Business Insider:Lady Gaga bait-and-switched fans with her new album 'Mayhem'

[Mr S 8,669]

Business insider, financial times, who is next to review? Autoweek?

[jimmytimestep 2,656]

Honestly part of what makes this album so exciting is how joyful and fun it actually is, vs its seemingly dark marketing.

she's making a point here.

Dichotomy is exciting.

I distinctly remember being young and looking at the album cover for Madonna's "Music" and thinking it would be a country album, but it's full of pop dance techno bangers

Why can't Gaga do the same? And I'm not trying to say she's emulating those that came before her - she is just expressing (and marketing) herself visually in a way that people respond to, while truly experimenting with her music and sound in a way that makes the overall presentation of the project *incredibly* exciting.

She did the same thing with Chromatica, but to a lesser degree, and in the inverse (joyful/fierce imagery against a message of living in pain and pushing through it).

Edited March 8 by jimmytimestep

[meltedplastic 150]

7 minutes ago, Gatlyn said:

Can you elaborate? I've only listened to each song a few times so far but would like to keep an ear out for it

How Bad Do U Want Me is incredibly Taylor coded. Which is weird bc it samples one of my favourite 80s tracks. (Yaz - Only You)

[meltedplastic 150]

5 minutes ago, jimmytimestep said:

Honestly part of what makes this album so exciting is how joyful and fun it actually is, vs its seemingly dark marketing.

she's making a point here.

Dichotomy is exciting.

I distinctly remember being young and looking at the album cover for Madonna's "Music" and thinking it would be a country album, but it's full of pop dance techno bangers

Why can't Gaga do the same? And I'm not trying to say she's emulating those that came before her - she is just expressing (and marketing) herself visually in a way that people respond to, while truly experimenting with her music and sound in a way that makes the overall presentation of the project *incredibly* exciting.

She did the same thing with Chromatica, but to a lesser degree, and in the inverse (joyful/fierce imagery against a message of living in pain and pushing through it).

People just dont get it... Give them some time, I guess. I felt this album perfectly encapsulates the light and darkness of the concepts of mayhem and chaos

[Starmie25 16,892]

1 hour ago, REALITY said:

don't think Gaga is nearly as "dark" or "industrial" as many of you think she is.

She kind of is though and I think it's ok to say that. She was one of the few mainstream acts who toyed around with weird electro, industrial type sonics and gothic/horror type lyrics and imagery - mainly on TFM and BTW though.

[SevenWonder 4,237]

She flat out said the album would have twists and turns (paraphrasing). It does. One of those twists - and I'd say the main twist - IS dark pop to one degree or another (Disease, Abra, PC, VIY, GoE, The Beast, SoaM)!

But she also has funk, MJ inspired, Prince inspired, Bowie inspired, pure pop, etc,.

People just chose to believe all songs would sound like Disease because they wanted to believe that. Not because she said that it was going to be that. And, I guess, because the album cover is "dark".

But, again, she said quite the opposite: When you think Mayhem is going one direction, it then goes another. 

Edited March 8 by SevenWonder

[Essence 232]

Did you all read the article? It wasn’t critiquing the strategy - it was just saying it subverted expectations intentionally. Which is probably true.

[Mus 7,883]

1 hour ago, River said:

I mean, the album, production and vocal wise is more C2C, L4S, ASIB and Harlequin than actually LG1-6, only Abra is old Gaga, but still holds the new Gaga.

Mayhem is really not back to old self kind of album..

I feel like the result was something completely new from her, it’s like she’s addicted to reinventing

even when she claims she went back to her old stuff a little, she just can’t and will not be the same as before, and thats good imo

it’s the always wanting to be a student thing she mentioned on the AM interview 

[Edu 3,961]

[Edu 3,961]

still a great album tho

Edited March 8 by Edu

[Roughhouse Dandy 10,371]

If people listened to the words that come out of her mouth in interviews, they wouldn't be so shocked. She's told us exactly what to expect and almost no one paid attention. Glad a lot of people are still enjoying the album though! I know I am ✨️

[NotoriousEden 142]

I didn’t think we were getting a dark pop album I thought we were getting industrial rock 

Cant Stop the High and Perfect Celeb are the best tracks for me outside of Disease and Abra. Was really really hoping for more of that and like the outro of Celeb for the whole album

[elegidadedios 1,847]

2 hours ago, RaveMonster said:

Some songs in this album are The Fame and Pre-The Fame Gaga. Others are more The Fame Monster and Born This Way. Others are more ASIB.

She did revisit her dark pop for some songs, it’s just not the whole album and she explicitly said the album was a bit of everything and we have had an interview where she mentioned the glam rock, Queen vocals  and Bowie sounds. Some people just decided to ignore that and stick with the aesthetic of the first singles ignoring Die With a Smile was also on the album (possibly because everyone keeps saying how they were just gonna throw it in there for streams even though they have been telling us it fits the album). 

Exactly this? Exactly this 🔥

[Pennywise 35,985]

Oh you guys will ALWAYS find something to be miserable about. Like, how did it come to this that I'M the one saying it 

[REALITY 75,300]

7 minutes ago, Starmie25 said:

She kind of is though and I think it's ok to say that. She was one of the few mainstream acts who toyed around with weird electro, industrial type sonics and gothic/horror type lyrics and imagery - mainly on TFM and BTW though.

I'm not saying it like it's a bad thing. Like I said, she has plenty of dark imagery, but I've never really classified her as a "dark" artist. I think kind of that label limits her and what people expect from her, as we've seen with MAYHEM.