What was ARTPOP era like for you guys?

[Wet Fire 7,001]

From the teasing, the "reverse Warholian expedition", the title and the photoshoot, I was expecting the album to be very experimental and futuristic; it looked like the album would have music previously unheard of. But then the release happened and even though the album has super solid dance music, it didn't live up to what was being hinted at for months.

When Applause was released there were numerous members debating whether it's generic or unique. DWUW was an instant classic for most fans sonically but the backlash made it suffer. Venus was an instant fan-favourite BUT the MV was cancelled. Many fans were feeling that they were not being given what was promised. Then the app never started functioning fully. The Act II got shelved. The biggest debate was whether the album versions were better than the Swinefest versions. The Aura verses change was devastating. The title track's backing vocals and "hee-hee"s got toned down. Sexxx Dreams chorus soubded different due to extra lyrics. And IWBWU turned into a whole different song. So there's all of that.

Gaga also talked about many technical inventions made by the Haus but we didn't see as much as we expected. 

When G.U.Y. video was released, a long time gad passed since the release of the album and the MV was lauded by fans and critics. 

The performances were very impressive all through the era.

The constant comparisons with Katy, Miley and Beyonce were very irritating.

Retrospectively it's a great dance album. But the ambitious marketing made the era suffer a lot.

Still it was a very enjoyable era. So many amazing photoshoots, many great performances.

It was my first full era as a little monster. I became a stan during the BTW era, in the middle of it. So ARTPOP was the first era I would have witnessed from the start after turning into a hard core little monster.

[holy scheisse 22,114]

i was struggling with weed at the same time as gaga so i felt trauma bonded to her lmao

i also was really sad seeing my hero who i idolized so much "flop"

it was the era where i stopped being a psychotic delusional stan and conflating my self worth with gaga's success lol

weird time

[LaLuna 12,732]

Depressing. People loved the album at first but then when the bad reviews and disappointing sales happened, everyone started hating it and calling the era messy, which I guess it was in a way. But it certainly didn't deserve all the hate it got. It's a good album, it's just that Gaga was not able to take it to the next level and her vision didn't come to fruition.

[Oriane 20,517]

Funnily ARTPOP was one of the best eras for me personally.

I had been a fan since 2010 but I had never actually followed her very closely. My path as a fan was weird. I would listen to some of her songs randomly, would listen to her older unreleased songs, knew some of her performances, her music videos, but there was a lot that I didn't know. It took me 2 years to even discover her full albums. I was missing a lot because I wasn't following when she was doing something new, I wasn't very present on social media, I wasn't on Little Monsters of GGD, so I had no source of news to know all the little things that fans know.

I don't why, but around 2013 is when I started being on the next level, I really wanted to know everything about her. And during the ARTPOP era I was googling her everyday to see what was new. It was very toxic because I was seeing all the shitty articles trashing her, but it was amazing to really be part of the experience for once. Later I found a fan website that shared everything news about her, so I switched to that which was healthier. And years later I discovered GGD which completely serves this purpose and even more, here I can also discover the more underground things, like leaks, rumors, personal things.

[ChrissyBot 2,252]

it was depressing. I was only 10 but I knew something was off with her. She seemed so depressed and empty even before the management thing. Idk why but that’s just the vibe I felt

 

Applause didn’t feel right as a lead single. It felt forced idk how to explain it

I was underwhelmed by Aura final version (demo is better and should’ve been the lead single)

 

the way ARTPOP was released felt forced by the label. Seems like they watered down the songs instead of letting her entirely doing what she wants (pun intended)

 

[TheFame Monster 8,884]

I should also mention that once the album was released everyone on here started praising Born This Way. Before ARTPOP was released, Born This Way was ridiculed by so many on this website. 

[Papergangstuh 2,636]

we were in the trenches, it was war, it was ugly and we lost a lot of lives

[Benji 20,113]

9 minutes ago, Papergangstuh said:

we were in the trenches, it was war, it was ugly and we lost a lot of lives

It’s true, people died

[Defmix100 6,208]

5 hours ago, Prigari said:

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

The aggressive vocal demo sounds so much better but it turned out that the studio vocals we ended up with were from an even earlier demo. So I'm assuming she re-recorded it with the better more aggressive vocals but then maybe the label asked for it to be reverted back to the earlier demo ones for the album version

[Benji 20,113]

1 minute ago, Defmix100 said:

The aggressive vocal demo sounds so much better but it turned out that the studio vocals we ended up with were from an even earlier demo. So I'm assuming she re-recorded it with the better more aggressive vocals but then maybe the label asked for it to be reverted back to the earlier demo ones for the album version

I’m not sure which vocal came first but the fact Gaga herself leaked the more aggressive version tells us which one she prefers 

[TheOriginalOne 10,291]

We were a very pressed mess here because of everything going on. But we survived the stan wars. 

