Gaga losing her grip with fans?

[Ladle Ghoulash 16,511]

Just now, Tinnitus15 said:

We do hun 

Speak for yourself, hun 

[SharkmanthaC 111,642]

2 hours ago, Reginald said:

I see exactly what you're saying, I have discussed this talking point recently on another site. It's like she's trying to court a much older demographic lately; 60s/ 70s. Even with her brand deals: luxury watches, pain pills, fine wines, trips to Vegas, jazz music.

 

Gaga, QUEEN GAGA, you are still in your 30s, you can still be the cutting edge-tastemaker we fell in love with. It's okay to be youthful and fun! 

 

 

I think this has nothing to do with her age and more to do with taking care of her body and health.

[Ziggy Stardust 75]

2 minutes ago, SharkmanthaC said:

I think this has nothing to do with her age and more to do with taking care of her body and health.

Yes, but sometimes you need to reach a certain age to realize that there is more to life than trying to please everybody and being liked by everyone. At least according to my experience… 

[ImMatt 1,621]

20 minutes ago, Cruelty said:

So.

Gaga's 2008-13 level of interaction with fans was SCARY. I mean, it was a religion, absolutely and deliberately so. She built a castle where we worshipped her, and a message board where she kept in contact like she was our best friend. Every single day she brought us a new look, a new tease, a new performance. She encouraged and nurtured parasocial relationships to the point where she realised she needed to backtrack and wean us off her. I'm glad, in the age of stan culture (which, let's be honest, Gaga was instrumental in creating), that she no longer engages with us, for everybody's sanity.

She and Bobby have worked SO hard to make 'Lady Gaga' into a name, a brand again. And the Lady Gaga of 2023 is a much more sustainable brand than the Lady Gaga of 2013, because she doesn't have to run around the world, plane bus club 'nother club 'nother club no sleep anymore, serving a new look in a new country every day. She can just turn up to a ceremony, hold Liza Minnelli's hand and generate the 'legend' headlines she's after, without ruining her physical or mental health.

I think @Cereza is right that the music fanbase isn't crossing over into the other projects (cosmetics, brand deals, maybe even acting and/or jazz to a degree), and I don't think we're necessarily meant to. Gaga's ambition has shifted over the years – she spent the first 5 years of her career trying to dominate the world of pop music, and having done that, her focus has turned to mass appeal elsewhere. She's openly, voraciously chasing 'legend' status, and to be frank she can't do that if she's appeasing every whim of the ~40,000 people on this site. It's perhaps disappointing, and there are wider conversations to be had about greed and ambition and community, but the fact is she doesn't need us anymore (to sell albums, tickets, makeup), and that requires that we no longer need her either.

Fact is, Gaga could retire comfortably whenever she likes. She can rely on the brand, whose foundations I think will be difficult to shake now. And she's still building that brand, literally on the cusp of releasing a collab with two MASSIVE legacy artists (and elevating herself into that pantheon of greats by association). If she wants to do two Vegas legs a year for another decade, I'm all for it, if that keeps making her happy.

TLDR: Gaga and Bobby have been insanely clever in pivoting towards something more sustainable than simply 'Lady Gaga the wacky meat-dress popstar', and distancing herself from a core fanbase is a key part of that.

Thanks @Judas Society for opening up the discussion, it's an interesting but tricky topic to talk about, and your post was sensitive and mature 

Damn, you worded this perfectly 

[ImMatt 1,621]

20 minutes ago, Cruelty said:

So.

Gaga's 2008-13 level of interaction with fans was SCARY. I mean, it was a religion, absolutely and deliberately so. She built a castle where we worshipped her, and a message board where she kept in contact like she was our best friend. Every single day she brought us a new look, a new tease, a new performance. She encouraged and nurtured parasocial relationships to the point where she realised she needed to backtrack and wean us off her. I'm glad, in the age of stan culture (which, let's be honest, Gaga was instrumental in creating), that she no longer engages with us, for everybody's sanity.

She and Bobby have worked SO hard to make 'Lady Gaga' into a name, a brand again. And the Lady Gaga of 2023 is a much more sustainable brand than the Lady Gaga of 2013, because she doesn't have to run around the world, plane bus club 'nother club 'nother club no sleep anymore, serving a new look in a new country every day. She can just turn up to a ceremony, hold Liza Minnelli's hand and generate the 'legend' headlines she's after, without ruining her physical or mental health.

