Gaga's songwriting since ARTPOP

[SharGaga 2,906]

3 hours ago, lolitamuse said:

Personally, I think she peaked creatively with TFM. Born This Way was too self-indulgent to be her best work. It had some gems for sure, but in terms of cohesive sound, production, and lyricism, TFM was it. BTW needed to cut a few songs to reach that level of cohesion, and definitely needed a cleaner polish. Let's not delude ourselves into thinking the Bad Kids production is good. On the other hand, Bloody Mary and Electric Chapel are gorgeous.

I agree TFM is more cohesive and polished as a body of work. But for me BTW is much more daring and explores themes like acceptance and self love which helped me at the time. It did eventually start to lose its appeal for me through the years. I even agree to some extent that the album is sometimes overproduced and her vocals get drowned out. It's clear some of the vocals were recorded on a train bus and not a proper studio. The sound quality of her vocals is just not the same. After listening to the album after a few years in dolby atmos however I still love how chaotic and different it sounds to anything she's done. Some of the songs on TFM are just too 'mellow' for me. I prefer the hard hitting, rock/guitar infused production of BTW even if it's 'messy' and not as polished.

[rinasawachanta 2,674]

10 hours ago, Helxig said:

I care about Gaga and I no part of me wants her to be a 'tortured artist' type like she was before. I want her to be happy. And if that means she gets given a song like Come to Mama or Sour Candy or Enigma then so be it! If it means her metaphors aren't as deep, I don't care. If it means her music won't be as dark, then I'm fine with that

Enigma was given to Gaga? I didn't know that!

[HarleyQuinGa2022 105]

All these analyses of the situation are wrong. Gaga didn’t “depend” on substances to write, nor has she handed over complete control to producers or other song writers. AND ARTPOP changed complete directions after her hip injury. She was writing music and recording songs for ARTPOP during the Born This Way Ball. She even mentioned ARTPOP in an interview in Canada while promoting Born This Way. But after the hip injury, the studio, and namely Troy Carter rushed her to finish up ARTPOP, and during that time, ideas changed, tone and mood changed due to her realizing everyone around her was treating her as an ATM, again she said this a few times. During that shift and being rushed to release an album, she used multiple melodies Zedd, Infected Mushroom, Madeon and others already had produced, such as the melodies and instrumentals for Aura, Donatella, Mary Jane Holland, etc. and don’t forget, Aura was once Burqa but was changed, Dope was once I Wanna Be With, Gypsy was more personal and about meeting Taylor Kinney, MANiCURE was reworked. And don’t forget Gaga said she played multiple songs she recorded for ARTPOP to Jimmy Iovine and he recommended Applause, even though she had different ideas. And also don’t forget, with the iTunes Fest, she initially refused to do it unless she could perform new songs. 
To say some of the things that are being said here are to me, disrespectful and a slap in the face to how much Gaga prides herself as being a SONGWRITER. 

PS: “Prüfen Sie, ob er in der tiefsten Stelle Ihres. Herzens seine Wurzeln ausstreckt, gestehen. Sie sich ein, ob Sie sterben müßten, wenn es Ihnen versagt würde zu schreiben. Muss ich schreiben?” 

[SharGaga 2,906]

2 hours ago, HarleyQuinGa2022 said:

All these analyses of the situation are wrong. Gaga didn’t “depend” on substances to write, nor has she handed over complete control to producers or other song writers. AND ARTPOP changed complete directions after her hip injury. She was writing music and recording songs for ARTPOP during the Born This Way Ball. She even mentioned ARTPOP in an interview in Canada while promoting Born This Way. But after the hip injury, the studio, and namely Troy Carter rushed her to finish up ARTPOP, and during that time, ideas changed, tone and mood changed due to her realizing everyone around her was treating her as an ATM, again she said this a few times. During that shift and being rushed to release an album, she used multiple melodies Zedd, Infected Mushroom, Madeon and others already had produced, such as the melodies and instrumentals for Aura, Donatella, Mary Jane Holland, etc. and don’t forget, Aura was once Burqa but was changed, Dope was once I Wanna Be With, Gypsy was more personal and about meeting Taylor Kinney, MANiCURE was reworked. And don’t forget Gaga said she played multiple songs she recorded for ARTPOP to Jimmy Iovine and he recommended Applause, even though she had different ideas. And also don’t forget, with the iTunes Fest, she initially refused to do it unless she could perform new songs. 
To say some of the things that are being said here are to me, disrespectful and a slap in the face to how much Gaga prides herself as being a SONGWRITER. 

