ARTPOP: Ahead of its time?

[HeavyCapiLover 3,970]

I the concept was kind of ahead of its time, given how mainstream artists used to be so afraid of going an alternative/less commercial road back then in the early 2010s. 

Most of the songs on the album however sound dated, as they are completly EDM wich is a genre that represents an era but would have never survived in the long term (just like Disco, rnb Y2k, 80s synthwave, etc). BUT several specific elements in the production of some those songs were bold and ahead of their time. "Aura" for exemple was very avant garde, and to me, was a sort of an ancestry for hyperpop. The very loud and overly strong production does bring elements that are nowadays used in many experimental pop albums and hyperpop, like the way the instrumental overtakes the chorus in Gypsy or Mary Jane Holland. The random mix of music genre on the album (like putting a rap song out of nowhere and a ballad in the middle of extreme EDM songs) is also something that was very different at the time from what was being made in pop music back then, today's pop artists are not afraid to experiment different genres without it being seen as confusing or weird.

So to me, its more the idea behind ARTPOP and some experimental elements in it that make it ahead of its time, but the songs themselves sound dated bc of the EDM genre.

[Agunimon 94]

I don't think it was ahead of its time - in fact, it was following trends at the time rather than setting them for a lot of the songs on the album.

I think the biggest "problem" it had for a lot of people was following The Fame Monster and Born This Way which lead people to look at it way more critically because it felt "less than." 

[NUTELLA 13,234]

5 hours ago, Gorehound said:

I love you Nutella but sometimes you really haven't got a clue what you're on about.

"Sometimes" is overly kind

Edited 11 hours ago by NUTELLA

[Elizabeth 536]

 

 Oh she was so ahead of her time that we still ain't made it back here 

 

All jokes aside, I'm actually not sure. Some of you have said it already sounds dated but I don't agree. Maybe it was not ahead of its time sonically, but holistically I think she was doing something different with the whole concept of ARTPOP. 

Perhaps I'll reassess and have some better insights once we hit the 20 year anniversary...

[Gorehound 4,814]

2 hours ago, River said:

ARTPOP is the example of what happens when u control her artists choices.

mayhem is the example of what happens when u let her art go wild.

ARTPOP missing her "daring" and "rude" approach when making music, something that u can feel with the demos, what is amazing about Gaga is that her songs sang by any other person, would sound generic and basic, but she adds her "gaga" into them and makes them unique, over the top, and mind blowing.. but with ARTPOP, she was not there, they stayed the generic basic songs that any other person could release...

Only Aura and Venus are exception there. but yet, Aura is not even her song, it's Infected Mushroom...

I think making DJWS the head producer was a mistake to begin with, he was not ready for a big project, that even Gaga struggled to fully understand it to these days..

I'd argue that the unique "gaga" trope was definitely in ARTPOP. I'd actually say it is one of her most Gaga-esque albums tbh concerning her input. The multifaceted vocal deliveries, the big personality, the tongue-n-cheek humour, the sexuality, the weirdness, the passion, the c*nty sass etc.. Many of the songs definitely have a daring and rude approach. I don't think that's the main issue with the album, if anything she was going a bit overboard at times with it all and at the expense of nuance. 

But I agree that there's an issue with the generic concerning the music and production. There isn't actually that much difference in structure and stylisation on ARTPOP than there is on TFM and Mayhem, but their choices on genre and delivery (the typical sounds of 2010s EDM and festival music) make it seem generic. Plus the buying of already existing songs and just writing new lyrics over them (like Donatella and Mary Jane Holland etc.) Aura I excuse as they only rly used the Infected Mushrooms track as a template and actually deconstructed it and built upon it to make it her own, same as Judas etc. That's fine. And yes DJWS was not the right producer for the job. He seemed kinda amateur as a producer and you can hear many production mistakes throughout the songs he worked on, and a general lack of imagination. And honestly even tho G.U.Y and Aura are great, I think Zedd was also a poor decision as his work is very 2010's dated.)

And ye I defo agree that the album suffered badly from people trying to control her artists choices. You can tell that from the demos in comparison to the finished pieces. I still find it weird that she seemed more creatively free on TFM and BTW, yet ARTPOP got so restricted. 

 

 

[IllusionLover 7,014]

Musically No, it follows the trends of the early 2010s in terms of EDM

Conceptually, yes the whole experience, The App, the Flying dress tye mix between fashion and technology of the era make it ahead of its time

[Gagaism 12,158]

I do think it was ahead of that time, especially considering the visuals of the era. Songs carry tons of experimentations which makes it a very unique body as a whole. 
Most people think its sounds are dated and I believe that is uniquely because of overproduction issues. 

