Should Gaga have stuck with her sound

[Mr S 7,893]

Looking at Charlie XCX and Lana Dey Rey, the former was unknown and the latter received mixed reviews. However, they both stayed true to their sound and ignored all that. Now here we are in the 2020s and both are at their peaks receiving critical acclaim and commercial success.

Gaga has done the opposite, from ARTPOP to jazz to Joanne etc. she hasn't stuck with a sound when it flopped. Even the AC ASIB was a smash she didn't stick with it. 

Do you wish Gaga had stayed true to her sound and the let the critics and public take it or leave it? Or do you prefer her versatility? Or can she not be compared to those girls because she is looked at as big pop star?

Edited August 5 by Mr S

[Ouranos 591]

She’s a chameleon it’s a good thing I love it different songs for different moods

[palma 7,214]

4 minutes ago, Mr S said:

Looking at Charlie XCX and Lana Dey Rey, the former was unknown and the latter received mixed reviews. However, they both stayed true to their sound and ignored all that. Now here we are in the 2020s and both are at their peaks receiving critical acclaim and commercial success.

There's also a Katy side to that discussion 

Gaga is far too versatile and enamored with many genres to commit to only synthpop. And I personally love her for that 

[elijahfan 24,634]

I think the big misconception from your post is the idea that she's changing sounds depending on audience and critical reception. In the same way she changes her appearance all the time, she enjoys experimenting with different genres, not because of how it will be received, but because she wants to. In the same way Charli or Lana have consistency in their careers, change is Gaga's constant. None of these 3 women give a ****, and that translates in different ways.

You also have to remember that when The Fame came out, dance pop wasn't trendy at all, but she stuck with it and the industry did catch up eventually.

[Mr S 7,893]

2 minutes ago, palma said:

There's also a Katy side to that discussion 

Gaga is far too versatile and enamored with many genres to commit to only synthpop. And I personally love her for that 

Haha true. But they made good music, it's just the critics or public didn't get it. Katy's music has been bad.

[Grim 2,099]

It gets boring when an artist doesn't grow. I love that Gaga doesn't stick to one thing and I hope she'll keep trying new directions

[Chlorine 47,363]

Something I had to accept a long time ago is that there is no quintessential "Gaga" it's a grab bag of any and everything Stefani wants to explore creatively. I think of what kind of artist she would be if she kept on evolving more organically, building album by album, instead of throwing the baby out with the bathwater each time. We'll never know. I'm excited because she looks to be revisiting the Gaga of TFM-BTW now, and I'll enjoy that while it lasts. 

[starcell 339]

No, I don’t know if she’d be where she is in acting today without having done that

[Lucas 22,870]

But what's Gaga sound anyways? She doesn't have 2 albums that sound similar in the 1st place

[KevinWright 1,515]

She is TOO talanted to stay in one side and do only one thing.

I am not saying that Charli and Lana are not. They are SOO good at what they are doing.

I love the fact that Gaga is a chameleon and a re-invention queen 

 

[Bolkins 4,054]

I mean, I wouldnt say Lana has stuck with one singular sound throughout her career - she has also experimented with different genres it just hasnt been quite as vastly different as Gaga's. The same could be said with Charli, she found a niche after Vroom but its taken her a long time for it to stick. If anything Lana and Charli have stuck to an aesthetic that has helped legitimize their efforts over the years. Gaga was at the point they're at now almost straight away, I think when you have that level of success to maintain you have to be willing to mix things up. 

[Controversiaga 8,919]

I personally wish that when Gaga did venture into new genres, she did something new and innovative with those genres.

Joanne felt safe for the genre it was- but was new and different for Gaga herself.

same with Chromatica.

[ANTI WP 19,799]

Lana never stuck with the same sound 

Liddos needs to go out of their bubble

[Gorehound 3,183]

Tbh I’d say yes and no. It’s a difficult one.

I love Gaga overall but as a stan of her work I personally much prefer her weirder side, and loved her most during TFM, BTW and ARTPOP. And even though the past 10 years of Gaga haven’t been my favourite, I’m glad she explored other avenues and showed the world how incredibly diverse her talent is. And it certainly seems to have taken her to far greater heights than a career strictly set in pop would have provided. And now it seems to have come full circle anyway and she’s gonna serve crazy, weird electronic pop Gaga again so I’m at peace.

I’ll be honest tho; there were times, especially during the few years post-ARTPOP (such as Joanne and her obvious attempts to re-brand and improve her public image), where I felt disappointed because it seemed a bit disingenuous to her past artistry and everything she used to preach about her work and messages on fearless individuality, and I probably would have admired her more if she had boldly stuck with her weird pop aesthetic despite the backlash and worked to perfect it. But that might have denied her the level of success and achievements she has now, and would probably have been terrible for her mental health.

 

Either way, as much as we all loved OG crazy Gaga, I’m not convinced that had the kind of longevity that the likes of Lana and Charlie seem to have. Maybe if ARTPOP was a lot better and the era hadn’t been so thwart with disasters, and Gaga’s health had been more of a priority, it might have been different. But I have no resentment. She did what felt best to her and that’s fine.

[River 102,320]

It's kinda ignorant to say that lana is stuck with the same sound, she stays true to her concept, the 50s-60s americana, her general sound is alt pop but she has many songs in different genres like dream pop, trip hop, hip hop, country, rock, psychedelic and more.