Too much artistic freedom?

[Head Empty 25,194]

See the band Queen for example. Every member of the band was heavily involved in the songwriting process, which made songwriting a process of criticizing and judging the quality of another’s work. Only the very best ideas were allowed to be put on an album, because each song went through an intensive trial of being edited and limited by what each individual member could agree upon. And whenever the members took solo projects upon themselves every now and then, these were (arguably, but often agreed on) not as inspired as then when the four came together, simply because their ideas weren't challenged as much by the world around them. The limits that the other band members imposed on them forced them to be on top of their game.

[Fiona Apple 13,006]

 

Artistic freedom has nothing to do with the amount of things you can buy..

​Slay us

[Head Empty 25,194]

Hit thread in 3...2...1...

Also: I think that nowadays with things like Facebook & Twitter where you get flooded with likes people started thinking that their opinions are worth more than a rats ass.

Well this is a Gaga Thoughts section on a Gaga forum, so I'd say this is exactly the place where you can expect people who post their opinion .

Also I think my story was long and boring enough to prevent this from being a hit thread 

[Stephen 30,423]

YAS give my videos that free promo

[ARTPOPchamp 292]

I've been watching a lot of interviews with both Gaga as well as other artists lately, among which these Gaga documentaries about each individual era. When listening to Gaga's words about her distaste for the corporate world, I started thinking about how unique Gaga's position in that industry is. 

Gaga has taken creative freedom to a much higher level than a lot of her peers. Every single appearance of hers has unique sets, props, looks and sometimes entire art installations that are specifically created for a single occasion. Think about how much time, work and money her team and her management have to invest into organizing those things every time. She can change her entire esthetic, and she has an entire team that will back her up to make it happen. What that means is that, even though Gaga has spoken a lot about being controlled by commerce, when you look at it from a distance you'll realize that she already achieved an amount of artistic freedom and diversity that many other established artists could only dream of - both in past and present. 

Gaga argues that this is a good thing, and that more creative freedom will benifit her artistry. Being limitless has always been an aspiration for her. My question is; is more artistic freedom really a good thing? Don't get me wrong, I don't want anyone to be controlled by others, and I certainly don't want the "popstar mold" to be reinforced. But in my eyes, limits are the things that challenge us to be better, and force us to be creative with the limited resources that we have. By implementing boundaries your core talents start to matter more than ever. And in my opinion, Gaga has been relatively limitless in what she could do over the past few years (I can't stress the word "relatively" enough, because I know she has had a lot of "creative differences").

So what if Gaga was limited more in her work? What would her work be like if she could, for example, only afford a handfull of wigs per year? What if designers stopped sending her clothes for free? Or what if she was only allowed to build one piano that had to last through an entire album era? What if one bad choice in creating something could not be fixed by changing it up the next day? These are just arbitrary examples, and they're all things that would limit her in the possibilities of what she could do, and limit her in the amount of ideas that she could put into the world. But in my eyes it would certainly force her to focus. It would challenge her to filter out the 'o.k.' ideas, and dig deeper to get to the true creative gems. In short; it would become a case of quality over quantity.

What are your thoughts on this? Do you agree with my statements, or do you think that being limitless will lead to a better artistry? What limits do you think there should or shouldn't be?

Disclaimer: I'm not arguing about liking or disliking certain work, or whether things achieve commercial succes. I'd just like to start a discussion about creative processes and reflect on the things Gaga has said about this in the past.

Unlike a lot of celebrities, Gaga does in fact buy the outfits she wears, hence why they go into her archive in LA warehouse. The wigs aren't free, she and Freddie create them, buying the hair for them, when the label doesn't provide enough money for sets or tours, Gaga pays for it herself, it's what she did during The Fame and The Fame Monster. I actually think creative control was taken away from her during ARTPOP, I think how much creative control she actually has has been exaggerated and people like Troy tried to control it much more, Gaga talked about the label not knowing about things going on between she and him, such as Troy pushing Gaga too much, I also think it was Troy who picked the album singles not Gaga or the label, I think right now, Gaga has greate control, she's allowed to be herself and not always be on, you know? She does t always have to be Lady Gaga, she can be Stefani and take time to enjoy what she's earned and made for herself without Troy pushing her to always be Gaga. I also think Lady Gaga very much so filters out bad ideas, I feel sometimes the Haus may not tell her an idea isn't good and how she may not want to tell them an idea isn't good either. Lady Gaga talked about how she and the Haus talk about ideas and write almost every idea they have down and then pick the best ones and follow through with them. I think what Gaga needs to filter out are the Monsters, our opinions, she says she makes music for the fans, I think she should just make music without a focus on the fans, like how she did with jazz, the Jazz was for her, it wasn't oh the fan won't like it. 

Basically though, I think you're trying to say, if Gaga had a budget, would it be good. Like if Gaga could only spend a specific amount of money on an entire era would she put more focus on what she's doing. I think in the beginning, the limited income Gaga had is what pushed her to do what she did with THE FAME & THE FAME MONSTER, I think going back to that mindset might be good for Gaga, rather than living that LA life of excess and piles and piles of money. If Gaga only one take with a song and that's it, a limited amounted of studio time, it could create a greater focus. But then again, that's very restrictive and would put a lot of pressure on her, so much pressure like that which was out on her while making ARTPOP. 

[Head Empty 25,194]

YAS give my videos that free promo

​They're really great so I really wanted to put them in there 

[Alfonso 1,551]

Wow this is a very interesting way of looking at it, I'd never thought of it this way before  I see what you mean that with a tighter reign people are pushed to squeeze out their absolute best within the realm of possibility  But then why should someone have to be subject to that? I'd rather someone soar around in all directions freely than attempt to soar and hit a glass ceiling  Maybe a compromise medium would be the optimal solution actually, but then I don't really like the idea of compromises in this case, but if it is used as fuel to push someone then maybe it's okay  

This

+Finally an interesting thread...  #Applause 

[Brooke Hoegan 1,018]

 

limits are the things that challenge us to be better, and force us to be creative with the limited resources that we have.

What if one bad choice in creating something could not be fixed by changing it up the next day?

​you won the entire world, and you did it twice right there

the only thing I would maybe change is that she has too much financial freedom, rather than artistic freedom

back then Haus was so much more creative, they didn't have that much money, so they did it all with their own hands and hard work, and it felt so fresh

nowadays I feel like Gaga just buys everything, and it doesn't feel like her own that much and not that fresh

the peak of that is the G.U.Y. video, it's so lavish, but it doesn't feel fresh at all, if we look at her earlier videos

 

[aaronyoji 2,054]

think of it this way: 

fka twigs is an up and coming alternative artist, with a cult following, critical acclaim but no top 40 impact or pop radio acceptance. her music is far from conventional and dare i say innovative. she is far from a millionaire. yet she makes work like this:

 

 

and to be honest, this rivals practically almost everything gaga has done with her videos and music. 

so artistic freedom like someone said, has nothing to do with how big of a networth or radio support you've garnered. its the ability to free yourself of creative stifling. and you can never have too much of that.