&D cringey and I couldn't help feeling it was partly because Gaga was white.

​I think its actually mostly because she isnt in the majority of the song, but thats part of it too. If she was someone like Fergi, or Gwen Stefani who has more background in that kind of music, she could have been taken more seriously but when people think Lady Gaga they think popstar, even if shes not bubblegum pop ever, it comes with a certain connotation. Thats why songs like DWUW can be surprising; she seems to be good at making most genres of music, shes got a voice that lends itself to a lot of styles (even jazz) so shes versatile, as we are learning.  

About the musical version of blackface, I think thats partly true. It is another reason that I consider people like Iggy Azalea to be like Hip-Pop though, because other than twerking, her accent, large assets () and just a little bit of trap, she isn't emulating that side of hip-hop. It's not taken as seriously even on a rap level because some dont even consider her really a rapper. I do think that Cake Like Lady Gaga is a harmless parody though  

[Michael Woodson 234]

​

​Rihanna isn't black though, she's from Barbados. 

Haha, **** you.... You're the troll that has come out from under his bridge to play. Go crawl back under the hole you crawled out of.  

 

[Michael Woodson 234]

No. She'd be seen as a laughing stock. She wouldn't have made it tbh. 

​You're joking right??... She wouldn't be seen as a laughing stock... She wouldn't be as popular, But she still would be. She definitely would have made it. If Nicki and Rihanna made it, then Gaga would have made it too if she was black.  

[StrawberryBlond 14,873]

​I think its actually mostly because she isnt in the majority of the song, but thats part of it too. If she was someone like Fergi, or Gwen Stefani who has more background in that kind of music, she could have been taken more seriously but when people think Lady Gaga they think popstar, even if shes not bubblegum pop ever, it comes with a certain connotation. Thats why songs like DWUW can be surprising; she seems to be good at making most genres of music, shes got a voice that lends itself to a lot of styles (even jazz) so shes versatile, as we are learning.  

About the musical version of blackface, I think thats partly true. It is another reason that I consider people like Iggy Azalea to be like Hip-Pop though, because other than twerking, her accent, large assets () and just a little bit of trap, she isn't emulating that side of hip-hop. It's not taken as seriously even on a rap level because some dont even consider her really a rapper. I do think that Cake Like Lady Gaga is a harmless parody though  

​It's so easy to think "she doesn't make this style generally, so it must be a parody." As if an artist can't experiment with genres without being labelled. People aren't willing to think of popstars as versatile, so any deviation from the pop formula is met with a bit of confusion and a sense of "are they being serious?" Doesn't half make for a limiting genre when that's the case. Like Gaga said, she feels like she has be a good girl and fit into the popstar box but she wants to rebel as she's a fan of all different types of music.

I see why some people think of Iggy as more pop than rap, but honestly, if she were black, she would be considered full-on rap. She raps about the exact same things other black rap females are singing about and is using the same kind of beats, so how is she not rap? A lot of people don't like to call her rap because they don't think she's talented. But that's the bit I don't get: since when did you have to be talented to call yourself a participator in a genre? Iggy suffers a lot of s**t for doing rap and it's totally because she's white and it's ridiculous. Believe it or not, there are untalented black rappers out there and they make Iggy look like Missy Elliott and Lil Kim combined. If she were black, there would be no public fascination with calling her untalented, fact.

 

[Sableye 574]

Sure

 

​LEGIT though