I think @Cereza is right that the music fanbase isn't crossing over into the other projects (cosmetics, brand deals, maybe even acting and/or jazz to a degree), and I don't think we're necessarily meant to. Gaga's ambition has shifted over the years – she spent the first 5 years of her career trying to dominate the world of pop music, and having done that, her focus has turned to mass appeal elsewhere. She's openly, voraciously chasing 'legend' status, and to be frank she can't do that if she's appeasing every whim of the ~40,000 people on this site. It's perhaps disappointing, and there are wider conversations to be had about greed and ambition and community, but the fact is she doesn't need us anymore (to sell albums, tickets, makeup), and that requires that we no longer need her either.

Fact is, Gaga could retire comfortably whenever she likes. She can rely on the brand, whose foundations I think will be difficult to shake now. And she's still building that brand, literally on the cusp of releasing a collab with two MASSIVE legacy artists (and elevating herself into that pantheon of greats by association). If she wants to do two Vegas legs a year for another decade, I'm all for it, if that keeps making her happy.

TLDR: Gaga and Bobby have been insanely clever in pivoting towards something more sustainable than simply 'Lady Gaga the wacky meat-dress popstar', and distancing herself from a core fanbase is a key part of that.

Thanks @Judas Society for opening up the discussion, it's an interesting but tricky topic to talk about, and your post was sensitive and mature 

Damn, you worded this perfectly 

[Reginald 13,835]

28 minutes ago, CyanDante said:

She definitely needs to lose some fans tbh. The more gone the better. 

Sad. I don't mean to point fingers but there's been a lot of this toxic-positive, backhanded behavior towards fans voicing their opinions on GGD lately.

I think you were a mod at one point, as well, which makes this even more baffling. It's okay for fans to disagree without you, (specifically you) mocking them and lmao'ing their (my) sincerely held opinions multiple times.

There are reasons this site and fanbase are dwindling, and this is a big one I have personally noticed. 

 

[Meat 18,962]

13 minutes ago, Reginald said:

There are reasons this site and fanbase are dwindling, and this is a big one I have personally noticed. 

As it should honestly. Y’all are too old to be doing this. See, no toxic positivity here!

[Reality 72,176]

Aren't y'all tired of having the same conversations every couple of years? This is a cyclical thing. Every time Gaga has a big project, like new pop music or an acting gig, people get so excited and hyped up for it. There are like 5x as many people on this website, new threads are created every other minute, everyone's engaged, etc., etc. Then there's a period of time where nothing much is happening besides maybe some Haus Labs stuff, a random collab here and there, or some jazz music, and then everyone's like "Where is Gaga?", "Is she losing touch?", "Why Gaga isn't the same anymore", blah, blah, blah.

By this time next year, we will be a couple of weeks away from Joker 2's release and we'll be in the thick of the promo. And whenever she inevitably releases LG7, y'all will be just as excited about it as you are about any other album of hers. This conversation isn't new, so to answer the question: no. Gaga is not losing her grip with fans. 

[ProdigyARTPOP 3,899]

49 minutes ago, Cruelty said:

So.

Gaga's 2008-13 level of interaction with fans was SCARY. I mean, it was a religion, absolutely and deliberately so. She built a castle where we worshipped her, and a message board where she kept in contact like she was our best friend. Every single day she brought us a new look, a new tease, a new performance. She encouraged and nurtured parasocial relationships to the point where she realised she needed to backtrack and wean us off her. I'm glad, in the age of stan culture (which, let's be honest, Gaga was instrumental in creating), that she no longer engages with us, for everybody's sanity.

She and Bobby have worked SO hard to make 'Lady Gaga' into a name, a brand again. And the Lady Gaga of 2023 is a much more sustainable brand than the Lady Gaga of 2013, because she doesn't have to run around the world, plane bus club 'nother club 'nother club no sleep anymore, serving a new look in a new country every day. She can just turn up to a ceremony, hold Liza Minnelli's hand and generate the 'legend' headlines she's after, without ruining her physical or mental health.

I think @Cereza is right that the music fanbase isn't crossing over into the other projects (cosmetics, brand deals, maybe even acting and/or jazz to a degree), and I don't think we're necessarily meant to. Gaga's ambition has shifted over the years – she spent the first 5 years of her career trying to dominate the world of pop music, and having done that, her focus has turned to mass appeal elsewhere. She's openly, voraciously chasing 'legend' status, and to be frank she can't do that if she's appeasing every whim of the ~40,000 people on this site. It's perhaps disappointing, and there are wider conversations to be had about greed and ambition and community, but the fact is she doesn't need us anymore (to sell albums, tickets, makeup), and that requires that we no longer need her either.

Fact is, Gaga could retire comfortably whenever she likes. She can rely on the brand, whose foundations I think will be difficult to shake now. And she's still building that brand, literally on the cusp of releasing a collab with two MASSIVE legacy artists (and elevating herself into that pantheon of greats by association). If she wants to do two Vegas legs a year for another decade, I'm all for it, if that keeps making her happy.