[LaFama 4,553]

In one word: messy lol. It was excitement, turned to disappointment, turned into worrying. 

First, she was teasing a lot during the BTWB (and the concept was very different with the whole princess high artwork she had at the time), but then the hip injury happened and that put everything on hold and I guess that's when things started to go the wrong way .

 

Then fast foward in time a few months and the official  announcemnt happened. That iconic pic, that description. The excitement was at an all- time high. 

 

But then Applause leaked and everything had to be rushed, and things started to fall apart. The whole era was doomed from the very start. 

But even with that I was living for the music. SwineFest caught me off guard bc I was expecting to her to perform her hits and some new material, but instead she went her way and did pretty much of all of ARTPOP. That Swine performance still lives rent-free in my mind. You had to be there. The Applause VMAs perfomance was a major serve (even if we later found out MTV didn't allow her to do her original concept or the red carpet as she intended). 

But around the same time, the whole thing with P*rez happened and she seemed to be having a breakdown on social media, which I guess was a result of all the sh*t she had to go through while making the album and we didn't know at the time.

Plans started to fall apart. Venus being confirmed as the second single with a mv ready to go into production but then the label being like "nah we ain't doing that, you're releasing DWUW". And after they forced that change, we had the mv being teased for weeks by the Vevo official account and the it was suppoused to come with a deal with BiTorrent or something like that and ofc it never happened. 

It seemed like everything she had in mind for the era was no longer happening and everyone was leaving her side. Then in 2014 the SXSW performance happened and that's when a lot people started to worry, by the performance you could tell she was not in her finest hour. She was clearly hurt but she fought to regain some control over her work. Honestly, it was like the whole world was against her, looking back it's really inspiring to see how she made it through and where she is now, I think her friendship with Tony really saved her and started her healing process. 

As a fan I never thought of unstanning, some things I wasn't a big fan at the time, but I loved her a lot as an artist (and still do) to just turn my back on her, in a way she sahped me with TFM and BTW. I can tell you, if you ever get annoyed with her releases or plans not happening as they should, remember that if you made it through ARTPOP, you can make it through anything lmao. 

[vitoburrrito 640]

I was a senior in high school and was in a phase where I didn't like pop music and only listened to older music or alternative music. The campiness and the messiness of the music and the era in general was underwhelming for me and it didn't resonate with me as much as her first few albums, but I think that had less to do with Gaga and more with my taste at the time. Most of ARTPOP's songs have since grown on me, but I still think the era was messy and it temporarily made me think of Gaga as just another pop star instead of the trailblazing artist I was obsessed with in the beginning. My obsession has returned in full force lol. 

[Alvaro Moreno Ullrich 1,554]

Applause was just ok. Then the swinefest and all the songs were so cool. The venus dropped and it was heaven. But then... they chose DWUW as a single and then all went horrible  the final album was so basic and they got rid off all the little details... so meh. Worst year

[NashvilleGAGA 466]

Incredible. I was in college. I drove to a music store the day it came out with one of my best friends and bought the physical CD. We blasted it the whole way back to campus. I’m watched the ARTRAVE (?) performance on the night of the album release and remember loving the iTunes festival. The album really clicked for me when I had a long solo drive on Thanksgiving to see family. I CRANKED IT and jammed the whole drive. I was not a safe driver. I couldn’t stop listening to Venus when it came out.. over and over and over. 

A fun end to the era for me was a few days after college graduation she was playing in Atlanta at the beginning of the tour. I was in Nashville. It was 11am. I got on Ticketmaster and saw there were some nosebleeds. I called a roommate from college who was back home in Kentucky and said “hey, if you leave your house right now and drive to Nashville we can leave immediately for Atlanta and go see Gaga tonight.” He didn’t hesitate , jumped in the car, and somehow we made it work. When we got to the venue we got upgraded from the 400 seats to the 100 seats right by the stage. The show was amazing. He had no idea how she performed somehow. I remember him saying “wow she’s dancing and everything!” Ha! We had the whole row to ourselves it was great. 
 

Ridiculously, we drove back to Nashville that night and both almost fell asleep at the wheel. 
 

I loved the era. Still love the album. Hope she’ll give us something special next year.