ARTPOP Love Thread

[misunderstood 8,736]

18 minutes ago, gabrielflorin01 said:

Was this thread worthy though? I'm pretty sure 1/3 users from here thinks ARTPOP is Gaga's best album and era.

I just wanted love for the album to be shared

[misunderstood 8,736]

22 minutes ago, Didymus said:

there's a hidden story in the album that's there for investigating fans to find out, and, forgive me, but I think I cracked that code and that makes me so happy

If you could somehow explain this to me I would be so happy 

[Felix Jens 180]

THE MELODY THAT U CHOOSE,CAN RESCUE YOU..

ARTPOP 

 

[A Hybrid 11,049]

41 minutes ago, Didymus said:

I find it extremely interesting from a lyrical point of view as there seem to be many hidden statements about identity she makes throughout the songs.

“I’m a little bit of a bitch” 

[DonnieDarko 10,186]

Yeah, I love ARTPOP.

[Didymus 34,379]

1 hour ago, misunderstood said:

If you could somehow explain this to me I would be so happy 

Well

I think the album has two narrative parts (Venus  through DWUW and Swine through Gypsy) separated by the three songs that start with an "a" coincidentally: Aura, ARTPOP and Applause. You'll notice that this creates a numerical harmony: between Aura and ARTPOP are six songs and between ARTPOP and Applause are also six songs. This makes twelve, which is the number of the Zodiac signs, and we know the Zodiac inspired this era

In these narrative parts I see Gaga moving through the Zodiac signs, if you will, invoking their energies. As Gaga said: a different kind of energy or adrenaline is present in each song. I don't think it's a "this song is that sign and that energy" kind of literal idea, I think this just means that Gaga wanted to hint to the more attentive fans that the tracklist is not random but tells a specific story with different "episodes"

The "narrative songs" have a clear storyline to me. It's about the materialization of love from a supreme abstract ideal (Venus) to an actual loving relationship, love personified on earth (Gypsy). The story inbetween is how she tried to materialize this love energy of Venus, but failed in some way, with biographical references to events in her own past (Swine, Fashion!, Dope etc.)

I worked it out in some more detail in the spoiler:

Spoiler

To give an example of this evolving storyline, note the differences between Venus and G.U.Y.: in Venus she's talking about a love "out of this world, galaxy, space and time" and invoking Aphrodite, in G.U.Y. she's invoking the son of Aphrodite who doesn't represent boundless, conditionless love but desire and unrequited love. It's a perversion, in a way, of the supreme love ideal, a way to materialize it in a more controlled form (hence she sings "I want to be the grave and earth you"). Gaga wants to control the love in her relationship ("I'm aiming for full control of this love"). She explicitly implies this is an "interruption" of the ideal in Venus in the bridge: "Mars' (representing Himeros) warring spirit rams into the atmosphere". This destructive influence will then determine the rest of the album's storyline.

This sense of "devolution" or "materialization" of love is again represented in Sexxx Dreams where she's no longer talking about mythological deities, but just about dreams and fantasies dominated by desire (the force of Himeros/Mars which came on the scene in G.U.Y.). In a hint to ancient theater plays she starts the song with the line: "Our lovers quarrel", again referring to a situation where love is interrupted or compromised. Love (previously a cosmic force in Venus) is now simply "making love" or sex. Love has completely materialized as desire, which has destructive tendencies (such as cheating on your partner, as expressed in SD).

The materialization descends into JND now, which is all about an environment dominated by money, sex and drugs, aka objects of very base desires which Gaga, I guess, identifies with her early period on the Lower East Side. We've gone from divine visions to the realm of dreams and fantasy to actual references to real-life things and events. This is I think where Gaga's "biographical story" begins, and of course it should begin on the Lower East Side. In the song's lyrics there's constant confusions between love and drugs and references to desire (Twista raps: "I can admit it, I'm influenced by desire when I approach her; I try to provoke her by giving money and jewelry and accessories"). It's the first time in the album money and drugs come into play, so this is yet another sign of the album's story representing a downward materialization from divine regions into plain matter.

MANiCURE sort of extends the theme of JND, now talking about make-up and fashion, all in the service of catching a man, who will "heal" her. She again mentions love explicitly but now as an addiction ("I'm addicted to the love that you garner"). As she sings "touch me in the dark" I think this is a hidden reference to Dance in the Dark where she identified the darkness in the room as signifying insecurity and a lack of self-worth. As she's desperately trying to get a man to "heal" her in MANiCURE I think that same insecurity and lack of self-worth is also present here. This is again a kind of deivation from JND where she was still talking about a "family" living and working together, while in MANiCURE it's just her and a man who she hopes can "save" her.

