Gagas Fan Base Has Shrunk... Broad Appeal Increased

[Economy 50,387]

I was having this discussion with another user a couple days back and its something i noticed in the last few years tbh...

 

When Gaga first came out although she had overall mass appeal and popularity with GP with first few singles... by the time we got to Paparazzi/Bad Romance her dedicated fan base kept exploding while her broad appeal started to take a hit as people found her "too weird and desperate".

 

By the time we got to the end of TFM and Born This Way, most people no longer "liked" Gaga, but those that did, REALLY did and at the time her fans were carrying her still successful career. For years more she remained disliked by the GP but with a dedicated fan base although it had shrunk somewhat by ARTPOP (and what little GP support she hadeft erroaded)

 

As years went by a she repaired her image with Jazz era (showed her raw talent and that she could do more than just excentric gimmicks)... and Joanne era largely reinforced this... Super Bowl and A Star Is Born then largely put her back on the map....

 

The interesting thing is, her hardcore dedicated fan base never got as big as it once was. And tbh these days my anecdotal experience is also that I rarely meet hardcore Gaga fans. Yet, she has a lot of casual fans now and broad based appeal. The exact opposite of 2011 to 2014 days

 

While shes few ppls fav artist. She is liked and respected by most even straight men i know. Even in my warehouse where its mostly guys in their 20s, 30s and early 40s almost no one "dislikes" her and most at least like her with 3 or 4 of them having played her music in playlists at least once before 

 

Yet very few ppl are obsessed with her like Taylor Swift or Sabrina Carpenter. May explain how she can get #3 on most monthly listeners on spotify but a top 10 is a challenge and a half...

 

Interestingly, way fewer people seem like like Taylor Swift than Lady Gaga... yet the people who like Taylor like her WAY more than Gaga who most people like casually

[salty like sodium 1,992]

9 minutes ago, Economy said:

I was having this discussion with another user a couple days back and its something i noticed in the last few years tbh...

 

When Gaga first came out although she had overall mass appeal and popularity with GP with first few singles... by the time we got to Paparazzi/Bad Romance her dedicated fan base kept exploding while her broad appeal started to take a hit as people found her "too weird and desperate".

 

By the time we got to the end of TFM and Born This Way, most people no longer "liked" Gaga, but those that did, REALLY did and at the time her fans were carrying her still successful career. For years more she remained disliked by the GP but with a dedicated fan base although it had shrunk somewhat by ARTPOP (and what little GP support she hadeft erroaded)

 

As years went by a she repaired her image with Jazz era (showed her raw talent and that she could do more than just excentric gimmicks)... and Joanne era largely reinforced this... Super Bowl and A Star Is Born then largely put her back on the map....

 

The interesting thing is, her hardcore dedicated fan base never got as big as it once was. And tbh these days my anecdotal experience is also that I rarely meet hardcore Gaga fans. Yet, she has a lot of casual fans now and broad based appeal. The exact opposite of 2011 to 2014 days

 

While shes few ppls fav artist. She is liked and respected by most even straight men i know. Even in my warehouse where its mostly guys in their 20s, 30s and early 40s almost no one "dislikes" her and most at least like her with 3 or 4 of them having played her music in playlists at least once before 

 

Yet very few ppl are obsessed with her like Taylor Swift or Sabrina Carpenter. May explain how she can get #3 on most monthly listeners on spotify but a top 10 is a challenge and a half...

 

Interestingly, way fewer people seem like like Taylor Swift than Lady Gaga... yet the people who like Taylor like her WAY more than Gaga who most people like casually

totally agreed.

I was basically what Swifties are today for Gaga back during the BTW era. (Maybe not as insane... But I was really listening to her all the time and loved her music and desperate to meet her/watch her perform).

Over the years I've gotten a lot more casual. I was still invested at the start of the Artpop era but that faded probably as soon as the vomit artist got brought in. And also the artrave stuff... Rave culture doidn't appeal to me.

I could've gotten lower bowl seats to the artpop tour the day before the show for like $110 and I decided I didn't want to because the born this way ball was better.

Then the jazz thing happened and I wanted to see that London show but my show was cancelled. I still wonder who she actually won over with the jazz crowd – like the whole Vegas residency... Who was the target audience? was it monsters? jazz fans? something else? gp?

Joanne happened and I lost interest a lot there. I listened to the album but it didn't hit me the same way. ASIB was nice but it wasn't MY gaga. I kind of got back into it with Chromatica and Mayhem was also a huge win (and I also loved Harlequin)... but now I'm more into Beyoncé than Gaga as an artist, like my fandom for Gaga is not the same it used to be if that makes sense. I still love her and her music but her eras haven't connected with me as much as BTW did way back when (and BTW was my entire life).

