Unpopular opinion: ARTPOP

[Roronoa 6,712]

DWUW with R Kelly should stay on the album. It’s a musical masterpiece. 
 

Gypsy, Venus, DWUW, IWBWY, Brooklyn Nights are some of the best songs she’s ever written. 

Edited November 7, 2023 by Roronoa

[Guest]

- The ArtRave was a great tour, but it had some of her worst looks.

- DWUW should’ve always been with Xtina.

- The iTunes version of Sexxx Dreams is elite.

- Venus is one of her best songs and showed she doesn’t need a co-producer.

- Dope is a great song and perfectly encapsulates how she was feeling at the time.

[PartySick 141,028]

Dope is one of her best songs

[crazygato 365]

The album could have cut out 4-5 tracks and it would have been a masterpiece! With a few re reworks here and there and expand/ add more "organic" instrumentation it would have been MASSIVE. The label obviously tried to subdue her and make her more "pop" centered. That was so wrong and one of the reasons I dont really like the album. Its just average to me. 

GUY, DWUW, and Gypsy are the best tracks. 

[DrKindnessKunt1999 5,481]

I wished that Gaga was able to experiment more with the electronic sounds on ARTPOP. It would have slayed if she had more techno, dubstep, trance, rave, and industrial sounds on the album.
 

As much as I love Venus, I didn’t see it doing well on the charts/as a single. The only songs that I felt like were GP friendly were Applause, Do What U Want, and Gypsy. 

[DontCallMeAlice 1,525]

oh I have a lot of opinions about ARTPOP and they’re not all good. I feel like I’ll get rocks thrown at me but since OP asked for my opinion : 

I truly don’t get why it’s deemed as Gaga’s magnum opus by the fans. Personally I think it’s BTW. And I never understood the hype around ARTPOP. Like she has so many better albums than this one. 

I absolutely can’t stand J&D. I just try to not think about the fact she picked this monstrosity of a song to be on the tracklist over the masterpiece that is Brooklyn Nights. 

I don’t like MANiCURE. I feel irritated whenever I listen to it.   

It took me 8 years to like ARTPOP (the song). Now it’s one of my favorite songs on the album. It’s such a masterpiece and I love it so much. 

Mary Jane Holland is an absolute masterpiece. 

Most of the album would have been SO much better if the production wasn’t so busy. I think it’s one of the reasons why I’m having a hard time with ARTPOP. 

IWBWU is 10x better than Dope.

Gypsy could have been one of my top 5 Gaga songs if it weren’t for the busy production. 

I feel indifferent about Applause. 

DWUW was one of my favorite tracks on the album but now it just feels illegal to listen to it. And the version with Christina just doesn’t hit the same. 

Overall I don’t think it’s a bad album. It's just that I need to be in a particular mood/vibe/period to jam to it. Somehow, it's usually around its anniversary or in the spring that I get the urge to give it a listen.

  

Edited November 8, 2023 by DontCallMeAlice

[jackjackjackjack13 29]

I have several actually..

- The official album cover is not it IMO, I preferred the announcement picture more as the album cover (and legit thought it was THEE album cover when it was announced)
- IWBWY fits better than Dope, Dope feels too barebone to make the final cut
- NOBTR and BN (and Temple based on the leaked docs from 2020) could've been released as the deluxe version of ARTPOP (like, seriously... what's stopping her?)
- The app is fun while it lasts, even when the only feature that we can use are the music player and GIF maker 

[Anderson123 33,879]

1 hour ago, DontCallMeAlice said:

I truly don’t get why it’s deemed as Gaga’s magnum opus by the fans. Personally I think it’s BTW. And I never understood the hype around ARTPOP. Like she has so many better albums than this one. 

I thought it was known that Born This Way is her magnum opus lol. Or maybe The Fame Monster. I almost never hear that about ARTPOP?

[Anderson123 33,879]

Dope is depressing and painful but beautiful and that subtle elegant production by Rick Rubin is everything. 

I Wanna Be With You is a little cheesy and extra to the point it wants to be this big stadium song that kinda feels like a parody. Brooklyn Nights is so much better. 

[Gorehound 3,047]

ugh I've literally written an essay 

how do i narrow it down?

[Starmie25 10,551]

People go extra hard for this album because unfortunately from the get go so many were doing all they could to spreadthe hatred. It was like a plant trying to grow but people just kept stepping on the root every chance they got. 

[EdX 2,854]

Dope is by far the best song on the album!

[Gorehound 3,047]

Ok, hold my beer.

 

ARTPOP Unpopular Opinions. Act I, The Songs.

