Very Very interesting ARTPOP analysis

[Ferrer Zorola 3,966]

9 hours ago, NewYorkCity said:

"Sexxx Dreams" talks about bisexuality as a crime using direct references to "1984," George Orwell's novel. (Also, little Medusa/erection joke in the bridge for those of you who caught that...)

can you please explain further... I'm not that good with metaphors and I obviously haven't read 1984, please

 

9 hours ago, NewYorkCity said:

"Swine" disguises the depression of RAPE under its upbeat EDM mask. It's very similar to "Monster" from The Fame Monster. Plus, nice "Lord of the Flies" reference at the end (a book where a swine head plays a very important role in the plot).

but monster is about consensual sex, right? and what lord of the flies reference? I saw a bit of that movie and read it's plot so that might be the reason why I didn't get it
 

9 hours ago, NewYorkCity said:

"Mary Jane Holland" parallels the Greek myth of Apollo and Daphne throughout the whole song, but particularity in the second verse. The key is when Gaga sings about "turning" into Mary Jane Holland the same way that Daphne turned into a tree in the story.

OMG this Tulito dude is a genius 
do you know more about this Daphne/Apollo (which are featured in ARTPOP's cover, by the way) myth? I need to read it asap 

[DeanWinchester 41,390]

6 hours ago, JDi said:

"I killed my former and..." which was Gaga's way of saying that Born This Way Gaga was dead on this album."

lol it's about being a chameleon, hence La Chameleon. if anything, it's a nod to Born This Was and being reborn over and over again. "Enigma pop star".

"G.I.R.L. = Guy In Romantic Love"

well that's just made up. there's the Guy I'm Romancin' Loves part that isn't.

"Sexxx Dreams" talks about bisexuality"

she did say she wrote it after her gay friend told her about a sex dream he had about her, but literally the only lyric that matches that story is "I heard your boyfriend was away this weekend". it's about bisexuality as much as Speechless was about her dad's heart surgery. the song is obviously about being in a relationship that doesn't allow her to be sexually liberated. she feels broken and stuck. the bi part is just implied so that there's more layers to the song i.e. her ARTPOP could mean anything.

"Donatella" talks about fashion in a very shallow way

the song is about Donatella Versace's make-up and kitsch being misunderstood and the Versace brand being all about highlife grotesque. it's about Donatella and Gaga (who wore Versace during the extremely ironic FAME promotional campaign so that she can look like a decadent rich fame *****) being ironic with the ugliness of the superficial fashion world.

More contrast: "Mary Jane Holland" is a very pro-drug song.

lol it's about not being able to party every night i.e. go through the tour without getting high

"Mary Jane Holland" parallels the Greek myth of Apollo and Daphne throughout the whole song, but particularity in the second verse. The key is when Gaga sings about "turning" into Mary Jane Holland the same way that Daphne turned into a tree in the story.

could be but that's plain reaching. the MJH character is her true self (the brunette) so the Daphne to tree analogy would be random af

First, yes for great discourse!

Your point about her killing her former does not invalidate the review's interpretation. They can work together. When you reinvent yourself, you stop being your old incarnation.

yeah I was told about the wrong lyrics

The bisexuality layer is possible. Just like any art, consumers can see interpretations that fit but are also not intended by the creator/artist/author.

But Donatella speaking about fashion in a shallow sense does make it easier for people to find how superficiality of fashion could be ugly

"not being able to party every night" how? Where in the lyrics does it say that? It sounds like a general overview of life with drugs

I'm quite unfamiliar with the Apollo and Daphne shtick so I need to read on that more probably

[Oriane 21,006]

I did an analysis too when I listened to it for the first time, I posted it here a few months ago, I put it here again, I think it's completing the analysis you found.

It starts with Aura where she says she wants to be naked. This is an announcement. I don't know if there's a similar expression in English but in French, "to put oneself naked" means you reveal yourself, your feelings and your inner self, without being scared of the others' reaction. And that's literally what she does for ARTPOP. She drops the outfits and the wigs and we see her naked. Because that's what the public wants, right ? They ask her to show the real her, so that's it. She's naked.