[ALGAYDO 32,991]

Don’t forget that a big part of this is because her early-days hardcore fans were mostly teenagers, as we all grew up and became functioning adults, most of us don’t have the time or energy to Stan the way we used to, and some have outright stopped  participating in Stan-culture altogether (but are still big fans). 
 

and a HUGE chunk of Taylor’s fans are kids, pre-teens, and teenagers, who do have the time and energy to Stan Taylor as hard as they can, Gaga just doesn’t have that kind of fanbase anymore. 
 

but I also have to disagree that more people casually like Gaga than Taylor, based solely on my own personal experience, more people “like” Taylor and her music than Gaga, which is perfectly fine because Gaga just doesn’t make super GP-friendly music (she does here and there like with Shallow and DWAS, which are her biggest hits ever) 

[salty like sodium 1,992]

3 minutes ago, ALGAYDO said:

Don’t forget that a big part of this is because her early-days hardcore fans were mostly teenagers, as we all grew up and became functioning adults, most of us don’t have the time or energy to Stan the way we used to, and some have outright stopped  participating in Stan-culture altogether (but are still big fans). 
 

and a HUGE chunk of Taylor’s fans are kids, pre-teens, and teenagers, who do have the time and energy to Stan Taylor as hard as they can, Gaga just doesn’t have that kind of fanbase anymore. 
 

but I also have to disagree that more people casually like Gaga than Taylor, based solely on my own personal experience, more people “like” Taylor and her music than Gaga, which is perfectly fine because Gaga just doesn’t make super GP-friendly music (she does here and there like with Shallow and DWAS, which are her biggest hits ever) 

idk i feel like shallow, dwas and bad romance are perfect examples of how gaga's appeal is broader. taylor has hits but mainly because there are so many swifties imo. Gaga's music does pour into the GP a lot more. Shallow was everywhere when it came out.

[Starmie25 19,366]

While Gaga does have her more "casual listeners aka USA" sometimes, overall she has built a strong community (fanbase) and they will continue to check for her new music (streaming) and purchase tickets, whether it be arena or stadium.

[Lextyr97 20,065]

I mean maybe but at least in my experience, I’ve just become a lot more casual. I became a Stan right before Joanne and I bought like 5 or so copies of Joanne but I wouldn’t do that again nowadays cause I’m older and that’s a waste of money. I think her fanbase just aged and see her more as a friend than a goddess or something like Swifties with Taylor

[palma 8,253]

well we aged as a fanbase and then there are the bandwagoners who tend to jump ship once the artist in question is no longer the it girl... She still has a massive fanbase, especially in her secondary markets (Eastern Europe and Latin America most strikingly). I don't know a gay person of my age in Turkey who doesn't adore her.

She played the long game by being the divisive artist with a strong core fanbase, which will continue to buy tour tickets well into her 70s - once her peers' hits are forgotten, so they are. Gaga became big and respected as an artist, not as a singer/hit-maker over the last decade, which is the key to a sustainable career. 

While I agree her die-hard fanbase did shrink, including those alienated by the long gaps between albums and C2C/Joanne/ASIB, I think she did a lot this past year to revitalize it and by the look of the Mayhem Ball sales, it seems like it worked?  MAYHEM has been doing a lot better than Chromatica on streaming, even without DWAS. 

I still don't see LG8 opening above 250k in the US though - unless she pulls an ASIB 2.0 with palatable HAC radio hits and manages to market it to the masses somehow.

[Ziggy 12,031]

i dont think it shrunk, but i think her base became better adjusted socially as they grew up lmfao

 

Taylor's audience, for instance, are either very young AND she actively tries to make them as invested as possible whereas Madame Gagita has actively pulled back from that as *she* has gotten older. So not necessarily shrunk, but she's kinda just set a different precedent imo. I think it shrunk at one point but got big again when she made intense emotional investment less of a pre-rec.

[JohnnyVersace 9,037]

Idk about that take tbh.

I live in NYC so it's a different population compared to the rest of the country and world, but people are RAVENOUS to see her. If anything, it's almost like the past few year and specifically Mayhem have re-ignited the fire within the fanbase here. I've never fallen off the bandwagon, but even for me this is a very special era - having gotten to talk to her at the conference, Coachella, and her return to MSG for a stint akin to Mr. Billy Joel.

Sure, she has broader appeal now, but I really think the little monsters, the OG's, the real fans, have been fed and are hungry for more. There's something really special that's happening now and while yes, she has reached mass adoration, the true fans are really championing her to go back to her roots and to what makes her happy. 

 

[doppelganger 3,951]

I think little monsters are just getting older... Haha

[Starmie25 19,366]

I do feel these days more casual listeners are more likely to "stan" or be more accepting to her sound whether it be electronic, country, funk, jazz etc etc.

Some of the hardcore fans only will check for her if she releases DARK type "dance in the dark" songs, that also contains cu**y lyrics, while not being too noisy but also serving visuals that relate to "Venus" and "Jupiter" . 