The consequences of that attitude are reflected in DWUW. While she's obviously talking about the role of the press in her career here, this obviously isn't about her time on the Lower East Side, which seems to be proof that the album's story is not a biographical continuous narrative but I think the songs are meant to work on their own as well. I still think the song works in the album's narrative as well: we have, again, a man trying to seduce her with drugs and entering into a relationship with her. This one seems to go deeper than the "whatever man can heal me is fine for now" attitude of MANiCURE: she sings in the bridge "I'm scared, I suppose, if you ever let me go, I will fall apart if you break my heart, so just take my body and don't stop the party". This works for the media but also for a lover: by protecting her heart and surrendering to the sexual advances of the guy she's singing about, she's both keeping herself safe but she's also selling her self-worth to someone who doesn't respect it, someone who's doomed to break her heart. It's the complete opposite story of G.U.Y. where she tried to control the relationship: now she's not in control and is actually actively surrendering that control to a dangerous man.

The story continues in Swine where the consquences are plain: she's abused. She blames herself for "not thinking" and letting some guy run all over her. The guy's desire is completely overriding her value as a human being. Again, desire ("I know, I know, I know, I know you want me"). This desire she identifies as animalistic rather than divine (again, a complete contradiction of the love in Venus). She sings the guy is an "animal" and is just a "pig inside a human body". Desire has real consequences and they can be brutal and ugly. It's one breaking point, like Dope will be another. This is the start of major real life trauma.

In Donatella we see her escape from that trauma, into the rush of a luxurious lifestyle. This isn't a celebration of wealth, she's explicitly implying there's a relationship with her sexual trauma, as she sings: "Tailor these clothes to fit your guilt, what's your size?"; "I'm gonna wear designer and forget your name". This is a clear reference to her feelings of guilt after her abuse, which is typical for survivors.

Fashion! is less about luxury and more about the effect of fashion on her sense of subjectivity. To me, it's not a coincidence that Fashion! bears the same title as her song Fashion, which literally contains lines like "I live to be model thin, dress me like your mannequin"; "I am anyone you want me to be", "you are what you wear, it's true". This clearly fits the kind of mindset she was in in Donatella and I think by putting an exclamation mark after the word "fashion" she's implying that she's expanding on the lyrics in her previous song. And she is. Fashion! is all about transforming your identity through clothes: "I feel alive when I transform, but this love's not material"; this is an important line in the context of the album's story. Fashion is not just materialistic, like in Donatella. She's discovering something magical about clothes, which is that they can reveal her identity as much as conceal it. She's on an upwards evolution now. Things are looking up. She mentions the planet Mars again, after no mythological references whatsoever in the previous batch of songs. She's slowly returning to the divine ideal of love. Note also that she's not singing about a man or desire now, just about herself. In complete opposition to MANiCURE fashion is now not about catching some dude, but about exploring and expressing her own identity. She's evolving.

In MJH she goes all out with this transformation. Referencing her real life stroll through Amsterdam as an under the radar brunette, she sings about what life can be like when you completely let go of your identity. She again sings about love, how she loves "you" better than "my darkest sin" but she never clarifies who her lover is. It's obvious, though. Her perfect lover is weed and the person she feels she becomes when she succumbs to her desire for it. As she said during artRAVE, weed was a "spiritual journey" for her and this is reflected in the lyrics, which suddenly again mention Apollo, mirroring Fashion! in the sense that she seems to be slowly returning to the earlier phase of the album. It's the album's final cry of confusion as she sings about creativity and love but also about being rich, being a mess and being too high on drugs to be coherent. It's both a revelatory as a destructive phase, and the consequences are again plain in the next song.

Dope is the second breaking point of the album's storyline, after Swine. After escaping from her trauma in Donatella, Fashion! and MJH she's finally hit rock bottom and she confronts herself. This is reflected in the song's soundscape: no electronic beat anymore, this is no rush. It's real, authentic emotion. You can't party to this "rush", it's just painful. Singing about sins, hating herself, depending on drugs, but also about  "heaven's stairway" she's desperately trying to discover how to finally heal herself for the better. She doesn't need the rush of escape as much as she needs real love.

This real love is finally found in Gypsy, aka Taylor. The lyrics on this song are really fascinating as they seem to be a complete opposite of G.U.Y. (which coincidentally has the same first and last letter, seemingly crying out to connect the two): we're talking about two independent lovers who love each other but also allow the other to be free. There's no element of control anymore, just respect and tolerance. When she talked about the song in interviews she talked about this as well, how this relationship was so much different from her other ones because there was that lack of desire to control one another. They can just let each other be who they are now, even if they're wandering spirits. This is love.

