MAYHEM's Continuity as 2nd Album in New "Timeline"?

[Lord Axel 738]

MAYHEM has been out almost two weeks and naturally it's been on non-stop rotation every day  Originally this topic was going to be an analysis about the overarching theme of the album as a series of gothic dreams like Gaga has mentioned several times, with its constant mention of sleep/dream/fantasy in the lyrics, as well as starting with "You're so tortured when you sleep" in Disease and ending with "I just woke up from a dream" in Die with a Smile - But I saw that many people caught that already (if you didn't, you're welcome ), so let's move on to the real goal of this topic...

There was something I noticed after I got my MAYHEM vinyl and went to add it to my collection:

Spoiler

On the left, I have each of her numbered studio albums in order of release. It may be hard to tell, but see how The Fame through Joanne has "Lady Gaga - (insert album title)" in the center of the spine? Well, Chromatica & MAYHEM have only the album name in the center, while "Lady Gaga" appears either at the bottom (for Chromatica) or the top (for MAYHEM). Not only that, but Chromatica was her first album cover without any text on it, which MAYHEM also follows. I remember back in 2016, someone on here pointed out how the Joanne album cover is depicted as if she is reflecting back on her previous four studio albums when you line the CDs up (not to mention its the only one that she's not looking forward). Joanne was also her last album with any involvement from RedOne - coincidence? 

So if each album is considered an "era", the above factors lead me to believe that Chromatica was the start of a new "timeline", where Gaga felt she had to return to pop music after her "damage control" reset with Joanne after ARTPOP, which culminated in being thematically end-capped with her 2017 Super Bowl performance. In a way, A Star is Born was kind of like a transition from the similar sound of Joanne into the pop comeback of Chromatica, since the soundtrack included both stripped-back & pop-style songs. Then there's also Happy Mistake from Harlequin (AKA LG6.5), which fittingly serves as a transitive song between Chromatica & MAYHEM, leading into the broken mirror theme of the album cover and reassembling the shattered pieces of herself back together after dealing with dancing through her pain on Chromatica, to truly return to making the kind of "unapologetic" pop music her earliest fans fell in love with 

Sure, it could just be a design choice and I'm over-analyzing, but I'm such a fan of artistic worldbuilding that I just HAD to type this up haha. So who agrees with me? 

[Nagini 398]

I love the delusion. God bless Mayhem. 

[Red 97,196]

g0rl Gaga pays attention to detail but not on this level

[elegidadedios 1,047]

I don't think it's that deep tbf  since many years ago big artists like her (and pretty much everyone) stopped putting their names and logo's albums into the artwork. Tbh, when I saw the Joanne cover I was kinda impressed she still decided to put the albums name and hers in the artwork

I do agree with others above that she doesn't put that much attention in little details like that, just more of a natural thing to have in mind smth like "well I am GAGA ppl will instantly recognize an artwork made by me without the need of explicitly saying it's mine".

I think she pays attention to other details like the color pallettes used in the covers, so I mentally organize them like this:

1. The Fame

2. The Fame Monster / Born This Way / MAYHEM

3. ARTPOP / Joanne / Chromatica

That's why I was convinced way before Disease the artwork for LG7 was going to be b&w, same reason why I think LG8 will match a totally different pattern

 

4th edit: DAMN I started this post with just a paragraph and it became a whole essay lmao sorry girlies

Edited 11 hours ago by elegidadedios

[Jill 29,594]

1 hour ago, elegidadedios said:

since many years ago big artists like her (and pretty much everyone) stopped putting their names and logo's albums into the artwork. Tbh, when I saw the Joanne cover I was kinda impressed she still decided to put the albums name and hers in the artwork

In the streaming era it's no longer necessary to do so, something that coincidentally also aligns with the rebirth of vinyls, which in their time also didn't have any wordmarks (generally) because their covers were meant to be exhibited like works of art.

[Anderson123 37,088]

I'm not sure about that but maybe it's a new era for her after healing. I've always felt like there were stages of Gaga's career like Phase 1 (The Fame -> ARTPOP), Phase 2 (Cheek To Cheek, Sound of Music Tribute, Joanne, ASIB, Chromatica and Love For Sale). Now everything that she's been doing since she's with Michael feels so fresh and on another level and you can hear it in the music (Die With A Smile, Harlequin, Mayhem).

[Tommy Monster 842]

When she was about to drop Mayhem, the thought did cross my mind that when you consider Chromatica and Mayhem, they kinda mirror the more light-pop Fame and the heavier Fame Monster respectively, so on a subconscious level, she actually might have been unknowingly resetting her career like that 

[Lord Axel 738]

8 hours ago, elegidadedios said:

I don't think it's that deep tbf  since many years ago big artists like her (and pretty much everyone) stopped putting their names and logo's albums into the artwork. Tbh, when I saw the Joanne cover I was kinda impressed she still decided to put the albums name and hers in the artwork

I do agree with others above that she doesn't put that much attention in little details like that, just more of a natural thing to have in mind smth like "well I am GAGA ppl will instantly recognize an artwork made by me without the need of explicitly saying it's mine".

I think she pays attention to other details like the color pallettes used in the covers, so I mentally organize them like this:

1. The Fame

2. The Fame Monster / Born This Way / MAYHEM

3. ARTPOP / Joanne / Chromatica

That's why I was convinced way before Disease the artwork for LG7 was going to be b&w, same reason why I think LG8 will match a totally different pattern

 

4th edit: DAMN I started this post with just a paragraph and it became a whole essay lmao sorry girlies

That's true - I definitely feel like after Joanne when ASIB was coming out, she was at the point where everyone had become familiar enough with her to know it's her albums without text (but again it may just be due to conforming to streaming standards, as you said)

6 hours ago, Anderson123 said:

I'm not sure about that but maybe it's a new era for her after healing. I've always felt like there were stages of Gaga's career like Phase 1 (The Fame -> ARTPOP), Phase 2 (Cheek To Cheek, Sound of Music Tribute, Joanne, ASIB, Chromatica and Love For Sale). Now everything that she's been doing since she's with Michael feels so fresh and on another level and you can hear it in the music (Die With A Smile, Harlequin, Mayhem).

I can get behind that 

10 minutes ago, Tommy Monster said:

When she was about to drop Mayhem, the thought did cross my mind that when you consider Chromatica and Mayhem, they kinda mirror the more light-pop Fame and the heavier Fame Monster respectively, so on a subconscious level, she actually might have been unknowingly resetting her career like that 

That's good stuff right there  Really curious to see what follows MAYHEM (just like every new album haha)

[HotLikeMexico 4,889]

I really hope you stretched.... cause g0rl that REACH! Your bones are gonna hurt. worried for you sis.

[Lord Axel 738]

3 minutes ago, HotLikeMexico said:

I really hope you stretched.... cause g0rl that REACH! Your bones are gonna hurt. worried for you sis.

I stretch every morning before meticulously analyzing Gaga albums

Edited 2 hours ago by Lord Axel

[SpadesToStart 3,135]

I hope Gaga does the Super Bowl again in like 7-10 years from now. Her catalogue just keeps growing.