Why didn’t ‘Disease’ click with the GP?

[IllusionLover 6,500]

On 1/3/2025 at 7:13 AM, Juanlittlem said:

Please this came a week ago after 1 month of silence on the song, we haven't gotten any physicals release or any live performance other than those in her channel (that people that aren't looking for the song wont know about) 

Off topic, but I really wanted vinyls, CDs and merch for the song, SL had everything

[MOT 2,722]

14 hours ago, G U C C I said:

For me it’s a number of factors. The beat is good and there are some decent moments in the production but mixed with the vocal choices she made the song just doesn’t have a huge replay factor for me because ultimately I find it grating. I like things to be smooth. It can be upbeat, a ballad, hiphop, whatever genre you can think of but it has to have a smoothness to it.
 

Nothing Gaga has released since A Star Is Born has smoothness to it. Even Hold My Hand is terrible and grating to try and listen too. Harlequin has moments that are really really nice but ultimately not something I reach for on a drive home from work, or going into the office, or really ever. She seems obsessed with doing anything other than singing in a pleasing manner and it irritates the f*ck out of me. Happy Mistake is a great example! I adore so much about the song but can only listen until the 1:45 mark because once the breakdown and literal screaming starts I’m out. It spikes my blood pressure. 
 

I want a maturely written song with great production ( I literally don’t care what genre she picks) and the singing quality in tone and choices to be smooth. Until she delivers that I will stream to support but definitely not have anything on repeat. Most of my coworkers have said the same things. Most them complaining about how she can’t seem to chill the hell out vocally. Too much chaos 

Some valid criticisms there of Disease. I like the song (Antidote much more than the single) so I don't share your views, but I absolutely see where you're coming from. 

Harlequin ? I love it, and it's in danger of wearng out the system in the car. Worth remembering that it isn't really covers as such. It's a companion piece to JFAD, and I think the arrangements are supposed to reflect a descent into madness, i.e. they start out nice and smooth and then the wheels gradually come off. I presume the idea was to cash in on the Lee mania which would be sweeping the world ... oh well.

As for Happy Mistake .... there isn't any screaming. Singing ? Yes, lots of it. Screaming ? No.

[doppelganger 3,863]

It's too loud. I know she loves her lead singles loud (PI, BTW, SL) but I think Gaga's at a a stage where her singles needs to be more in line with the rest of pop music in terms of intensity, if she wants them to be pop hits. BTW hit no.1 only because  she was the biggest star in the world at the point of its release. 

[Kayi 1,286]

2 hours ago, Julien Lockhart said:

It's time the fanbase understood that Gaga is more underground than mainstream

Back in 2008, her music wasn't particularly mainstream, and the US rejected her at first

She created the trend etc and became mainstream in spite of herself

Today, what makes Gaga mainstream is her name

But her recent projects, such as ARTPOP, Joanne and Harlequin, show the opposite

Her projects run counter to the mainstream, and they both succeed and fail

Sometimes it flops and sometimes it succeeds

I love Disease for the underground, industrial and heavy side

Personally, I don't need her to be the number one to appreciate her music or to appreciate her as an artist

I like what I listen to, I like what she does and I like to see her happy

I can't wait to hear LG7 and see her on tour, it's going to be great

Exactly, she's like Lana, both belong to a certain scene between the underground and mainstream music 

[StrawberryBlond 14,169]

It still surprises me because I'm someone who thought it sounded like something the public would like. I like the song now, but my first couple of listens were a lot more neutral. I thought it sounded decent but the lyrics were quite cliche, was similar to other lyrics from big artists (the first line "there are no more tears to cry" seemed like a direct reference to Ariana's No More Tears Left To Cry) and like it was the classic public friendly lead single.

But I totally get all the critiques as to why it didn't work out, namely, it was a very electro heavy song, lyrics were heavily aimed at fans, the release was only widely known by the fans, the song was released far too close to Halloween to become a Halloween hit, the video was released after the song came out, DWAS was still huge and the Christmas freeze was coming (similar to what happened to Dua Lipa with Houdini at the same time last year). What really gets me is the complete lack of promo. I know it isn't something that's deemed necessary for big artists anymore but it's the literal lead. It was like it was still lockdown the way it was dealt with - no in-person promo, just a bunch of TikToks and 2 live performances from a home studio. What is this, 2020/2021? There are so many places she could have promoted it but didn't seem bothered to.

