Appreciation of Lady Gaga

[blackcoffee 1,264]

Lady Gaga, the artist we all love and that I've been following since 2008, is just always full of surprises...some wonderful and great, some, maybe not so much. Even to this day, she is still opening my eyes to new things and my appreciation for her grows.

As we all now know, Gaga released her new single yesterday, "The Cure", to mostly positive fan and GP reaction (I've only really seen stuff here and a bit on Twitter) as it follows current trends in music. I was one of those yesterday that fell, and kinda still fall, into the minority that had a not so positive reaction.

I do not want this thread to become a heated battleground of what's wrong vs what's great with the song, so to keep it succinct, the song is just is not my cup of tea as it doesn't really align with my musical interest. I am not a fan of the current sonic radio trends, so that's that. 

That said, it's really great to see a lot of positive reaction to Lady Gaga because, like all of you, I just love her, so I did buy the song and have been opening myself to it. I'm still not big on the song and for me, it definitely ranks in the bottom echelon of her musical catalogue (again,for me), but there are things I do appreciate about it now. There's some throwback, 90s flair to the song...a lil Mariah, TLC, Celine, and even Spice Girls, and I love that. Listening to "The Cure", because it is Lady Gaga, has kinda made me reevaluate my dislike for current pop music and opened my mind to checking out sone other stuff now. I appreciate and love that she has always done this for me (it also happened with ARTPOP...not my musical taste AT ALL but it made me open my mind some and appreciate aspects of it).

I just think it is so cool that we all stan an artist as versatile as Lady Gaga. NO other fanbase (besides maybe Beyoncé), is as diverse with musical interest as our fanbase is. This is an amazing thing we should always be celebrating, but it also does make it heated when new stuff comes because I don't think we will EVER all agree (except maybe with the SuperBowl). No other artist has covered as many genres, and done amazing in each one, as Lady Gaga has and because of that, she has a fanbase that is just as diverse in musical interest.

We all have our different, favorite Gaga and ideas of what the "true" Gaga is. For me, my favorite, and I honestly think most true and authentic Gaga, is when she is taking the classics and making it new and hers. That, and when it's just her and her piano, doing her thing (which, in a sense, is classic). That's what she was founded on and honestly does best. It's what made me LOVE her.

Like any kid in 2008 (I was finishing high school), I was so interested and intrigued with this theatrical artist that was inspired by the classic flamboyance of legendary artist, like Bowie, Prince, Madonna, Freddie Mercury, Elton. She was putting new sounds on the radio, but it wasn't until one day, when I heard her on the radio performing "Poker Face", with just her and the piano, in this gay, jazzy way, that I was hooked and in LOVE. That is Lady Gaga to me. 

I am not much younger than Gaga (27 in May), so we grew up and loved a lot of the same music. My parents were all about the great, classic music of their time, the 70s and 80s, just like Gaga's parents, and that was honestly my favorite music, and even still is to this day. I had older siblings too, so I also listened to "modern" music of the time (90s and early 00s) and loved it too. I also loved the music of the 60s and jazz music. I was a musician and jazz was my favorite to play (kinda like Gaga...jazz since I was 13 haha).

This is why I feel such a love, connection, and appreciation to and for Gaga. She gave a voice to all us "different" kids that loved old, classic music, had our own style, were the "weird, artsy music kids", and were gay. 

She's just kinda done it all and sometimes it really aligns to my musical taste (TFM, most of BTW, C2C, and Joanne) and other times it doesn't (AP, The Cure), but I can still appreciate all that she does, the true artist she is, and the fact that she makes me stop, think, and appreciate types of music I may have otherwise just skipped over. Thank you Gaga!

Sorry this became such a thinkpiece and such a long thread, but I'm on Spring Break and it was bubbling in my head the whole time I was at the gym. Like I bet the diversity we would see in Top 5 Gaga songs among Monsters would be INSANE! No wonder we have so much infighting, but at the end of the day...everybody's gotta love each other! 

 

[donutellha 13,819]

damn well said! 

[KingOfSpain 10,010]

 

But well said! What an amazing statement. PREACH IT

[Mikey Monster 1,561]

Awww I love this. Great job at explaining this well. I'm an old soul like you when it comes to music. I'm in my 20s and my parents grew up in those times and I have older siblings who listened to 90s and early 00s. Love ur way of thinking honey it's so sweet and kind! ❤️❤️❤️Much love 

[Letmelivemylife 8,715]

To all of the outsiders we're just another fanbase but we're so much more than that. We are NOT a fanbase. We've been through too much to be a fanbase. Monsters are family ♥️. Yeah sometimes we fight and scream at eachother but the moment that **** gets real, we have eachothers backs. I had one of my sisters make me a shirt that says "Fanbases are there when its convenient but only monsters are there when its not". So true ♥️