Idolator: Born This Way Ahead Of Its Time

[Bradley 55,155]

7 hours ago, ViviLittleM said:

ARTPOP was released too late

EDM was so 2012

If EDM succeeds in certain eras and flops in certain eras, how do artists like Skrillex, Calvin Harris, Zedd even survive?

[LilVenusian 579]

7 hours ago, Enigma said:

The grimy churn of “Government Hooker” and the warped digital burps and goth chants of “Bloody Mary” could very easily have set the template for Kanye West two years later to do a song like “Black Skinhead” and dabble in witch house onYeezus. “Bad Kids” works gnarly processed guitars into a dance anthem, similar to the textures Grimes would work with on Art Angels tracks like “Kill V. Maim.” The harried gabber-lite stomp of “Judas” laid the groundwork for Demi Lovato to borrow from Sleigh Bells and Justice. You can find that same BTW DNA in all kinds of places, whether its Allie X, those oppressive blasts that open “The Hills” or theNIN vibes of FKA twigs’ M3LL155X.

By disguising aggro goth-pop as radio fare, Gaga provided an alternative to the super-sugary molly-pop sound of the time, ditching the rave tent in favor of the void. Of course acts like The Knife had already toyed with this idea, but when someone of Gaga’s stature decided to cling to her inner demon, it made the pop world safe for stars at the top of their game looking to go on some truly abnormal, unexpected (and un-focus grouped) musical excursions. The album’s lyrics, length and lasting effect on Gaga’s career trajectory (alien egg -> Jo Calderone -> whatever this is -> vomit art) are certainly questionable, but nobody else could’ve made such an absurd, abrasive blockbuster seem so prophetic.

 

[LilVenusian 579]

BTW will be always be a nostalgic album that her fans will adore forever but lets not pretend like it was some huge groundbreaking futuristic work  I mean come on, the lead single was widely accused of plagiarism for a song released 20 years ago It was pretty much an 80's throwback with a few more innovative deeper cuts that no one outside the fan-base knows (e.g government hooker/bloody mary) If the whole album and all the hits were like that than maybe yeah it would be ahead of its time. 

[SummerGirl21 780]

vomit art is ARTPOP or Fame Monster. they need to get their eras right...

edit: oh i see he wasn't saying it was in the BTW era, but was influenced by it or something. 

Also, "whatever this is"... pshhhhh Aura will ALWAYS be one of my favorite ARTPOP tracks if not one of my all time favorite Gaga tracks. 

[SummerGirl21 780]

6 hours ago, mattwiththehat said:

I've always felt this way, that must be why I never get sick of Scheisse, HML, Government Hooker etc. it's all so fresh even 5 years later.

you just mentioned my 3 favorite songs from BTW. the biggest problem with that album was the outrageous amount of filler. 

[Tresor 1,649]

2 minutes ago, SummerGirl21 said:

you just mentioned my 3 favorite songs from BTW. the biggest problem with that album was the outrageous amount of filler. 

agreed, if she condensed that album into 10 of the 17 songs that were on that record, it would have dethroned TFM as her Magnum Opus.

[sipthistea 21,099]

So ahead of its time.

I'm so proud this was the first Gaga album I bought. 

Happy Birthday Born This Slay 

[ARTPOPisaChoice 946]

comparing the masterpiece Kill V. Maim with Bad Kids?? Saying Gaga influenced fka Twigs??  it seems like a stretch to me

[StarstruckIllusion 42,248]

luckily, it didn't flop

[ARTPOPisaChoice 946]

7 hours ago, Didymus said:

I just don't think randomly pointing to similar-ish sounds (and in a lot of cases the examples don't even have any similarity at all) in some later songs is enough to call an album avant la lettre. During the time of release no one thought BTW was innovative so I don't see how it's even possible that it was ahead of its time that way. If anything, the album is so heavily indebted to the 80s (as noted by critics) I don't think it's possible for it to be even considered a quintessentially contemporary release, automatically ruling out the possibility of it being ahead of time.

Just my opinion. I enjoy the album just fine without having to pretend it's more than it is (no diss, but I do think that's what's happening among fans and apparently some journalists, or shall I say fans in disguise), so this is no criticism of the album. Just not convinced by this particulal pedestal.

I totally agree with this. I think to be considered "ahead of its time" it needs to usher in a revival of an older genre (which Born This Way did not do), or create a new sound completely unheard before (also not fitting Born This Way). While there are glimmers of genre-bending and creation, I would say it's more Garibay than Gaga. 

[aaronyoji 2,007]

4 hours ago, ARTPOPisaChoice said:

comparing the masterpiece Kill V. Maim with Bad Kids?? Saying Gaga influenced fka Twigs??  it seems like a stretch to me

grimes and twigs have more forward thinking music than anything gaga has made, like sorry but what is up with those comparisons 

[Didymus 32,821]

10 hours ago, Enigma said:

This basically summarizes what I am saying "but when someone of Gaga’s stature decided to cling to her inner demon, it made the pop world safe for stars at the top of their game looking to go on some truly abnormal, unexpected (and un-focus grouped) musical excursions"

I think that's really exaggerated. The only songs that qualify as "Gaga ... cling[ing] to her inner demon" are Government Hooker and Bloody Mary. The rest is pretty straightforward pop with some hard-hitting dance or rock elements added on top.

Anyway, I remain unconvinced. With the exact same logic, we should be praising Rated R by Rihanna even more than BTW I guess Guess what she was making in 2009:

Could easily be interpreted (wrongly, but it's the logic of the article) as paving the way for Bloody Mary. The "underground dance" elements are even more obvious and put on the forefront than anything on BTW so there you go.

How did the article describe BTW again? "aggro goth-pop", "an alternative to the super-sugary molly-pop sound of the time, ditching the rave tent in favor of the void". Well in that case Rated R definitely wins, both for its heavier ditching of basic pop compared to BTW ànd the fact that Rihanna did it two years earlier.

Guess what. More-intense-than-usual-for-a-pop-song rock layer and dark imagery, as well as these lyrics:

I'm a live my whole life
In the night

Rihanna's clearly clinging to her demons on this album. The music of the track could be seen as paving the way for MTN as well as Bad Kids and Electric Chapel for their rock infusion elements, esp. since in the same year, as the article stated, Gaga was still doing straightforward synthpop. Oops, guess Rihanna was already doing more.

Could be seen as paving the way for Americano for its inclusion of acoustic "southern" elements in a predominantly electronic track.

Pop songs very rarely these days feature guitar solos. On BTW Gaga featured two. Rihanna featured (a longer) one on The Last Song. You could say she paved the way for later pop artists to include these rock elements fully in pop songs, not just as decorations but as real elements of the tracks.

Obviously I don't believe Rated R was ahead of its time and I think all of the above arguments are ridiculous, but just an illustration of how you could prove any album was using the logic of the article.

[Lord Temptation 11,209]

So basically the album of the decade?

[Sakrai 4,759]

I don't wanna brag but I always knew that BTW was ahead of its time and a Masterpiece 

I'm glad the industry is finally catching up on its undeniable brilliance!

[AJH219 4,448]

Why am I not surprised the same fools are ejaculating over the chance to drag her greatest album, can y'all get a life? It IS her greatest album, and you can deal with it. It's especially funny since some of you think The Fame is a masterpiece yet have the audacity to call our Born This Way? The utter delusion