MAYHEM’s (possible) original theme

[TheARTPOPball 672]

I cant help but speculate and think about what would have happened if Gaga had continued down the original path she had created for MAYHEM.

Its not even the sound that I'm interested in, but like the theming and aesthetics that could have possibly came out differently. 

As we all know the first song written for Mayhem was Vanish Into You. And based on how she described the album before going in the mayhem direction , i also believe Abracadabra was written before the ladder half of this album (if this hasn't been confirmed anywhere.) i also believe this because when she was teasing songs, she teased abra alongside perfect celebrity, which she started was when she decided to veer of into the new direction . With this in consideration, and all the references to game Cards in the mayhem ball, and in some of the lyrics, i must ask the question…

Is it possible that Gaga was going for a Magician-themed record before developing the concept of Mayhem? 

If this was the case, do you think we would have gotten more song titles following this theme? How would the visuals differ? I know the applause video already kind of went in that direction!

Edited 12 hours ago by TheARTPOPball

[Luke78619 23,427]

I’ve never made the connection between the game cards and magician paired with abracadabra  

maybe she was, all I remember is that Perfect Celebrity was possibly going to be the album title, and Gaga considered making the whole record sound more like this track

[TimotheeChalamet 5,871]

No, it was just inspired by gothic themes so the magic/witch/creature aesthetic was going to be in there as a small part of it anyway. By the way, Gaga works like this: she writes regardless of a theme, then comes up with a direction and tries to tie the songs together. That's why several tracks on each album sound different than a big chunk of the others. Of course with Mayhem she had a deeper control of production but there's no "original theme" with her albums, it's a thing fan speculate about all the time

Edited 12 hours ago by TimotheeChalamet

[bpmMonkey 6,092]

2 minutes ago, TimotheeChalamet said:

No, it was just inspired by gothic themes so the magic/witch/creature aesthetic was going to be in there as a small part of it anyway. By the way, Gaga works this way: she writes regardless of a theme, then comes up with a direction and tries to tie the songs together. That's why several tracks on each album sound different than a big chunk of the others. Of course with Mayhem she had a deeper control of production but there's no "original theme" with her albums, it's a thing fan speculate about all the time

Slight edit, cause I think this is how she *used* to work on her albums, that's what she said at least in the apple interview and that's why a minority group has problems with the album I think. 

[HIMe 2,073]

19 minutes ago, TimotheeChalamet said:

 there's no "original theme" with her albums, it's a thing fan speculate about all the time

The original LG5, which she referenced at the Spotify event this era, was a real thing tho. 

[TheARTPOPball 672]

26 minutes ago, TimotheeChalamet said:

No, it was just inspired by gothic themes so the magic/witch/creature aesthetic was going to be in there as a small part of it anyway. By the way, Gaga works like this: she writes regardless of a theme, then comes up with a direction and tries to tie the songs together. That's why several tracks on each album sound different than a big chunk of the others. Of course with Mayhem she had a deeper control of production but there's no "original theme" with her albums, it's a thing fan speculate about all the time

See i thought “abracadabra” and “vanish into you” came from the same like Houdini like inspired names, and then how the concert has a lot of references to cards, and in dead dance even she references “killed my queen with just one pawn” and magicians normally do card tricks.  

Edited 11 hours ago by TheARTPOPball

[Doroteyo 445]

33 minutes ago, TheARTPOPball said:

See i thought “abracadabra” and “vanish into you” came from the same like Houdini like inspired names, and then how the concert has a lot of references to cards, and in dead dance even she references “killed my queen with just one pawn” and magicians normally do card tricks.  

that's a chess reference, not a cards game reference.

[palma 8,276]

3 minutes ago, Doroteyo said:

that's a chess reference, not a cards game reference.

This giving "so close! That's a shape <3" energy 

I think MAYHEM as it is the og concept of the album, which is basically reigniting her passion as a pop musician and going back to what made her great with a new mindset and letting go of the fear of not living up to your previous work. Perfect Celebrity, the techno-grunge-inspired album was an idea she toyed with for a while but Michael convinced her to keep her songs as is, for all we know. 

I think she's not done with exploring that sound, as she literally said it, and will probably do an expansion with LG8/9 with Gesaffelstein as the executive producer - which would be heavenly imo. The Beast and to an extent VIY also shows how she can incorporate some HAC sound into that album. Ideally it would be like a TFM>BTW scenario with Watt and Gesaffelstein switching places a la Garibay and RedOne. 

[TimotheeChalamet 5,871]

41 minutes ago, HIMe said:

The original LG5, which she referenced at the Spotify event this era, was a real thing tho. 

Yes, but I'm more than sure she meant she wanted to do a certain type of music (like when she described "ARTPOP's little sister" for LG6) and there wasn't a fleshed out theme for the album: during the Spotify even she only referenced going back to Frankensteined then feeling it wasn't right for Mayhem. During the promo for Mayhem she said she always writes about what's going on in her life (or something similar) so I think the theme/aesthetic always comes later in the process

[TimotheeChalamet 5,871]

43 minutes ago, TheARTPOPball said:

See i thought “abracadabra” and “vanish into you” came from the same like Houdini like inspired names, and then how the concert has a lot of references to cards, and in dead dance even she references “killed my queen with just one pawn” and magicians normally do card tricks.  

Yes okay but that's the aesthetic of the concert with the chess theme and stuff, Mayhem is more of an introspective travel within her different sides and the music perfectly reflects that in being different styles. 

[TheARTPOPball 672]

24 minutes ago, Doroteyo said:

that's a chess reference, not a cards game reference.

Well i mean regardless the other points still stand. 

[TheARTPOPball 672]

12 minutes ago, TimotheeChalamet said:

Yes okay but that's the aesthetic of the concert with the chess theme and stuff, Mayhem is more of an introspective travel within her different sides and the music perfectly reflects that in being different styles. 

Yes, Mayhem is but she has acknowledged herself that she was heading in a different direction before being redirected, so this post is just speculation on what the album would have turned into if that external influence was not there or had directed her to continue on that path. 

[elijahfan 26,490]

1 hour ago, TimotheeChalamet said:

No, it was just inspired by gothic themes so the magic/witch/creature aesthetic was going to be in there as a small part of it anyway. By the way, Gaga works like this: she writes regardless of a theme, then comes up with a direction and tries to tie the songs together. That's why several tracks on each album sound different than a big chunk of the others. Of course with Mayhem she had a deeper control of production but there's no "original theme" with her albums, it's a thing fan speculate about all the time

Thank you, I’m so tired of fans inventing album concepts that never existed because they don’t understand how the artistic process works.

[gagzus 16,086]

Thematically she was just going back into the “darkness” she used to love back in the day I think it’s just coincidence that her references became themed around the “Halloween” aspects people associate with her.

I’m more interested in how she was gonna make every song sound like Perfect Celebrity. And since it’s my fave song on the album, I hope she goes that route again next time too

[TimotheeChalamet 5,871]

1 hour ago, elijahfan said:

Thank you, I’m so tired of fans inventing album concepts that never existed because they don’t understand how the artistic process works.

I mean it's fine to speculate but everytime some fake Twitter insider or overly creative fan comes up with this because it fulfills their own vision it automatically leads to expectations and "broken promise" feelings that simply has no reason to exist and ruins the experience