[27monster27 14,119]

13 hours ago, Ladle Ghoulash said:

I mean, I think there’s arguably only one track that’s explicitly critical of corporatism and capitalism and it’s the title track. I agree that her messaging about recentering the role of the artist in the industry in both the performance art and interviews was definitely important, but I don’t know how strong of a motif I’d say that is throughout the whole of the album itself.

I get this, but that was the albums whole theme. It was also a huge critique on pop culture as well.

Aura - Critiqueing the idea that high art and fashion is fake and attention seeking.

G.U.Y. - Going against the capitalist idea of numbers and money defining people. "I don't need to be on top to know I'm worth it because I'm strong enough to know the truth."

MANiCURE - Expressing love for the commonly hated fact that pop artists have teams of people that make them up. (Admittedly this was more evident in the demo.)

Jewels and Drugs - Lady Gagas love of Fame and her dismissal of not just drug use but also money, the latter being something she has frequently expressed negativity over.

Do What U Want - Expressing how people attack ones body (even in the most extreme and vile ways) because they recognize they can't control ones heart and mind.

Donatella - A jokey/praising track about the stereotypes pushed on to successful female artists.

Etc.

 

The point is that ARTPOP has a lot of anti-capitalist and anti-corporatist messaging laced throughout it, but it not always is open like the title track. The album also revels in critiques of pop culture, and some of these pop culture problems directly feed into issues with corporatism and capitalism.

[PornoDanceFight 306]

In danger of being in an echo chamber: I echo most of what's been said here. I think that there are some true moments of experimentation and creativity (Aura's production, the title track's atmospheric quality, the use of double entendre throughout the record, the rebellious and confrontational nature of some of the songs, and the dabbling into some hyperpop sounds, musical hybridism, and lyricism), but I don't think it's as transgressive, subversive, or avant garde as we maybe felt when it was first released.

That said, I do think it has had an impact on some pop music. I see a lot of parallels between Brat and ARTPOP, especially with the confessional nature of the lyrics in both albums, and the aforementioned dip into hyperpop in ARTPOP.

[Ladle Ghoulash 28,816]

4 hours ago, 27monster27 said:

I get this, but that was the albums whole theme. It was also a huge critique on pop culture as well.

Aura - Critiqueing the idea that high art and fashion is fake and attention seeking.

G.U.Y. - Going against the capitalist idea of numbers and money defining people. "I don't need to be on top to know I'm worth it because I'm strong enough to know the truth."

MANiCURE - Expressing love for the commonly hated fact that pop artists have teams of people that make them up. (Admittedly this was more evident in the demo.)

Jewels and Drugs - Lady Gagas love of Fame and her dismissal of not just drug use but also money, the latter being something she has frequently expressed negativity over.

Do What U Want - Expressing how people attack ones body (even in the most extreme and vile ways) because they recognize they can't control ones heart and mind.

Donatella - A jokey/praising track about the stereotypes pushed on to successful female artists.

Etc.

 

The point is that ARTPOP has a lot of anti-capitalist and anti-corporatist messaging laced throughout it, but it not always is open like the title track. The album also revels in critiques of pop culture, and some of these pop culture problems directly feed into issues with corporatism and capitalism.

I can see the argument for an anticapitalist reading of ARTPOP (specifically how Aura and DWUW explicitly rail against commodification and objectification), but I still maintain that the majority of the overtly anticapitalism/corporatism elements of ARTPOP are in the performance art of the era as opposed to within the music itself. Much of the music is indirectly critical of some elements of capitalism at best. 
 

The most coherent anticapitalist interpretation of ARTPOP (as an era and more indirectly as an album) I can buy is the artist reasserting agency over their image and their likeness in an environment that seeks to reduce artists to static objects fit for and digestible for consumption. That I think is actually also the most coherent way in which the ethos of the era is “reverse Warholian” if we consider the way in which Warhol’s work reinterpreted, recontextualized, and resold the images of pop icons to the audience, here Gaga is saying: I will not be a static two dimensional commodified image of a digestible pop star that exists merely to make other people (read: music industry executives, tabloids, paparazzi etc.) money, but rather an artist exerting agency over her own work by relentless reinvention to the point of seeking to break down any stable sense of what “Lady Gaga” means as currency for someone else.

But even in that interpretation, while that idea is in some ways reinforced by the music, the predominant way that she expressed this idea I think was through fashion, through live performances, and through interviews, not as overtly through the music itself. Basically what I’m saying is I’m not sure that someone listening to that album in a vacuum would understand that that was Lady Gaga’s intention with that era without having some awareness of the supplementary material.

