How Joanne redefined LG's career

[JustJames 864]

9 hours ago, monketsharona said:

The Fame : she brought a kind of music that wasn't trendy in 2008 and influenced the whole music industry after that record. Probably one the most successful and biggest debut album of the last decades.

The Fame Monster : Dark and strange vibes added to euro pop music. Result = all the pop girls dressed strange and started to explore dark lyrics / productions in their music.

Born This Way : EDM mixed to new influences in her career (70s-80s pop electronics vibes, rock, country...). Add to this powerful message of the album and the impact it had on a lot of people.

ARTPOP : her most experimental era. Controversial but definitely iconic moments.

CTC : Who would thought she would sing an album full of jazz  iconic songs with the one and only Tony Bennett ??

Joanne : her stripped down era (with some influences she never explored)

ASIB : The first time she wrote, produced, composed a full sountrack for a character in a movie she's starring and singing on.

 

Honestly all of her eras represent a new defining moment in her career 

 

And, this is why I am a little nervous about Gaga and LG6 generally speaking. I'm 31, and just when Gaga had perfected the art of being a pop music superstar by 1. redefining the definition of 'pop music' from 'watered down for the masses/without a POV' and 2. extending the reach of the musician/vocalist into numerous other areas of popular culture and art through the concept of an "era," streaming has come along and dismantled that entirely.

"Stripped" seems like a close example to use as an 'almost era' era. 'Stripped' album title + 22 year old Disney popstar in a MV with dreadlocks covering a bikini top = sales and publicity, though. The singles had no thematical relationship to the album name or to each other; in a modern-day era, "The Voice Within" would have led, followed by "Can't Hold Us Down (ft. Lizzo)," "Beautiful," and ending with "Fighter," which would have introduced an album about Christina as a vocalist following the voice within and following with a mix of empowering messages and personal ballads. Instead, we got "Dirrty," her first single EVER to peak below #2 and so her other empowering songs instead came across more teenage rebellion with the ballads being stunted.

Point being, Gaga made some mistakes along the way, but she transformed popstardom in a monstrous way through her commitment to every detail of each of her albums. Unfortunately, while she committed to 'Joanne' as a concept through her visual consistency during the era and messaging of the album's purpose, she pulled back when it came to releasing the singles for the album because I think, even back in 2016, was nervous about how this process could still succeed organically.

I would argue that Joanne didn't redefine Gaga's career. I think that every performance Gaga made post-ARTPOP was an attempt at redefining herself in the perception of the public, but that if she had succeeded in doing so, we would have gotten an era with 4 singles, heavy promo, on-point MVs and visuals, and been well into at least another era backed by LG6. Rather, Joanne was meant to capitalize on having redefined herself as a vocalist and as more substance than style, and its abandonment + the handling of ASIB and postponement of an LG6 signal it failed to live up to those expecations.

Her choice of "Perfect Illusion" as the lead was confusing and done for the purposes of satisfying radio/GP rather than  to usher in her concept perfectly. Her explanation for the song made things worse. More alarmingly, after committing so hard upfront, she immediately abandoned ship once she realized that not one followup could even resonate enough with the GP to reach PI's level which was a peak of 15. Fear of committing to a fully defined concept and era seems to be a likely motivation for some of her next moves like:

1. surprise drop of "The Cure" without an era or album to back it

2. release of a movie soundtrack which is perfectly designed for her type of work and a means to express a holistic vision

3. only releasing 1 single from that body of work for - fear of it not resonating? fear of people getting the ASIB image of Gaga stuck in their consciousness and impacting her next releases? 

I don't know. But, TV promo and performances are not as important now as viewership drops; expansion beyond music into things like consistent fashion choices, art collaborations, etc. aren't in demand; elevating the musician through a consistent look isn't conducive in a time when people are looking to connect 24/7 to them on social media. 

Gaga's greatest songs clocked in between 4 and 5 minutes; the avg song is now under 3. I will love her work as long as it has her integrity within it regardless of performance. I do wish that she had given us 1 or 2 more year-long, ~4-single eras during the 2012-2016 timeframe if that is no longer viable for her or other musicians, though.

[Magneto 13,312]

24 minutes ago, JustJames said:

And, this is why I am a little nervous about Gaga and LG6 generally speaking. I'm 31, and just when Gaga had perfected the art of being a pop music superstar by 1. redefining the definition of 'pop music' from 'watered down for the masses/without a POV' and 2. extending the reach of the musician/vocalist into numerous other areas of popular culture and art through the concept of an "era," streaming has come along and dismantled that entirely.

