The Death of “Lady Gaga”: A Retrospective Look At Her Career

[ApplauseftAdele 4,730]

Disclaimer : this post is not to slander Gaga but it is more just some things I’ve realized. Also I know y’all hate Gaga thinkpieces but I would appreciate if you just read this and let me know what you think.

 

I stumbled upon a 2011 article trashing Gaga and found these lines talking about  a comment from her ex Rob Fusari saying that she preferred a stripped back sound, and only did pop to become famous: “After showing Stefani an article about how Nelly Furtado was launched back to superstardom after ditching folk-pop for pulsating dance music, he convinced her that club beats and performance art might actually be the way to go to achieve stardom — despite her preference for a more stripped-down sound.”

 

As a longtime fan, I always thought that Gaga was a pop genius who was “meant” to be famous, and that she knew she was destined for Fame. I thought that she gave up on being a popstar simply because she is more mature now, and was traumatized by ARTPOP. But the reality is, although she really wanted fame, I feel like she definitely ventured into pop solely because it would get her famous. Gaga used to alway talked about pop music, and how it wasn’t “low brow”, it seemed like she was someone who STUDIED pop music, and lived and breathed pop. But almost all of her most career defining pop songs have been largely influenced by producers like RedOne, while her most well received projects since BTW are not pop in the slightest. If you look at her discography, she has COMPLETELY stopped with the classic “Gaga” songwriting and pop hooks - even on Chromatica - and her “signature sound” is heavily tied to RedOne / DJWS. To me this somewhat shows that the success of her early songs is in large part thanks to her writers and producers, since the same catchiness and writing style of Poker Face & Bad Romance is COMPLETELY missing in her later work. 
 

I don’t think Gaga had a single “smash” radio pop hit after TF/TFM, the success of all of her later dance-pop singles were more carried by her name & the hype surrounding her rather than the song being genuinely loved by the public for it being catchy, etc. I honestly think Gaga got really lucky with her first two era’s. Her team, producers, and single choices were a perfect storm to create the character “Lady Gaga” and bring her to astronomical levels of fame, and everything that came after those two era’s was her riding off that initial hype and character she created, and trying to balance her passions with what the public knew her for. 

 

I think that once she did get A-List status thanks to TF/TFM, which honestly is a VERY rare thing that happens to not many singers, she continued to play up her “Lady Gaga” character that she presented to the public to capitalize on the media’s intrigue with her. I used to eat up her videos and outfits but looking back, some of them do feel a little try-hard, and honestly sometimes she would use shock value in place of actual “meaning”. If she was actually this “crazy” fashionista who loved wearing muppets, why didn’t she do this before she got famous? Why was her “craziness” during TF/TFM not reflected in her music, which for the most part was just standard pop? She is definitely a talented artist and visionary (see: Marry The Night video) but her artistry is at it’s best when it lacks shock value or the over-the-top weirdness. 

 

 

As she became more and more famous, she continued to outdo herself with crazier outfits and more ambitious sounds, and she lost track of her artistry she had in the beginning. This culminated in ARTPOP: I love this album for now wild it is, but from an unbiased perspective, it is overcrowded with attempts at being artistic, abrasive, and shocking, and I feel like that was more the focus, rather than writing pop songs with well written hooks and melodies. What would 2008 Gaga think about “Swine”? (The lyrics are good but the production of the song feels like an attempt to just shock people with how crazy it is.)

 

A lot of the metaphors and statements Gaga made about the album when promoting it don’t make much sense when actually listening to it, and honestly the whole era feels like Gaga lost her vision of her original goal before she became famous - she had now “become” the character she was once portraying. She definitely reached her breaking point as a pop girl and as “Lady Gaga”, a character she portrayed solely to achieve fame, and finally the “Lady Gaga” act was gone for good. She literally mentions this in a Chromatica interview - she said she hates being “Lady Gaga”, and all the things that her fame and career brought into her life. I feel like this shows that her earlier era’s like TF/TFM were not necessarily “her being her”, but more crafted to make her into a star: to draw attention, get radio hits, and leave an impact on pop culture. She also sometimes references her old self in interviews, and it almost feels like she’s impersonating or mimicking the character “Lady Gaga” - take for example her voting campaign video.

 

 

This also explains why only 1/4 of her last 4 eras since her fall during ARTPOP have been pop. After realizing that the “Gaga” popstar character would no longer work, she did everything but pop. This is especially interesting when we think about the whole David Bowie/Joanne situation. My theory is that she was in the middle of reviving the “Lady Gaga” character with the original LG5, but when Bowie died, she realized that her life could end at any time, and she realized her desire to let her true self shine, instead of “Lady Gaga”. So she scrapped LG5 and created Joanne, an album that she always wanted to make KNOWING that her fans still wanted a pop album, and ever since, she has shyed away from pop music & never really brought back the “Lady Gaga” character. There is a clear difference after 2015, she no longer puts on a “character” when she is promoting an album; when she talked about Joanne, Chromatica, ASIB, or even her r*pe story recently, she sounds like the same person each time - there is no fake accent, no “idgaf” attitude, no “acting” or taking on a persona that she would previously do when interviewed.