Edited 3 hours ago by Ladle Ghoulash

[Hydrangea 6,497]

ARTPOP as an album, sonically, is a perfect encapsulation of the time it came out in. The whole performance art craziness surrounding it was ahead of its time though and was pure theatre 

[hamartia 1,629]

I love it when we come together and actually share honest, thought out opinions with each other instead of bickering 

[Anderson123 39,260]

Gaga's idea of ARTPOP the concept and era was a bit ahead of it's time. The way she was doing these collaborations with Jeff Koons, Inez and Vinoodh, Marina, etc. the App thing, the fashion, technology, etc. There's some stuff that she was trying to do that no other popstar was doing at that time (maybe Bjork with the App). Sadly a lot of these things got cancelled after she fired her manager. She wanted to release Act II songs through the App during the cycle of ARTPOP and I think that'd have been an amazing treat to the fans because the way she had been building the fanbase with that, the Little Monsters website, etc. it was also about us being part of it. It wasn't just lead single, perform, promote, album release, tour, etc. She really wanted to do a lot of things. According to the leaked documents she got 4x times the budget from Born This Way so there was probably a lot more coming.

 

[Lee 62]

I think the question is wrong, ARTPOP was neither ahead of its time or a product of its time / dated on arrival. 
 

Its not ahead of its time because simply the pop landscape totally rejected ARTPOPs thesis statement that Gaga is the artist and can create whatever she wants, she is not one thing but as an artist she can be all things. I reject that ARTPOP is just an edm album, it is a pop adjacent album: pop rock, pop rnb, pop rap, pop dance, pop disco, pop ballad… the track list is so diverse that it clear Gaga wanted to remove this idea of what “pop” is, it not just one sound, and when you ask an artist like Gaga to make pop what are you asking her to do? Because it will sound different depending on what she wants to say, she uses all genre brushstrokes because she is what makes it “pop” everything else is a blank canvas for her to play im. And i think that’s what she means by pop music should never be low brow, she has a deep routed respect for the versatily and dynamics that pop music has. This is also found in the themes: she wants to settle down (gypsy) but cant be without the fans (applause) she loves drugs (mjh) but feels it ruining her life (dope) wants to have the power (venus) but willing to be submissive (guy) loves the over top fashion (fashion!) but recognises it’s problematic elitist ways (donatella) - the whole record is thematically “i can nuancedly see/feel both sides and marry the light and dark of it all” it is rejecting being just one thing but belonging together as all things. But modern spotify/tik tok algorithm 2025 rejects this. Artists have to have a specific “vibe”, they cant be everything anymore but instead a very specific brand because the public has access to every song all of the time and the main question artists must answer is “why should they listen to my song now” and therefore artists must adhere to their specific vibe and soundscape brands as the public are in the “mood to listen to gaga” and therefore she must supply that to them. The opposite of ARTPOPs versatile multi genre soundscape.
 

Secondly, ARTPOPs advertising campaign again rejects modern sensibilities of promotion and specifically 2025s focus on authenticity. ARTPOP Gaga was deliberately being an artist creating artificial, not personal theatrical moments to show herself as a creator of art not as a person. Her waking down the street super slow as performance piece on fame/paparrazi culture; her consistently changing wigs/ looks throughout the cycle and on stage ect ect. She was illuminating not her authenticity but how she is not authentic (in a away) that she is an artist creating and dissecting how Gaga the popstar is a creation not an authentic representation of Stephani. The public in 2025 want the authentic tik tok, make up influencer, girl next door real person artists, not the theatrical creations of the Pop Diva Goddess of yester year. 
 

So I argue ARTPOP is not ahead of its time because the modern day does not reflect what ARTPOP was doing. But it is neither dated. 
 

Gaga is a pop diva, like katy, taylor, beyonce etc, she therefore should only be compared in this league. Yes underground artists will always be more experimental than any of these women because they are niche not mainstream pop divas. Name me one song by any of the pop girls listed that sounded like Swine, Aura, Dope, Jewels and drugs etc before ARTPOP (or even after ARTPOP). Gaga was coming of the behemoth Fame-BTW run, she was the definition of it girl mainstream, the fact she was making these songs was subversive. To just call ARTPOP an offshoot of the edm boom is so reductionist because it wasn’t just an “edm boom” it was a recession dance party of “no thinking” pop music of throwing your troubles at the door turning your mind off and dancing. ARTPOP is not that. The metaphors aura, the playing two roles in sex dreams, the sexual assault allusions in dwuw etc etc. This is not turn your mind off dance music about partying to make you feel good. ARTPOP had so much more ambition and this is from a pop diva. 

[SidewalkUnicorn 114]

Not really. I think mainly the casual fan and the critic were tired of Gaga by 2013 because she was so extra and AP was Gaga being extra extra and so a lot of people either tuned out or couldn’t listen without bias. Once people began to miss her eccentric side rather than be annoyed by it, ears opened to AP and realized it was pretty good.