Pop music does not have to be this way

[Whispering 18,865]

I'm not? Like she has tons of s-x songs. Why keep making more? There's only so many ways to write about s-x. There's so much she COULD write about.

Because Gaga writes about her life. She's having s-x. She likes s-x. 

Gaga has always been a very s-xual person and that comes out in her lyrics, songs, videos, dance moves, and in concert.

You are wanting Gaga to be someone she is not or to stop being who she is. 

[moonboywow 3,136]

Because Gaga writes about her life. She's having s-x. She likes s-x. 

Gaga has always been a very s-xual person and that comes out in her lyrics, songs, videos, dance moves, and in concert.

You are wanting Gaga to be someone she is not or to stop being who she is. 

I'm just wanting her to literally expand her writing topics. Write about traveling some more. Write about betrayals.  She claims she wants to push the boundaries of pop music yet she writes about things that have been written about literally every day. But that's pop I guess. I just wish she'd stop being SO shallow with her music. Writing about s-x and having lots of money to buy nice clothes. I want her to write more about normal human things and emotions like jealousy and anger. 

[KyliesChild 16,907]

I'm just wanting her to literally expand her writing topics. Write about traveling some more. Write about betrayals.  She claims she wants to push the boundaries of pop music yet she writes about things that have been written about literally every day. But that's pop I guess. I just wish she'd stop being SO shallow with her music. Writing about s-x and having lots of money to buy nice clothes. I want her to write more about normal human things and emotions like jealousy and anger. 

Oh I misunderstood you at first, sorry  I'm going to have to say that I agree....

[NIKE 274]

this whole thread just has me like 

[Whispering 18,865]

I'm just wanting her to literally expand her writing topics. Write about traveling some more. Write about betrayals.  She claims she wants to push the boundaries of pop music yet she writes about things that have been written about literally every day. But that's pop I guess. I just wish she'd stop being SO shallow with her music. Writing about s-x and having lots of money to buy nice clothes. I want her to write more about normal human things and emotions like jealousy and anger. 

 

Here's the deal...Gaga is going to write what she wants to write about, about the things that are important in her life. She isn't going to make an album just like your favorite Alternative Rock bands or write songs about kitchen sinks. If you want and need that exact kind of music, go listen to it...because there is plenty of it out there! 

Gaga isn't going to be your Emo, as-xual, Alternative Rock girl writing about kitchen appliances and suicide. She isn't going to stop being s-xual and chances are, she isn't going to abandon Pop music.

[moonboywow 3,136]

 

Here's the deal...Gaga is going to write what she wants to write about, about the things that are important in her life. She isn't going to make an album just like your favorite Alternative Rock bands or write songs about kitchen sinks. If you want and need that exact kind of music, go listen to it...because there is plenty of it out there! 

Gaga isn't going to be your Emo, as-xual, Alternative Rock girl writing about kitchen appliances and suicide. She isn't going to stop being s-xual and chances are, she isn't going to abandon Pop music.

Okay. Whatever. I just kinda want to feel connected to her as a person again. And i am. But I won't be for sure until she releases new music. With ARTPOP she seemed like just another pop star to me. Rich. Blonde. Skinny. A little cold. Come on. Half of you complain about wanting Tfm gaga again I don't ****ing understand this fanbase anymore. Tfm and born this way were PERFECT. The themes, the lyrics. Everything was perfect. Until ARTPOP. It's almost like she was trying to recreate the fame and failed miserably because even the fame is perfect. I mean look at summer boy. Paper gangsta,  paparazzi,  brown eyes.

[Whispering 18,865]

Okay. Whatever. I just kinda want to feel connected to her as a person again. And i am. But I won't be for sure until she releases new music. With ARTPOP she seemed like just another pop star to me. Rich. Blonde. Skinny. A little cold. Come on. Half of you complain about wanting Tfm gaga again I don't ****ing understand this fanbase anymore. Tfm and born this way were PERFECT. The themes, the lyrics. Everything was perfect. Until ARTPOP. It's almost like she was trying to recreate the fame and failed miserably because even the fame is perfect. I mean look at summer boy. Paper gangsta,  paparazzi,  brown eyes.

Okay, let's look at those four songs. Out of those four, I only like one of the songs. 

I didn't care for BTW at all...but loved ARTPOP. I simply found some things about BTW I did enjoy along the way and listened to other music in the meantime. After all, it was Gaga's choice to write the songs she wanted to write and communicate her vision and feelings how she felt best fit the emotion, during that era. I just simply didn't care for most of it. Big deal! Life went on...there were tons of other music that I did enjoy. 

[badgalriri 1,124]

​Leave Donatella alone...the amount of dancing I have done to that song. It has such great energy.

