Should Born This Way & ARTPOP been split into multiple albums?

[LordByron28 1,135]

Preface: This is not me trying to micromanage Gaga. I know with the music industry and creation of music there are a lot of things that happen behind the scenes that we have no clue of. This is just for a fun discussion, not a criticism of Gaga or her team. 

Listening through Born This Way and ARTPOP there are what feels like two distinctive albums blended together. We know that with her record label there were often disputes and times where they altered release plans and had her focusing on recording more music as they didn't feel she had enough 'hits' on the album. In doing that, you can often feel the very jarring sounds. Personally speaking, I wouldve preferred more albums that were more focused on fully exploring a certain idea and sound even if all of the tracks weren't the next #1 hit. Here are my thoughts on how these release eras perhaps could've been better handled:

Born This Way single debut- New Years 2011 with the same performance. 

Promo single- Hair released in late February

2nd single- Edge of Glory released in mid- March

Born This Way album drop- March 28th. Album includes Marry The Night, Born This Way, Hair, You & I, Edge of Glory, The Queen, Bad Kids, Highway Unicorn, Black Jesus, Fashion of His Love and a few other tracks that fit the Whitney Houston x Springsteen 80's Pop-Rock fusion theme totaling 14 tracks.

3rd single- Marry The Night released in early June. 

4th single- You & I released in early August.

New companion album to Born This Way titled 'Electric Chapel' announced in early October along with Lead single.

Lead single- Bloody Mary released in early October. 

Promo single-  Judas released in December along with video that is a sequel to Bloody Mary.

2nd promo single- Electric Chapel released in January along with a video to complete the BM/Judas/EC Trilogy. 

'Electric Chapel' releases February 2013 - like TFM it is sold separately as well as packaged with BTW. Features 13 tracks including Bloody Mary, Judas, Electric Chapel, Heavy Metal Lover, Government Hooker, Americano, Scheisse, and 5 other tracks that fit the heavy industrial sound with rock and pop music influences as well as the political, religious, female empowerment, theme. Have her advertise it as the cultural baptism. She can explain that baptism typically happens within a year after birth.

2nd single- Scheisse in February.

3rd single- Heavy Metal Lover in May 2012 and is the final single off of the BTW/EC

-Born This Way/EC tour starts in April 2012- and goes to February 2013

Lead single- Applause releases in May 2013 with a performance debut at the AMA.

2nd single- Venus releases along with VMA performance in August 2013

ARTPOP releases in August 2013. It is purely focused on Electronic music meets avante garde pop music. It contains Aura, ARTPOP, Venus, G.U.Y., Donatella, Swine, Gypsy, Mary Jane Holland, Fashion!, Manicure, Dope, Brooklyn Nights, and 2 other tracks that fit the art/pop culture them.

3rd single- G.U.Y. releases in November 2013. 

January 2013- ARTRAVE: The Mixxxtapes announced as a companion album to ARTPOP. It is a 10 track urban focused album with light r&b, jazz, hip-hop, rap and electronic influences including tracks such as J&D, Sexxx Dreams, DWUW, PARTYNAUSEOUS, Ratchet, Tea, Red Flame, etc. 

Lead single- Sexxx Dreams in February 2014. 

Album release- March

2nd single- DWUW in May 2014 with a different feature than R. Kelly. 

Tour start- May- November 2014

3rd Single- PARTYNAUSEOUS in August 2014

November 2014- C2C era

November 2016- 'Million Reasons' lead single launched for Joanne. Joanne pushed to Superbowl 2017 release date. 

February 2017- Album dropped post- Superbowl performance.

2nd single- The Cure in February 2017

3rd single- John Wayne in May 2017

ASIB is pushed as her 21/Whitney/Celine powerhouse soundtrack queen era.

Shallow- September 2018

ARUTW- 2nd single January 2019

Look What I Found- April 2019

I'll Never Love Again- August 2019

Chromatica album release pushed to October 2020

Rain On Me- July 2020 lead off of Chromatica 

Stupid Love- Promo single off of August 2020

Replay- 2nd single September 2020

Chromatica- October 2020. 2 weeks after Replay release.

Sour Candy- January 2021. 3rd single off of Chromatica. 

Free Woman ft. Rina Sawayama- April 2021 lead single off of Dawn of Chromatica.

- BTW 10 releases-

Babylon ft. Bree- August 2021 2nd single off of Dawn of Chromatica

Dawn of Chromatica releases in August

Plastic Doll ft. Ashniko(US)/911 ft. Charli XCX(EU, AU & JP only)/ Fun Tonight ft. Pablo Vitar(Latin America only)- split 3rd single releases in October 2021. 

L4S/HoG era October 2021- February 2022

HMH- May 2022

Thoughts?

 

[Controversiaga 11,795]

I love the BTW idea!  And ARTPOP too sounds like two albums in one.  
 

surprised you kept going after artrave! Hahah

BTW deserved so much better. Singles choice wise… could’ve been something completely bigger and different, but they played it safe and picked some really boring singles imo.

[AnglerfishbraBENUS 5,734]

as a songwriter i see what you’re saying, but knowing that her writing for each happened over long periods of time makes them more in depth conceptually. i never wanted an album that was just born this way and hair type songs. Having Bloody Mary and Heavy Metal Lover on the same record conceptualizes those more ‘basic’ and ‘self righteous’ songs. I also think Edge of Glory belongs more on your ‘electric chapel’ record. so does Marry the night with the church bells.

ARTPOP is a little different because we actually know for a fact that it’s like 5 albums. the pop, trap, j-pop, edm, it’s all evident. But i like that ARTPOP is wild. i see the album as an art gallery and also a commentary on fame and it’s all tied together with mythology so i’d keep that one as is too. 

[itsmeluka 986]

[TimotheeChalamet 6,043]

No, Born This Way works perfectly as one album and the only change I'd make would be a switch between Black Jesus + Amen Fashion and Highway Unicorn 

I'd split up ARTPOP though 

[VOLANTIS 16,423]

23 minutes ago, TimotheeChalamet said:

No, Born This Way works perfectly as one album and the only change I'd make would be a switch between Black Jesus + Amen Fashion and Highway Unicorn 

I'd split up ARTPOP though 

This but instead of highway unicorn, replace bad kids with black jesus and move that track to special edition.