[Night Vision 3,050]

It's not lack of promo. Sure, more promo wouldn't have hurt but that's not the reason it didn't smash. Most songs that smash these days don't have much traditional promo in the streaming era.

Disease didn't smash because it just isn't a very commercially friendly song. It's fantastic and one of Gaga's best works in years, but a song with lyrics that dark and an industrial rock influenced sound is unlikely to become a radio hit or connect with the GP. I doubt Gaga and Interscope were even expecting it to be a smash.

[Morphine Prince 102,462]

They need to know it exists before it even has a chance for it to click.

[nATAH 43,068]

On 1/3/2025 at 6:48 PM, Edonis said:

People still do not know it exists, end of thread. Radio callouts were solid (unlike most of her singles in the last half decade), streams are stable (at one point getting more than some number 1 songs released earlier this year ahem, Texas Hold Em), and critical reception is near universally acclaimed. The timing was god-awful and the writing was on the wall with such a lowkey release (OP, you seriously don't remember the roll-out that had only fans paying attention through obscure website links and a music video that dropped on a random Tuesday?). 

If Gaga wants ANY SONG of hers to smash that isn't a high-profile collab, then she and her team need to PUSH stuff, HARD. Go all out and stop holding back because you have "bigger songs on the album" that you can push later. It's a god-awful marketing tactic that music labels keep doing and needs to die lol. 

that's why it's kinda obvious they don't care about single performances anymore

[juicyjuicy 1,764]

1. It doesn't sound like anything that's a hit on the radio at the moment.

2. The lack of strategic / timely promotion. Sure, we got some fed to us in dribs and drabs, firstly, what is EXPECTED for a single, but given this is a lead single (her first in 5 years), we expect more, AND the timings of the promotion was all over the place/felt completely random. 

3. She was already over-saturated (and again, there was no clear strategy in terms of the timings in how they promoted these things) by DWAS, Olympics, Harlequin and Joker 2. And the reception to the last 3 were mixed to negative by the GP, which unfortunately really hurt her chances at a decent comeback. 

4. Her primary fanbase's music taste is maturing (based on the demographic) and you will see mixed reactions. Younger listeners aren't listening to Gaga and prefer what's on the radio atm. 

[Ziggy 10,762]

18 hours ago, G U C C I said:

she has so many people who are massive fans and yet like such drastic differences in her music.

This is the reason the song only did okay lol

[Darcklighter22 2,293]

Gaga has reached a point where she's that far into her career where she's established and is now being emulated by up and coming girls. Like models having that expiry date of being able to sustain a certain level of visibility and GP praise so do artists. 

She's done the weird theatre's dance pop thing. I absolutely love where the new album seems to be going sonically from what we know so far. I think it'll do well but let's not see or expect it to do anything like 2009-2013 in terms of numbers or GP praise, and that's ok.

She's not with the team/management who pushed her hard for her to be where she was in her early career. Her approach to promo as someone mentioned is very sensitive as of the last couple years. 

She was tapped in on how the industry was at. The most you can expect from her lately is that she will repost your TikTok video if you tag her or the song 

[Ziggy 10,762]

12 hours ago, ScotHML said:

I wouldn’t be surprised if if interscope drop her. Maybe she needs it.  

Do you know what song is like #1 in the world rn?  disease flopping is not gonna make them drop her 

[Plastic Flower 3,873]

A lot of you just chose to take a **** on Gaga instead of giving a proper argument  

[RAMROD 104,809]

How can it click when GP doesn't know it exist? 
 

Print ad? None 

Radio? None 

Playlisting? None 

TV Promo? Not existent 

Edited Saturday at 11:59 PM by RAMROD

[Squidward T 2,034]

Because the lyrics have zero relatability to the gp