Unpopular opinions: ARTPOP

[Shyboy 43]

All my opinions on ARTPOP seem to be unpopular lol because most of the fans seem to hate this album which totally baffles me. It's the most "Gaga" she's ever been.  

Honestly exasperated.

 

[Shyboy 43]

Pros. 

This album houses some of her best vocals ever. On BTW her vocals were occasionally softer and a little shy, but on ARTPOP they are big and bombastic and honestly breathtaking. On every song.

It’s her funnest album. It’s like a theme park of rollercoasters. And you can tell she was having so much fun making it. She’s never sounded so confident.

It's her sexiest album. She’s always sounded sexual in her songs but on this album she really goes to town with it. And weird sexy Gaga is my favourite Gaga.

Some of the best and most intricate production she’s ever had. Fantastic dance beats, grinding basslines, blazing synths and gorgeous vocal harmonies. And every chorus is stylised like a drop.

Humour. I love Chromatica but it almost completely lacks Gaga's wicked sense of humour. ARTPOP is full of it. It's purposefully silly/camp. Plus this album is bright and playful. Many of her albums are darker, either visually or thematically, but ARTPOP is colourful and refreshing.

Most euphoric album. 

The bridge of MJH is incredible. It’s pure Westend Musical meets Opera Rock.

The Venus music video would have been devastating and weird af. Such a loss.

(I actually prefer the album version verses of Aura. The screamy demo verses are overkill in my opinion and drown out that fantastic instrumental by Infected Mushrooms. The album version verses are cooler and sexier. Less is more sometimes).

Many of the songs still sound so fresh, even to this day - such as DWUW (minus RK), Applause, Sexxx Dreams, ARTPOP and G.U.Y.

One of her boldest and most interesting album covers. Made by f*cking Jeff Koons! Iconic. Sure it's ugly and weird but thats the whole idea. Subversion of expectations....art.

The most “Gaga” she’s ever been. Madness, weirdness, sexual, artistic and emotional. And the most savage she’s ever been. 

In my opinion DWUW (solo version) should have been the lead single, (It would have been big), followed by Venus and Sexxx Dreams, (with Aura and MANiCURE as promotional singles) (all with videos XD).

The ultimate lure of Gaga for me is not just the message of love and acceptance. It’s the weirdness. I vibe with that so much and she does it so well. And weird for weird’s sake is no crime. As is art for art’s sake. 

 

[Guest]

On 4/10/2022 at 5:16 AM, KORG said:

Hi. It's not. It's actually quite offensive to say its a slur. Please don't feed into that incorrect narrative.

Lmao ew ok hun

[Shyboy 43]

 

Cons. 

Intense and hard hitting. I personally love heavy dance and rave music, and hard rock and heavy metal so this album was perfect for me. But I know many people find it too heavy.

I honestly don’t care much for Dope. It was a missed opportunity to explore the concept of drug abuse in art and pop culture which has ruined and claimed the lives of so many artists throughout history. That would have been very poignant and relevant. Also while I don’t mind Gaga’s piano ballads, I personally think the song could have been stylised more to fit the electronic landscape of the album. 

Jewels n’ Drugs should have been replaced by Ratchet. While that song is also trap based, it’s far more elastic and bubblegum-esque and has a fantastic dance break at the end. It would have fit the album way better. Plus there are lodes of brilliant badass female rappers she could have worked with on it once she scrapped Azealia Banks. 

The Swinefest MANiCURE has a better song structure.

The Sexxx Dreams original bridge better fits the song than the album version. The album version feels rushed.

Overall she would have benefited from working with a more diverse range of music producers, (e.g. Fume comes to mind), and also tried to incorporate more live instruments and a greater range of sounds. The relentless electronic nature sometimes robs the music of it’s soul and humanity (if that makes sense). The album needed both more grit and scope. 

And she should have worked with more modern artists and made better preparations with them (such as Damien Hurst, Yayoi Kusama and Anish Kapoor) to widen the art themes. This album had the biggest budget out of all her albums so she might as well.

Plus she should have waited till 2014 before starting the era, to recover more from her hip and the mental strain of making the album etc. And spent more time on preparation for the album (e.g. fine-tuning, better creative choices, established the singles and shot the videos before hand etc.) 

 

[Ziggy 10,768]

On 4/9/2022 at 1:48 PM, bionic said:

G**** is like a spiritual sister to Highway Unicorn (Road to Love), especially with their iconique endings

To HU? Not TEOG? When it is clearly in the mold of TEOG? 

[Donatellah 1,886]

Though the vocals on Burqa are better than Aura's, they're way too... exaggerated or aggressive as someone said here, and overshadow or hide the instrumental. The OG 2012 vocals (which ended up in the final track) are sassy and sexy and fit the song perfectly, so honestly the album's version is overhated

[thisboyisamonster 765]

ARTPOP is better than Chromatica

ASIB soundtrack is better than ARTPOP

DWUW R Kelly Version still slaps (separate art from the artist...)

Gypsy is terrible

Aura is one her career best

[luckyanderson 379]

On 4/9/2022 at 2:15 PM, KORG said:

ARTPOP is Gaga's real magnum opus.

The production is better than any of her other albums, particularly the mixing and mastering. (Close 2nd is Chromatica, but some toolbag turned the bass right down or something, made them magnolia)

ARTPOP is her most cohesive written album if you actually study the references and are intellectual enough to make the connections.

ARTPOP is her only dance album.

If you dont like ARTPOP then you obviously have a genetic problem that makes you WRONG.

