Talented singers whose music is average?

[Guest]

because the industry is putting some standards of idk... they touch everything because they think people need tasteless cheese instead of real french stinky but tasty cheese. 

I think music is like american cheese. 

[Guest]

btw 'say so' is a smoothiness revival, the bass is so so so good. It's  still a very classy and tasty song despite my previous point. 

 

[Bling 31,331]

10 hours ago, flyaway said:

Not necessarily. I speak from what we've experienced so far that goes beyond the albums. I love the work, but I know she has yet to reach her artistic peak with what she's able to do and has demonstrated in the past through her work.

On one side, she has several cover performances where she showcases many of her abilities as a vocalist that on most of her albums are missing. Then there are many ideas (like the whole ARTPOP experience) that seem unfinished and made too quickly, and there is some big potential that could be fully exploited in the future. Or albums like Joanne that have some of her best work, but suffer from lack of commitment to the sound.

Gaga's career has been very turbulent, and in a way has forced her to change direction in some unexpected ways. Either because of time, a record label's expectations, some questionable decisions, an emotional state, there are factors that have affected the work that is out there.

But then this is just my personal view on things, it's what I feel she's capable of.

 

8 hours ago, sexy said:

I kinda agree, and honestly, I think a big part of the problem is that Gaga's fanbase is uniquely diverse.

For virtually all other major artists, there's a common thread that runs through their work. Kanye, Taylor, Beyonce, Rihanna, Katy, Ariana, etc. all have albums that, more or less, serve their core fanbase. If you liked College Dropout, chances are you'll probably like MBDTF and Ye. If you liked Speak Now, chances are you'll probably like 1989 and Folklore. If you liked My Everything, you'll probably like TUN. If you liked Loud, you'll probably like Anti.

I think that's fundamentally not the case for Gaga's music. If you became a fan because of The Fame/Monster, there's no guarantee you're gonna follow her with Joanne. If you're more inclined to her euro/synthpop roots, you probably weren't a big fan of Chromatica's 90s house influence. If you really liked the lower register voice she used from TF-BTW, the drama of her voice on ARTPOP maybe wasn't your favorite.

I feel like Gaga gets pulled in too many directions. I love Born This Way, and I do think it's her best album, but I think it gets bogged down by trying to do so many things. Her albums often suffer from having a concept that is so vague that it undermines the whole project (which is why I think Chromatica and TFM are her best reviewed solo project – the "planet Chromatica" idea is there, but doesn't interfere, while TFM's concept actually serves the album).

If she really tried to focus on a general theme in the way Taylor or Kanye does, I think she could really hit it out of the park. I just really want her to release an album. Just a regular album. A collection of songs that aren't being shoehorned into an arbitrary narrative (like "my ARTPOP could mean anything, reverse Warholian experience" "I am Joanne" "In Chromatica, no one thing is greater than another"). You never see that kinda of superfluous jargon attached to other artist's works, and I think it's to her detriment that she feels the need to do it for every album.

 

8 hours ago, sexy said:

exactly, all the worldbuilding/themes she's done would've been absolutely killer if they

1) made sense (ARTPOP is my favorite album by her and I still can't wrap my head around what a "reverse Warholian experience" is supposed to be – I feel like TF-BTW were all better examples of "ARTPOP" than ARTPOP itself was; I can see hints of what she was going for with the Joanne concept, but for it have worked, I think she needed to make it abundantly clear, because I think it came off as roleplaying her dead aunt to a lot of people)

2) were actually carried out (this, I think, has largely been out of her hands – it's not her fault ARTPOP fell apart, and Chromatica was derailed by the pandemic)

I adore Gaga and think she is a living legend and one of the greatest artists ever, but I think (just like we all do) she gets in her own way and over perfects things, to the point where it affects the uniqueness of her work. Other than some parts of ASIB, her music hasn't had time to breathe since ARTPOP era. 

Joanne would've been so much better with, imo, more instrumental breakdowns for John Wayne, DIC, and Perfect Illusion. It may be Bloodpop's production as it's too "perfectly packaged" and takes the jamming out of it. 

Chromatica deserved more focus on the music imo. Alice, 911, and Babylon could benefit from more instrumental sections and expansion of the production. Like 30-45 sec instrumental only experimention.

For example, both BTW and ARTPOP let the tracks breathe and focused on the music (Bloody Mary, HML, Aura, MANiCURE, Gypsy are great examples)

Lastly, I think other than BTW, she's inconsistently delivered top notch lyrics, vocals, production, and concept simultaneously. Not coming for her, but this is a fan site and she's given us this world to explore so constructive criticism is worth discussing.

