Has Gaga Lost Her Mystery?

[Wet Fire 7,650]

I really don't think shock value has any cultural weight anymore and Gaga is smart enough to know that. She is the one who mastered it in the first place. And ARTPOP was going beyond the plausible: the vomit Swine performance, Volantis and all that. And did it really go well during that era? Even an amazing video like GUY didn't attract much attention. Gaga would be disappointed if she still believes that shock value or maintaining an aura would benefit her (or anyone) in 2020.

[vyniildisk 12,689]

1 hour ago, Adarsh said:

Nobody can remain mysterious for a long time while also being commercial. She’s constantly in the public eye and after a while people don’t seem to bother. The good thing is that Gaga has always been a chameleon and you never know what she’s going to do next. That’s how she has remained relevant even after the thrill of the “Crazy Gaga” wore off.

Britney still very mysterious to me. Like wtf happened early in her career. Who forced her to play the school girl. Was it really her idea? The virginity things omg. She should give an interview

 

Michael Jackson is very mysterious too

Beyoncé also

 

OP. Amazing analisis and amazing read thank you! 

I think Gaga just got over playing that "enigmatic" role 

 

[Wet Fire 7,650]

And I truly believe, if Gaga wants or chooses to have any shock value (mystery or object of fascination), she can do it with her voice. She literally has one of the strongest voices in the industry.

And one thing has happened since ASIB. People are actually calling her a genius. I mean we have been saying that all along. But I hear every other Youtuber or reviewer say Gaga is a genius nowadays. 

[Regina George 59,387]

2 minutes ago, Wet Fire said:

I really don't think shock value has any cultural weight anymore and Gaga is smart enough to know that. She is the one who mastered it in the first place. And ARTPOP was going beyond the plausible: the vomit Swine performance, Volantis and all that. And did it really go well during that era? Even an amazing video like GUY didn't attract much attention. Gaga would be disappointed if she still believes that shock value or maintaining an aura would benefit her (or anyone) in 2020.

The reason why ARTPOP era and it's stunts didn't work is because they were only done to cause shock and controversy not because they are something she wanted to do for the sake of her art. Things she did during ARTPOP were basically her thinking "What should I do next to shock people?" and it's never how it works. Also there is nothing shocking in GUY video and that's why it didn't get any attention. Gaga was never purely about shock value (at least before ARTPOP) she always had something great behind those "shocking" acts.. For example she released amazing catchy pop songs like no one heard before AND she accompanied them with shocking visuals/performances. 

[Wet Fire 7,650]

1 minute ago, Regina George said:

The reason why ARTPOP era and it's stunts didn't work is because they were only done to cause shock and controversy not because they are something she wanted to do for the sake of her art.

It doesn't sound very convincing that she was doing it not for her art but only for shocking people. 

[Regina George 59,387]

Just now, Wet Fire said:

It doesn't sound very convincing that she was doing it not for her art but only for shocking people. 

She said it herself in an interview during Joanne era laughing at Volantis The Flying Dress 

[KennyRichie 1,996]

No. Chromatica was a whole mystery album and was starting amazing, but you know, pandemics and Coachella and all that was cancelled for that reason.

[Wet Fire 7,650]

Just now, Regina George said:

She said it herself in an interview during Joanne era laughing at Volantis The Flying Dress 

She has said contradictory things at various points in her career. And during Joanne and ASIB she has said a lot of things which would convince the audience that she is now showing who she 'really' is and to strengthen her argument she has dismissed a lot of her previous art and artifice. During the ASIB interviews she also said a lot of things about how makeup and artifice had weakened her personality. Then she launches Haus Labs to show how makeup had strengthened her personality. Both are true from different points of view. It's all contradictory. 

But during the ARTPOP era she did a lot of things for her art. I don't think she was only trying to shock people with an entire era based on an album called ARTPOP. 

[vyniildisk 12,689]

9 minutes ago, KennyRichie said:

No. Chromatica was a whole mystery album and was starting amazing, but you know, pandemics and Coachella and all that was cancelled for that reason.

How Chromatica was a mystery album? 

[Guest Adarsh]

7 minutes ago, Dulo Peep said:

How Chromatica was a mystery album? 

It only has one live performance and very few interviews. Not mysterious enough for you? 

[MOT 3,086]

Great opening post, clearly coming from a good place, and it has generated a bunch of thoughtful responses.

I think everyone's kinda said it. You can't keep doing what she was doing, and after c2c, Five Foot Two, Joanne and ASIB you can't go back to pretending to be some sort of alien. I paid no attention to early Gaga, so in effect I didn't live through it, but looking in on it now I'm clear that It was all just performance, part of her art, part of her marketing, part of her job, and they are all the same thing really. So the old mystery is gone, but that doesn't mean she won't have fun dressing up in future and trying to be creative and interesting. This week it's Oreos, maybe next week it'll be her first symphony. I'll be sticking around anyway.

[TheAlexer 1,343]

Definitely

Like before 2014 people thought that she was Lady Gaga 24 hours a day including all the weirdness and outlandishness that comes with it but now we know that she's just a normal Italian-American girl who likes to spend her free time cooking Spaghetti and watching TV like the rest of us and this did break the immersion of the character.

The thing is that even the character Lady Gaga has become more and more "relatable". Like her interviews where she's now acting like a "cool New Yorker" while the interviews in her earlier career were full of iconic artsy-fartsy pretentiousness which I personally loved. 

[Mise en Scene 1,040]

She literally never speaks so yes. 

[Guest]

11 hours ago, Adarsh said:

Nobody can remain mysterious for a long time while also being commercial.

Id even dare to say it's very difficult to be mysterious in the era of internet age. All celebs were mysterious before then. Not to mention the need for transparency now from not just brands but political figures, artists who almost become figures of activism... that's a new era.

[Mother of Puppies 36,460]

I think she is still a bit "mysterious" but in a good way.... because you never know what she will do next. She surprised everyone and gained a lot of new fans with " a star is born" because a lot of people were actually kinda shocked to see her that beautiful and natural without the make up and how great she sounded and that she can actually act!

I did not expect to ever love an album as much as Chromatica!

 

And I think she is mysterious as a person with her character, because obviously we do not know her as a "private person."  We only know her from "interviews" and as a public persona, even though she shows a lot of herself, but for sure not everything. And this is what I find fascinating... the unknown. The parts of her, that she does not share with the world.

 

And all the other hidden talents that she has and that she may not have shown the world yet.