How old is Chromatica?

[REALITY 76,322]

Just now, plasticalice said:

The production is far from great. Free Woman, Fun Tonight and Babylon are some of her worst produced tracks ever.

[plasticalice 2,224]

Just now, M Monstre said:

Compare the beat drops in Aura and Swine to the beat drops in Free Woman. It is an unbelievable downgrade in production. 

[REALITY 76,322]

19 minutes ago, Gracious Gaga said:

no doubt about that.  when I heard SC for the first time I was SHOCKED how dated it sounded  I like Gaga's parts on the song though ..

What do you mean "dated" though????

Just because it uses similar beats to a "older" song, which in the grand scheme of things isn't even that old, it sounds "dated"?

[REALITY 76,322]

20 minutes ago, plasticalice said:

Compare the beat drops in Aura and Swine to the beat drops in Free Woman. It is an unbelievable downgrade in production. 

I've always thought that Aura and Swine are too bombastic and noisy. Free Woman is fine. Free Woman sounds nostalgic (the post chorus instrumentals do, at least).

@plasticalice so edgy disliking all of my posts right?  

[plasticalice 2,224]

2 minutes ago, M Monstre said:

I've always thought that Aura and Swine are too bombastic and noisy. Free Woman is fine. Free Woman sounds nostalgic (the post chorus instrumentals do, at least).

.....

The recency bias..... too much. When LG7 comes out you're gonna realize how underwhelming this flavourless, cardboard tropical production is because it's gonna age baaaaaad.

[Suigetsu 222]

I wouldn't be surprised if all of the tracks are rehashed old demos for TF.

[Gracious Gaga 17,163]

1 hour ago, M Monstre said:

I do think Chromatica took relatively longer to make than other albums. I don't really have any evidence for that beside the fact that it's been confirmed that at least Babylon and SFA are older than we originally thought, but I do think it took longer than say, Joanne for instance.

Also, I don't really understand why people think the album sounds "dated."

The production is great. This album has some of her best production. I mean, at this point, I'd rate BloodPop up there with producers like RedOne, Mark Ronson, DJWS, etc. What he was able to do on Joanne and Chromatica is stellar work.

The album sounds "dated" because it's heavily inspired by 90s house, EDM, disco, funk, etc. It sounds nostalgic, not dated. 

1 hour ago, xoxo Craig said:

Chromatica is most definitely fresh and new. It doesn't sound outdated (except from SFA). Stupid Love was created in 2018 and we know this. Fan fiction fantasies wanted it to be a BTW outtake because of the heavy production like in the BTW album. But in the demo snippet, you can tell that her vocals are from around 2018. 

All the songs were created from 2017 - 2019/20. Except from SFA, but even then, it was reworked and and rewritten. As a whole album, I don't get why people think its outdated. Its literally sounds from the 90s and early 2000s made modern. Nobody is doing songs like that today, and they never did songs like that 5 or 10 years ago. 

Its the most fresh, most conceptual album Gaga has done for ages.

1 hour ago, M Monstre said:

What do you mean "dated" though????

Just because it uses similar beats to a "older" song, which in the grand scheme of things isn't even that old, it sounds "dated"?

there is a distinct difference from the 90s house/early 2000s theme and using mainstream music trends from 2015.  this album does both.

aside from the 90s/2000s inspiration, there is a lot of tropical house moments and 2015/16 EDM moments on Chromatica and they sound like what use to be trendy, and honestly overdone, 4 years ago- hence me saying "dated" and "not fresh".  if this album came out in 2016 it would've fit in with what was currently trending in mainstream pop music- but this album is using old trends.  Sour Dance, SFA, 1000 doves, free woman, fun tonight, the vocal sample in Stupid Love are some good examples of that

on the contrary- some good examples of songs that sound fresh are Alice, 911, Replay, most of Rain On Me, Enigma, and Babylon.

[Dramatica 13,690]

1 hour ago, plasticalice said:

The production is far from great. Free Woman, Fun Tonight and Babylon are some of her worst produced tracks ever.

Ok did that make you feel any better about your life?

Good

[xoxo Craig 55,649]

9 minutes ago, Gracious Gaga said:

there is a distinct difference from the 90s house/early 2000s theme and using mainstream music trends from 2015.  this album does both.

aside from the 90s/2000s inspiration, there is a lot of tropical house moments and 2015/16 EDM moments on Chromatica and they sound like what use to be trendy, and honestly overdone, 4 years ago- hence me saying "dated" and "not fresh".  if this album came out in 2016 it would've fit in with what was currently trending in mainstream pop music- but this album is using old trends.  Sour Dance, SFA, 1000 doves, free woman, fun tonight, the vocal sample in Stupid Love are some good examples of that

on the contrary- some good examples of songs that sound fresh are Alice, 911, Replay, most of Rain On Me, Enigma, and Babylon.

Chromatica does not do both.

There is no tropical house in Chromatica. There's no 2015/16 trends in this album at all... I just don't see that. I don't think people were ready for a 90's house record in 2016... I mean, Katy Perry's album "Witness" was heavily EDM/House inspired and it didn't do well. The songs you mentioned like Free Woman and Stupid Love don't have any trends that were popular 4 years ago. Sour Candy uses a very 90s House beat... which yes, there were a couple of songs that used a 90s House sample in 2016. But it wasn't the trend. 