If you read all of that, congrats

Basically I think it's a story of love materializing, through struggle, into an actual real life thing. That's what astrological magic is all about. Channeling divine energies into a material vehicle. Don't forget that in various performances of that era she explicitly said she tried to invoke Venus or Aphrodite. That's basically what the album is about too imo, albeit in a more complex form.

Secondly, the album is a powerful statement about how "Gaga" is not a static entity but a dynamic one, who has no clear-cut identity and who doesn't need it: indeed, she comes alive through transformation. That theme is already present in Aura where she talks of killing her "former self" and seducing the reader to see who she really is "behind the veil", "behind the aura". This album is supposed to be that unveiling. And her answer is: "I am love". Boundless, undefineable but real love.

And her love is her art (ARTPOP) and her fans (Applause). In these things she sees herself, creates herself and discovers herself.

Anyway, that's my interpretation. I like it 'cause it makes sense on a lot of different levels (thematically, biographically, sonically,...). I'm just sad no one's really talking about it. When I started posting about this theory I had like 100+ comments of actual fans that there was no meaning in the album and Gaga was just lying when she said it was a story, that it's just a bunch of songs thrown together. I really disagree. And I hope you do too now

[misunderstood 8,736]

6 minutes ago, Didymus said:

Well

I think the album has two narrative parts (Venus  through DWUW and Swine through Gypsy) separated by the three songs that start with an "a" coincidentally: Aura, ARTPOP and Applause. You'll notice that this creates a numerical harmony: between Aura and ARTPOP are six songs and between ARTPOP and Applause are also six songs. This makes twelve, which is the number of the Zodiac signs, and we know the Zodiac inspired this era

In these narrative parts I see Gaga moving through the Zodiac signs, if you will, invoking their energies. As Gaga said: a different kind of energy or adrenaline is present in each song. I don't think it's a "this song is that sign and that energy" kind of literal idea, I think this just means that Gaga wanted to hint to the more attentive fans that the tracklist is not random but tells a specific story with different "episodes"

The "narrative songs" have a clear storyline to me. It's about the materialization of love from a supreme abstract ideal (Venus) to an actual loving relationship, love personified on earth (Gypsy). The story inbetween is how she tried to materialize this love energy of Venus, but failed in some way, with biographical references to events in her own past (Swine, Fashion!, Dope etc.)

I worked it out in some more detail in the spoiler:

  Reveal hidden contents

To give an example of this evolving storyline, note the differences between Venus and G.U.Y.: in Venus she's talking about a love "out of this world, galaxy, space and time" and invoking Aphrodite, in G.U.Y. she's invoking the son of Aphrodite who doesn't represent boundless, conditionless love but desire and unrequited love. It's a perversion, in a way, of the supreme love ideal, a way to materialize it in a more controlled form (hence she sings "I want to be the grave and earth you"). Gaga wants to control the love in her relationship ("I'm aiming for full control of this love"). She explicitly implies this is an "interruption" of the ideal in Venus in the bridge: "Mars' (representing Himeros) warring spirit rams into the atmosphere". This destructive influence will then determine the rest of the album's storyline.

This sense of "devolution" or "materialization" of love is again represented in Sexxx Dreams where she's no longer talking about mythological deities, but just about dreams and fantasies dominated by desire (the force of Himeros/Mars which came on the scene in G.U.Y.). In a hint to ancient theater plays she starts the song with the line: "Our lovers quarrel", again referring to a situation where love is interrupted or compromised. Love (previously a cosmic force in Venus) is now simply "making love" or sex. Love has completely materialized as desire, which has destructive tendencies (such as cheating on your partner, as expressed in SD).

The materialization descends into JND now, which is all about an environment dominated by money, sex and drugs, aka objects of very base desires which Gaga, I guess, identifies with her early period on the Lower East Side. We've gone from divine visions to the realm of dreams and fantasy to actual references to real-life things and events. This is I think where Gaga's "biographical story" begins, and of course it should begin on the Lower East Side. In the song's lyrics there's constant confusions between love and drugs and references to desire (Twista raps: "I can admit it, I'm influenced by desire when I approach her; I try to provoke her by giving money and jewelry and accessories"). It's the first time in the album money and drugs come into play, so this is yet another sign of the album's story representing a downward materialization from divine regions into plain matter.