 

​I agree. She goes for the storytelling and effect over the metaphor sometimes, which I like...because you can feel like a plastic bag or "But then I trip over myself and I fall. I, I stand up, and then I'm okay." Not saying that one is better than the other. I just like that she opts for the story with references to things instead of fixating on the thing.

 

​I find about 80% of her lyrics relatable...or have watched enough movies/read things to find those references in there that make them clever. So What are you talking about?

 

​references...these are references. Sidenote: people tend to have shotgun weddings, have skeletons in the attic (closet)...also it's skeleton guns are wedding bells in the attic...seems like you are just putting a bunch of words in a sentence... 

 

Also, her songs flop because people like to hunt for the negatives in her work and focus only on them... 

​

​you seem pressed. dont be. i wasn't talking trash i was just saying i wish her lyrics werent so...............out there.

[Sister 9,907]

Gaga's lyrical writing is very cute and very Gaga. She should not change a thing about that and I can't think of who she would be if she would even attempt that. Gaga is very much her writing style.

[Dayum 240]

I have never understood what she meant every time she "rebukes her condition" when she's on a mission.

[Kayla 7,595]

I have a contrary opinion, she should avoid basic lyrics like those in G.U.Y. and Donatella imo.

​Hold up. I think GUY has incredible lyrics because she's showing power from the side of the submissive person. Typically in music when we think of the "dominating" force, the singer is referring to themselves as the ones in the dominating role, but with GUY Gaga turns the masculine "GUY" to mean "GIRL under you," recognizing that it's the person in the submissive role that determines how far you can go and therefore holds more power- they're the one telling you when to stop and when to go, not the other way around. 

So. Superficially the song is basic, but underneath that it's an interesting twist on how we typically hear about these roles in music. 

[Jester 6,334]

​Hold up. I think GUY has incredible lyrics because she's showing power from the side of the submissive person. Typically in music when we think of the "dominating" force, the singer is referring to themselves as the ones in the dominating role, but with GUY Gaga turns the masculine "GUY" to mean "GIRL under you," recognizing that it's the person in the submissive role that determines how far you can go and therefore holds more power- they're the one telling you when to stop and when to go, not the other way around. 

So. Superficially the song is basic, but underneath that it's an interesting twist on how we typically hear about these roles in music. 

​Yeah I love those lyrical layers of meanings that Gaga creates for some songs!

The fact that G.U.Y. is also a song about Gaga and her relationship with the music industry that inspired the video! Wow.

But still I think that song is one of her weaker works, it might be the repetitive nature of the song or something, but I just think she can do so much better. For example, just look at those artsy and thoughtful captions under some of her Instagram posts! These sometimes take over my imagination and I'm just trying to understand what she's going trough as a person and as an artist...

I'd love to feel more of that poetry in actual songs!

[ARTPOPisaChoice 946]

When people try to write lyrics everyone can relate to, the songs lose personality and potency. That's when you get bland artists like The Fray and Jason Mraz. It's much better to write a more specific song that can be applied more loosely to other situations. 

[Kayla 7,595]

I'm just wanting her to literally expand her writing topics. Write about traveling some more. Write about betrayals.  She claims she wants to push the boundaries of pop music yet she writes about things that have been written about literally every day. But that's pop I guess. I just wish she'd stop being SO shallow with her music. Writing about s-x and having lots of money to buy nice clothes. I want her to write more about normal human things and emotions like jealousy and anger. 

​Based on your posts in the thread it seems like you enjoyed Gaga's lyrical content until ARTPOP. You've said TF, TFM, and BTW were all "perfect," so really it just seems like Gaga went in a direction that didn't sit well with you for one album.

Arguably, there are relatable tracks on ARTPOP, but the album as a whole is not as relatable as her previous works. On the other hand, I personally am fond of her songs that are not necessarily relatable on a day to day level. 

The song, ARTPOP, for example, makes me feel ethereal when I listen to it. I feel a sense of positive power and strength moving in to the future when I play that song. It gives me a feeling of inner peace combined with a desire to accomplish things. 
Sometimes songs that are less relatable on a day-to-day basis can be very relatable to our internal emotions and feelings. So sure, she's not always singing about the things you want her to sing about, but songs about more abstract concepts can evoke very real feelings that can be applied to your relatable daily life. 

[Kayla 7,595]

Gaga has a ton of writing topics and I wish people recognized this more. We notice the love, s-x, and fame songs, but she has so much more. 

 

I went through all of her songs and organized them into different levels of relatability and included the meaning of each song to show that 

A)Gaga expands her writing topics all the time and, 

B)She conveys relatable AND un-relatable topics in a variety of ways.

 

No matter how you like your Gaga lyrics served, she sets the table with something for everyone.

Of course, people might organize the songs differently; these are just my opinions about the relatability of the music.  