Edited 8 hours ago by Starmie25

[Economy 50,387]

2 hours ago, ALGAYDO said:

but I also have to disagree that more people casually like Gaga than Taylor, based solely on my own personal experience, more people “like” Taylor and her music than Gaga, which is perfectly fine because Gaga just doesn’t make super GP-friendly music (she does here and there like with Shallow and DWAS, which are her biggest hits ever) 

I guess this is also gonna vary by area. Are u from the US? GAGA Seems to be under performing there relative to WW while TS is biggest in US

 

My experience is the opposite. While Taylor definitely has more major "fans"... theres also an equal number of people that dislike her... I find almost no one dislikes Gaga anymore and most like or resoect her at least casually (but on the flip side its hard to find anyone whos more than a very casual fan towards Gaga)

 

At work for example ive heard at least 4 or 5 coworkers play Gaga (my workplace is 80% men) tho none are major fans... i havent heard a single one play taylor swift or say anything good about her for example

Edited 8 hours ago by Economy

[Economy 50,387]

1 hour ago, JohnnyVersace said:

Idk about that take tbh.

I live in NYC so it's a different population compared to the rest of the country and world, but people are RAVENOUS to see her. If anything, it's almost like the past few year and specifically Mayhem have re-ignited the fire within the fanbase here. I've never fallen off the bandwagon, but even for me this is a very special era - having gotten to talk to her at the conference, Coachella, and her return to MSG for a stint akin to Mr. Billy Joel.

Sure, she has broader appeal now, but I really think the little monsters, the OG's, the real fans, have been fed and are hungry for more. There's something really special that's happening now and while yes, she has reached mass adoration, the true fans are really championing her to go back to her roots and to what makes her happy. 

 

I think the spotify numbers speak for themselves tho if we look more broadly and not just in specific areas

 

The consistently high monthly leaners proves she has a very wide audience. Yet with such a wide audience struggling to get a top 10 compared to Taylor, Sabrina or other new hot artists also suggests that wide audience is not listening to her obsessively as a whole

[TheARTPOPball 651]

Little monsters are growing up and a lot of us are approaching our 30s and a few already past that.  
 

Gaga's music, and she herself have also matured.
 

I would not compare taylor to anyone because i feel like her career is an anomaly, not a standard. 

What i also think is an anomaly, is that an artist as niche as Gaga, was able to have such a powerful debut in the first place. Extremely impressive on her part. 

[Killa 17,685]

So i think this is mostly about the casual fans. MEaning, the fans that aren't superfans. I don't know how you could really be sure about these things, it's all assumptions. 

The core of fanbase seems to have shifted but also seems that the originals came back or are more vocal again. 

there's many factors, for the new core base, mostly those that knew she was classically trained and were here when she sang for the queen, the acoustic sessions, maybe the songs pre fame, for those the transition into Harlequin in a way, ASIB for others, Cheek to Cheek for few, it somehow consolidates this image of her being the talented one. But these projects aren't all the same at all.

Let me try to explain, so there's a chunk of the fanbase that are very loyal that like her because she's queer and slightly alternative, say comparing to Rihanna. For those, most of the ASIB songs might be exactly what they're looking for. Meanwhile traditional american song, because those big band songs were not jazz sorry, might be intersting and a testimony of her talent, that consolidates the love for her, but also distracts and makes you take a different approach to how you go on listening to her and follow the next projects.

Then there's the ones that are more into electronic, electro pop, EDM. WE can't argue that GAga exploded with the club scene and this relationship went on and progressed into ARTPOP. And then halted until chromatica. Which kinda forced the hand. But by now, already on that front there's many other pop stars that substituted her role.

But here, it's not only about the fans but also the institutions and the people involved in the industry. Gaga understood that for her to have a long career she needs the support of the people that will invest in her, the media outlets, etc. She's been catering for the media outlets, the grammy juries, the academy, all these big institutions have her back. She's respect andclearly has big solid connections. But working so hard to maintain this support, she neglected a bit the whole edm scene basically. It was cool that she worked with Burns and even more with Boyznoise, she returned to Madeon etc. And there was a respectful relationship, but the work to make a bridge to return to this world wasn't made. Even the relationship with Bloodpop and Hana, plus Grimes didn't really bring her into that world. Which would be the kind of music and overall vibe that could reignite instered in that part of portion of the fans.

Where are the remixes for mayhem? Are remixes important? Well i'd say yes, they don't need to be official released but if there's djay's remixing your music, your music is being played. Also means that you're active and circulating in this community, the dance community. But also releasing remixes, creates this sinergy.

Long ass reply. Bottom line, her efforts in the backstage guaranteed her success in the media outlets, that will give her good press, radio support and accolades, big overall media presence. The fashion industry was put to part, the bridges between with other collaborators in this area, not only designers, is sort of dead in general. The relationship with the dance community is sort of distance. 

Meanwhile the focus was on proving talent, gainning support from an older fanbase, and overall respect from the general public. And with Mayhem she actually finally seems to regain  much much younger listeners. 

I'd say it's a juggle, and she's very aware of it. But she started to treat this like a profession, and that has it's limits. The other obvious dab is her online absence. It got slightly better. But it was mostly for promotion of the album. Also her online figure isn't very clear. On the other hand she also regained the mystery that was a bit lost