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Brie Candy

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Brie Candy

Lady Gaga’s Fame Monster at 10: Five Reasons Why the Album Still Matters

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Deluxe editions of successful albums with a few half-baked bonus tracks are common enough cash grabs. But most artists don’t bring 40 minutes of substantial new material, conceived and sold as a standalone project, with multiple future hits on it. Lady Gaga isn’t most artists, and The Fame Monster isn’t most albums. Instead of basking in the glow of her 2008 breakout The Fame and merely inserting bonus electronic-synth dance tracks a la “Paparazzi” and “Poker Face,” she decided to take control of her music and evolve into a fully rounded 23-year-old pop star. It took a grand total of 15 months.  

1. It Reintroduced Glam-Rock Theatrics and High-Art Presentation to the Pop Mainstream 

On The Fame Monster, Gaga solidified an arty, ambitious, theatrical approach that would influence a generation of pop stars. It’s hard to imagine some of  Nicki Minaj’s wilder visual moments without Gaga’s own glam excursions—despite Minaj’s own protestations—and Taylor Swift’s campy-but-serious turn to dark high-fashion imagery and steely sonics on Reputation were similarly Gaga-esque. In the mid-2000s, before Gaga came along, few pop musicians were presenting themselves as auteurs in control of a fully unified vision; now, stylish visual albums and collaborations with fine artists and avant-garde designers are commonplace. The glammy and artful presentation of The Fame Monster—which included two beautifully gothic Hedi Silmane-shot photos that Gaga fought against resistant Interscope execs to include as the cover art—may not be solely responsible for what came after, but it certainly helped kickstart the trend.

2. It Visualized the Sound 

It’s a testament to Gaga’s chameleonic nature that we didn’t quite have a read on her natural appearance until she took out her hair extensions and washed off all her stage makeup in A Star Is Born. That’s because the ever-self-conscious Gaga drew on evolving visual styles of presentation for her Fame Monster promo clips, the likes of which had not been seen since Madonna. A decade later, the likes of Halsey (“Without Me”) and Billie Eilish (“Bury a Friend”) have taken similar risks as they mix art and spectacle in their own cinematic videos.  

3. It Marked a Pop EP Renaissance

When The Fame Monster arrived in 2009, the streaming era was still a couple of years away from beginning in earnest. But Gaga anticipated the ways in which the internet was changing the rules for pop stars. Her decision to release The Fame Monster with eight new tracks rather than wait until she had enough material for a proper full-length anticipated our current moment, in which artists regularly release EPs and singles in response to social media’s demand for a constant stream of content. Now, a younger digital-native artist such as Lil Nas X sees no problem with officially debuting with an EP, like a slightly more formalized version of throwing a few songs up for the fans on SoundCloud. Miley Cyrus recently announced that she would deliver three individual EPs in a span of one year rather than a single album. EPs are no longer few-and-far-between releases; they’re the norm.

4. It Helped Usher in the New Wave of Stanning 

Before Beliebers, Swifties, Directioners, and the BTS Army, there were Little Monsters. Gaga used the term during her shows in the summer of 2009 because of the way they crawled, writhed, and screamed in the pits during her concerts. She coined a nickname and pioneered a movement in which overzealous fans obsess over a celebrity. (The term dates back to the haunting 2000 Eminem song “Stan.”) Suddenly, you were either a true Gaga devotee or you weren’t. This title extended far beyond lapping up concerts and making posters. The Fame Monster’s release coincided with the explosion of Twitter, meaning Monsters could create accounts and interact with a support network of like-minded people from around the world 24/7. (On the flip side, trolling anti-Gaga posters en masse was an option as well.) They could also keep up with Gaga herself; her Instagram account currently boasts 38 million followers while her Twitter has a staggering 80 million followers. And given that she’s been loyal and communicative to her fans—especially the LGBTQ crowd, for whose rights she has consistently championed—there’s a chance for a response. 

5. It Helped Her Take the Madonna Mantle

There is and will only be one Madonna. She was the one who ran so Katy, Rihanna, Britney, Christina, Pink, J. Lo and more could strut. And, bless her 61-year-old soul, the Queen of Pop is not going anywhere. But with The Fame Monster, Gaga officially established herself as the heir apparent. No, not necessarily in her musical sound. (As noted above, she’s a glam rocker at heart.) And in the Provocative Playbook, Spears was sashaying around the MTV Video Music Awards stage with a python draped around her shoulders while Gaga was still doing homework in Manhattan. But The Fame Monster proved that only Gaga could bring the whole fearless Madge package of challenging societal norms, breaking style barriers, and exploring sexuality through the lens of celebrity. In her subsequent releases, Gaga has illustrated the more vulnerable aspects of her persona, but like Madonna, she has never backed down from courting fame and making her own existence as a pop star into a meta-commentary on stardom itself.

SOURCE: https://www.spin.com/2019/11/lady-gaga-fame-monster-10th-anniversary-five-reasons-why-album-still-matters/

 

 

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xoxo Craig

All tea though, but I wish she kept that up and released EPs instead of waiting 2+ years for new music :selena:

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4 minutes ago, xoxo Craig said:

All tea though, but I wish she kept that up and released EPs instead of waiting 2+ years for new music :selena:

Gosh no, EPs are so amateur :toofunny: Music looses its sense without a strong concept… TFM actually has nothing of an EP imo, it's just a short album… a STRONG album

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xoxo Craig
1 minute ago, KEVIN STEVE said:

Gosh no, EPs are so amateur :toofunny: Music looses its sense without a strong concept… TFM actually has nothing of an EP imo, it's just a short album… a STRONG album

Yeah but its still classed as an EP... I wish Gaga released more often than what she has done tbh

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The Fame Monster is what gave birth to our fandom the Little Monsters... it is one of the most impactful album a Pop Star has ever released... Paws Up Betches :pawsup:

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4 minutes ago, xoxo Craig said:

Yeah but its still classed as an EP... I wish Gaga released more often than what she has done tbh

True, but she still released albums in 2008, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2018 and extra songs in 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012 (unofficially), 2014, 2015, 2017 and 2018 :) 

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xoxo Craig
4 minutes ago, KEVIN STEVE said:

True, but she still released albums in 2008, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2018 and extra songs in 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012 (unofficially), 2014, 2015, 2017 and 2018 :) 

Its not enough... I mean, look no further than Ariana Grande who put out 2 albums within a year

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Probably because at it's core, it was peak creativity and vision from Gaga. 

You had a short and consise, mildly conceptual album that applied to every track. 

You had amazing fashion that was clearly evident that a lot of thought and preparation went into. 

You had an album and single rollout schedule that allowed the single to have it's time in the light without feeling milked or brief. 

The imagery in both the videos, her performances and daily outfits 90% of the time coincided with a specific look which lasted the single duration thus creating solid, associated imagery. 

The videos were not only cinematic, but vastly different than the one that came before. Not only that, but they weren't blatant. Every single video had fans sitting there decoding the meaning and trying to understand the message, thus drawing you in. 

 

The Fame Monster was truly that b|tch. 

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6 minutes ago, xoxo Craig said:

Its not enough... I mean, look no further than Ariana Grande who put out 2 albums within a year

I wouldn't say Ariana Grande is a good example. Yes, she puts out a lot of material, but she's getting really close to overexposure, which was one of the initial downfalls of Gaga. 

Id rather Gaga have more time between releases in order to have a long lasting career then burn out early and want to quit again. 

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