What was ARTPOP era like for you guys?

[SevenAteNine 1,038]

I always hear about how messy it was, when I look at threads from that time, when people speculated about what ARTPOP would be, I cant help but feel sad.. I wasnt a fan during that time so I dont have first hand experience from then..

What was it like for those of you that were tho? Did you ever consider unstanning? what made you decide not to? What was your first reaction to the music on ARTPOP?

[Blackout19 9,238]

I loved Applause and Do What U Want, but when I heard the other songs, I was NO 

For me (and for those who likes the album, is just my opinion) it's her worst album. Like, I don't know why she wanted that direction with this album, but the songs didn't do to much for me, and today I never come back to try to listen again ARTPOP. 

 

[Prigari 458]

It was intense 😅

It felt like the teasing from late 2012/early 2013 never went cuz even when the album dropped, it felt like we don’t had access to the full experience (the app was empty) 

the Venus/DWUW pissed me off cuz I was a big Venus fan 

the Aura machete version was hard too. I remember looking my boyfriend at the time so pissed that the catchy vocal from the demo was re-recorded 

And then she go silent and post a big text on littlemonster.com talking about her past few weeks, addressing the do what u want music video mess too and everything went understandable.

this album will always be in my heart, I have so much memory attached to it and it’s the favourite of a lot of friends of mine who’s not stanning gaga. In a odd way, this album let her be more human and less goddess-superstar and it’s the real turn-over of her career

[Dojo 19,365]

i wasn't much of a fan back then, i was very into miley, selena but i LIVE for the interviews about that era

i love watching everything about it, it was so messy, surreal and she really was going trough something, specially with the marina abramovic shenanigans

i feel like the whole era was an art exhibition on its own 

[PatrickMonster 5,016]

I really loved Applause, the album and all the performances, but I was really bothered with all the Roar vs Applause mess. People were so focused on charts back then it was crazy. Eventually Roar charted much better as it was literally made for radio and children and some people started to call Applause a flop and a bad song even tho it still did really well all things considered. The DWUW mess was brutal to witness but honestly she performed and promoted the album so much it wasn’t THAT awful. Then that wait till G.U.Y. felt like forever. Literal silence for months and we didn’t even know whats really going on with her and even if the era was gonna continue or not. Then the tour was AMAZING for me, but there were lot of talks about it not doing very well in certain places and that was annoying as well…

[SevenAteNine 1,038]

13 minutes ago, Prigari said:

In a odd way, this album let her be more human and less goddess-superstar and it’s the real turn-over of her career

Good point

[SevenAteNine 1,038]

7 minutes ago, PatrickMonster said:

 Then the tour was AMAZING for me, but there were lot of talks about it not doing very well in certain places and that was annoying as well…

the tour was definitely different from her other tours, but thats because it was suppose to.. it just didnt land well with certain places i guess

[Charmz 3,455]

It was a LOT of fan tease/edging for a LONG time. I remember the day she posted the photo of the ARTPOP lyrics on instagram.

I think, for the time, it was honestly too mature for her core audience and too cerebral for the general public. As someone mentioned earlier, Katy was doing Kids Bop songs as a reference to what was happening in the pop music landscape at the time.

ARTPOP is a very grown up piece of work. It sounds cliche, but I don’t know if it was “trendy” at the time to make smart, grown up EDM music. 

I personally think Chromatica will be remembered as being more “cursed” because of the delays/promo changes because of Covid.

[Poltergeist 2,818]

For me, it was the best experience of being a fan. I felt constantly fed, I loved the music since the first listen, Swinefest is still my favorite gig. Gaga looked so beautiful the whole era, you could feel that she's being her purest, craziest self. The only thing that makes me sad is that I'm sure I won't ever feel the same. What a time to be alive!

[NATAH 31,292]

messy, a lot of "yes, this is coming soon" followed by silence

i wasn't deep into the fanbase so i wasn't aware of all the drama she was going through

my gay ass was still waiting for sexxx dreams to be the 2nd single lmao

i also remember seeing the artrave tour poster and thinking it was a pile of wank... like why was it just a bunch of BTWB pics?? so weird

[sexy 3,099]

I've been a fan since I was like 9 years old and saw her perform Just Dance on So You Think You Can Dance, and absolutely ate up everything on The Fame. I vividly remember finding the Bad Romance demo on YouTube, thinking it was the greatest thing I'd ever heard, and calling my cousin because I was so excited. This was when there were rumors Starstruck would be the next single from TF, and then TFM came out. Even though I very much remember the first three eras, I wasn't super involved with the fanbase and I experienced most of it by myself.

AP was my first era on this forum, and I joined largely because I wanted to follow ARTPOP developments. It was my first time engaging with and experiencing an album release with other Gaga fans, and good lord, it felt like the album would never come. If I remember right, she first announced the name of the album like over a year before it came out, and my life changed a lot in between then (I started high school and was struggling to find my place). I obsessed over it, I remember waking up early the day of the Applause MV release and being absolutely floored. I remember the Roar vs. Applause debate, and when I first heard both songs, I thought, "Oh thank God, Gaga's song is 10000x better." And I just couldn't wrap my head around why Roar was so much bigger. In a way, it sort of made me attach to the album more, in how misunderstood and polarizing it was.

It remains my favorite album from her to this day, it's my comfort album, I think it has some of the catchiest, best material she's ever released. i can see why some people are turned off by it, but focusing solely on those 15 songs, I think it's her best album front to back.

[Pennywise 34,698]

We were fighting for our lives basically 

[EdgeofTeeth 1,934]

It was pain, she mercilessly teased the album, it's concept, everything she wanted to do with it, and individual songs for a literal year before we got a concrete release date. I remember when she finally posted the graphic with the official album announcement and it felt like I was hallucinating

[DrKindnessKunt1999 5,212]

It’s a mixed bag of emotions. Loved the music/visuals, but it was sad to see how the media/GP were treating her. I felt sad about the canceled ideas that she had SO MUCH passion talking about that were watered down or never released. 

It was one of the most creative eras for the Little Monsters, too. I remember seeing so many fanmade ARTPOP album covers that looked professionally made. Same thing with the fanmade ARTPOP music. There was so many fake snippets, too. At one point a very grainy, low quality snippet or Sex Dreams leaked and I assumed that it was fake and fanmade until she performed it at the iTunes festival. I can’t find it anymore though. 

The iTunes festival was soooo magical, too! I’m sad that the era wasn’t able to go as planned.

[Benji 20,113]

It started really promising, I loved Applause and the iTunes Festival was great.  The new music sounded so promising even in a live setting.

Do What U Want came and it was a certified banger, then Venus came and it was also great.

Then the wheels visibly started to fall off quite rapidly.  The album leaked in low quality, it sounded kind of bland but I put that down to the quality of the leak… then it was released and it still sounded bland 

There were a lot of issues before the album was released that became obvious in retrospect, Gaga didn’t appear happy at all and in general it was just painful to watch happen.  There was so much hype leading upto the album but it fizzled out around release.

The entire era felt a little cursed when the unmastered final version of Applause leaked early and all of the promo had to be dragged forward a week.  It’s like it started on a bad foot and it continued to get worse with a few highlights like the iTunes festival somewhat redeeming it.