TLDR: Gaga and Bobby have been insanely clever in pivoting towards something more sustainable than simply 'Lady Gaga the wacky meat-dress popstar', and distancing herself from a core fanbase is a key part of that.

Thanks @Judas Society for opening up the discussion, it's an interesting but tricky topic to talk about, and your post was sensitive and mature 

This is basically it in a nutshell and I love her for it, she’s GRADE A TALENT and she’s the best in her field, only person who comes close in performance and vocals is Beyoncé,

they deserve to make themselves legend in whatever way they see fit and i’m grateful that the Lady Gaga brand has been transformed into what it is today,

the adoration by the media and respect she receives from the entertainment industry as a whole is so much better than how they would speak upon her in 2010-2014.

I remember those days, her talent and drive has allowed her to prosper in so many different avenues and i’m grateful to be along for the ride, because when she’s sitting there hammering at the piano or speaks to us the moments she does,

she reminds us of her creative genius and why we follow her to begin with. she’s the real deal.

[SHALLOW 15,763]

I honestly wouldn't mind all the ads if she also engaged with us a bit mor, but every time i check her instagram i already know what to expect. Her persona completely changed. She sounds and acts like an obnoxious influencer. That made me realize she became just like any other celebrity. Nothing she says about kindness and all that stuff sounds honest anymore. So i really haven't been liking her attitude but i'll always be here for her music

 

 

[JohnnyVersace 8,805]

*yawn*

This happens every time there's a gap between her projects and the "fans" complain she's out of touch and changed for the worse.

 

[SHALLOW 15,763]

4 minutes ago, JohnnyVersace said:

*yawn*

This happens every time there's a gap between her projects and the "fans" complain she's out of touch and changed for the worse.

 

Gurl she's doing more and more ads and that's a fact. At least a few years ago she also used to tease us a little bit which, at least for me, really helped me engaging with her. For example, i remember how fun were those weird photoshoots for Enigma and us trying to understand what they meant. She doesn't do this stuff anymore, it's just ad after ad and her instagram keeps getting more boring

[SHALLOW 15,763]

10 minutes ago, Reality said:

Aren't y'all tired of having the same conversations every couple of years? This is a cyclical thing. Every time Gaga has a big project, like new pop music or an acting gig, people get so excited and hyped up for it. There are like 5x as many people on this website, new threads are created every other minute, everyone's engaged, etc., etc. Then there's a period of time where nothing much is happening besides maybe some Haus Labs stuff, a random collab here and there, or some jazz music, and then everyone's like "Where is Gaga?", "Is she losing touch?", "Why Gaga isn't the same anymore", blah, blah, blah.

By this time next year, we will be a couple of weeks away from Joker 2's release and we'll be in the thick of the promo. And whenever she inevitably releases LG7, y'all will be just as excited about it as you are about any other album of hers. This conversation isn't new, so to answer the question: no. Gaga is not losing her grip with fans. 

There's a reason if this conversation is popping up more and more in the last few months. She's becoming unbearable and fans have the right to complain

[Reality 72,176]

1 minute ago, SHALLOW said:

There's a reason if this conversation is popping up more and more in the last few months. She's becoming unbearable and fans have the right to complain

No, they really don't have a right to complain. You (I'm speaking generally, not you specifically) actively choose to stan her and be a fan of hers. If you don't like what she's doing right now, then stop and come back when she releases something you actually care about. Saying "she's becoming unbearable" is hyperbolic. 

And like I said, these conversations happen like clockwork. No one is gonna be saying this whenever she releases new music or when promo starts for Joker 2. And then when those things eventually end, these conversations will come back again. They aren't happening more or less frequently than they were before.

[Cruelty 5,889]

11 minutes ago, JohnnyVersace said:

*yawn*

This happens every time there's a gap between her projects and the "fans" complain she's out of touch and changed for the worse.

Yes this isn't the first time we've had this discussion as a forum. But I think if you read through these posts, you'll find a lot more nuance than can just be dismissed with a yawn. The posts by @Cereza, @ImMatt, @Ziggy Stardust and @LaLa are great examples of critical thinking.

It's an important and interesting topic to talk about. There's been an undeniable (and understandable) shift in Gaga's relations with her fanbase over the past decade. She was so close to us, and no doubt to many Monsters it does feel like your best friend just... stopped wanting to talk to you. That's a massive change, right? So you start to analyse, and to think about why the dynamic's changed. It's totally natural, and absolutely not as simple as the black-and-white 'blind loyalty vs. constant complaining'.

I'm seeing a lot more analysing than complaining here, and I'm enjoying the maturity with which we're thinking about our relationship with our favourite popstar