PS: “Prüfen Sie, ob er in der tiefsten Stelle Ihres. Herzens seine Wurzeln ausstreckt, gestehen. Sie sich ein, ob Sie sterben müßten, wenn es Ihnen versagt würde zu schreiben. Muss ich schreiben?” 

You're entitled to your opinion but a lot of what I've said are her own words and my own opinion. I never said she depended on substances for songwriting but she has admitted to using them while creating. I think it's weird that people get offended for having different opinions. It's called having a conversation. Not undermining others their opinion and presenting your own as fact.

[Replay32886 50]

14 hours ago, Helxig said:

Edit: I'm so sorry about the huge rant... this has been boiling in my mind for a while now and you just gave me a place to put it  

I sometimes have this internal struggle when I'm critiquing Gaga's songwriting and lyrics, because I know that the work I consider to be her best was all written when she was heavily under the influence of drugs and alcohol.

I feel like TFM and BTW were so creatively written, oozing metaphors and each song draws from multiple references to create one unifying, central theme. But I know that she was drunk the whole time she was writing.

I believe that ARTPOP is so creatively crafted in many other ways, but I know that she was high the whole time she was writing it... And we all know that during that same writing period she was on the BTW ball tour, staying out of her mind on drugs so she could ignore her pain and abuse her body, until she broke.

Which leads me to the Dope performance at the Artrave/Vevo debut party, where she puts her hand up and vows: "I do not have to be high to be creative, I do not have to be drunk to have a good idea, I can sit with my thoughts and not feel crazy"

Now, her newer albums since then, Joanne and Chromatica, I LOVE these albums... but I feel like they just don't have the same edge, the same grit, the same passionate songwriting and metaphors and depth that her earlier stuff had. The lyrics feel very 'matter of fact' to me. I know it's unfair, but compare "we are not just art for Michaelangelo to carve, he could not rewrite the agro of my furied heart" to "I feel like I'm in a prison hell, stick my hands through the steel bars and yell". Please don't come for me! I really do love Chromatica so much and I've defending her since day 1! 

This being said, it's not the same... BUT, I refuse to judge her. Because would I want her to start drinking again to come up with those big ideas? No. Would I like for her to start smoking an endless stream of joints so she can write those metaphors? No!! Would I want her to go through dark times in her life and self-sabotage so she has the inspiration to thrash around in the studio and create passionate music, out of a desperation for release? Absolutely not!!

I care about Gaga and I no part of me wants her to be a 'tortured artist' type like she was before. I want her to be happy. And if that means she gets given a song like Come to Mama or Sour Candy or Enigma then so be it! If it means her metaphors aren't as deep, I don't care. If it means her music won't be as dark, then I'm fine with that

Gaga said in an interview that Chromatica promo was very matter of fact “YOU MATTER” “YOURE MY FAVORITE” etc. Because there were so many different messages flying around that she wanted to get to the core of the subject matter.

I think that’s what Chromatica intended to be. She didn’t want to use metaphors or be ambiguous, she wanted to face her demons. Radical Acceptance. So even though it might not be “in-depth” I don’t think she ever wanted Chromatica to be lyrically analyzed. She just wanted the feeling to be felt without the multiple layers and ambiguities.

[TimotheeChalamet 4,870]

I really believe that it's a subjective matter depending on the listener, but I think Gaga's writing evolved so much after ARTPOP. Her lyrics became simpler and more honest, and no, Joanne is not weak: every song has a deeply personal message, and even the writing in Chromatica resonates as personal and unique even if the lyrics don't focus on making love with an alien and pretending to be a Greek goddess with abstract undertones. As I said, it's subjective: I like Joanne and Chromatica more than ARTPOP and find the lyrics to be much more honest and better. People with a different opinion would always disagree and that's okay but let's not turn this thread into another "Joanne is her worst album" type of thread when every single Gaga album has ups and downs in terms of lyrics 

Also, no, she wanted to make Chromatica otherwise she wouldn't have finished it. The lack of promo has nothing to do with her being less committed to her art

[Space Cowboy 11,670]

11 hours ago, Ziggy said:

It’s the strongest pop song on BTW and among her strongest, period.

Couldn’t agree more. TEOG is the perfect pop song.