Judas caused Gaga's downfall

[socotra 3,310]

I think that Born This Way the song was more polarizing and more detrimental to Gaga's commercial viability than Judas was. While BTW was a smash, it also sorta pidgeon-holed her into this role as LGBT martyr which, while incredibly important, also alienated her from a large part of the GP. Suddenly if you listened to Lady Gaga you must be gay, and in 2011, this was still a highly contested topic (wouldn't be legalized in the United States for another 4 years and a half). In this sense, I think Gaga will be remembered as having been a leading cultural figure in the American fight for LGBT rights. However, I think it ultimately may have dampened BTW the album's overarching success.

Honestly tho this is all relative, because Born This Way still produced 4 Top 10 singles. I think Judas was just too WTF for people. I think a better single choice would have been something comparatively tame, like The Edge of Glory, particularly after the fairly controversial Born This Way. Instead, she followed up a controversial song with another controversial song.

And then ARTPOP showed up and was viewed as pretentious, confusing, baroque, unfocused, etc. and did nothing to help her image.