Billboard: Chromatica, “reason behind its stellar performance?”

[Kimmo 80,285]

While her energy has understandably been on more pressing concerns the past few week, Lady Gaga has experienced a period of chart success that rivals any in her impressive pop career to this point.

1. Gaga's performance of 274,000 first-week units moved for Chromatica is the best for one of her solo albums since 2011's Born This Way. What do you think is the biggest reason behind its stellar performance?

Rania Aniftos: Chromatica is so quintessentially Gaga. It’s fun, it embraces individuality, and it’s full of club-ready jams made for dancing. While projects like Joanne and Cheek to Cheek solidified Gaga’s versatility as an artist, I think Chromatica is the sparkly, vibrant, super-pop collection that took us back to the 2008 Gaga we all fell in love with.

Gab Ginsberg: I’m a diehard Gaga fan, so I’ve enjoyed every album between Born This Way and Chromatica (yes, even a few cuts from the much-derided Cheek to Cheek, sue me), but damn if this doesn’t feel like the natural successor to Born This Way. (Before you cry “ARTPOP erasure!”, I also love that album, but I see it as more of a synth-pop record than a dance-pop record.) Still, it would be reductive for me to attribute Chromatica’s success to my own weird ranking process, so let’s chalk it up to the fact that Gaga not only returned after years of dipping her toe into other ventures (see: winning an Oscar), but did so with an unstoppable collection of dance-pop bangers when we needed them most.

Lyndsey Havens: I mean, look at what she released between those two albums: ARTPOP, often trolled on Twitter as Artflop; a ballads album with Tony Bennett, Cheek To Cheek; Joanne, her most subdued and stripped-back project to date; and then the soundtrack for A Star Is Born, in which Gaga was arguably just as much Stefani (ok, or Ally) throughout the promo. It's not at all surprising that by returning to and improving upon her disco-pop roots, Gaga is now enjoying such a stellar opening week. To be clear, that's not to say she shouldn't have released any of these prior projects -- in fact, I'm a big fan of most -- but the brief departure she took clearly fueled this energized return.

Mia Nazareno: She kept us waaaaaaaiting. I think a lot of Gaga fans were waiting for the “old” her to resurface. No shade at her more stripped down Joanne album or the A Star Is Born soundtrack (I enjoy both!), but a lot of us fell in love with the pop star during  her 2008-2011 meat dress era. And in 2020, fans were excited for Chromatica because it was promoted as a nod to her earlier upbeat, pop music. I also think that postponing the release of Chromatica (due to coronavirus) also hyped it up even more, and after waiting almost a decade, I think it was worth it.

Denise Warner: At the risk of sounding obvious -- if you know me -- I have to chalk it up to her A Star Is Born success. Her stellar acting aside, she knocked us all out with "Shallow" and "Always Remember Us This Way." (Not to mention all of the other underrated Gaga gems on the soundtrack -- "Heal Me," "Why Do You Do That?" "Look What I Found" and "I'll Never Love Again.") And after her best song Oscar triumph, I bet if there were 100 people in a room, all 100 would have wanted to see what she planned next.

https://www.billboard.com/articles/business/chart-beat/9398937/lady-gaga-chromatica-five-burning-questions

[COOOK 76,406]

It hurts a little to read the title of the thread knowing that we still haven't had any live performances... 

[GreenDiamond 6,286]

she ended everyone with Chromababy didnt she

[KevinWright 1,602]

Chromatica DID that. 

[GreenDiamond 6,286]

They shoud add:

ATRLers: Ariana Grande + Bradley Cooper

[Francesca Cipriani 1,668]

11 minutes ago, Kimmo said:

To be clear, that's not to say she shouldn't have released any of these prior projects -- in fact, I'm a big fan of most -- but the brief departure she took clearly fueled this energized return.

I think mostly is because of this  if chromatica would have been released right after ARTPOP, it wouldn't had the same impact/success. She did the right move changing her artistic direction, making everyone thirsty for her pop/dance music

[River 113,682]

Gab Ginsberg

 react with YAS if it's you

[NewUsername 11,345]

In no particular order, the sales are because of a combination of the following:

1. it's quintessential Gaga pop
2. 'comeback' to pop
3. it's an amazing album
4. new peak after ASIB
5. tour album bundles

[Kimmo 80,285]

2 minutes ago, River said:

Gab Ginsberg

 react with YAS if it's you

[flyaway 15,350]

Honestly it has to do with the fact that Gaga's been inspired by some of the most interesting, impactful and captivating sounds of pop history.

Let's take Rain on Me, for example. The song is a collab that reminds us of Starships, the 2012 Nicki Minaj hit that took the world by surprise and got the award for the sexiest song of the summer. Or Free Woman, a nod to Nicki's tongue on cheek rap of Stupid Ho, an unapologetic hymn of pride of being a succesful woman. And even Sour Candy, a tune inspired by Nicki's 2015 track Truffle Butter ft. Drake with those 90's sound that have driven Nicki's pulse. 

So we owe this amazing artist most of Chromatica's success.

[Kimmo 80,285]

2 minutes ago, NewUsername said:

In no particular order, the sales are because of a combination of the following:

5. tour album bundles

Excuse me?? Which tour did she bundle? Lol and don’t tell me about Chromatica Ball 

[Twitter 14]

Chromatica is THAT album. 

[KORG 4,756]

I cannot say this enough. Please read and cement this in your heads.

CHEEK TO CHEEK WAS NOT A BALLADS ALBUM.

If you think it was, then you didn't listen to it and you can rot.

1."Anything Goes"

2."Cheek to Cheek"

3."Don't Wait Too Long" BALLAD

4."I Can't Give You Anything but Love"

5."Nature Boy"BALLAD

6."Goody Goody"

7."Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye" BALLAD

8."Firefly"

9."I Won't Dance"

10."They All Laughed"

11."Lush Life"BALLAD

12."Sophisticated Lady" BALLAD

13."Let's Face the Music and Dance"

14."But Beautiful"BALLAD

15."It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)"

6 tracks out of 15 makes it a ballad album?

Almost totally off topic, but when people say "the ballads album with Tony Bennett" it really grates on me because the album is so full of joy and upbeat for the most part and you've got people talking about it like it's full of Gloomy Sunday covers.

[Anderson123 37,777]

15 minutes ago, NewUsername said:

In no particular order, the sales are because of a combination of the following:

5. jockstrap album bundles

Fixed.

[jacs vs looser 4,181]

31 minutes ago, COOOK said:

It hurts a little to read the title of the thread knowing that we still haven't had any live performances... 

I will forever be pressed that if we had actually gotten the proper promo that was planned, the album would've easily surpassed the 300k mark for its 1st week.