xoxo Craig 55,649 Posted October 16, 2020 Share Posted October 16, 2020 Beyoncé for sure. The way she jumps on to anything thats trendy... same with Nicki Minaj. Ed Sheeran is another one. Going from A Team to Shape Of You... End Racism Now Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eggs 2,655 Posted October 16, 2020 Share Posted October 16, 2020 7 minutes ago, M Monstre said: I don't understand when people say this. Yes, as an artist, you have to think about how well your songs/albums would do commercially but also, I think by now we know that Gaga is the type of artist to always put art before business. Chromatica is more "commercially accessible" to the general public, but it's still very much a "Gaga" album just like TF, TFM, BTW, ARTPOP, and Joanne. You can tell that Gaga put a lot of herself into Chromatica, and I think characterising the album as a complete 'sell-out' move would be a mistake. But I also think it's clear that the short song lengths, the watered-down, inoffensive production and the general lack of boldness and risk from the project all point to a deliberate, calculated effort to capitalise on her current favourable status with the GP. Apart from a handful of songs (not coincidentally, the best songs on the album: 911, Replay, Sine From Above, Babylon) the album completely lacks the sense of abandon that Born This Way has, for example. And the album suffers for it. Gaga is one of the biggest popstars in the world, and she didn't get there by releasing niche, uncommercial music. But until Chromatica she was never afraid of taking commercial pop music to more abrasive, noisy, cacophonous, artsy and strange places than her peers ever would. Just listen to a song like Judas. She released that as the second single during the era when she had the most commercial clout she has ever had. And it is completely, utterly, unabashedly mad! And then listen to Rain on Me. Precision engineered to be as safe and listenable and inoffensive as possible. For the record, I enjoy Rain on Me. But it is clear that something has been lost. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
xoxo Craig 55,649 Posted October 16, 2020 Share Posted October 16, 2020 12 minutes ago, Eggs said: You can tell that Gaga put a lot of herself into Chromatica, and I think characterising the album as a complete 'sell-out' move would be a mistake. But I also think it's clear that the short song lengths, the watered-down, inoffensive production and the general lack of boldness and risk from the project all point to a deliberate, calculated effort to capitalise on her current favourable status with the GP. Apart from a handful of songs (not coincidentally, the best songs on the album: 911, Replay, Sine From Above, Babylon) the album completely lacks the sense of abandon that Born This Way has, for example. And the album suffers for it. Gaga is one of the biggest popstars in the world, and she didn't get there by releasing niche, uncommercial music. But until Chromatica she was never afraid of taking commercial pop music to more abrasive, noisy, cacophonous, artsy and strange places than her peers ever would. Just listen to a song like Judas. She released that as the second single during the era when she had the most commercial clout she has ever had. And it is completely, utterly, unabashedly mad! And then listen to Rain on Me. Precision engineered to be as safe and listenable and inoffensive as possible. For the record, I enjoy Rain on Me. But it is clear that something has been lost. Nothing at all has been lost. I don't get why fans think Gaga has "lost" something. Judas sounds like Poker Face 2.0 and isn't necessarily that risky. Using religion to express something in art isn't that risky anymore, and it was something that Gaga had done before. The outrage was because Gaga released it as a single on Easter Rain On Me is pretty bold for today's music climate. The subject matter and the lyrics, as well as the production... nothing about it is safe. Its all authentically Gaga. Nobody is doing the same sounds as what Gaga brought with Chromatica. Yes both Judas and Rain On Me are commercialised, but Rain On Me is more daring production wise than Judas. Gaga took risks on Chromatica, just like she always does on every single album. It's nowhere near what a safe record for Gaga would be like. Imagine an album full of Shallows, The Cures, Just Dances, and Million Reasons. Is that what we got? No. We got something even more daring than ARTPOP, her most cohesive album yet, and an album that was engineered to bring the best out of Gaga and the best out of the audience too. You can like her previous albums more than her current albums, but its unfair to say that she has "lost" something when she clearly hasn't. End Racism Now Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reality 65,692 Posted October 16, 2020 Share Posted October 16, 2020 4 minutes ago, Eggs said: You can tell that Gaga put a lot of herself into Chromatica, and I think characterising the album as a complete 'sell-out' move would be a mistake. But I also think it's clear that the short song lengths, the watered-down, inoffensive production and the general lack of boldness and risk from the project all point to a deliberate, calculated effort to capitalise on her current favourable status with the GP. Apart from a handful of songs (not coincidentally, the best songs on the album: 911, Replay, Sine From Above, Babylon) the album completely lacks the sense of abandon that Born This Way has, for example. And the album suffers for it. Gaga is one of the biggest popstars in the world, and she didn't get there by releasing niche, uncommercial music. But until Chromatica she was never afraid of taking commercial pop music to more abrasive, noisy, cacophonous, artsy and strange places than her peers ever would. Just listen to a song like Judas. She released that as the second single during the era when she had the most commercial clout she has ever had. And it is completely, utterly, unabashedly mad! And then listen to Rain on Me. Precision engineered to be as safe and listenable and inoffensive as possible. For the record, I enjoy Rain on Me. But it is clear that something has been lost. I think Chromatica generally is more "GP-friendly," like I said in my last post, but I also think that, for example, Chromatica has some of her best production. But I also think that the fact that Chromatica is more "GP-friendly" was part of the strategy for the album. Sonically speaking, it was accessible to the GP, but also still engaging enough for hardcore fans. Hell, it landed her best first week selling album since BTW. That's huge. Chromatica was intended to be an event (which is why it had sooo many promo plans originally), and if she wanted to get more people's attention, she needed to make an album that straddled the line between casual fans and Little Monsters. Sure, Chromatica was not as daring and bold as BTW, but also, it didn't need to be. Gaga's future albums don't all need to be as daring and bold as BTW. After all, that's a very difficult thing to accomplish. 