 

Some of these certainly can overlap. Like Kaboom is only relatable to people who have one night stands, but the lyrics themselves are quite simple so I put it in the first category (same with a lot of other songs about love/relationships/s-x/etc.). Some of them I could have put into multiple categories depending on how I looked at it, and there are some that I personally find really relatable but aren’t necessarily relatable on a mass scale (like I personally can really relate to ARTPOP, the song) but this is what I came up with: (and I worked on it for a couple hours so don’t be too finicky about how they’re organized )

 

 

Easily Relatable/Simple Lyrics:

 

Again Again - Missing a previous lover while with her current guy.

Blueberry Kisses - Missing a previous lover who ended the relationship.

Born This Way - Love yourself, be yourself.

Boys, Boys, Boys - The pop/female version of Motley Crue’s Girls, Girls, Girls. About liking men.

Brooklyn Nights - Missing the time you shared with an old lover. 

Brown Eyes - Being in love with someone who loves someone else.

Captivated - Being captivated by someone.

Changing Skies - Getting through hard times.

Christmas Tree - Sexual Christmas song. 

Dirty Ice Cream - Someone clinging to you after only one date.

Disco Heaven - Partying. 

Dope - Addiction. 

Eh, Eh (Nothing Else I Can Say) - Falling in love with someone else.

Electric Kiss - Changing the world with your words, being peaceful/positive.

Fashion! - Looking good and feeling fine.

Fever - Having a “fever” for someone, wanting to be with them.

Fooled Me Again, Honest Eyes - Being lied to by someone you trust.

Greatest - Being there for someone you love.

Gypsy - Traveling, leaving the things you know to experience new places.

Hair - Wanting to be accepted for who you are.

I Like It Rough - Enjoying rough s-x or difficult relationships. 

I Wanna Be With You - Wanting to be with the person/people you love.

Just Dance - Escaping problems by going out and just having fun.

Kaboom - One night stand.

Let Love Down - Someone let her down in love, but she knows deep down he still loves her. 

LoveGame - Meeting someone at the club and having s-x with them.

Money Honey - The real “money” in a relationship isn’t what’s bought, it’s the love they share with you. 

No Floods - Persevering through hard times.

No Way - Catching your lover cheating on you, being betrayed.

Nothin On But the Radio - Calling your lover to come over and have s-x.

Oh Well - Something didn’t turn out the way you wanted it and you say ‘Oh well…’ to it.

Out of Control - Needing someone who you can be really naughty with. 

Princess Die - Suicide. 

Red and Blue - Being in love with someone who complements you well. 

Reloaded - Telling a lover to get ready for a night of s-x.

Second Time Around - Struggling in a relationship after getting back together from a breakup.

Sex Dreams - Having a s-x dream about someone other than your significant other. 

Something Crazy - Losing your virginity to someone is what I think of, but the song is about someone who does “something crazy” to you. 

Sometimes - Someone who makes you feel great when you’re feeling down. 

Speechless - Being close to someone who suffers complications from addictions. 

Stuck on ****in’ You - Being unable to stop missing someone. 

Summerboy - Summer love.

SuperStar - Feeling famous when you go out because you look/feel like a superstar. 

Telephone - Going out to forget your problems, pretending they don’t exist. 

The Queen - Being brave for the people you love and things you believe in. 

Then You’d Love Me - Thinking about what it would take for someone to show love for you. 

Vanity - …vanity.

Wish You Were Here - Living alone in the world and missing the people you know.

Wonderful - Starting a relationship with someone new, showing them how wonderful things can be with you.

Words - Leaving behind the people who don’t believe in you.

You and I - Coming back to a person you love. 

 

 

Relatable Concept/Abstract Lyrics:

 

Alejandro - Saying Goodbye to previous lovers, Fear of men/commitment.

Bad Romance - Loving someone so much that you want to see every side of them, including the dark sides. Fear of love. 

Dance in the Dark - Lacking confidence, insecurity. Fear of self.

Fancy Pants - Getting dressed up to go out or ditching your fancy clothes to wear what you want.

Fashion of His Love - An ode to Alexander McQueen, but lyrically is relatable in the sense that it’s about feeling like you were made for someone. 

G.U.Y. - Playing with gender roles and dominant/submissive roles. Being strong as the submissive person, holding control as a woman. 

Jewels N’ Drugs - Wanting the “high” someone gives you instead of the things they can buy for you.

Judas - Being attracted to someone/something that is bad for you.

Marry the Night - Committing yourself to the darker sides of who you are, accepting yourself.

Monster - This song has many layers, the shallowest being very easily related to- a one night stand. But deeper and it’s date rape, deeper and it’s Gaga’s fear of s-x, and ultimately it’s a metaphor for how the industry treats stars (she even references songs and videos from The Fame). 

Poker Face - Bis-xuality and cockteasing, essentially.

