Is Gaga safe? If so, why?

[Mr S 8,147]

Obviously LG from 2008-2013 was anything but safe. But since then, she's played it safe musically. Why do you think that is?

[Head Empty 24,253]

Joanne wasn't safe at all, musically.

But up to 2014 her career was an uphill battle, and her music reflected that. Since then she has spent her time recovering herself and her private life. That rebellious side of her isn't as necessary anymore for her to survive as an artist.

[Lucas 23,983]

3 minutes ago, Head Empty said:

Joanne wasn't safe at all, musically.

Joanne was recorded to show a more toned down sound & image of her after the ARTPOP drama, although it was not safe for her die hard fans, it was a very safe move for her career

[Creyk 17,000]

Yes. Almost everything she did after ARTPOP was toned down and safe so she can appear to middle-america and older people: jazz, million reasons, a cover era of covering a lot of OLD songs, ASIB, another jazz album, and a very by the books pop album with Chromatica. Her uniqueness is gone in the name of chasing that best actress Oscar.

[Mr S 8,147]

15 minutes ago, Creyk said:

Yes. Almost everything she did after ARTPOP was toned down and safe so she can appear to middle-america and older people: jazz, million reasons, a cover era of covering a lot of OLD songs, ASIB, another jazz album, and a very by the books pop album with Chromatica. Her uniqueness is gone in the name of chasing that best actress Oscar.

Is it really to chase middle America and old people? Because Chromatica is just as safe and toned down and that appeals more to her core audience.

[artdoll 45,285]

I think in comparison to her early years, recent eras have been a bit more on the "safe" side of things. However, I think it's worth noting that Gags has nothing to prove and has already solidified herself as an icon. That's also not to say that she hasn't taken any risks whatsoever, as others have said, Joanne & ASIB were huge risks in itself that paid off.

I think Chromatica was a great way to show that she's still, and always will, got it. She knows what she's doing and she knows how to do it! Right now I think she's (rightfully so) focusing on what's making her happy.

Edited December 8, 2023 by artdoll

[Starmie25 13,075]

An album like Joanne was going to happen anyways. It was inevitable.

And lyrically I wouldn't call Chromatica safe at all. 

I'm sure sonically she'll get adventurous again. I have high hopes for LG7 since that post from June.

[Auther 22,066]

I can see the argument for and against Joanne being considered a safe album. It is not really a safe move to shift your tone in such a way outside of your core fanbase in both an attempt to shift the opinion and to expand a fanbase, since the core fans in Gaga's fanbase have always been very dance pop oriented. But the sound it had was very accessible.

I do believe that Chromatica is her safest album in all regards. I am not really sure what is lyrically unsafe that was presented on Chromatica. To me the lyrical content on Chromatica was rather typical in this day and age. She sang about things that a lot of other artists sing about... 

We will have to see what LG7 is like.

Edited December 8, 2023 by Agunimon

[phantasmas 9,924]

gurl i thought she was in danger for a sec  dont scare me like that

[Reality 71,851]

It's kind of wild that some of y'all are saying Joanne was "safe" considering it was drastically different than anything else she put out before. She became famous for electronic dance pop music, and while Joanne was still a pop record, it was drastically different than anything else she had done before. ARTPOP might not have been on the same level as TF/TFM and BTW, but it still fits within a similar genre as those 3 albums. Joanne was a radical departure. I'd say Chromatica was very safe in terms of its sound. I think she could've pushed the envelope more, sonically speaking. There were disco and house influences in there, but I wish those were even more present throughout the album.

As for her jazz stuff, I wouldn't necessarily call that "safe" either. Jazz is not a mainstream genre anymore. And while creating albums with Tony was certainly a personal gratification of hers, if she wanted to "play it safe", she would've just recorded more electronic dance stuff. 

Finally, in regards to her acting career, I also don't think it's necessarily "safe" either. ASIB was kind of a big risk in the sense that it was the 3rd remake and was positioning itself as an awards contender. It was also Gaga's first major acting role. And to be fair, I don't think anyone expected Shallow to be as big as it was. House of Gucci was probably more "safe" in comparison. Joker 2, on the other hand, is the complete opposite of safe. The movie is fighting an uphill battle, and while I think it'll ultimately be great, that doesn't mean it's not risky. It's incredibly high risk/high reward.

[RAMROD 104,089]

Her music isn't but people perhaps accostumed to her style now. It's time for her to shook people again, in a different way

Edited December 9, 2023 by RAMROD

[Magic Mike 2,654]

With all that is happening with ___ and ___ and ___ and ____ I feel Gaga needs her American Life moment, where she risks it all and goes against the ___

Edited December 9, 2023 by Magic Mike

[Tyler1992 2,119]

I think Gaga has many cards to play, and she plays them strategically. 

