TFM + The Seven Cardinal Sins

[bxr 1,016]

Bit of a random one-off, but for the sake of curiosity on forum POV … Back when The Fame Monster dropped, and Gaga explored the Fears concept, in conjunction with the “Mons†er” typeface, the seven deadly sins undertone echoed a bit through the tracklist …

(Obviously, there are eight tracks on the album, but “Telephone” always felt like an outlier and peripheral to the core concept, since it wasn’t intentionally written for the album; which left seven songs exploring various fears, on an album with a decent dose of religious imagery.)

Either way, that said, it’s all subjective, but in light of “Church” stories … a non-binding consideration of The Fame Monster songs as  soundtrack of sins and faced fears … (As always, feel free to chime in with commentary and/or counterpoints.)

Bad Romance - Greed (i.e. “I want your everything as long as it’s free…”)

Alejandro - Lust (i.e. “And all those flames that burned for him, now he’s gotta firefight, gotta cool the bad…”)

Monster - Gluttony (i.e. “He ate my heart and then he ate my brain…”)

Speechless - Sloth (i.e. “You threw your hands up, baby you gave up, you gave up…”)

Dance in the Dark - Wrath (i.e. “She’s a vamp, but she still kills the dance … we’ll haunt like Liberace…”)

So Happy I Could Die - Envy (i.e. “I love that lavender blonde, the way she moves, the way she walks…” )

Teeth - Pride (i.e. “Don’t be scared, I’ve done this before … got no direction, just got my vamp…” Tbh this one just low-key rides like an HBIC anthem … pure vamp, and proud of it)

Taking broad liberties with the parallels, and there are so many valid interchangeable variations, but it’s just musing for the sake of it … also, it’s not so much succumbing to the sins, as much as just exploring the fight with the fear itself … So “Bad Romance,” for example, is taking on the greed by wanting everything that’s free maybe (also the video underscored strong greed overtones) … or “Alejandro” fighting the fire … and so on and so forth … so the songs just approach and dive into the sin without necessarily overcoming or giving in maybe …

[radioactive 2,139]

i honestly feel like telephone could be sloth, cause it’s all about feeling suffocated from work and stress and all, but nice theory!

[AmericanxDream 2,049]

Bad Romance: Greed

Alejandro: Lust

Monster: Sloth (because Gaga was too lazy to release it as a single)

Dance In The Dark: Pride

Telephone: Wrath

So Happy I Could Die: Envy

Teeth: Gluttony

 

 

[HoneyB 26,866]

Love this excellent analysis  this perfectly captures the theme of The Fame Monster you said it way better than I could’ve

[TheQueenEnthusiast 937]

Personally I can see the comparison, but only because I believe the 8 TFM Fears concept is based off of the 7 Deadly sins. 

The 8 fears take a modern approach to the 7 deadly sins. They're real life fears that women and I say gay men as well (for different reasons though) deal with. I think this is a reason why so many gay men love TFM unconsciously.

Personally I relate to TFM because I have this lingering fear over every single fear that Gaga mentions, whether it be men, or addiction, or love, or loneliness, or insecurities and so on. I think of what men in general are capable of, about who I have sex with, what type of stuff I get into and if I'll get addicted, whether I'll forever be in trapped within the gay loneliness we all know so well, gay standards to beauty and my personal body insecurities, etc.

TFM is the definition of a conceptual album and it's beautifully produced. I was/am really glad it's one of the best selling eras ever because it deserves to be.

I would say it's kind of lazy (no offense <3) trying to base TFM off the 7 deadly sins when it's much more than that and instead asks the listener to relate to and take the perspective of an individual's fears (Gaga/ourselves). 

TFM and BTW are both conceptual albums but no one is ready to speak about how BTW is and it gets me annoyed >:(.