So of course the song that follows is Venus. The Goddess of Love. Naked, too. And the main theme from ARTPOP is revealed : Love. Maybe it's classic (so it's pop) but it's in fact a lot deeper for her. This album will show little by little her relationship with love and how she struggles to keep it her value. Venus is a sign of rebirth too, a rebirth after her hip surgery, a rebirth after the dark albums she made before.

Then there's G.U.Y. She keeps on with the mythological theme and starts to talk about "separate" things. Love and sex. Domination and submission. She starts to make a comparison that will go on in the other songs : romantic love and the love for her fans. Things that can go good or bad.

Then we have Sexxx Dreams, and she starts to deepen the theme of sex. This time it's not about pure love only, we enter the "dark" side with all her struggles. Of course she likes sex but is it the most important thing compared to love ?

So Jewels N' Drugs makes a reminder that love is still there and it should not be forgotten. For the first time in the album there's a comparison between love and drugs. Love is still there and will always be there because she's addicted to it, as well as she is to drugs or sex or fame or fashion or all these less important things. So we just went beyond Venus where it was just about pure love and nothing else. We enter the "struggle" phase.
And in MANiCURE, she keeps on with the idea that love is a drug she had to be healed from. This has made her suffer too much, even if deep inside she knows that's better to her than her other addictions. It's easier to take drugs for now.

Then we're almost at the middle of the album. Until now, she has talked about love and has gently drifted to its dark sides and to her preferring her other addictions. But in Do What U Want she expresses her anger for the first time in the album. We all know the meaning of the song, and just to make a link with my analysis, I will say she talks about her body as an envelope. She reminds us she's naked now but she's not afraid, she's proud of it. And she always loves her fans but in this song she just addresses her haters and the media, forgetting for a moment the only ones she should make music for.

So there's ARTPOP, right in the middle of the album. She explains everything and nothing. She keeps on saying she's doing her music for the ones who love her and understand her. This is like a pause in the album, she forgets about the rest and focuses on the real message and wants to give, about art and pop.

And we start the anger again with Swine. We all know its meaning too. This time love doesn't solve everything - and maybe that's why she tries to get away from it after all. She's more and more into her addictions because she wants to forget what happened.

So we're entering the fun part, where she completely forgot about love and is now all in her addictions. There's Donatella where she doesn't talk about serious stuff, just about beauty, fashion, money, she's having fun. And why should it be bad after all ? Life is not about being serious all the time and only seek for love and art and all the noble stuff.

Then comes Fashion! with the same meaning, this time she starts to be really high and feels "on top of the world", she doesn't want to hear about other things.

So in the theme of addiction, we're coming to Mary Jane Holland where she obviously talks about drugs. She's fine when she's high and had nothing else to care about. She sometimes wishes she could be like this all the time, just to be away from the trouble and the pain she deals with when she's into more serious stuff. And there's of course a parallel with Venus, the Goddess of Love. Mary Jane Holland is the Goddess of Addiction in a sense. It doesn't mean she's all bad but she's not the one Gaga should turn to if she had to choose one.

And she knows it very well because there's Dope. Yes, she loves drugs and all of this, but what does it mean ? She does drugs to escape from her reality for a while but it's precisely these drugs that destroy her reality and take her apart from her love, her friends, her family, and her fans. She doesn't always know the limit and sometimes loses herself. From now, she has to struggle to remember the important things in her life.

So there's Gypsy, with more hope. This is again a song for her fans and her family, but this time she took her decision : she won't let them down. Even when she goes somewhere else - another country or another state of mind - whe will always make sure to come back. Love is the most important thing after all.

And finally Applause. What would make more sense than this song at the end ? She literally says to her fans that she made this album for them, not for the haters, no matter how she got lost at some point. So she's waiting for the applause. She's still saying that her art is the most important thing when it comes to her music : not the fame, the pop or the money. It's fun but she really wants to deliver a message after all. She lives for the applause. She lives for love. But if she doesn't get the applause, this love may hurt. And she may return to her addictions.

