Can we talk about "The Fame"?

[salty like sodium 1,860]

Relistening to it I find the album really jarring and a bit confusing too. For example on the one hand you have songs like "Poker Face" and "Paparazzi" (and possibly a bit LoveGame, but a bit less imo) that feel quintessentially "GAGA" and are indicators of the Rah Rah Bad Romance Gaga we know and love and have yet to meet. And then we have a lot of bubbly bubblegum type songs like Just Dance, Eh Eh, Summerboy, etc...

Fast forward less than a year later and The Fame Monster comes out and it's almost like a totally different artist recorded those 8 tracks, it's totally next level. So I'm really curious if anyone knows a bit more backstory to how the first album came about and then how her sound completely evolved from that album to TFM. Like were Paparazzi and Poker Face added to the album last or something? Let's discuss!

[NUTELLA 9,097]

Listening to The Fame tracks while looking at The Fame Monster album artwork (or vice versa) is such a mind****. Some people consider them one single album after the re-issue, but they are worlds apart to me.

LG as an artist seems fully-realized in both, but TFM has a sophistication & timelessness that comes out of no where after TF.

[Ladle Ghoulash 23,854]

Not the full picture, but: as far as I know, a lot of the funkier cuts (BDR, TF, SB, DH) were carryovers from 2007 sessions with Rob Fusari when she was signed to Def Jam (although, interestingly, Paparazzi also came from those sessions and she even performed it at Lolla in 2007). As for Just Dance and LoveGame, those songs were written for Pussycat Dolls originally with RedOne after getting signed to Interscope. So the fact that they were written over a couple of years across labels, intended for different artists and different projects is probably why it’s so eclectic.

Edited 7 hours ago by Ladle Ghoulash

[Ricardo 7,816]

the thing is, basically she worked with a lot of different producers from 2006-2008, that's why the songs are so different from each other, all the RedOne work was added before the release, that's why we have the RedOne remixes of Eh Eh and Paparazzi. Summerboy, Again Again, Brown Eyes, BDR, are some of her first songs as this Gaga persona 

Edited 7 hours ago by Ricardo

[salty like sodium 1,860]

3 minutes ago, NUTELLA said:

Listening to The Fame tracks while looking at The Fame Monster album artwork (or vice versa) is such a mind****. Some people consider them one single album after the re-issue, but they are worlds apart to me.

LG as an artist seems fully-realized in both, but TFM has a sophistication & timelessness that comes out of no where after TF.

Personally, I feel like TF is actually less coherent as an album overall, I mean "Eh Eh" after "Poker Face" is a bit of a bait and switch in a way tbh. It's still a fun album but pretty much every release after that seems to have had a much more consistent and clear identity to me. And agree, even the artwork makes a huge difference. But also when you hear "Bad Romance" as the opener on TFM it feels like such a "Oh s***" moment, like the level was upped or something. It really creates a great break between eras and introduces a new era/sound in a very direct and theatrical way.

But considering how close those releases are time-wise, the difference in style is quite surprising to me as well. And TBH reissuing them as a bundle probably did help her career sales-wise, so the label was right to do that imo – since the hits from TFM likely benefited and got bigger thanks to LG, PF and JD.

5 minutes ago, Ladle Ghoulash said:

Not the full picture, but: as far as I know, a lot of the funkier cuts (BDR, TF, SB, DH) were carryovers from 2007 sessions with Rob Fusari when she was signed to Def Jam (although, interestingly, Paparazzi also came from those sessions). As for Just Dance and LoveGame, those songs were written for Pussycat Dolls originally with RedOne after getting signed to Interscope. So the fact that they were written over a couple of years across labels, intended for different artists and different projects is probably why it’s so eclectic.

Thanks so much for the context! I had no idea that RO had worked for the PCD lol. Now the entire first Nicole Scherzinger solo album makes so much more sense to me.