🃏🖤👹 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eggs 2,655 Posted October 16, 2020 Share Posted October 16, 2020 1 minute ago, xoxo Craig said: Nothing at all has been lost. I don't get why fans think Gaga has "lost" something. Judas sounds like Poker Face 2.0 and isn't necessarily that risky. Using religion to express something in art isn't that risky anymore, and it was something that Gaga had done before. The outrage was because Gaga released it as a single on Easter Rain On Me is pretty bold for today's music climate. The subject matter and the lyrics, as well as the production... nothing about it is safe. Its all authentically Gaga. Nobody is doing the same sounds as what Gaga brought with Chromatica. Yes both Judas and Rain On Me are commercialised, but Rain On Me is more daring production wise than Judas. Gaga took risks on Chromatica, just like she always does on every single album. It's nowhere near what a safe record for Gaga would be like. Imagine an album full of Shallows, The Cures, Just Dances, and Million Reasons. Is that what we got? No. We got something even more daring than ARTPOP, her most cohesive album yet, and an album that was engineered to bring the best out of Gaga and the best out of the audience too. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but Rain on Me's production more daring than Judas's? Chromatica a more daring album than ARTPOP? I'd be interested if you could expand, because this is genuinely mindboggling to me. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
HausOfAntonio 7,821 Posted October 16, 2020 Share Posted October 16, 2020 “Selling out is not my thing” - Madonna - Gone (2000) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eggs 2,655 Posted October 16, 2020 Share Posted October 16, 2020 5 minutes ago, M Monstre said: I think Chromatica generally is more "GP-friendly," like I said in my last post, but I also think that, for example, Chromatica has some of her best production. But I also think that the fact that Chromatica is more "GP-friendly" was part of the strategy for the album. Sonically speaking, it was accessible to the GP, but also still engaging enough for hardcore fans. Hell, it landed her best first week selling album since BTW. That's huge. Chromatica was intended to be an event (which is why it had sooo many promo plans originally), and if she wanted to get more people's attention, she needed to make an album that straddled the line between casual fans and Little Monsters. Sure, Chromatica was not as daring and bold as BTW, but also, it didn't need to be. Gaga's future albums don't all need to be as daring and bold as BTW. After all, that's a very difficult thing to accomplish. So you're saying that Chromatica is GP-friendly, not in order to get more sales, but just to get Gaga's message out there to a wider audience? I hadn't thought about it that way, and I think there's something in that. And I agree that pop music doesn't have to be bold and daring to be good. But I stand by my opinion that Chromatica is a worse album for having been sanded down to the point of blandness. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
KevinWright 1,271 Posted October 16, 2020 Share Posted October 16, 2020 Paramore From this: ... and this: to mediocre new wave / synth pop songs like this: The whole 'After Laughter' album was a joke for me. They were my favorite band circa 2010 and now... i can't even hear a whole album by them Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
brizoda 3,109 Posted October 16, 2020 Share Posted October 16, 2020 Green Day that have returned with this watered down Punk Rock that border on full abhominations Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
reidorox 289 Posted October 16, 2020 Share Posted October 16, 2020 Omg I can’t believe nobody has said Gwen yet. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
2School4Cool 5,348 Posted October 16, 2020 Share Posted October 16, 2020 2 hours ago, Philo said: Pink: Leaving her former risk-taking persona to serve some adult contemporary/soccer mom anthems. I get that she got older and thus changed, but I feel like she only plays safe anymore. I don’t really think P!nk has sold out, I just think being a mom changed her perspective, so she’s singing from a more mature, thoughtful, emotional perspective (although she’s always had deep, emotional moments on her albums). I honestly don’t think she cares about commercial success, she herself said she was happily surprised by the success of What About Us because she was told (I believe by her label but I could be wrong, so don’t quote me on this) that since she’s a woman in her mid-late 30s the radio won’t want to play her anymore. Like she says in one of her songs on Beautiful Trauma, “I’m still the girl that you chased all around the world, I haven’t changed, just replaced all the chains with pearls.” You’re totally entitled to your opinion though, that’s just my opinion . See The Best In Everyone Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyaway 15,350 Posted October 16, 2020 Share Posted October 16, 2020 Lorde. She went from Royals to Fancy with Iggy Azealia Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
CataleyaDeters 91 Posted October 16, 2020 Share Posted October 16, 2020 2 hours ago, Juanlittlem said: Thalia went from Equivocada (a fav of mine) to No Me Acuerdo. I mean, it's a bop but girl you were doing so good. with shakira the question is how muh was her work and you know her bosses... and she did make regeton really popular in the west again with chantaje one of the best regeton songs in my opinion! Cataleya Deters Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philo 344 Posted October 16, 2020 Author Share Posted October 16, 2020 Kylie and Madonna are my 2nd and 3rd favourite artists after Gaga, respectively and I think I was a bit harsh on the term “sellout” as they did show certain artistic direction on their eras that I pointed out, however I do think that commercial success was their driving force during that eras rather than artistic expression, at least not in the way they did previously. On Gaga, I don’t think she sold out with Chromatica, it was more of a heavily fan-demanded album as all she heard that fans wanted a dark dance-pop album with trendy collabs and she gave them one, even though her heart is probably not fully with this project I think. For her next era I bet we will see a completely different direction, and I will love that too just as much as I loved Chromatica Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Better Day 5,766 Posted October 16, 2020 Share Posted October 16, 2020 9 minutes ago, alicefromabove said: Lorde. She went from Royals to Fancy with Iggy Azealia It was Charli XCX that was on Fancy. Not Lorde Together You And I! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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