MANiCURE sort of extends the theme of JND, now talking about make-up and fashion, all in the service of catching a man, who will "heal" her. She again mentions love explicitly but now as an addiction ("I'm addicted to the love that you garner"). As she sings "touch me in the dark" I think this is a hidden reference to Dance in the Dark where she identified the darkness in the room as signifying insecurity and a lack of self-worth. As she's desperately trying to get a man to "heal" her in MANiCURE I think that same insecurity and lack of self-worth is also present here. This is again a kind of deivation from JND where she was still talking about a "family" living and working together, while in MANiCURE it's just her and a man who she hopes can "save" her.

The consequences of that attitude are reflected in DWUW. While she's obviously talking about the role of the press in her career here, this obviously isn't about her time on the Lower East Side, which seems to be proof that the album's story is not a biographical continuous narrative but I think the songs are meant to work on their own as well. I still think the song works in the album's narrative as well: we have, again, a man trying to seduce her with drugs and entering into a relationship with her. This one seems to go deeper than the "whatever man can heal me is fine for now" attitude of MANiCURE: she sings in the bridge "I'm scared, I suppose, if you ever let me go, I will fall apart if you break my heart, so just take my body and don't stop the party". This works for the media but also for a lover: by protecting her heart and surrendering to the sexual advances of the guy she's singing about, she's both keeping herself safe but she's also selling her self-worth to someone who doesn't respect it, someone who's doomed to break her heart. It's the complete opposite story of G.U.Y. where she tried to control the relationship: now she's not in control and is actually actively surrendering that control to a dangerous man.

The story continues in Swine where the consquences are plain: she's abused. She blames herself for "not thinking" and letting some guy run all over her. The guy's desire is completely overriding her value as a human being. Again, desire ("I know, I know, I know, I know you want me"). This desire she identifies as animalistic rather than divine (again, a complete contradiction of the love in Venus). She sings the guy is an "animal" and is just a "pig inside a human body". Desire has real consequences and they can be brutal and ugly. It's one breaking point, like Dope will be another. This is the start of major real life trauma.

In Donatella we see her escape from that trauma, into the rush of a luxurious lifestyle. This isn't a celebration of wealth, she's explicitly implying there's a relationship with her sexual trauma, as she sings: "Tailor these clothes to fit your guilt, what's your size?"; "I'm gonna wear designer and forget your name". This is a clear reference to her feelings of guilt after her abuse, which is typical for survivors.

Fashion! is less about luxury and more about the effect of fashion on her sense of subjectivity. To me, it's not a coincidence that Fashion! bears the same title as her song Fashion, which literally contains lines like "I live to be model thin, dress me like your mannequin"; "I am anyone you want me to be", "you are what you wear, it's true". This clearly fits the kind of mindset she was in in Donatella and I think by putting an exclamation mark after the word "fashion" she's implying that she's expanding on the lyrics in her previous song. And she is. Fashion! is all about transforming your identity through clothes: "I feel alive when I transform, but this love's not material"; this is an important line in the context of the album's story. Fashion is not just materialistic, like in Donatella. She's discovering something magical about clothes, which is that they can reveal her identity as much as conceal it. She's on an upwards evolution now. Things are looking up. She mentions the planet Mars again, after no mythological references whatsoever in the previous batch of songs. She's slowly returning to the divine ideal of love.

In MJH she goes all out with this transformation. Referencing her real life stroll through Amsterdam as an under the radar brunette, she sings about what life can be like when you completely let go of your identity. She again sings about love, how she loves "you" better than "my darkest sin" but she never clarifies who her lover is. It's obvious, though. Her perfect lover is weed and the person she feels she becomes when she succumbs to her desire for it. As she said during artRAVE, weed was a "spiritual journey" for her and this is reflected in the lyrics, which suddenly again mention Apollo, mirroring Fashion! in the sense that she seems to be slowly returning to the earlier phase of the album. It's the album's final cry of confusion as she sings about creativity and love but also about being rich, being a mess and being too high on drugs to be coherent. It's both a revelatory as a destructive phase, and the consequences are again plain in the next song.

Dope is the second breaking point of the album's storyline, after Swine. After escaping from her trauma in Donatella, Fashion! and MJH she's finally hit rock bottom and she confronts herself. This is reflected in the song's soundscape: no electronic beat anymore, this is no rush. It's real, authentic emotion. You can't party to this "rush", it's just painful. Singing about sins, hating herself, depending on drugs, but also about  "heaven's stairway" she's desperately trying to discover how to finally heal herself for the better. She doesn't need the rush of escape as much as she needs real love.

