Should Gaga's next Lead Single Be A Ballad?

[Chromatican 4,046]

1 minute ago, Reality said:

First of all, the only difference between Joanne and the rest of her albums is that it's more country, folk, and rock inspired. It's not even a "ballad" album. The OP talked about songs like Shallow, MR, and ARUTW, which sound absolutely nothing like Joanne.

Also, Joanne helped Gaga a lot, PR-wise. Without Joanne, we wouldn't have ASIB or her return to electronic dance music with Chromatica. Joanne also allowed Gaga to do the Super Bowl.

The GP recognizes her as a pop artist, sure, but that shouldn't limit her to only doing electronic dance music. That's a very narrow-minded point of view. We know that Gaga's a very eclectic artist; why shouldn't she do a ballad album? 

Finally, the majority of her hardcore fandom is pop music listeners, yes, but Gaga has a pretty diverse fanbase. There are a lot of casual listeners too. And to be honest, it's those listeners that made Shallow one of Gaga's most popular songs.

Joanne was a good album, but it did damage to her as well. Joanne was a non-event outside of the USA, and if it wasn't for the massive success of A Star is Born her pop music career would've been over after another album in the same vein as Joanne. Songs like A-Yo, Joanne, Sinner's Prayer, Million Reasons and Grigio Girls are pretty country, more country than some early Taylor Swift even. Gaga needs to seize the rest of her 30s and be smart. Her artistic journey has been long, but creating another fracture and polarizing the fanbase with another stripped back album is not smart by any means.

[The Clown 539]

Monsters really overestimate how well recieved ballads are. Time for some tea...

Million Reasons had the SuperBowl, the most watched show in the US, by far. Without it, it was a downright flop, worse than the likes of Perfect Illusion or Marry The Night.

Shallow had the Oscars and the movie that basically worked as promo. It was a hit before the performance, but not a huge one.

Stupid Love had a better chart run than pre-SBHTS Million Reasons. It effectively had no promo, while MR was promoted to heaven and back, on varios shows and events.

Rain On Me peaked at #1 on the Hot 100 and stayed in the top 10 for four weeks. Shallow only peaked at #5 and fell out of the top 10 after two weeks. There's no real reason to believe it would have climbed back if the movie wasn't as acclaimed as it was.

The basic idea is: if you believe that BalladGa would have more commercial succes than DanceGa, you're most likely very wrong.

As a side note, though... it would be cool to see her release a ballad as the lead single for a change.

[JRCF29 8,168]

It better be ft. Adele

[Reality 73,672]

44 minutes ago, Chromatican said:

Joanne was a good album, but it did damage to her as well. Joanne was a non-event outside of the USA, and if it wasn't for the massive success of A Star is Born her pop music career would've been over after another album in the same vein as Joanne. Songs like A-Yo, Joanne, Sinner's Prayer, Million Reasons and Grigio Girls are pretty country, more country than some early Taylor Swift even. Gaga needs to seize the rest of her 30s and be smart. Her artistic journey has been long, but creating another fracture and polarizing the fanbase with another stripped back album is not smart by any means.

The only songs on Joanne that are even remotely "country" are Sinner's Prayer and A-YO. Even then, the only song that I would consider "country" on Joanne is Sinner's Prayer. People play up the country angle too much on Joanne. Just because she's wear a cowboy-looking hat doesn't mean that all of a sudden it's a country album. It was still a pop album mixed in with country, folk, and rock.

And after Joanne and ASIB, a stripped back album wouldn't polarize the fanbase. With Joanne, that was the first [Gaga solo] album she ever did that deviated from her electronic dance pop music. So yeah, back in 2016, you could've made that argument. But in 2021 and beyond, a "stripped back" Gaga is a lot more common to see now than it was back then. 

To be honest with you, I just find it very selfish that people just keep wanting electronic dance pop music from Gaga. Like I said before, Gaga's an eclectic artist with many different sounds. She's best known for dance music, sure, but she can branch off and do other things. By your logic, then Gaga shouldn't become an actress either because that could "fracture and polarize" the fanbase, even though Gaga has a very good acting career that'll only continue to grow. 

[TimisaMonster 31,073]

Honestly no...for a lead single to be a ballad is a bit of a buzz kill and I already endured the Joanne era and that was enough for me...

[Chromatican 4,046]

9 minutes ago, Reality said:

To be honest with you, I just find it very selfish that people just keep wanting electronic dance pop music from Gaga. Like I said before, Gaga's an eclectic artist with many different sounds. She's best known for dance music, sure, but she can branch off and do other things. By your logic, then Gaga shouldn't become an actress either because that could "fracture and polarize" the fanbase, even though Gaga has a very good acting career that'll only continue to grow. 

Gaga's acting career will only bring in new fans. A Star is Born was one of the best career moves she has made since making Poker Face a single. I agree Gaga is an eclectic artist, but why can't Gaga explore eclectic sounds within the realm of pop music like she did throughout most of her career and did on Chromatica. I'm not sure why us being into electro-pop means we are closed minded, when Born This Way is Gaga's most eclectic sounding album and is pop. I think doing a ballad album at this point is the exact opposite of the eclectic, exciting music Gaga is capable of.