The ONLY song you can argue sounds dated is SFA. Its the only one that sounds very 2010's Eurodance. 

[Gracious Gaga 17,163]

8 minutes ago, xoxo Craig said:

Chromatica does not do both.

There is no tropical house in Chromatica. There's no 2015/16 trends in this album at all... I just don't see that. I don't think people were ready for a 90's house record in 2016... I mean, Katy Perry's album "Witness" was heavily EDM/House inspired and it didn't do well. The songs you mentioned like Free Woman and Stupid Love don't have any trends that were popular 4 years ago. Sour Candy uses a very 90s House beat... which yes, there were a couple of songs that used a 90s House sample in 2016. But it wasn't the trend. 

The ONLY song you can argue sounds dated is SFA. Its the only one that sounds very 2010's Eurodance. 

I don't agree   

but  we got some great songs out of this album! 

[PlasticDollGirl 1,236]

 I still love it though

[ARTGOD 3,266]

2 hours ago, plasticalice said:

.....

The recency bias..... too much. When LG7 comes out you're gonna realize how underwhelming this flavourless, cardboard tropical production is because it's gonna age baaaaaad.

ARTPOP and Chromatica’s production are on whole different universes lol .

One is an EDM odyssey while another serves “Generic DJ feat. Pop singer” production for half the runtime.

I hate how often the production on Chromatica undermines Gaga’s songwriting. There are a couple cool moments throughout, but a lot of the album is so empty and generic it’s actually painful.

[HermesG 1,597]

I d say there is no dated term actually..

in terms of taste there is only what direction u wanna follow. If the direction is kinda oldie (or the personal style of the composer also -cause there is no everyone for everything..) then the result sounds in that music area..

personally I adore the production of BTW (the album)

others found it noisy heavy and -then-dated too..

Black Jesus is my personal high light example in terms of music productions n I listen it today still fresh n shine but again this is a personal taste.. 

If u mean by todays Trends (more trap etc) then it’s a musical direction thing and not a fresh or a dated thing. 

*its not my fav style too (specially the plastic doll type) but it’s ok for what it represents I guess..

[geusst1235 5,398]

27 minutes ago, Mill said:

It’s an ARTPOP reject songs album  I still love it though 

I don't necessarily see how Chromatica can even remotely be labeled an "ARTPOP reject songs album" considering the fact that none of the 16 songs were carried over/reworked from the writing sessions for ARTPOP. Not only that, but the production styles and overall thematic material on Chromatica is quite different from what ARTPOP consisted of.

[Lord Temptation 11,209]

55 minutes ago, Gracious Gaga said:

there is a distinct difference from the 90s house/early 2000s theme and using mainstream music trends from 2015.  this album does both.

aside from the 90s/2000s inspiration, there is a lot of tropical house moments and 2015/16 EDM moments on Chromatica and they sound like what use to be trendy, and honestly overdone, 4 years ago- hence me saying "dated" and "not fresh".  if this album came out in 2016 it would've fit in with what was currently trending in mainstream pop music- but this album is using old trends.  Sour Dance, SFA, 1000 doves, free woman, fun tonight, the vocal sample in Stupid Love are some good examples of that

on the contrary- some good examples of songs that sound fresh are Alice, 911, Replay, most of Rain On Me, Enigma, and Babylon.

 

41 minutes ago, xoxo Craig said:

Chromatica does not do both.

There is no tropical house in Chromatica. There's no 2015/16 trends in this album at all... I just don't see that. I don't think people were ready for a 90's house record in 2016... I mean, Katy Perry's album "Witness" was heavily EDM/House inspired and it didn't do well. The songs you mentioned like Free Woman and Stupid Love don't have any trends that were popular 4 years ago. Sour Candy uses a very 90s House beat... which yes, there were a couple of songs that used a 90s House sample in 2016. But it wasn't the trend. 

The ONLY song you can argue sounds dated is SFA. Its the only one that sounds very 2010's Eurodance. 

I agree with both of you. The trouble is in finding the dividing line between “classic” and “dated”. Usually songs that are deemed dated are from genres that seem frozen in time, instead of having evolved into contemporary forms. Or the term is just used in a lazy way, an inarticulate way of saying “I don’t like it and i don’t want to explain why”. Like, a real artist can turn old into gold.

I don’t hear any of the main 2010s genres (trap, tropical house) in Chromatica but i do hear layers of 70s, 80s, 90s and early 2000s, and these periods are all long ago enough to be deemed classic rather than dated. And besides Gaga has a knack for mixing sounds so that they always sound fresh. 

Like Hair from Born This Way is an obvious example of a song that is inspired by and incorporates elements from 80s glam metal; yet it sounds like no song from that era.

Same with Chromatica. You would never mistake Free Woman for an actual early 90s house track, even though the influences are all there.  The way she expresses and reinterprets old and new sounds in a non-obvious way is what makes her so unique.

And sorry but Sine From Above does not sound like 2012 EDM. Chromatica is actually a very modern album. It’s nostalgic on one level but forward thinking on a much deeper level.