Conflicted about Michael affecting Gaga's creative process

[MadArchitect 758]

So first of all  want to say that a i am very glad that Gaga found somebody to share her life with and that she feels he loves her as a partner and friend, i am happy if she is happy, and i also like how supporting and encouraging of her artistry and music he is, however, i am feeling conflicted about the details revealed by Gaga about the creative process in recent interviews.
 

First, she said that after she made Perfect celebrity she had the vision the album should have to go in that more industrial, grungy and gritty direction, but then Michael suggested that she shouldn't and put the idea in her head that she was "trying to be something" by doing so. i don't think that because she is a pop artist, going in a more alternative direction is her "trying to be something", i see the point and how it might be the case that it was true, but putting that in her head can also have the risk of limiting her, it might've been even more authentic to her if that was what she was called to do initially. To me Gaga just embodies so well all the genres she explores that to make the suggestion that she was just trying to be something feels wrong, contrast it with Harlequin for example, was she trying to be something just because she dabbled more deeply in the Jazz genre in the album as a whole? No, i dont think so, why would it be different with a pop album heavily influenced by rock, industrial and grunge that still has room to other genres too?

Then she also revealed that was going to leave HBDUWM out of the album because it made her feel weird how pop it was for her, but then Michael suggested she should put it in the album cause he thought fans will love it. Michael, honey, what?? I don't think he knows well what fans love about Gaga, the people who most prone to like a song such as HBDUWM are locals, GP or pop music fans that also happen to like Gaga or be also Gaga fans, but Little monsters, don't think so, maybe some, but i think the general sentiment amongst little monsters is that they love the more wilder side of Gaga, the boundary pushing artist that brings vanguard, oddness and weirdness, and this is the Antithesis of HBDUWM as a song, both lyrically and sonically, as she explained, in it she's conflicted about the pressures of still being a "a good girl" by the love interest, despite of her. Little monsters don't want that from her. and i think in general HBDUWM just doesn't belong in Mayhem at all, it is off to me, much more than Die with a Smile. She also compared it to what Just Dance made her feel, however, there is a great difference, in the times of JD she was a nobody in the music industry, she had to find way to hook people and infiltrate pop music somehow, and even then JD was fresh and interesting take on eurodance amidst the US pop landscape of the time, and it was a struggle to get it played on radio or have people believe in it, the same can't be said about HBDUWM, plus now she doesn't need to put things out that don't reflect very accurately the kind of artist that she is in favour of appealing to more people, if it made her feel weird how pop it was, and still does, maybe she shouldn't have included it as she intended originally...

So i really think his suggestions were off, of course Gaga is the one who has the final say here and who decides what to do with her music, and if she listened to Michael suggestions, it means that is what she wanted to do the most and what she thought was the more authentic to her in that moment, however, i can't help but wonder what kind of sounding album we would've gotten and how the tracklisting would feel like if Michael hadn't suggested these things to her, and if it was Gaga in its purest and rawest form, without her listening to somebody else and changing the direction of her original instints and intentions, or people putting ideas in her head that end up affecting the final result. I know that firsts instints are not all the time the best ones to make desicions, and that the creative process takes turns regardless of somebody else giving inputs, but still i just happen to think his were off, but who knows anyway, i'm sure he knows Gaga better than me or any of her fans at the end of the day, but he can also unintentionally project his own perceptions into Gaga's work as any of us can.

Regardless of this, i'm also very excited for the future, Gaga said that what we heard in Mayhem is just the tip of the iceberg to the direction she might take on future releases, and altho i still loved Mayhem, i think it is not Gaga at her fullest potential yet, she is just so talented with such a huge musical scope and range, i'm now sure she'll explore more deeply the darkest and harder soundscapes touched in Mayhem.

Anyway, i'd like to know what other monsters think about this, write your opinions!

Edited 2 hours ago by MadArchitect

[Lucas 25,343]

Yeah I also noticed she said a lot in interviews "Michael thought I should" "Michael told me to" "Michael suggested"... but she wants kids from him and get married with him so it's probably not something that bothers her

[Controversiaga 9,987]

Omg which interview did she say she was gonna leave HBDYWM off the album !!

[MadArchitect 758]

3 minutes ago, Controversiaga said:

Omg which interview did she say she was gonna leave HBDYWM off the album !!

Hi, in Los Culturistas Podcast, where Bowen Yang is in too, it was recently released

[Divine 1,740]

The thing about Monsters is that you cage Gaga to do something that will quench your dark concepts into life. It's not valid to assume "most fans like dark Gaga", as you are basing with self-influenced bias.

Gaga is not limited to dark pop and edgy style. She is a chameleon in music.

As long as she is happy, then let her be. We got Abracadabra, Diesease, Shadow of a Man as the "Gaga" you want. Don't be too greedy with your desires to control Gaga's choices just to quench your art direction preferences.

I think Gaga is happy, and that's what matters.

And oh let other people discover her music, music is for all not just limited to stans.

[holy scheisse 22,021]

I think it was good advice from him. imagine abracadabra, disease, lovedrug, and shadow not existing as they are bc every song had to fit one specific sound
 

I like when she said she didn’t try to give her music an outfit this time. We ended up with a classic Gaga album that incorporates all of her sounds at once

[Sorcerer 12,328]

I think we should avoid intruding parasocially into Gaga's relationship like we're Swifties. Mind you, LG7 will never have existed without Michael.

Killah, for example, is Gaga's favorite song in the album. And that's not a grunge song at all. If anything, Michael's suggestion allowed Gaga to find what type of music she enjoyed the most.

How Bad Do U Want Me is performing better than Perfect Celebrity. I don't think Gaga should only be commercially focused, but there are certainly big fans of the song. Even Bowen and Matt are obsessed with the song, and that's why Gaga brought it up in the podcast.

[lastpopicon 10,555]

why do I envision this topic with 10 pages in a few hours  

They are a team now, she is in love and she wants him to be a part of the process, sorry for the bluntness, but this is none of our business. 

[Seringai 237]

I think she falls in love very hard with this one, which is good for her.  I just hope Michael can be more connected to the fans if he wants to involve to Gaga's creative process as well. Perhaps not in personal level, but more to the "business" perspective.

[REALITY 74,624]

The fact that people are trying to dissect her relationship and borderline thinking that Michael is a manipulative partner because y’all simply didn’t like the direction of the album is crazy

MAYHEM is her best album imo and I’m more than happy with what we got. 

[GipJo 2,889]

Such awful take, you should delete this before Gaga sees it.

[DISZKO 767]

I think you really need to put more paragraphs into your text and let your thoughts air because it feels heavy and biased. 

[Arcanum 5,120]

Can I get a Michael smashing and guiding me like that for the rest of my life?

He is a good influence, we shouldn't mind.

[Lextyr97 19,450]

I don’t think we should be commenting on their relationship because we don’t actually know the intricacies. All I will say is that I took the comments from the podcast completely differently in that he was helping her not doubt herself and to be true to herself. 

[TinyGa 386]

She literally said in the same anecdote that she also almost didn’t release Just Dance for the same reason—they both felt too pop. And that she’s so glad she didn’t listen to herself back then. In the NYT interview she said she sometimes would later regret following wild ideas like making a whole electro grunge album instead of expressing herself fully and freely via Mayhem. She’s said that it’s helpful to have a partner to give her feedback that others won’t. And an overwhelming theme of this entire promo cycle is that she is the boss now. Listening to others and considering their opinion doesn’t mean she’s not the boss or that she’s being controlled, it’s an essential part of making something good.