[Maria Brink 1,504]

2 hours ago, Kimmo said:

Yasss, release Plastic Doll as a single, the Ballad Of The Century 

Just imagine the impact 

Nobody would move... Sounds like a Teenage Dream sample “YOU MAKE ME”, “DONT PLAY WITH ME” and we all saw how Teenage Dream went. 

[Guest]

2 hours ago, Kimmo said:

Yasss, release Plastic Doll as a single, the Ballad Of The Century 

Just imagine the impact 

Honestly I'm imagining Plastic Doll sung on the piano without the I'm I-E-I-E-I-E-I-E-I-E-I p-plastic P-plastic do-o-o-o-oll P-plastic, technologic parts and from what I am putting together in my head it sounds... great! 

[NFRatwell 23,290]

Gaga just released a fully dance-pop electronic album and people are already freaking out over the idea of her going a more stripped back approach with her next album.  Dance-pop fans should be happy Gaga didn’t leave the genre with ARTPOP, she’s had no trouble being acclaimed with her other music. 

[Reality 73,672]

31 minutes ago, Chromatican said:

Gaga's acting career will only bring in new fans. A Star is Born was one of the best career moves she has made since making Poker Face a single. I agree Gaga is an eclectic artist, but why can't Gaga explore eclectic sounds within the realm of pop music like she did throughout most of her career and did on Chromatica. I'm not sure why us being into electro-pop means we are closed minded, when Born This Way is Gaga's most eclectic sounding album and is pop. I think doing a ballad album at this point is the exact opposite of the eclectic, exciting music Gaga is capable of.

You're twisting my words. I said that people who just want electronic dance music are selfish. I never said that being a fan of dance music is selfish. 

"Why can't Gaga explore eclectic sounds within the realm of pop music?" — A ballad album can still be a pop album...A ballad isn't confined to one genre. 

"I think doing a ballad album at this point is the exact opposite of being eclectic" — Do you know what eclectic means, though? Gaga has never done a ballad album. It would be something completely different than what she's done before. Making another electronic dance record after her past 5/6 albums have been electronic dance records is literally the exact opposite of being eclectic.

"Gaga's acting career will only bring in new fans." — Isn't that something you want...? That'll only bring more success...

[Reality 73,672]

3 minutes ago, NFRatwell said:

Gaga just released a fully dance-pop electronic album and people are already freaking out over the idea of her going a more stripped back approach with her next album.  Dance-pop fans should be happy Gaga didn’t leave the genre with ARTPOP, she’s had no trouble being acclaimed with her other music. 

Gaga: *releases an electronic dance pop record*

Monsters: "That's cool, but where's my electronic dance pop record?"

[Flawless 2,215]

I can't imagine what route she will take, but I'd be here for a powerful ballad as a lead. 

[Flawless 2,215]

1 hour ago, Chromatican said:

Joanne was a good album, but it did damage to her as well. Joanne was a non-event outside of the USA, and if it wasn't for the massive success of A Star is Born her pop music career would've been over after another album in the same vein as Joanne. Songs like A-Yo, Joanne, Sinner's Prayer, Million Reasons and Grigio Girls are pretty country, more country than some early Taylor Swift even. Gaga needs to seize the rest of her 30s and be smart. Her artistic journey has been long, but creating another fracture and polarizing the fanbase with another stripped back album is not smart by any means.

I agree on that, Joanne was really a damage she didn't needed, especially after ARTPOP and a Jazz album. I wish she took a new route in her career sonically in the future without needing to do ballads. Personally I would like a power-ballad lead, but idk about a full album.  What it looks like is that artists are only truly recognized when they make a record full of ballads, it would be nice for her to prove them wrong about it.

[huttont 5,059]

The only kind of “ballad” I could see being a lead single is a song kind of like Hello by Adele. It’s powerful and focuses on vocals but not your typical ballad 

[Chromatican 4,046]

2 hours ago, Reality said:

You're twisting my words. I said that people who just want electronic dance music are selfish. I never said that being a fan of dance music is selfish. 

"Why can't Gaga explore eclectic sounds within the realm of pop music?" — A ballad album can still be a pop album...A ballad isn't confined to one genre. 

"I think doing a ballad album at this point is the exact opposite of being eclectic" — Do you know what eclectic means, though? Gaga has never done a ballad album. It would be something completely different than what she's done before. Making another electronic dance record after her past 5/6 albums have been electronic dance records is literally the exact opposite of being eclectic.

"Gaga's acting career will only bring in new fans." — Isn't that something you want...? That'll only bring more success...

An album of ONLY ballads or MOSTLY ballads is the exact opposite of eclectic. The Fame Monster had Bad Romance, Monster, Speechless, So Happy I Could Die and Teeth, all very different, with Speechless verging into ballad territory. ASIB was pretty close to being an all ballad project so it is not like something Gaga hasn't explored before and like @The Clown mentioned, fans vastly overestimate Gaga's success with ballads as singles. I'm just not sure how doing an album primarily composed of ballads is an interesting evolution of Gaga's artistry at this point in time. I believe that as a commercial artist, Gaga should pursue pop music and acting above ballads yes. Changing genres isn't necessary for being eclectic, a pop music catalogue can be eclectic and all be pop.