 

- Aura is one of the most interesting and ‘arty’ songs on the album and getting Infected Mushrooms involved was badass. (I wish she’d used them for more songs). But the structure of the song is a mess and could’ve been fixed. (Also the screamy vocals on the demo clash with its chaotic instrumental so I’m glad she changed them for calmer sultry vocals).

- Jewells & Drugs isn’t a terrible song technically, but it doesn’t fit on the album at all and was very poor taste adding it. She should’ve used Ratchet instead. That instrumental is so much fun omg and surely she could’ve found another female rapper to collab with on it.

- Venus is one of her best and most euphoric choruses! I love her stylising it as an orgasm. But the song’s structure is jarring and the bridge ruins the song. It’s silly and unimaginative just naming the planets. It grinds the song to a halt. I love the single artwork shot by Steven Klein tho. She’s always at her absolute best with him.

- I enjoy G.U.Y a lot but it’s not spectacular, and it sounds a little too Zedd. And the music video is a disjointed mess of styles and ideas.

- MANiCURE. Mixing EDM with rock and hip-hop/trap can be a really ugly combination and it’s clear that she struggled to find common ground with them on this song. Harsh bratty punk would’ve worked way better than cheerleader pop-rock.

- Applause is the most solid pop song on the album. But the music video is underwhelming for Gaga standards.

- I love Sexxx Dreams but it lacks the necessary delirious atmospherics, steamy layered textures and sex appeal to actually work. Also the bridge doesn’t fit and was clearly rushed and last minute.

- Dope is raw and heart breaking but it’s over-sung and sounds like an ugly Meatloaf b-side and doesn’t fit on the album.

- Gypsy is sooo cheesy and uninspired. I can’t take it seriously and don’t think it’s a good song. It has nothing on TEOG.

- Donatella is rly fun and Fashion is ok I guess, but neither song actually sound ‘fashionable’ at all. Slick enigmatic runway music would’ve worked better.

- DWUW is a great song but I’m sorry getting R Kelly on it was the stupidest unnecessary blunder ever. It should have been left as a solo song. (Xtina doesn’t compliment the song either.)

- Swine is a weird one. I love the concept but not the execution. I think the EDM falls flat and is uninteresting. A different genre would’ve benefited the song more (see Act II).

- ARTPOP is a beautiful and poignant song and one of the albums highlights, but again it falls a bit flat and needs more climactic elements to heighten it.

- Gaga’s voice has never sounded so good and powerful than on this album, but overall the music she used is too mainstream EDM on an album that’s supposed to be artistic.

 

(I still adore this album and can’t explain why. I find it fascinating to critique it.)

 

[Gorehound 3,047]

 

ARTPOP Unpopular Opinions. Act II, The Aesthetics.

 

- For an album about bringing art to pop, the music and its concepts are not very arty at all. It’s more a tunnel-vision album about Gaga the celebrity rather than an album that explores the deeper and diverse aspects of art and pop culture.

- Too cartoonish. The overuse of plastic-like electronic music and the silliness in a lot of the lyrics contradicts the depth she’s trying to portray. This album is not stylish or nuanced and often sounds clumsy.

- The electronic landscape robs a lot of the music of its soul. Incorporating live instrumentation and musicians would’ve helped.

- She should’ve explored more electronic genres rather than limit herself to EDM. She mentions rave a lot during the era (artRAVE), so why not incorporate actual Rave genres? There’s lodes and they’re all amazing – (Breakbeat, Trance, Drum & Bass, Dub, Ethereal, Techno, Acid, Glitch, etc.)

- I like DJ White Shadow and Zedd, but I wish she’d worked with other more alternative electronic music producers to, like Flume, Aphex Twin, Lorn, Arca?

- The term Art Pop already exists and is a large sub-genre in music (e.g. Björk). Why on earth didn’t she think to actually explore the genre Art Pop and mix it into her style???

- Too much brash intensity. Gaga sounds amazing when she sings softer on more mid-tempo songs (SHICD, HML, Electric Chapel, DWUW, ARTPOP, BN etc.) I wish there were more chilled hypnotic songs mixed into the album.

- The artwork is garish, but it was made by a highly celebrated Post Modern Artist and Post Modernism isn’t meant to be pretty so technically it’s great. Although I wish she’d got Damien Hurst to do all the art for the album. He’s much cooler than Koons. (But probably way more expensive lol).

- The overall aesthetic of the era started well with the minimalistic brunette looks etc, but it quickly became very tacky and cartoonish – more Nicki Minaj than high art.

 

(Still I had so much fun during this era and respected her passion and ambition. And I still adore this album )