[salty like sodium 1,860]

1 minute ago, Ricardo said:

the thing is, basically she worked with a lot of different producers from 2006-2008, that's why the songs are so different from each other, all the RedOne work was added before the release, that's why we have the RedOne remixes of Eh Eh and Paparazzi. Summerboy, Again Again, Brown Eyes, BDR, some of her first songs as this Gaga persona 

I just feels like a lot of the songs don't really fit the "Gaga" character, like it feels more like Paris Hilton almost on Beautiful Dirty Rich, for example. Totally a different character to the Poker Face "ma ma ma ma" 

[Ricardo 7,816]

Just now, salty like sodium said:

I just feels like a lot of the songs don't really fit the "Gaga" character, like it feels more like Paris Hilton almost on Beautiful Dirty Rich, for example. Totally a different character to the Poker Face "ma ma ma ma" 

yeah because the Gaga we know now was developed around when she started working with RedOne and Dada, you can notice this in her really early performances, how the outfits and everything were kinda bland, until she started wearing the hood ala Grace Jones that's when the concept of the Gaga we know started 

[NemoMyName 738]

Summerboy isn't "bubblegum", maybe Boys Boys Boys but summerboy definitely no, it's more in the funky spectrum.

Edited 7 hours ago by NemoMyName

[salty like sodium 1,860]

5 minutes ago, Ricardo said:

yeah because the Gaga we know now was developed around when she started working with RedOne and Dada, you can notice this in her really early performances, how the outfits and everything were kinda bland, until she started wearing the hood ala Grace Jones that's when the concept of the Gaga we know started 

oh really interesting! So did Red One join the album last or something? And then they probably just joined his songs with a bunch of other pre-existing songs at the label for budget reasons (too expensive to do a full 15 song set with Red One when they already invested in the previous stuff?) That would make a lot of sense !

5 minutes ago, NemoMyName said:

Summerboy isn't "bubblegum", maybe Boys Boys Boys but summerboy definitely no, it's more in the **** spectrum.

With Summerboy I'm thinking specifically with how light, airy and sweet her vocals are compared to songs like Bad Romance, Love Game and Poker Face where she really draws deep into her chest voice.

[andreas85 394]

There are many different versions of The Fame, I don't know which one is the most common. The one in Spotify is the one I also own on cd and it is still awesome, fun, fresh and easy to listen to. Disco Heaven and I Like It Rough are kind of average but other than that it is still very captivating from beginning to end. I don't have a problem with Gaga's more shallow pop songs because they are still perfect in their own genre and some of them are iconic, kind of songs that you always think about when you think about Gaga. The Fame Monster is pure dark pop and it is also impressive in its own way.

[Ricardo 7,816]

16 minutes ago, salty like sodium said:

oh really interesting! So did Red One join the album last or something? And then they probably just joined his songs with a bunch of other pre-existing songs at the label for budget reasons (too expensive to do a full 15 song set with Red One when they already invested in the previous stuff?) That would make a lot of sense !

they worked together writing for other artists before actually working on their stuff,  I believe the concept for the fame was already on the making with Fusari, so basically a lot of the songs were done already and then they decided to include her work with RedOne 

[AVeryGagaHolyDick 25,235]

I mean, all her albums are quite eclectic except Chromatica. I don’t think it’s a negative thing at all!

The Fame is a brilliant album from start to finish. It portrays her lifestyle and her dreams in a very complete way.

Nearly all songs sound perfect to me. And to think it’s her debut album makes it even more impressive. I don’t wanna be mood killer but I think my favorite albums will always be The Fame, The Fame Monster and Born This Way. They were both well thought and spontaneous at the same time. 

I still love her music but I feel that nowadays she overthinks almost everything. She used to sh*t music and it was magical. I feel privileged to have witnessed The Fame days.

 

Edited 6 hours ago by AVeryGagaHolyDick

[Anderson123 38,291]

I’ve always seen this as the “Stefani” funky Gaga demos she did with Kierzanbum and Rob Fusari (Paparazzi, Again Again, Beautiful Dirty Rich, Eh Eh, Summerboy, The Fame, Disco Heaven) and then when she started working with RedOne they wrote Boys Boys Boys and suddenly magic happened and they wrote Just Dance, Lovegame, Poker Face, Money Honey, Paper Gangsta all in a short amount of time. There’s actually a recent RedOne interview about that process.