This real love is finally found in Gypsy, aka Taylor. The lyrics on this song are really fascinating as they seem to be a complete opposite of G.U.Y. (which coincidentally has the same first and last letter, seemingly crying out to connect the two): we're talking about two independent lovers who love each other but also allow the other to be free. There's no element of control anymore, just respect and tolerance. When she talked about the song in interviews she talked about this as well, how this relationship was so much different from her other ones because there was that lack of desire to control one another. They can just let each other be who they are now, even if they're wandering spirits. This is love.

If you read all of that, congrats

Basically I think it's a story of love materializing, through struggle, into an actual real life thing. That's what astrological magic is all about. Channeling divine energies into a material vehicle.

Secondly, the album is a powerful statement about how "Gaga" is not a static entity but a dynamic one, who has no clear-cut identity and who doesn't need it: indeed, she comes alive through transformation. That theme is already present in Aura where she talks of killing her "former self" and seducing the reader to see who she really is "behind the veil", "behind the aura". This album is supposed to be that unveiling. And her answer is: "I am love". Boundless, undefineable but real love.

And her love is her art (ARTPOP) and her fans (Applause). In these things she sees herself, creates herself and discovers herself.

Anyway, that's my interpretation. I like it 'cause it makes sense on a lot of different levels (thematically, biographically, sonically,...). I'm just sad no one's really talking about it. When I started posting about this theory I had like 100+ comments of actual fans that there was no meaning in the album and Gaga was just lying when she said it was a story, that it's just a bunch of songs thrown together. I really disagree. And I hope you do too now

HOLY ****.

I read all of this! This is amazing and made me adore ARTPOP in a new way. Thank you so much for taking your time to type of all of this because it really shows your interest in music and this lovely album.  I’ll be going back to this.

[Cerny 4,270]

I just came here to point out how stunning is, when you look back, that the title track imperiously shined through at all times from “Gaga, listen to my CD” to the Tonight Show performance, it constantly breathed new life into the “era”, from start to finish, it’s like witnessing a beautiful graceful being traveling effortlessly across ruins without skipping a beat. That unaffected being also wore one of my favourite Gareth Pugh pieces.

The ARTPOP album cycle may be a mess but Gaga made sure to give that exceptionally fabulous track the treatment it deserved and I really appreciate that.

Musically, lyrically, and  thematically, it’s not her best album but not her worst  either, imo.

[Oriane 21,000]

@Didymus

I love it ! I think our analyses complete each other very well, and I'm glad we agree on the general meaning.

What I love with this album is that there are so many interpretations you can do, and all of them echo each other. There are still so many things that could be said but you would have a make a book to make it cohesive

I would love to write a song-by-song analysis, in what I wrote it was mostly within the context of the storyline of the album, but even outside of that there are many interesting things, some of them you already mentioned. You can find many things, lyrically and musically, and all of these things she referenced when explaining the album.

I never thought about the Zodiac part, it's so interesting !

And I agree, I see so many people rambling about how ARTPOP doesn't make sense, it's uncohesive and she's just making up some stuff in every interview. It was clear to me since the first listen that there was a story behind it and everytime I discover something new !

For anyone interested :

 

 

[HighwayFantasy 2,015]

The Applause music video and its premiere on Times Square was such an big event, its my best memory of the era

[brizoda 3,851]

ARTPOP is pure màgic and it's so good

And I Love the cover very much

Her presentation/debut in Berlin was so good

[MrHappy 1,717]

Well I dont think its a great pop/ edm album and I remmeber when I sow the cover for the first time I found it very repulsive and unnecessarily complicated but after the few weaks I start to love the cover and start to love the album. Im became a little monster when Born This Way era was anded so ARTPOP its my first album that I waiting for. And Im waiting for long time, (couse of blackout) and when the applause comes out I really enjoyed but I missed BTW era TFM era and TF era I never waiting for Born This Way music video or Monster ball and I never sow when Gaga sang live Born This Way for the first time after all missed amazing moments I thoutg that thats moment gonna happen in ARTPOP era and its never happend so ARTPOP is kinda flop for me. (Sorry for bad english)

[not a french fry 1,565]

ARTPOP’s a$$ may not have been as famous as BTW or TFM, but it has the most famous a$$ in my mind. ARTPOP was a masterpiece, and artRAVE was pure joy. I miss ARTPOP, it snatched my wig and it landed on Venus (it’s been on Venus for almost 6 years now I guess). My wig cap needed therapy 

[Davian 44,859]

My favorite album of all time! Literally no skips

[FentyGa 14,340]

Dope is the only ARTPOP song not in my 40 most streamed songs

ARTPOP's ny favourite album of all time, we HAVE to stan.