The Fame (album) is severely underrated

[Agunimon 20,133]

The Fame is 12 years old. Of course it's going to drop in people's views as time goes on and she puts out new music. It was a total slayer.

[Sumeet 456]

For me it will always be special. It introduced me to her. 

[Anderson123 30,893]

Underrated ? I don’t think so. It got the acclaim it deserved and more than I expected. A very successful debut. I just like her other albums more because I listened to it so much that I rarely miss it. 

[RudraCNG 13,370]

20 minutes ago, Defmix100 said:

it's her best selling album isn't it?

Well yeah, but by "underrated" I mean people use to not appreciate it. It's also common that the first album from a popstar becomes her best selling album.

[Just A Holy Fool 1,882]

At the time it came out, it was the most unique sounding mainstream album in years. It completely changed the trajectory of pop music at the time. It will always have that. For me it just pales in comparison to what she would go on to feed us. I still consider it an iconic album. 

[KURUSHITOVSKA 20,439]

I think it's underrated but by "fans" that were 5 when it was released.

[Yxilon 5,248]

The Fame song is underrated.

The Fame album... not so much.

 

I mean, it's a good debut album, but you cannot compare it to The Fame Monster, Born This Way, Chromatica, or even (imo) Joanne and ARTPOP. In terms of sounds. In terms of lyrics. In terms of concept. In terms of cohesivity. In terms of anything that could come to my mind. Just my opinion.

[magicalgaga 780]

3 minutes ago, Yxilon said:

The Fame song is underrated.

COULDN'T AGREE MORE WITH THIS ONE 

[Rio 5,088]

It is heavily underrated. It's has the most hit-worthy songs of ANY of her albums. While TFM and BTW are considered her best, with BTW being considered her 'magnum opus', The Fame is an expertly crafted and cohesive pop album. Hit after hit. Not really a bad song on it (i.e yes! i find Eh Eh to be underrated too, judging by comments on here)

If The Fame was released now and Chromatica then, Chromatica would not be rated higher than it by fans. Maybe it hasn't aged well, I dunno, or maybe it's because, artistically, she has topped the album. It'd way more generic than her other albums, that could also be why.
 

But it's one of the greatest pop albums of all time in my opinion. Wasn't it the bestselling debut pop album of all time, too? I mean, no one sells almost 20m in the digital (not even Taylor), yet alone for a debut. Only Adele pulls them numbers.

[Rio 5,088]

23 minutes ago, Anderson123 said:

Underrated ? I don’t think so. It got the acclaim it deserved and more than I expected. A very successful debut. I just like her other albums more because I listened to it so much that I rarely miss it. 

It's usually at the bottom of the fans' album rankings. I think that what the OP was getting at.

[ToxicHot 6,425]

As a whole, I don't find it severely underrated, nor excessively overrated. It's such an incredible effort. One of the best debut albums from a popstar, possibly ever. It's literally timeless.

It's popular and larger than life for a reason. It's still selling massively an entire decade later. That says a LOT!

I do find it hard to compare her other albums to The Fame, though. She's definitely had many songs top most of the songs on The Fame, but as a collective whole it really has stood the test of time. It's aged remarkably. Wow. 

 

Slightly off-topic, but...:

With Chromatica being out for only a few days, I still don't know where to rank it among Gaga albums. Definitely above Joanne, certainly not above The Fame. It's crazy to see the difference between Chromatica and The Fame (her most recent and most oldest records) - I mean can they really be compared? I don't think so. Such an evolution.

[Ricardo 7,644]

it still remains as my favorite Gaga album 

[Sepsami 17,522]

Talks about The Fame being underrated, proceeds to post a link to the most overrated song in her discography