How big was Lady Gaga during 2009-2011?

[candiedroses 408]

The biggest. Undoubtedly.

[Lovelife 456]

she was MJ Level huge. if you're thinking Beyonce is huge atm, Gaga in those years were far above and beyond. I think it got something to do with the rise of electronics and social media such as twitter and youtube as well as Gaga's mysterious persona. We accessed youtube rarely and not everyone had computers not even smarphones to have access to twitter and youtube AND gaga was always on news on TV

[Starmie25 13,940]

More like 2008-2012*

 

 

[Reject False Icons 4,676]

Honestly I’m not gonna pretend I’m from the high society, English is not the first language in my country but Gaga was so big that not only the gays, girlies and the snobs who only listen to english music knew her

in my social landscape she was so big at the time that for people with little money and no internet, we had pirated cds for very cheap, and her songs were on all of the compilation cds, she was in so many covers of those cds, Alejandro with its touches of reggaetón and Spanish were just perfect to be playing at any place poor or rich, just as soon as she wore something new the morning shows were talking endlessly about her not getting anything of what she wanted to communicate, honestly nobody got it until years later not even us LMs

[julz 5,724]

Every thing that she does is an event. I remember how big of a song was Bad Romance, it blew the internet, was compared to Thriller, was studied by the intellects, was covered by thousands of fans. I still remember this video of church bells in the tune of BR, reported by news outlets:

She was really taking over, she was larger than  life. 

[Monstermilo 3,811]

she was a phenomenon, not just her music, but literally aspect of her artistry 

every was watching what she wore, her music videos were highly anticipated and everyone was asking how she would top herself. 

[Future Lovers 6,545]

I'd say probably the second biggest and widest reaching peak for a female artist in history, easily in the top 5 regardless of gender. She's the closest anyone has ever come to a Madonna/MJ style peak, and will probably remain as such for a long, long time. 

[Blackout19 10,580]

It was her best time. She was everywhere. 

[PunkTheFunk 123,735]

15 hours ago, reallydima said:

There definitely was a "playing with fire" feeling back then when you came out as a Gaga fan. You didn't quite know what she was going to do, but you knew you trusted her and that people could say what they wanted, but her music SMACKED and you knew the only people taking it too seriously were people who you didn't want to mess with anyway. There was a positivity, but with that dark subtext that was just undeniable and seductive. She also provided confidence to a bunch of people I think. More risky apparel became more common after her Fame, Fame Monster era. What an amazing time to be opening yourself to the world.

Absolutely. Gaga was an extremely polarizing figure during her peak. We forget now that in spite of all her success, a lot of the reaction to her public persona was negative (and it was a spectrum -- some people thought she was weird and a laughing stock, but ultimately harmless; others truly believed she was the second coming of Satan). When she wore the meat dress, the conversations in class the next day were always a little mean spirited. No one (at least not in my friends circle) was saying how awesome and groundbreaking she was. It is why you still get people in Youtube comments to this day saying "I was never a Gaga fan BUT...", because there was a bit of a stigma attached to liking Gaga unironically. Having followed her career all the way from the beginning, it is crazy to think that she is now known among Gen z as a Hollywood actress and part time jazz singer who also does pop music as a hobby.

[Sneaky Oliver 21,349]

Funny thing I remember we didn't really know her that much. The songs were smash hits everywhere. She was present in every magazine, tv show, tabloid, social media news yet we barely knew her name or who she was. I think the mystery around her also helped her to be that big because everyone was curious and intrigued.

There's no one today that comes close to how big she was back then. It was not like Billie Eilish. It was truly something else.

[holy scheisse 21,698]

1 hour ago, PunkTheFunk said:

there was a bit of a stigma attached to liking Gaga unironically.

Part of the stigma was rooted in queer phobia too bc she was associated so heavily with the alphabet community tbh. I think that provoked lots of haters and had ppl write her off. We may have come a long way in just a decade but it’s still very bold that Gaga was on stages winning awards and thanking god and the gays  

[bootlicker 47]

You have to understand that this is exactly the time that social media online was having a renaissance, and in every facet she dominated it. It surely hasn’t happened since, and with the way social media is changing today probably won’t happen for a long long time. The only people you could compare her success to is MJ and Madonna, but to be honest it’s hard to compare because of the differences in how media is consumed. You could say that she is right underneath them or at the same level, but as time passes she may surpass them in retrospect. You truly can’t know until time passes. At this time I feel like she was the Madonna of my generation, and was truly inescapable. Being almost 30 is disappointing because I had such an omnipotent figure in my youth that always took my breath away at every turn, and it set unrealistic expectations because truly nothing after her came to that peak. 

[bootlicker 47]

Okay mods sorry for double posting but it truly comes from my heart 😭 I moved to NYC because of her and became a Rivington rebel in my own terms. Everything I knew about her from that era became my life, and truly I can’t thank her enough for teaching me what it means to be a bad kid. I think of her legacy and think of my nights making out with strangers at Welcome To The Johnsons 😭 I’ve met so many people whose lifestyles have changed radically because of her during that timeframe that I feel her influence everywhere I go. 

[RochestrMonstr 2,475]

The numbers don’t lie. But I am glad other people have mentioned how overexposed she became during the BTW era. She was polarizing and people got sick of her. That definitely happened. 

I prefer the type of Celebrity she has become in recent years. More of a comfortable fixture, respected for her talent and seemingly adored by everyone (though not as shocking or groundbreaking)

Edit: I think ASIB era is a better example of having huge publicity and being all over the place while having it be more positive overall. Then the worst thing you had was maybe people joking about over using the “100 people in a room” bit. Meanwhile in 2009-11 she was the devil and had a penis.