Has Gaga ever released a safe album?

[Quark 7,098]

 o<(0_0)>o

In my opinion, Gaga has never released a safe album. Many people dismiss her music as just dance pop and EDM with her first 3 eras but when Gaga released The Fame, there weren’t many heavy dance pop albums at the top of the charts. When Gaga released The Fame monster, few pop albums had that dark, thematic, and industrial sound that most of the TFM had. Born this way was completely different to most of what other mainstream artist were releasing in 2011. From the lyrical themes (equality and religion) to the goth-rock, house, and 80s style mixture (even though now it is very popular to make 80s sounding songs), it was just a very unique album. Now with ARTPOP, many say that Gaga was just trying to follow the EDM trends (even though Gaga kind of help EDM get started), and yes, most of ARTPOP is EDM, but how many mainstream EDM songs sound like Aura? Or have lyrics like Swine? I mean who else would release a single with lyrics such as “pop culture was in art now art is in pop culture in me”.  Moving on to Joanne, people say that Gaga was just playing it safe with a more tame country sound to appeal to the adult and American demographic but at that point Gaga was only known for crazy electronic music. It was never a given that people would just accept the new Gaga just because it has a “safer” sound with more radio friendly lyrics. But “safer” sound should only be taken lightly because who else would mix country, with folk, with electronic, with Bollywood, and with soul influences in the same album. In the lead single Peferct Illusion, Gaga sounds like a rock singer instead of a pop artist. Now with her side projects, Gaga decided to release an entire duets album with a Jazz legend instead of you know, looking for features with popular artists. And she also decided to sing and record songs with an actor that was never known as a singer. From big to small risks, the point here is that Gaga has always at least tried to provide something new to the mainstream that isn’t necessarily a safe choice for a mainstream artist like her. 

[A Hybrid 11,049]

Your definition of “safe” is too specific.

Most of Gaga’s albums are safe. An album doesn’t have to be following every trend to be safe. Gaga’s music isn’t hard to understand or listen to and it certainly isn’t experimental. It follows a good amount of trends to be able to be played on the radio. On top of all that, every song and album she releases is monitored by a major recording label.

[not Chromatica 5,393]

2 minutes ago, Quark said:

Moving on to Joanne, people say that Gaga was just playing it safe with a more tame country sound to appeal to the adult and American demographic but at that point Gaga was only known for crazy electronic music. It was never a given that people would just accept the new Gaga just because it has a “safer” sound with more radio friendly lyrics.

You missed C2C, which is the missing link here. It was exactly the proof she needed that everyone was dying  to see (and hear) the girl behind the aura, if you will. Joanne was pretty safe both sonically and thematically, especially given the rise of white nationalism and the MAGA mentality in the USA at the time. I'm not saying the album came from a dishonest place – it obviously hasn't – but it was clever, nonetheless.

[PunkTheFunk 124,530]

Yes, Joanne should have been locked up in a safe

[misunderstood 8,736]

No she has not. 

[dynamite 60,187]

Joanne I guess? Unless John Wayne would upset someone lol. All the others had something that could offend someone or be controversial. The sound of Just Dance / Poker Face / Paparazzi wasn't mainstream at the time and could have been risky. I Like It Rough for obvious reasons, Alejandro video, Born This Way, Black Jesus, Judas, Government Hooker, Aura, Jewels N Drugs, Dope, Mary Jane Holland etc.

Either drugs or religion. The only time she really had me thinking "oh god" was the whole burqa thing. And maybe when I saw the title for Black Jesus lol.

[Quark 7,098]

5 minutes ago, A Hybrid said:

Your definition of “safe” is too specific.

Most of Gaga’s albums are safe. An album doesn’t have to be following every trend to be safe. Gaga’s music isn’t hard to understand or listen to and it certainly isn’t experimental. It follows a good amount of trends to be able to be played on the radio. On top of all that, every song and album she releases is monitored by a major recording label.

I never said Gaga was experimental. Just that she has always been risky or “not safe” compared to what other mainstream artist are releasing. 

[Sanne Godijn 2,203]

I do feel like gaga has alot of creative freedom now

[DC 25,164]

1 hour ago, PunkTheFunk said:

Yes, Joanne should have been locked up in a safe

This was actually pretty funny 

But may I still keep my copy? My mom and I used to listen to it all the time before I moved from her place to my dad's and it holds amazing memories 

[FfFfFfFF 56,330]

Let's see.

TF was a synthpop sound created during R&B imperial phase. TFM was inherently a risky move because of the dark imagery

BTW was off-putting if not for the sound per se, in terms of visuals, public image and performances. ARTPOP had many unexpected moments and songs as well (like Venus, MJH, ARTPOP).

And say what you want about Joanne as a body of work but it was a autotune-free blues-inspired country-tinged record in a sea of hip hop and tropical pop.

Sounds totally safe.

[Quark 7,098]

17 minutes ago, highlyreductive said:

You missed C2C, which is the missing link here. It was exactly the proof she needed that everyone was dying  to see (and hear) the girl behind the aura, if you will. Joanne was pretty safe both sonically and thematically, especially given the rise of white nationalism and the MAGA mentality in the USA at the time. I'm not saying the album came from a dishonest place – it obviously hasn't – but it was clever, nonetheless.

I did say that Gaga collaborated on a full duets Jazz album with a Jazz legend. How is that safe? 

[freemymindARTPOP 2,455]

The Fame, Fame Monster, Born This Way and ARTPOP weren’t safe

[xoxo Craig 55,649]

Joanne was safe... I mean, yeah she ventured into other genres but she didn't go FULLY there. You couldn't really go wrong with Joanne, its nothing exactly groundbreaking (yeah I know it did set trends), and its just kind of there. It doesn't push the envelope like the way TF/M or BTW, ARTPOP did. 

Infact, I'd say that the majority of the album feels incomplete. The tracks (except for maybe 2) sound like they are demos.

[not Chromatica 5,393]

6 minutes ago, Quark said:

I did say that Gaga collaborated on a full duets Jazz album with a Jazz legend. How is that safe? 

It's not. But its success was proof that the GP wanted a more mature, standard Gaga.

[Quark 7,098]

3 minutes ago, xoxo Craig said:

Joanne was safe... I mean, yeah she ventured into other genres but she didn't go FULLY there. You couldn't really go wrong with Joanne, its nothing exactly groundbreaking (yeah I know it did set trends), and its just kind of there. It doesn't push the envelope like the way TF/M or BTW, ARTPOP did. 

Infact, I'd say that the majority of the album feels incomplete. The tracks (except for maybe 2) sound like they are demos.

For someone like Gaga to do something like Joanne, specially after ARTPOP is not very safe. What song sounded like perfect illusion when PI was released? Plus the album was never meant to be fully one genre, it was a mixture of many genres (and genres that are usually not put together).