G.U.Y. flopping makes no sense

[ThisGuyTony 25,445]

I’m sure this has been discussed to death but I was revisiting Gaga’s discography and came up to G.U.Y.

It had:

- 1 televised TV performance 

- a high budget, very Gaga-esque MV, with combined views of 224M views

ArtRave was still a sold out tour that year, Cheek to Cheek still went #1 that year + Cheek to Cheek Tour was sold out.

Why did fans and the GP suddenly stop supporting her with this single but still came back for Cheek to Cheek and Perfect Illusion/Joanne?

The song will be lucky to ever scrap Gold certification 💀

[NATAH 35,492]

don't forget how much work she did to repair her image between GUY and PI

the sound of music tribute had a massive hand in lifting her back up

[artdoll 44,892]

2 minutes ago, ThisGuyTony said:

It had:

- 1 televised TV performance 

- a high budget, very Gaga-esque MV, with combined views of 224M views

ArtRave was still a sold out tour that year, Cheek to Cheek still went #1 that year + Cheek to Cheek Tour was sold out.

Why did fans and the GP suddenly stop supporting her with this single

I believe the general consensus is that, at the time, Gaga was far too overexposed and during this era there was a major hate train against her. There's also the factor that the EDM sound of G.U.Y. wasn't as popular during that time. So G.U.Y. not performing as well as past singles makes sense.

5 minutes ago, ThisGuyTony said:

but still came back for Cheek to Cheek and [Perfect Illusion/Joanne?]

 I don't recall Perfect Illusion performing that well, someone please correct me if I'm wrong. As for Joanne (album), if I recall correctly, was not (and arguably still isn't) very popular among fans. 

 

CTC & Joanne were very much needed though, they helped immensely in making the GP view Gaga in a far more positive light and expand the sound of + make wonderful additions to her discography!

[Aglaya 7,763]

13 minutes ago, ThisGuyTony said:

 

- a high budget, very Gaga-esque MV, with combined views of 224M views

 

The mv came out really late in the ARTPOP era and it felt kinda out of place at the time, at least for me. Also, it has over 220M views combined now, but at the time it was released it was considered a total flop and had very little to no views at all. There were already mv's like Roar or Wrecking Ball with over 500M views and not even Applause had 200M at the time. Also, everyone was hating on her so it was really hard for G.U.Y. to not flop.

 

EDIT: Also, G.U.Y. was VERY electronic and was released late into the hipster minimalistic sound of 2014 with charting songs like Chandelier, Royals or Happy by Pharrell. Only pop songs from PRISM or Rihanna were popular because they were still very causal and not as electronic and hard as any ARTPOP music was.

Edited November 25, 2023 by Aglaya

[Juanlittlem 35,769]

I feel it was way too late into the era for the GP or people to care about it. Applause was released in August, the album happened in November and G.U.Y in March.

[Noah 26,055]

It wasn't sent to Radio and it sounded too dated by the time it came out. 

[Juanlittlem 35,769]

1 minute ago, artdoll said:

I don't recall Perfect Illusion performing that well

Yeah it debuted and peaked at 15 then went down to 42 next week.

[Economy 44,494]

Nothing she released at that point would of succeeded.

 

My Country (Canada) had arguably the best chart run for Gaga of any Country up until that point and I swear anyone that wasnt a fan literally hated her.

 

She was over exposed, ppl were tired of her, and they thought she was too weird and desperate for attention. NOTHING at that point would succeed on charts, not if it was the best song ever released by a human being (ok maybe if it was THAT GOOD, but figure of speech u get my point)

 

Sound of music, Cheek to cheek jazz era etc was the best career move she could of ever done. It reminded ppl Gaga was talanted, and the toned down Gaga gave ppl a chance to like her again and not just think shes weird. It also gave a chance for the more edgy Gaga to be missed via nostalgia

 

In some ways C2C helped Gagas career as much as it helped Tony. She desperately needed an image cleasing and she got it

[bionic 39,374]

Nothing could've made it a hit. Gaga was overexposed, people (rightly for the time IMO) saw her as trying too hard and being self-indulgent. The song is also very overproduced like most of ARTPOP

[Ladle Ghoulash 12,786]

2 minutes ago, bionic said:

Nothing could've made it a hit. Gaga was overexposed, people (rightly for the time IMO) saw her as trying too hard and being self-indulgent. The song is also very overproduced like most of ARTPOP

Yeah, GUY is honestly one of my least favorite tracks from ARTPOP

[androiduser 7,156]

it just wasn't as great as the fans make it out to be... the chorus is just not there... Geeee Youuuuuu Whyyyyy over and over again is just not the chorus of a hit single . I know fans can't accept it,  but it's just not a hit single. A great song, but has no hit potential.

[Quentin 4,451]

31 minutes ago, Noah said:

too dated by the time it came out. 

Gurl Zedd and a similar sound were a hit in 2018

[holy scheisse 20,923]

Yes it does the world was sick of her 

everyone knew and felt it at the time it wasn’t surprising 

[Agunimon 20,861]

If it was released two years earlier, it would have done better. People already mentioned her image, but on top of that it is a classic Zedd production following trends a year late to the party.

[Dennis 8,389]

G.U.Y was released very late imo. It was like 6 months after the release of the album? And 9 months after the release of the last proper single (Applause).

Personally I think DWUW could've saved the ARTPOP era, but the R.Kelly feature and the music video mess ruined it.