Sonically and maturity-wise the album was a nice step up from the POV of a kid that she channelled on BTW.

Aura  is great to get railed to. 

I was scrolling through to see if anybody responded but your "unpopular opinion" had me so mad I had to respond REGARDLESS.

While I do not disagree the writing is in fact cohesive it is cohesive in a random obnoxiously art-referencing fashion that REAKS of lyrical depravation particularly on songs like Applause.

I COMPLETELY DISAGREE with the notion ARTPOP is more mature perspective-wise than Born This Way. Aside from maybe Hair, Highway Unicorn and Bad Kids, BTW is one of her MORE (if not at one point MOST only being dethroned by Joanne) matured lyrical albums to date. The subjects sung about might be more mature (rape, addiction) but Swine is by no means a "mature" song as it is pure anguish expression and the lyricism is quite minimal leaning moreso into the heavier production elements. Same goes for songs like Venus which if sung by anybody else would be EXTREMELY cringe-inducing and Donatella (but that's obvious). I will say Dope is the standout when it comes to maturity and while ARTPOP the title track itself along with G.U.Y and Do What U Want are written from matured perspectives the means in which they are written are not. I think hearing your opinion on the perceived maturity of Applause would be interesting because for me I view the pursuit of fame to be immature in nature even if it can manifest in people of all ages. While I feel Gaga is not necessarily pining for fame from an egotistical sense (kind of contradictory to say considering the lyrics), she is asserting a kind of immature dependency on needing fame as an artist, if that makes sense?

I really did appreciate your response and the visceral reaction it brought out of leading me to respond but if this is not the norm for "unpopular opinion" threads or I offended you I apologize, I am simply posing conflicting theories and interpretations and seeking your response to encourage discourse.  Enjoy ARTPOP for what you see it to be as that is its intention and how I have nonetheless.

[Ziggy 10,768]

16 hours ago, thisboyisamonster said:

ARTPOP is better than Chromatica

ASIB soundtrack is better than ARTPOP

DWUW R Kelly Version still slaps (separate art from the artist...)

Gypsy is terrible

Aura is one her career best

The Gypsy demo is the better song. She made it too pop generic in its lyricism for the album version so it doesn’t really do what it’s trying to do. I get why she changed them, you want that relatable pop verse, but it makes the song suffer imo

[KORG 4,756]

10 hours ago, luckyanderson said:

I was scrolling through to see if anybody responded but your "unpopular opinion" had me so mad I had to respond REGARDLESS.

While I do not disagree the writing is in fact cohesive it is cohesive in a random obnoxiously art-referencing fashion that REAKS of lyrical depravation particularly on songs like Applause.

I COMPLETELY DISAGREE with the notion ARTPOP is more mature perspective-wise than Born This Way. Aside from maybe Hair, Highway Unicorn and Bad Kids, BTW is one of her MORE (if not at one point MOST only being dethroned by Joanne) matured lyrical albums to date. The subjects sung about might be more mature (rape, addiction) but Swine is by no means a "mature" song as it is pure anguish expression and the lyricism is quite minimal leaning moreso into the heavier production elements. Same goes for songs like Venus which if sung by anybody else would be EXTREMELY cringe-inducing and Donatella (but that's obvious). I will say Dope is the standout when it comes to maturity and while ARTPOP the title track itself along with G.U.Y and Do What U Want are written from matured perspectives the means in which they are written are not. I think hearing your opinion on the perceived maturity of Applause would be interesting because for me I view the pursuit of fame to be immature in nature even if it can manifest in people of all ages. While I feel Gaga is not necessarily pining for fame from an egotistical sense (kind of contradictory to say considering the lyrics), she is asserting a kind of immature dependency on needing fame as an artist, if that makes sense?

I really did appreciate your response and the visceral reaction it brought out of leading me to respond but if this is not the norm for "unpopular opinion" threads or I offended you I apologize, I am simply posing conflicting theories and interpretations and seeking your response to encourage discourse.  Enjoy ARTPOP for what you see it to be as that is its intention and how I have nonetheless.

That's nice.

"Maturity" is about the person's perspective from which they write. DWUW, for example, accepts that people will talk nonsense rather than "stop talking shìt".

Your version of maturity is very much, from what I can gather, the same as saying a person is mature because they do older people things. A ballad doesn't make it mature. Check brown eyes for proof.

As for my opinion on applause? One of the worst things she's ever recorded.

Venus was abstract, but the reason it wouldn't be cringe if someone else recorded it is because nobody else would. It's like saying superbass would be total cringe if Taylor Swift recorded it. Erm... duh, obviously.

Maturity for me is writing from an adult perspective with a less immature attitude. Even donatella, which is satire, shows Maturity due to its satirical nature... even with the bratty voice she does on the chorus.

Anyway, I stand by it 

[TimotheeChalamet 4,879]

On 4/11/2022 at 8:50 PM, Battle 4 Ur Life said:

Venus alone is better and more mature than most of TF and TFM.

...

[Battle 4 Ur Life 6,354]

1 hour ago, TimotheeChalamet said:

...

no one asked you tho. it’s my opinion. more experimental, more interesting. I have my taste. don’t reply to me.

[TimotheeChalamet 4,879]

4 hours ago, Battle 4 Ur Life said:

no one asked you tho. it’s my opinion. more experimental, more interesting. I have my taste. don’t reply to me.

Chill

[Bloody hooker 6,445]

Gypsy is overrated

Aura should’ve been the lead

The album didn’t and still doesn’t sound dated