Was working with Mark Ronson a mistake?

[RAMROD 97,070]

It is not.

It is smart and great that she expand her sounds. 

Haters can try to call her anything, but they cannot call her one dimensional because she is not. And they arevaware of that. 

 

[A Hybrid 10,959]

1 minute ago, LOVE JUNKIE said:

I don't disagree with that but I also don't think Mark was integral to Joanne being of higher quality. I think he brought some good things to the table but overall I just wasn't impressed with what he brought creatively.

 

1 minute ago, WokePop said:

tragic.gif (cause I’m on mobile)

the guitar in A-Yo, the trumpets, Perfect Illusion in its entirety (!), Joanne, Sinner’s Prayer, Million Reasons, Come To Mama, Hey Girl, the richness of instruments and the crispness, soulfulness, high fidelity and authentic quality of the minimally edited vocals of Gaga in this album is all due to one man and his name is Mark Ronson.

in the name of sanity and good taste please do repent.

These reasons above, also all the artists Mark was in contact with thay worked on Joanne... Never thought I’d see a Gaga with Matt Helders, Josh Homme, Florence Welsch. Before Mark she made songs with R. Kelly and some guy named Twista 

[LOVE JUNKIE 3,299]

17 minutes ago, WokePop said:

tragic.gif (cause I’m on mobile)

the guitar in A-Yo, the trumpets, Perfect Illusion in its entirety (!), Joanne, Sinner’s Prayer, Million Reasons, Come To Mama, Hey Girl, the richness of instruments and the crispness, soulfulness, high fidelity and authentic quality of the minimally edited vocals of Gaga in this album is all due to one man and his name is Mark Ronson.

in the name of sanity and good taste please do repent.

I'm all for "the richness of instruments and the crispness, soulfulness, high fidelity and authentic quality of the minimally edited vocals of Gaga". Joanne is a well-made album but that doesn't mean I have to like the end result. For me the overall sound and creative direction was scattered and unfulfilling. To me Hey Girl just sounds like an Elton John knock-off and Come to Mama like a weird Beatles imitation.

[IAmNotHere1997 25,824]

A little bit. Those funk sounds are f*cking annoying. Gaga needs to stay away from that forever.

also, Joanne DID NOT LACKED PROMOTION FOR GOD'S SAKE!!!!!!!!

[ModernEcstasy 6,543]

I don’t think it was a mistake. 

I was just a little disappointed with what they cooked up together. 

I was expecting “Uptown Funk” level bops. 

[LOVE JUNKIE 3,299]

4 minutes ago, A Hybrid said:

 

These reasons above, also all the artists Mark was in contact with thay worked on Joanne... Never thought I’d see a Gaga with Matt Helders, Josh Homme, Florence Welsch. Before Mark she made songs with R. Kelly and some guy named Twista 

And those songs feel way more interesting to me. Pedigree aside most of Joanne bores me Matt Helders has done better work. Josh Homme has done better work. Florence Welch has done better work. I honestly wish Welch was more involved in the songwriting of the album, she's a great songwriter. I'm probably in the minority here and that's ok but I just don't think the album (despite its great potential) came together very well.

[Bear 7,515]

It's my favourite Gaga album and I love the work Mark does so for me it was absolutely a great decision  

[PeachJug 2,930]

I don't think any other producer would've been better at helping Gaga realize her goals for Joanne.

The album turned out great imo

[Moo 2,082]

Umm, he’s perhaps her least exciting producer. As in, the production doesn’t really do anything unexpected for a country-tinged alum. The Fame Monster, Born This Way and ARTPOP at least took their sounds down interesting routes  

So maybe not a mistake as such, just not the most adventurous choice. 

[Head Empty 22,636]

Whether it was a "mistake" or not does depend on any individual liking the album or not. Gaga achieved what she wanted, and Ronson is a capable producer regardless of whether you enjoy his sound.

But above all, he genuinely had heart for her and the end result, which was exactly what she needed for the follow-up of ARTPOP.

[LOVE JUNKIE 3,299]

39 minutes ago, Bradley said:

Like Gaga herself said, "I never do the same thing twice. Did anyone get the memo? Born This Way was like nothing on the radio. Applause was like nothing on the radio. Perfect Illusion is like nothing on the radio. They're in for a ride."

Joanne was intentionally crafted to be different from The Fame Monster, and in my opinion this makes her so much more fun to stan for. You never know what you're getting next. And what's best about her is that she would make the music accessible by giving her music a commercial touch, hence enlisting Bloodpop to work on Joanne. Like you could still hear a strong influence of pop in Joanne.

I think if she solely worked with Bloodpop on Joanne, it would have been a generic piece of work, sort of like Justin Bieber's Purpose. I thank Mark for spicing it up so that it didn't sound like what the rest of the industry has been offering - generic, radio-friendly, trend-hopping music.

I'm glad Joanne was so different than her previous work and I really love the overall concept of Joanne just not the execution. If anything I wish it was even more different than her previous work and even less radio friendly. More Folk influence, more experimental, more genre-bending etc. but whenever I look into what I don't like it usually points to Ronson's over-involvement

[Head Empty 22,636]

37 minutes ago, LOVE JUNKIE said:

I'm all for "the richness of instruments and the crispness, soulfulness, high fidelity and authentic quality of the minimally edited vocals of Gaga". Joanne is a well-made album but that doesn't mean I have to like the end result. For me the overall sound and creative direction was scattered and unfulfilling. To me Hey Girl just sounds like an Elton John knock-off and Come to Mama like a weird Beatles imitation.

I sometimes wonder if fans give producers too much credit when it comes to creative direction.

The overall vision of the album should be credited to Gaga, not Mark. Sure, he had a big hand in making the album what it is today. But Gaga was the one in the driver seat, and she's the one who, in the end, decides whether something aligns to her vision.

She did not collaborate with Mark on a whim. She specifically chose him because he matched the type of record she wanted to make. Mark enabled her to create the album she had in mind.

[LOVE JUNKIE 3,299]

2 minutes ago, Why am I on GGD said:

Whether it was a "mistake" or not does depend on any individual liking the album or not. Gaga achieved what she wanted, and Ronson is a capable producer regardless of whether you enjoy his sound.

But above all, he genuinely had heart for her and the end result, which was exactly what she needed for the follow-up of ARTPOP.

I do believe Gaga really loved working with him and that makes me extremely happy, but that doesn't mean I have to like his work. I think he could've worked on a handful of tracks just not the whole album. For example A-YO is produced amazingly and that is in large part due to Ronson. BloodPop, Ronosn and Gaga balanced each other perfectly on that track. However a lot of other tracks felt like Ronson overtook the creative direction and not for the best imo.

[LOVE JUNKIE 3,299]

Just now, Why am I on GGD said:

I sometimes wonder if fans give producers too much credit.

The overall vision of the album should be credited to Gaga, not Mark. Sure, he had a big hand in making the album what it is today. But Gaga was the one in the driver seat, and she's the one who, in the end, decides whether something aligns to her vision.

She did not collaborate with Mark on a whim. She specifically chose him because he matched the type of record she wanted to make. Mark enabled her to create the album she had in mind.

Sure but he produced every track on the album and also executive produced. If you look at the personnel credits, watch the behind the scenes videos/five foot two and just listen to the album you can see and hear exactly what he brought. Yes it was Gaga's vision but it was also married to Mark's. Look at the personnel on the record and the way the two interacted in studio. He had a huge level of control here, probably more than any single producer has had in her career. And maybe that was the issue for me. It feels more like a Gaga-Ronson collab than a Lady Gaga album to me.

[Andreu 37,216]

The ten people that voted yes have lost my respect