Riskiest Gaga album?

[Justin Drew Bieber 25,317]

Which of Gaga’s albums do you think was the riskiest? In terms of its potential success etc...

[Hybrid AT 78]

In terms of its concept, overall ambition and the fact that she released it at the peak of her career, I'll go ahead and say BTW 

The whole world had its eyes set on her next move after TFM and she came out with the grandest and the most inconvenient (at the time) possible album and chose to use her position as the world's biggest artist to further equality on both local and global level and hammer home socio-political issues. 

[GreenDiamond 6,286]

Hard question, but I choose BTW because if she released The Fame 2.0 at that time she would have success ala Teenage Dream but she choose way riskier lane and alienated her from GP, but built on fanbase.

Also PI was very risky, releasing such an unconventional song as lead single is hiphop trap climate

[KatieJudasGaga4 67,907]

Definitely Born This Way.

 

But I would also vote for Cheek to Cheek. It was risky for a pop star to do jazz, but it worked out in her favor.

[papergangstas 1,364]

I would say ARTPOP. I'm a huge ARTPOP stan and I love the concept, the songs and overall era of it, but there was a big chance that the GP and listeners "don't get" her concept of this album. I also can't remember if heavy EDM was popular at that time (2013-2014). And don't get me started with DWUW containing R.K**ly 

[Kapi09 2,462]

ARTPOP  

I am so glad that Tonny changed her. 

And now we can bop to Chromatica & Joanne 

[Blastertoyo 22,728]

Joanne

she basically risked her entire fanbase 

[Dirkje 751]

I would say Joanne. She went personal with the sounds and lyrics and thats a risk if people would like that or not. 

[The Clown 539]

7 minutes ago, HybridAT said:

In terms of its concept, overall ambition and the fact that she released it at the peak of her career, I'll go ahead and say BTW 

The whole world had her eyes set on her next move after TFM and she came out with the grandest and the most inconvenient (at the time) possible album and chose to use her position as the world's biggest artist to further equality on both local and global level and hammer home socio-political issues. 

This is the only correct answer.

She might have had a less commercially viable sound with C2C, or done a 180 in terms of style with Joanne, but those albums weren't exactly meant for mass consumption anyways.

The entire BTW album was an unapologetic political statement, released when everybody and their mother would hear it loud and clear, in a very divisive time in american society.

Not many would have the balls to go that far. To this day, LGBT representation in pop culture is usually reserved to one rainbow flag in a scene or two. Gaga centered her entire image at that point in time around her activism.

[Hybrid AT 78]

48 minutes ago, The Clown said:

This is the only correct answer.

She might have had a less commercially viable sound with C2C, or done a 180 in terms of style with Joanne, but those albums weren't exactly meant for mass consumption anyways.

The entire BTW album was an unapologetic political statement, released when everybody and their mother would hear it loud and clear, in a very divisive time in american society.

Not many would have the balls to go that far. To this day, LGBT representation in pop culture is usually reserved to one rainbow flag in a scene or two. Gaga centered her entire image at that point in time around her activism.

Yep. All of this.

BTW was very intentional. She started becoming politically outspoken in mid 2010s with the meat dress and tying it with the DADT repeal movement and all her political speeches. That is what I believe was the genesis of BTW as a concept and she probably felt it wasn't enough and so decided to make a whole album about it to create sustained, tangible impact.

She knew she had one big shot to use her position for good and used it to risk her entire career to launch the lead single from her then highly anticipated new album with the words "gay, straight or bi, lesbian transgender life", just so US and worldwide radios could play it over and over again until equality became the norm, or at least till there was a serious step forward. And it was a risk that paid off. DADT was finally repealed in the Fall of 2011. What a magical woman 

This reminds me of this anonymous, since deleted Facebook post from an ex-military member, now on Reddit for posterity:

Spoiler

 

A former member of the Marine Corps on Lady Gaga's LGBT rights activism:

Fun fact: I hated Gaga- thought she was corny- try hard-fake- was assigned to cover her for a story and wrote the first article on her for the US Government- lol- She was opening for Beyonce at a festival and only had a disco stick and clearly no budget. I was completely slapped in the face with her huge penis because it was straight up rock n roll live-complete opposite of the original marketing- everyone was so manicured back then and she came out with this insane spontaneous candor. FAST FORWARD: Obama became president and there was a chance to repeal Don't Ask Don't Tell and he didn't. Advisors too him within the military said it wouldn't be a good strategy. LADY GAGA straight up is the ONLY reason DADT actually got repealed. People don't know this story but she bought tickets to state dinners and started scaring the **** out of politicians. Behind closed doors top officials genuinely became scared of her. She amped up the heat so hard and then dropped Born This Way. Before that it was totally uncouth to mention anything gay and all of a sudden we were discussing it in every morning briefing. I don't even think Gaga herself knows the impact she had internally with government affairs at that time. Gaga could retire and be Stephanie G forever, rock that norm core everyday and sing songs with Barbra Streisand and I truly wouldn't give a ****- she genuinely saved my ass and other homo Marines from handcuffs and that's enough for me. 

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/popheads/comments/6m3s1h/discussion_whats_a_story_or_anecdote_about_a_pop/

 

[SuperSunset 204]

Joanne,C2C and ASIB are safest

ARTPOP wouldn't get the criticism it got if it weren't for the management issues but mostly for the BTW era.

All eyes were on her after TFM era -mostly haters-.With BTW track and video she got critism for plagiarism which ended up in press as well,but she still managed to get #1.

Judas however had religious metaphors and with the video she got too much negative feedbacks from GP. Other single choices were safer but the bad press she got -and got worse during ARTPOP era- started from there.

People didn't like when women talk about more real life issues and politics they find that "woke" acts boring.

[imitalian 3,163]

She really had the NERVE to release Joanne when everybody was expecting dark pop after AHS. So that was a risk

[GagaEnigma 1,474]

I would vote for C2C but out of these it's Joanne. What a f*cking versatile ARTIST! 

[COOOK 76,405]

ARTPOP

· A concept that many people found too hard to connect with.
· A very ambitious project, wanting to encompass as much as where music can take you, including an app.
· BTW was a huge success while at the same time the era was ending on a sour note; the last single didn't manage to pull as much as her previous ones and although her tour was a success a big part of the GP was starting to feel like she was too much, and that is already putting her next move at risk (which later that feeling was confirmed and grew stronger with ARTPOP). Then she had her hip surgery and that also came with the expectation that she'll make a strong comeback.
· The whole world had their eyes set on her next move: hype for a huge comeback was expected, fueled by herself being very passionate about the album, with endless teasing. The hype was so high, people's expectations were even more over the roof, thinking this was going to be some second coming-level of an album. The way it was announced didn't help either:

When there's excessive hype and expectation, the risk is even bigger.

[MANiCURE 6 9,925]

Honestly, I think releasing Chromatica after the success of ASIB is really risky.