Joanne was always in her hand, and she laid it down after ARTPOP to flip the script- but I wouldn’t call it safe per se. Monsters easily could have been repelled from it, and some were. Perfect Illusion isn’t exactly a middle America song, and Gaga had to do a lot of leg work to get Million Reasons to the top 5.  Joanne is a mostly palatable album, but her fan-base isn’t usually interested in palatable. Her niche wasn’t used to a uniform of a white crop top, daisy dukes and black boots. 

A Star Is Born was also a risky move. A debut performance from a superstar could only go two ways, same from an actors turn as a first time director. Couple that with a script that was done 3 times prior, with legendary performances from legendary actors. 

Along the way she threw down more cards to re-stabilize- AHS, Chromatica, House of Gucci, Love For Sale.

Gaga has a vision for long term success, and to be a part of the pop culture zeitgeist well into her “old lady rockstar” days.

[Tyler1992 2,119]

2 hours ago, Reality said:

It's kind of wild that some of y'all are saying Joanne was "safe" considering it was drastically different than anything else she put out before. She became famous for electronic dance pop music, and while Joanne was still a pop record, it was drastically different than anything else she had done before. ARTPOP might not have been on the same level as TF/TFM and BTW, but it still fits within a similar genre as those 3 albums. Joanne was a radical departure. I'd say Chromatica was very safe in terms of its sound. I think she could've pushed the envelope more, sonically speaking. There were disco and house influences in there, but I wish those were even more present throughout the album.

As for her jazz stuff, I wouldn't necessarily call that "safe" either. Jazz is not a mainstream genre anymore. And while creating albums with Tony was certainly a personal gratification of hers, if she wanted to "play it safe", she would've just recorded more electronic dance stuff. 

Finally, in regards to her acting career, I also don't think it's necessarily "safe" either. ASIB was kind of a big risk in the sense that it was the 3rd remake and was positioning itself as an awards contender. It was also Gaga's first major acting role. And to be fair, I don't think anyone expected Shallow to be as big as it was. House of Gucci was probably more "safe" in comparison. Joker 2, on the other hand, is the complete opposite of safe. The movie is fighting an uphill battle, and while I think it'll ultimately be great, that doesn't mean it's not risky. It's incredibly high risk/high reward.

Ugh why didn’t I read this before I typed my essay.

[TortureMeOnReplay 5,785]

2 hours ago, Reality said:

It's kind of wild that some of y'all are saying Joanne was "safe" considering it was drastically different than anything else she put out before. She became famous for electronic dance pop music, and while Joanne was still a pop record, it was drastically different than anything else she had done before. ARTPOP might not have been on the same level as TF/TFM and BTW, but it still fits within a similar genre as those 3 albums. Joanne was a radical departure. I'd say Chromatica was very safe in terms of its sound. I think she could've pushed the envelope more, sonically speaking. There were disco and house influences in there, but I wish those were even more present throughout the album.

As for her jazz stuff, I wouldn't necessarily call that "safe" either. Jazz is not a mainstream genre anymore. And while creating albums with Tony was certainly a personal gratification of hers, if she wanted to "play it safe", she would've just recorded more electronic dance stuff. 

Finally, in regards to her acting career, I also don't think it's necessarily "safe" either. ASIB was kind of a big risk in the sense that it was the 3rd remake and was positioning itself as an awards contender. It was also Gaga's first major acting role. And to be fair, I don't think anyone expected Shallow to be as big as it was. House of Gucci was probably more "safe" in comparison. Joker 2, on the other hand, is the complete opposite of safe. The movie is fighting an uphill battle, and while I think it'll ultimately be great, that doesn't mean it's not risky. It's incredibly high risk/high reward.

I feel like the Jazz albums were probably the safest records of her career, especially C2C. The sales expectations are so much lower and they didn't even count against her contract albums, so really she didn't have much to lose. The album was always about public image and never about proving she could sell or was relevant. Her hardcore fans were obviously still there because it's one of the best selling Jazz albums in the past 30 years. Joanne and C2C both pivoted Gaga towards talent based media coverage rather than shock, but really Joanne took the burden because it was a LGx album, didn't align all that well with her disco albums, and changed how she marketed herself for her LGx albums. It tried to target both her hardcore fans and the GP and she put in a lot of work to get the media's attention. I'd say that Joanne is her only unsafe album since BTW simply because AP was the natural evolution of obscurity and building of pop that Gaga had always been known for.