[Pharamon 6,839]

It was beautiful in it's own way.

[Alfonso 1,547]

Good analysis  

Couldn't agree more with you 

#ARTPOPForever  

[whore 11,447]

12 hours ago, NewYorkCity said:

"The first lyric of the first song ("Aura") is "I killed my former and..." which was Gaga's way of saying that Born This Way Gaga was dead on this album. The bridge also serves as somewhat of a thesis for the whole album, identifying the five major themes and motifs in the upcoming songs ("dance, sex, art, pop, tech").

I'm going to need someone to further analyse this for me, because I don't understand how the Born This Way Gaga is dead... call me a flopfan 

[JDi 1,495]

6 hours ago, stircrazy said:

Why is the daphne reference wrong?  

Receipts:

-the album cover features daphne. 

-sexxx dreams: "you could turn to stone (aka the physical statue of daphne) or damn petrified (like wood)"

-MJH: "the grass heats up my insides and my brunette starts to sprout"(like a damn tree)

yeah, I am aware of that and that's where he got it. I said it could be, but it's still random. you don't reference something just for the sake of referencing it. that's pretentious and lame. you're making a better point yourself with it being referenced in Sexxx Dreams. and the sprouter in MJH is Cannabis ffs
 

6 hours ago, stircrazy said:

honestly open your mind, you might learn something about yourself.

honestly, this is funny to me.

[JDi 1,495]

5 hours ago, A Gaga Lad said:

"not being able to party every night" how? Where in the lyrics does it say that? It sounds like a general overview of life with drugs

it's about getting high every single night before going on stage. something she talked about in interviews during the Applause era.

ladies and gentlemen, introducing...MJH *audience cheering*

[Lord Temptation 11,209]

ARTPOP is beauty trapped inside an ugly place.

It is the expressionless yearning for expression, a canvas dying for paint and a paintbrush, but having nothing but a gun and blood, sweat and tears. 

[Ronk 14,762]

17 hours ago, djBuffoon said:

THANK YOU. Tired of the ARTPOP bashing and this was a refreshing reminder that, unlike the overwhelming majority of pop music in the last decade, this album (and Gaga's whole discography) is actually about something more than just sex and seduction.

Some fans and critics dismissed ARTPOP as pretentious, when that couldn't be more untrue. The album is very relatable and meaningful, but Gaga respects her listeners enough to not spoonfeed them.

[Sakrai 4,759]

I'm tired if this 'ARTPOP was deep' idea. No, it wasn't deep, really. Nothing that I've read on this thread has stricken me as particularly deep. 

I mean if you compare it to her pop contemporaries sure it's deeper than that. But gaga has always been deeper than that. It's not really an achievement. It's a disservice to compare her to other pop stars. I'd think it's almost an insult.

I respect Gaga tremendously and I really dislike the fact that fans expect so little of her, and say that ARTPOP had true depth as though it reached the limits of Gaga's intelligence. Gaga is capable of much more. ARTPOP was tremendously superflous compared to what gaga is capable of.

[Lord Temptation 11,209]

On 9/1/2016 at 9:41 PM, Azor Ahai said:

It's the title that puts you off. It's a pretentious  title for sure it's like calling it "Best Album Ever". 

ARTPOP isn't pretentious. It's smart because it makes you question whether it is even appropriate or not. What's in a name, anyway? Isn't it what's underneath that counts? 

 

[iamfreedumb 222]

this is so fascinating to think about

[Vague 424]

Not just trying to be a contrarian here but I dont think a lot of this is that hard to grasp. I dont think this album is particularly deep, I do however think of it as thoughtful whereas most people probably don't. I think most people assume Gagas music is generally brainless Top 40 pandering nonsense while obviously she actually thinks about her music. That being said, just because theres thought behind the music doesnt necessarily make it profound or substantial. No matter what explanation you give to G.U.Y. or Sexxx Dreams to try and make it sound meaningful, they're ultimately just infectious little pop tracks that aren't in the least bit deep. And I don't think thats a bad thing. So idk. I read that explanation and just cringed a little bit.