So what is MAYHEM about?

[AVeryGagaHolyDick 22,809]

I’ve listened to nearly every single interview of Gaga that exists about the album, and yet I still don’t really know what it’s about? 

 

- The Fame was the story of her lifestyle and a commentary about the birth and the death of the celebrity.

- The Fame Monster was a compilation of her fans’ fears, a different monster in each song.

- Born This Way is about being and celebrating yourself.

- ARTPOP is the opposite of TFM, each song representing a different adrenaline and also a concept record about soup cans and expeditions or something

- Joanne is about being Lady Gaga without the fame, being her father’s daughter, her mother’s daughter, her sister’s sister, her friends’ friend, her chickens’ master etc. and the power of family trauma

- Chromatica is about struggling to go on with life, putting words on your pain and dancing through it. 
 

 

But what about MAYHEM? Other than “I feel happier then ever being with Michael” and “I feel confident being Lady Gaga again”, I don’t know what it means conceptually. She mentioned it being the soundtrack to our bad decisions but I feel that it only applies to Garden Of Eden? Get to work detectives, I wanna know more

[River 110,006]

It's a mockalbum about pop music, but ya'll not ready for this analysis

[RAMROD 106,722]

From Disease up to DWAS, is a story about her career ebb and flow, from being so dark, corrupted, lost, and disillusioned of her own image, to being understanding of her self worth and finding someone who can love and appreciates her which finally calms her. MAYHEM is her complex life. 

[hijadeputa 3,697]

Its about jumping on **** in the garden of Eden 

[Kayi 2,102]

I've made a thread about it : 

 

It's mostly about her fighting to find the truest and purest love despite being a woman with a celebrity persona 

It's my interpretation of the album 

Edited 3 hours ago by Kayi

[GerMonsterNotta 1,172]

It’s about surviving life and surviving oneself, and restoring one’s fire through the mayhem of life  …. 

An autobiography which describes the mayhem of push and pull, battles and acceptances, between fame, loving/hating yourself or loving/hating your persona, it’s an analysis of what it means to survive the Mayhem of life through reclaiming your passions, and regaining confidence in yourself …… 

Edited 3 hours ago by GerMonsterNotta

[Nessun Dorma 2,669]

Based on some statements made by Gaga, I’ve come to an understanding that Mayhem is about embracing the chaos and accepting that it will always be a part of life. Even though it’s a difficult thing to do, Gaga believes that it is possible to find something beautiful and joyful in the midst of our own inner turmoils and the chaos inherent in life. The statements I mentioned above are: 

1) What Gaga said about Disease:

Disease is about facing that fear, facing myself and my inner darkness, and realizing that sometimes I can't win or escape the parts of myself that scare me. That I can try and run from them but they are still part of me and I can run and run but eventually I'll meet that part of myself again, even if only for a moment. You can’t fight the chaos. Dancing, morphing, running, purging. Again and again, back with myself. This integration is ultimately beautiful to me because it's mine and I've learned to handle it. 

2) What Gaga said about the album’s name:

The album was called MAYHEM to memorialize a piece of me and a piece of life that is not always easy to accept. It was hard at first to name the album MAYHEM because I so much don't want that feeling to be real. I am also a hopeful person. I’m also somebody that is a dreamer, but what I think I ultimately arrived at is; it’s all of the fractures of who we are and the fractures in the world and the mayhem of that brokenness that ultimately teaches us the power of joy, and dancing and crying and laughing and listening to music and holding your friends and your family and repeat! This album is fun and I enjoyed the contrast of a fun album that’s also called MAYHEM.

3) What Gaga said about the album’s cover:

The album started as me facing my fear of returning to the pop music my earliest fans loved…[I’m] reassembling a shattered mirror: even if you can’t put the pieces back together perfectly, you can create something beautiful and whole in its own new way.

I might be reaching? I might be reaching. But this concept makes a lot of sense to me and my current headspace. 

Edited 3 hours ago by Nessun Dorma

[Ivy 11,962]

Idk but the songs seem to be inspired by relationships that didn't work out, or I guess just different relationships with people in her life, then at the end is about her and Michael 

For example: Perfect Celebrity is about her relationship to the public and fame, Shadow Of A Man about her relationship to men as a woman in her industry, it's been discussed Vanish Into You could be about Tony, How Bad Do U Want Me about a past relationship when she felt like they were attracted to her bad girl side

Maybe this could be seen like different parts of her life reflected in the broken mirror, like it all seems chaotic but she puts it together and starts something new in the end 

[Dramatica 13,584]

As @Nessun Dorma said, it's about embracing the chaos. A chaos that she embodied in the lady in red. A chaos that gives you either one of two choices: Dance (live through the chaos) or die (virtually there's no choice here as she herself said, but to dance).

[chathonnete 527]

I think Mayhem is just about Gaga's life and feelings for the past 5 years, with the vibe of a gothic party. I think she named the album Mayhem to justify mixing genres, and to be able to be free and have no locked concept She could have named it "Introspection" just like all her albums

Edited 1 hour ago by chathonnete

[Mother of Puppies 36,107]

It's about curtains cream

[27monster27 12,201]

It's an analysis into the mayhem that is her career and navigating trauma.

Also, The Fame Monster was her fears, not the fans. ARTPOP was navigating anti-capitalism and anti-corporatism in an increasingly anti-Lady Gaga (as a concept) music scene.