 

This also explains a lack of “innovation” in her recent pop ventures (Chromatica, Enigma Residency) which feel more like they are capitalizing on earlier well known Gaga tropes (futuristic visuals, pop club songs, alien aesthetics, etc.), rather than complex storylines and commentary that we see in her earlier videos. Chromatica was probably an attempt to please people who were missing the old Gaga (the aesthetics of the era, the production, the singles & collab choices, etc) but despite being a pop album, it completely lacks the same pop songwriting styles of her earlier pop eras, it’s much more similar to her Joanne/ASIB style. This also explains why she was probably not as eager to promote Chromatica - if pop is no longer her passion (or never was her passion) and she has now cemented her legacy and has the opportunity to do other genres / career paths, then why would she want to promote an album that she doesn’t fully believe in? (Again, I’m sure the lyrics are from her heart but it’s still a pop album.  She would probably rather have us hear her most heartfelt Chromatica songs as piano ballads or a alt rock, not over club beats.) 

 

As for her future career paths, shes obviously on the acting road and I think this is what she wanted to do all along, but I don’t think popGa will ever come back, because it’s simply not HER. At least not with the same artistic passion and drive - she will always be forced to return to pop at some points because it’s her brand, but I honestly would prefer her to do things that she is passionate about than to create music solely because people want more pop from her. She seems super happy when she’s no longer “Gaga” - her passion that was once for pop now manifests itself she’s talking about acting, spreading kindness, activism, and doing non-pop performances like her Oscars tribute. Her Superbowl halftime shows a clear difference in her mentality - the rooftop jump reminded me of classic Gaga doing stuff that had everyone gasping, but the focus her talent rather than her weirdness. Same thing with her Met Gala appearance - it was made to highlight her intelligence and creativeness, not to shock. I think her future career ventures will definitely shy away from shock value, and the “Lady Gaga” character is done. She will instead focus on letting the world see how truly talented and versatile she is, in other areas that aren’t pop.

 

 

 

TLDR : Gaga was never interested in pop music, she only did it to become famous. TF/TFM she had the perfect storm to create the character “Lady Gaga” and gain massive fame, but BTW & ARTPOP was largely an attempt to capitalize on previous hype. After ARTPOP, she realized that the “Gaga” character wouldn’t work, and (my personal theory) David Bowie’s death really made her rethink her career. Everything she’s done since then has either been things that STEFANI, not Lady Gaga, wants to do (C2C, ASIB, Joanne), or is an attempt to satisfy people who miss the old Gaga (Chromatica and Enigma).

[Aphasic 4,033]

Can you sum it up? Cherries on top please.

[OhGG 433]

that was a whole ass essay girl 

[ItWasntLaauv 6,392]

Okay?

[BabylonSaints 5,055]

I agree with lots of points, but disagree with one thing. Chromatica might have been a return to pop Gaga, but I feel like she's showing a vulnerability that she hasn't before. It's like she almost reveals her true self, but then also realizes who she is. It's very classic Gaga, but a mature kind of classic Gaga.

[erfaan 2,763]

Can we stop with the argument that Chromatica is not innovative. It's literally one of the best house-inspired albums by a major pop artist and has been the soundtrack that helped so many people dance through 2020-2021. 

 

[Rahrahbitchson 17,588]

[enissa11 2,984]

OMG i'm astonished at how you got it all wrong and misunderstood who lady gaga is....

[Delulu Rogers 7,072]

I mean yes and no. Obviously post-ARTPOP - joanne they were rebranding her image cause the costumes and craziness weren't going to work forever. I agree 100%. But I still think she loved being lady gaga, loved doing pop music, and loved what she was doing back then. Sure she played it up purposely for commercial reasons but I wouldn't completely discredit her early albums as being inauthentic. TF is who she was back in those days. She wanted to be big and change pop music etc. 

I also agree that chromatica is to please the fans and that she's not invested in it but that might just be because she's older and has different priorities. I don't agree though that her best art is when she's lacks shock value or weirdness. Joanne is the least artistic and interesting visuals, shoots, etc and that's not because it lacks weirdness, it's because it's just bad. 

[Ladle Ghoulash 17,180]

I agree with the basic conceit, but I don't believe Gaga never loved or was interested in pop. I remember her talking about how Tony basically told her that she should show the world the full breadth of her talent because the fame game would only take her so far and the GP is so fickle when it comes to spectacle. 

[rinasawachanta 2,713]

1 hour ago, ApplauseftAdele said:

To me this somewhat shows that the success of her early songs is in large part thanks to her writers and producers, since the same catchiness and writing style of Poker Face & Bad Romance is COMPLETELY missing in her later work. 

I stopped reading around here

[Serial Chiller 8,044]

1 hour ago, Rahrahbitchson said:

Don't worry u aint missing much I skimmed and it's basically just the same old drivel the disgruntled "pop" fans have been regurgitating for the past few years, just with extra words. 

[enissa11 2,984]

2 minutes ago, rinasawachanta said:

I stop reading around here

i almost stopped reading right there too, specially because songs like alice have almost the same writing style of Pokerface for example...

[Stephen 30,336]

No 

[Naak Le Vaar 1,222]

I dont mean to be dramatic or insult you, but this was one of the worst things I've read in a while 

Im all for the think piece or a critical eye on Gaga, but I want a refund of my time wasted reading this. Good day to you.