"Stripped" seems like a close example to use as an 'almost era' era. 'Stripped' album title + 22 year old Disney popstar in a MV with dreadlocks covering a bikini top = sales and publicity, though. The singles had no thematical relationship to the album name or to each other; in a modern-day era, "The Voice Within" would have led, followed by "Can't Hold Us Down (ft. Lizzo)," "Beautiful," and ending with "Fighter," which would have introduced an album about Christina as a vocalist following the voice within and following with a mix of empowering messages and personal ballads. Instead, we got "Dirrty," her first single EVER to peak below #2 and so her other empowering songs instead came across more teenage rebellion with the ballads being stunted.

Point being, Gaga made some mistakes along the way, but she transformed popstardom in a monstrous way through her commitment to every detail of each of her albums. Unfortunately, while she committed to 'Joanne' as a concept through her visual consistency during the era and messaging of the album's purpose, she pulled back when it came to releasing the singles for the album because I think, even back in 2016, was nervous about how this process could still succeed organically.

I would argue that Joanne didn't redefine Gaga's career. I think that every performance Gaga made post-ARTPOP was an attempt at redefining herself in the perception of the public, but that if she had succeeded in doing so, we would have gotten an era with 4 singles, heavy promo, on-point MVs and visuals, and been well into at least another era backed by LG6. Rather, Joanne was meant to capitalize on having redefined herself as a vocalist and as more substance than style, and its abandonment + the handling of ASIB and postponement of an LG6 signal it failed to live up to those expecations.

Her choice of "Perfect Illusion" as the lead was confusing and done for the purposes of satisfying radio/GP rather than  to usher in her concept perfectly. Her explanation for the song made things worse. More alarmingly, after committing so hard upfront, she immediately abandoned ship once she realized that not one followup could even resonate enough with the GP to reach PI's level which was a peak of 15. Fear of committing to a fully defined concept and era seems to be a likely motivation for some of her next moves like:

1. surprise drop of "The Cure" without an era or album to back it

2. release of a movie soundtrack which is perfectly designed for her type of work and a means to express a holistic vision

3. only releasing 1 single from that body of work for - fear of it not resonating? fear of people getting the ASIB image of Gaga stuck in their consciousness and impacting her next releases? 

I don't know. But, TV promo and performances are not as important now as viewership drops; expansion beyond music into things like consistent fashion choices, art collaborations, etc. aren't in demand; elevating the musician through a consistent look isn't conducive in a time when people are looking to connect 24/7 to them on social media. 

Gaga's greatest songs clocked in between 4 and 5 minutes; the avg song is now under 3. I will love her work as long as it has her integrity within it regardless of performance. I do wish that she had given us 1 or 2 more year-long, ~4-single eras during the 2012-2016 timeframe if that is no longer viable for her or other musicians, though.

Amazing analysis you should try and make a separate thread for this because it has a lot of interesting points I'd like to see discussed with other members

[Pop Dissected 7]

Hey everyone, I appreciate another one of my videos being shared on the site! Thank you so much! As I stated with my previous video on "ARTPOP", I'd love to know if there was anything in the video for "Joanne" I may have gotten wrong or forgotten to mention! It's important I always try to have all the facts in my videos  But once more, thank you all for sharing.

[Guest]

11 minutes ago, Pop Dissected said:

Hey everyone, I appreciate another one of my videos being shared on the site! Thank you so much! As I stated with my previous video on "ARTPOP", I'd love to know if there was anything in the video for "Joanne" I may have gotten wrong or forgotten to mention! It's important I always try to have all the facts in my videos  But once more, thank you all for sharing.

Thanks for stopping by again! I really enjoyed the video and it was really clear that you took our comments about doing more research on Gaga's personal life into account and that showed itself on how the video developed, which was really nice to see.

The only thing I disagree with is how you approached the "authenticity" and "honesty" subject. Maybe it's not what you meant or how you wanted to come off as but I think that all of Gaga's albums are honest and authentic in their own merit, the only difference with Joanne was that she wanted to strip down the super popstar persona but that doesn't really mean her other albums are less genuine or open. They're more abrasive, sure, but they're just as meaningful and personal.

Again, that's probably not what you meant and I understand what you were getting at, it's just that it's a sore spot for us Monsters considering the amount of slandering the media has put ARTPOP through and how every compliment to Gaga and her earlier work seems to be backhanded by some not so subtle critics out there.

That said, I really enjoy your videos. Keep at it, man!