ScheiBe - Wanting to be strong without wearing a mask, wearing a mask to suggest you are stronger than you really are. Fighting for your rights even when you are afraid to.

 

 

Somewhat Relatable Concepts/Difficult Lyrics:

 

Black Jesus + Amen Fashion - Putting on a new spirit/way of life is as easy as putting on fashion.

Government Hooker - Being a puppet vs. fighting for what you believe in, becoming someone’s “hooker” metaphorically and literally.

Highway Unicorn (Road to Love) - Being brave on your journey through life. 

Kandy Life - Wanting a life of luxury. 

MANiCURE - Curing insecurity issues by getting a “MANiCURE” vs. being “man cured” or cured of the need to be appealing to a man. 

Ribbons - Practicing safe s-x.

Shake Ur Kitty - Telling the guy to just have s-x with the girl. 

So Happy I Could Die - Another with multiple layers of meanings. On the surface it seems like vanity, or a lesbian crush on a friend. But in reality, the “lavender blonde” is actually herself. The “touching herself” is fixing her image so that she can be the woman she wants to be, hiding behind the lavender blond wig and makeup. On the surface, it’s easily relatable. 

Starstruck - Not much to this song, but I guess it’s about wanting someone to put their hands on you/being out dancing. Lyrics aren’t difficult, they’re just too basic to really be that relatable, imo.

Teeth - Fear of truth, reference to oral s-x. “show me your teeth” = “tell me the truth.”

The Edge of Glory - Song is very relatable if someone close to you has died. It’s about the moment before you die.

Venus - Exploring s-x with another woman.

 

 

Relatable to Specific Cultures/Types of People:

 

Americano - Immigration Law, Gay Marriage, disenfranchised communities in the US. 

Bad Kids - A tribute to stories Gaga heard while on The Monster Ball Tour- “rebellious” teens. 

Beautiful, Dirty, Rich - Kids on the Lower East side who pretended to be poor artists but begged their rich parents for money to buy d--gs. 

Swine - Rape and rage.

 

 

Not Easily Relatable/Specific to Gaga:

 

Applause - Fans’ applause kept Gaga going when she was in pain.

ARTPOP - Bringing ART and POP together.

Aura - How Gaga presents herself and her image to the world.

Bloody Mary - Living between fantasy and reality, as a woman who is supposed to be a superstar and real woman at the same time. References the strength Mary Magdalene needed to have. (I could go on for DAYS on the meaning of the songs, the biblical references, references to Mary Magdalene’s actual tomb, etc. BRILLIANT song)

Do What U Want - Blasting critics saying they can do what they want with her look and image, but they can’t bring down her dedication or message.

Donatella - Donatella. 

Electric Chapel - She says it’s about needing to feel safe to find love.

Filthy Pop - Getting the DJ to play your music.

Future Love - Either about a dildo or futuristic love.

Glitter and Grease - Her relationship with Luc Carl and his love for his car.

Heavy Metal Lover - An ode to her friends on the Lower East Side.

Living on the Radio - Feeling alone, but finding comfort in the fact that she has been successful.

Mary Jane Holland - Gaga taking her identity back and creating an alter ego to feel like a normal person again. 

Paparazzi - Wooing the paparazzi to fall in love with her, media whoring.

Paper Gangsta - Refusing to sign to a label that manipulates artists.

Retro, Dance, Freak - Partying with you friends?

Retro Physical - Getting people to get off “the wall” and dance.

Rock Show - Waiting for love, but it never came so she abandoned the idea for something else.

Sexy Ugly - Taking on the persona of someone who loves the limelight in an ugly way.

Super Lover - Probably how Gaga felt when going to play a crowd. 

The Fame - Critiquing how society views fame.

 

 

So, whether done in a relatable way or not, Gaga has sung about:

Relationships (being happily in love, starting new relationships, being lied to, being cheated on, loving someone who loves someone else, missing someone, on and off relationships, wanting someone you can’t have, leaving past lovers, etc.)

Sex (experimenting with other women, one night stands, forbidden s-x, rape, masturbation, oral s-x, practicing safe s-x, rough s-x, bondage, submissive/dominant roles, etc.)

Partying (having fun, clubbing, dancing, forgetting your troubles)

Fame (the positive and negative sides of fame, critiquing how we view fame, manipulating the media, the music industry, etc.)

Perseverance (getting through hard times, being there for others, etc.)

Feminism (fighting for your rights, being strong as a woman, gender roles, etc.)

Self -Love (being yourself, accepting who you are, accepting the light and dark sides of you, etc.)

Depression/Addiction (suicide, alcoholism, d--gs, loneliness, insecurity, etc.)

Image (fashion, using your image to convey a meaning, using your image to transform into what you want to be or who you are, etc.)

Death

Travel

Immigration

LGBT Rights

and more! But...I've been at this for hours and I'm done.