[THEORY] "Joanne-Ga" Was A Marketing Strategy

[ApplauseftAdele 4,679]

During the fame monster she may have definitely been supportive of her crazy avant garde persona then but you can't deny that her management pushed her farther to get her more headlines. Now during Joanne, it's obvious that the "dark pop star" gaga is still here; we've seen the interludes at the JWT, we've seen the halftime show. Clearly she hasn't mellowed out completely, but her shockingly "normal" image during the Joanne era almost convinced Us so.

My theory is that that the Joanne persona was kindof a way to reduce the GP's tensions during ARTPOP where they called her too eccentric and trying to hard. It seems REALLY strange to me how emotionally connected she is with someone she never met, and I think she may be playing up this emotional connection to increase the sincere image and aesthetic of the album. I mean, if you were a hater and read the headline "Lady Gaga names her album after her late aunt" you can't be mad. 

Another piece of evidence : Million reasons. The song she literally shoved in everyone's faces. Why? It's authentic, it shows off vocals, it's slow, it's vulnerable. She didn't promote PI, John Wayne, DIC for this reason. She wanted MR to represent the new image of her. 

The overall sound of the album is strange . To me, John Wayne and DIC are her attempts to please the fans but a majority of the album is very authentic feeling and not quite what most fans wanted. No shade, but the songs on this album are not her best work, because they aren't her genre... but they do feel authentic and meaningful in different ways than Hair, Born this Way, etc. because of how they are presented - stripped down folk pop.

Of course, then we have the outfits. Joanne-Ga was VERY stripped down and almost casual, which was shocking to everyone who was used to her eccentric looks and probably drew more people to her music. But instead of calling her try-hard, the GP considered it to be more authentic. Again, more "damage control."

and now that the GP has seen her new side, they've definitely changed their feelings for her compared to the ARTPOP backlash. Even her Halftime had small details that made her seem more authentic - the brown roots in her hair, her body, the lack of controversial imagery that would be normal in 2010. 

TLDR : Joanne-Ga is Gaga over-pushing an authentic image over the GP.

[Bio 23,538]

TLDR: water is wet

[ApplauseftAdele 4,679]

Just now, Bio said:

TLDR: water is wet

Don't think it was obvious considering how everyone panicked when Gaga became a cowgirl / was surprised at the JWt visuals 

[Lucas 22,215]

It definitely was to clean her image. Her Bedtime Stories era

[robboadam 1,760]

[sipthistea 21,099]

Then why didn't Joanne outsell ARTPOP numbers? 

[Decodekid 25,542]

I somehow agree... What i most agree with is that you can really see her trying to go dark this era, i mean looks at those look she served at Europe, look at the Half Time Show, LOOK AT THE TOUR. This era has been like a fight between CrazyGa and SimpleGa 

[gagajandro25 6,103]

It was to clean her image and push her authentic side, but it was also an album she's wanted to do since the beginning. I was told that she's sort of had this album in the back of her head since the start involving Joanne. Mark Ronson was the one that finally talked her into making it happen. She has always had some sort of Joanne album for herself and never thought she could put it out to the public. She kept it personally. Joanne has always been important to her since the start, it's not hard to find evidence. 

[Jay.P 2,331]

Maybe but I refuse to believe the Joanne attachment thing is fake/exaggerated. She's been mentioning her since The Fame. She wouldn't do that to her family just to get the "GP" back.

[gagajandro25 6,103]

2 minutes ago, sipthistea said:

Then why didn't Joanne outsell ARTPOP numbers? 

Album sales have went down and continue to do so. There's only a handful of albums that have outsold ARTPOP in 2016/17 including Lemonade and Views.

[dopega 3,653]

It seem like her new management has been focusing to clean her image, literally everything she has done after ARTPOP has been classy and mature. The GP got over her being so over the top and now when she does something crazy, it becomes a viral meme. 

The album itself isn't something she's using as a marketing strategy, it's an album she put out just because she felt like doing it imo. Her image on this era on the other hand. 

 

[Decodekid 25,542]

1 minute ago, Jay.P said:

Maybe but I refuse to believe the Joanne attachment thing is fake/exaggerated. She's been mentioning her since The Fame. She wouldn't do that to her family just to get the "GP" back.

its more like a coincidence.. 

[gagajandro25 6,103]

She's focusing on being authentic, becoming an albums artist in addition to a successful single here and there, multigenerational, and most important a LEGEND  

[sipthistea 21,099]

1 minute ago, grigioguy19 said:

Album sales have went down and continue to do so. There's only a handful of albums that have outsold ARTPOP in 2016/17 including Lemonade and Views.

But the OP says it's a marketing strategy. Then it should have increased Gaga's sales, and it was the other way around. It went against of what many would have expected from her to deliver.

I'd say The Cure was a marketing strategy. Joanne? No way

[Rino 5,094]

Even though Joanne era seems to be an obvious "damage control" move for Gaga's career, I think what's more important is that she needed this kind of break to pull herself back together as a person. 

Near the end of ARTPOP we saw how tortured and tired she was after all the years of non-stop craziness, so Joanne era is kind of a therapy session for her, and I hope with the next album cycle we will witness Gaga in her full glory again.