Is Gaga pretentious?

[Reality 69,414]

1 hour ago, Korok said:

I still don't believe she's the person she claimed to be during Joanne so to me that's her most pretentious era. I can't wrap my head around the idea of "returning to my roots", which is New York city, and then releasing a country themed album. 

Joanne's not country, though...

[Tokyo Rose 1,475]

5 minutes ago, dit said:

I think that's more inauthentic than it is "pretentious" don't you think? 

It felt to me like Joanne was a calculated move and not a pure musical and artistic expression like her other eras because of those comments she'd say like the one you mentioned of "hi new fans.." it made me think that "Joanne" was all just to normalize her and to attempt snatching new "regular" fans. Obviously I'm not saying the music itself was not authentic but the era in itself and what she was saying about it all felt super calculated to me and a tiny bit contrived....wish we don't go through that again. 

 

Love how you articulated that. It's something that bothered me but I have a hard time putting my finger on what it is.

It felt like she was policing her own public perception in a way. Instead of letting people think whatever they want, she was actively telling us how we should feel about her. Life doesn't work that way. In fact that can be very damaging to a career in the long run to have that attitude. 

[Retron 2,605]

1 hour ago, Korok said:

I still don't believe she's the person she claimed to be during Joanne so to me that's her most pretentious era. I can't wrap my head around the idea of "returning to my roots", which is New York city, and then releasing a country themed album. 

Joanne isn't country, tho. Sinner's Prayer is the only song that even gets close to that.

[Reality 69,414]

16 minutes ago, dit said:

I think that's more inauthentic than it is "pretentious" don't you think? 

It felt to me like Joanne was a calculated move and not a pure musical and artistic expression like her other eras because of those comments she'd say like the one you mentioned of "hi new fans.." it made me think that "Joanne" was all just to normalize her and to attempt snatching new "regular" fans. Obviously I'm not saying the music itself was not authentic but the era in itself and what she was saying about it all felt super calculated to me and a tiny bit contrived....wish we don't go through that again. 

 

I don't think it was a "calculated" move, though. It seems to me that if she (and her team) wanted to gain more "regular" fans, they would have probably created and promoted more TFM or BTW-esque music and fashion. Those were the things that were working for her. This was a complete 180 and it was a very bold and risky decision to make a more "stripped back/analog" era. I suppose to a degree it was a bit successful, but honestly, most of that was due to the Super Bowl. Joanne or not, that was one of the biggest, if not, the biggest factor of her gaining new fans this era. 

I get what you mean by saying that it felt inauthentic, but I easily feel like TF/TFM were more inauthentic eras than this. I truly believe that she "harkened back to her roots" and tried to make this era as authentic and as "Stefani" as possible. 

[Gardevoir 9,414]

1 hour ago, Tokyo Rose said:

A lot of people might call her whole "fashionista persona" and all that pretentious, but what I felt was pretentious was the whole Joanne debacle. 

As a fan since 2009, to watch her contradict everything she used to say about what she does felt pretentious. Wearing a blank white t shirt and jean shorts is not an artistic statement  If your tired of dressing up just say it girl 

And also, when the Joanne era started, she would say things on twitter like "Hi monsters, and new fans.."  

She didnt say white t shirt is an artistic statement. 

[dit 44,863]

12 minutes ago, M Monstre said:

I don't think it was a "calculated" move, though. It seems to me that if she (and her team) wanted to gain more "regular" fans, they would have probably created and promoted more TFM or BTW-esque music and fashion. Those were the things that were working for her. This was a complete 180 and it was a very bold and risky decision to make a more "stripped back/analog" era. I suppose to a degree it was a bit successful, but honestly, most of that was due to the Super Bowl. Joanne or not, that was one of the biggest, if not, the biggest factor of her gaining new fans this era. 

I get what you mean by saying that it felt inauthentic, but I easily feel like TF/TFM were more inauthentic eras than this. I truly believe that she "harkened back to her roots" and tried to make this era as authentic and as "Stefani" as possible. 

I see what you're saying and I appreciate your perception of the era as a whole. Still imo I find that the music itself is absolutely authentic as mentioned above. I just find the era a bit calculated in the fact that she tried to soften her public persona in a very obvious way. Another TFM or w/e would of possibly been commercially more viable and maybe would of snatched more fans as you mentioned but I don't think that was her intention. She clearly wanted to normalize, regularize and soften her image. That was the main goal. As safe as a TFM 2.0 would of been on a commercial level it wouldn't have helped her achieve that normalization she wanted. This is why I find it calculated and a bit contrived. From a few of her interviews and comments to the aesthetic in general. It just felt off and like a big "hey! you see I'm a regular girl too" which in all fairness could very well have been not only a calculated move (as I see it) but perhaps her artistic goal for this era. So kuddos to her for achieving that I suppose. 

[Ronk 14,334]

23 minutes ago, misunderstood said:

No.

The word is just overused to shame people who aren't basic. Just because someone wants to be artistic doesn't mean they're pretentious. 

Mte.  And the word isn't just overused, it is misused. 

[Helxig 40,895]

I think she has come across a little pretentious at times. But I think it came less from a place of trying to exaggerate her importance and value, and more from a place of... faking it 'til she made it, for lack of a better term lol.

I felt like she was trying to be an intelligent, artist, goddess of love, every day with all of her effort, so that hopefully some of it would stick. Acting out the person she wanted to be.

[TimisaMonster 31,073]

Yes...let's not deny it

She's always been that way but each era has varying degrees of it...ARTPOP being its height cuz the woman would just ramble trying to make sense of what the album was even about...oh right...it could mean anything...or whatever... 

[TEANUS 11,667]

While I agree that it was the ARTPOP era, you guys need to cut her some slack

She was going through the worst point in her career thus far from 2012-2013. She was taken advantage of, overworked, physically broken, mentally exhausted, and lost. She tried to make up for it by acting like she had it together and tried to make sense of it with the music but we saw her crack. The YouTube Awards, the white faced Venus look, that BBC Culture Show interview, the blackout. 

[GypsyBabe 22,836]

Not really. People just love to call overly ambitious and confident women “pretentious.” I think that her intelligence, knowledge, and confidence about her music/art and her message can come across as pretentious to some. But I do not think she is truly a pretentious woman at all.

[giskardsb 12,565]

better to be "try hard" than not try at all.   Gaga sometimes plans for bigger than she manages to pull off, but thats not being pretentious.

 

[giskardsb 12,565]

I still find it odd that fans have a hard time reconciling FameGa and JoanneGa as both being simultaneously authentic.  It's completely possible for both to represent different parts of her personality, and her musical education and appreciation is generally much wider than many fans.  

For everybody arguing that FameGa was authentic and JoanneGa a ploy to widen her demographic, it is just as easy, actually easier, to argue that FameGa was a clear character designed to stand out and be noticed and Joanne was a return to the pure musician underneath.   Or, as is more likely, both are different reflections of the true Stefani in different mirrors.

[Elizabeth 450]

She absolutely can be pretentious, but also very down to earth. 

[ApplauseftAdele 4,681]

She kinda annoyed me on Rupauls drag race, when she literally name dropped every event and fashion designer during the Lady Gaga runway and kinda had this super pretentious yet like "pretending not to be pretentious" tone while she talked  but she definitely used to be, esp. if you compare her in her early days explaining her art vs now