[thedirtymonster 704]

How has nobody mentioned JENNIFER HUDSON? Her voice is incredible but her albums are always subpar. She needs to work with some of Mariah's producers. Anyone who says Mariah's albums aren't up to the level of her talent is crazy. Her albums are SO good.

[JoeMo 3,860]

Jessie J for sure. That girl has got PIPES but her music is really boring. She also overuses her voice far too much 

[Bradley 59,023]

Katy Perry

Liam Payne

Demi Lovato

 

I would say Taylor's is the opposite. She's an incredibly talented songwriter and musician but I'm sorry her vocals are, while decent and perfectly okay for a pop star, not "outstanding/incredible". I love Taylor and I always look forward to her new releases, but she has never impressed me with her live vocals. It's fun to see her in spectacle, dance and choreography, sure, but girl has never really reached the heights of Beyonce, Lady Gaga, Ariana Grande, vocally.

[Better Day 5,766]

Ariana Grande - I expect more of a range of music from her but it is still the same beat with the same horrid diction from her. I want to stan her but her personality doesn't match her music. 

Miley Cyrus - her music gets tiresome really really easily

Cher - post 1997

[Sepsami 18,825]

14 hours ago, flyaway said:

TW: This opinion may offend some of you, but I feel Gaga has yet to release an album up to her talents as an artist, a songwriter and a vocalist. An artist like Gaga truly deserves a masterpiece album, and I know she could make it. BTW was a close effort.

Don't get me wrong, she already has many great songs and amazing ideas. But her albums often feel half baked, unfinished or too constricted to appeal to the masses. And when it comes to Chromatica, it was mostly conceived by her producers.

 

It's not the album itself that's halfbaked, it's the lack of singles, performances, etc.

[RepentingSinner 2,642]

15 hours ago, StrawberryBlond said:

Mariah Carey - Great voice but her actual songs were never really for me and she just does the same style with literally every album, she's just modernised the style she had since she debuted in 1990. Her only deviation from her formula was for Glitter but that was only because it was for a movie set in the 80's and was reflecting that time. She just seems very resistant to change.

 

...

What?

She... It shows you've never dove into her discography .

[A MESS 3,938]

 

[flyaway 15,350]

15 hours ago, Kantakyakirno said:

Sis, say Gaga needs to release Ray of Light or Like A Prayer 

She has yet to release her Witness 

[js4754394o9823 6,882]

13 hours ago, sexy said:

made sense (ARTPOP is my favorite album by her and I still can't wrap my head around what a "reverse Warholian experience" is supposed to be

idk what's so hard to understand here

instead of bringing pop to art

it's about bringing art to pop and pop being a form of art itself

[YCHofficial 5,293]

Normani

[hELXIG 42,954]

I think there's a really simple answer to your dilemma here:  it's just opinion. There are people who love all those artists albums start to finish, but not all the songs are your cup of tea. And I'm sure that there are some albums that you think are perfect masterpieces from start to finish, and other people would say they are half 'filler tracks'.

This is the same reason everyone here endlessly debates and argues over which of Gaga's albums and songs are best and which ones are and aren't 'filler'. And why I'm sure this thread will also be full of debates.

Art is subjective, we aren't all going to have the same opinions  

[Ziggy 11,757]

14 hours ago, holy scheisse said:

What covers has she done that outmatch the vocals showcased on Joanne through chromatica?  enigma, I'll never love again, shallow, always remember us this way, Joanne.. endless songs showcase her vocals

Curious what else besides vocals that "goes beyond the album" indicates she is capable of more than she's delivered in her music? 

This whole thread is just an opinion at the end of the day cuz I love ARTPOP, but you think it's half baked. One of us had unmet higher expectations and one of us accepts and enjoys the art at face value.  

 

Just can't see how anybody especially on this site could describe Gaga as "talented, but average." Even TF(M) when she was making the most "generic" pop music, it was innovative at the time. In fact i would argue TFM showed us Gaga's artistic peak that you're still waiting for...

C2C era nearly inarguably had her best vocals by a country mile. The Lush Life performance in Prague (I think?)? Vocals are more than just power and with C2C she showed how she can really dig into subtleties in a song. I think ASIB is close to that kind of technique (is that alright, comes to mind), Chromatica deliberately avoids it despite being super skilled in its own right.

Not saying ms thing has only subpar albums, but I think she could have more complexly structured songs that give her a bit more to chew on. I love all her work, but I think we’d be blind if we said that her somewhat fairly straightforward pop music (structurally) is pushing the limits on her abilities. We’ve known it forever from her own words that the music was meant to sit beside visuals and the larger experience. She’s been shifting that in the past few years with more musical emphasis, but in that same time I don’t necessarily think that the songs themselves that she’s written have caught up with her yet. Starting to, but her vocal ability is a runaway train atm and just keeps going