Abracadabra is indeed better than Bad Romance

[Sepsami 19,418]

It does come close.. For me the holy trinity has gotta be Abracadabra, Bad Romance and Judas  With Alejandro lurking just around the corner

[Sepsami 19,418]

The people that disagree didn't get to see the Mayhem Ball live and are to be taken pity on and that's on periodt

 

[Ladle Ghoulash 30,628]

On 12/7/2025 at 10:37 AM, DanceInTheDark said:

Watch me

I swear, I’ll dance in the shadow of a man

[tylerjs 5,960]

On 12/7/2025 at 10:20 AM, dynamite said:

So every single one of them 

lmao yeah 

I don’t hate the setlists just bc she includes it i just don’t like that it’s there in general, especially every time 

[Dojo 19,623]

IS THAT SO?? 

[Smother Em Eh 7,154]

[PornoDanceFight 345]

On 12/8/2025 at 5:17 AM, Ladle Ghoulash said:

You can’t praise BR for the “roma-roma”lyric but criticize the quasi-Latin gibberish in Abra when you know damn well Abra’s chorus includes “amor” and “morta” for “death or love.” Also, I love BR down but we can’t be acting like the verses are loaded with metaphors lol. She’s essentially saying a variation of the same thing with each line (“I want the ugly/bad/disgusting parts of you”). I’d also argue that the juxtaposition of the hard techno breakdown in the post-chorus, acid techno, 90s house, euro dance, gothic pop (interpolating a post-punk banger), and the classical pastiche in the bridge makes Abra equally (if not even slightly more) sonically/compositionally progressive than BR. 
 

Lady Gaga, imo, is a master of dramaturgy + semiotics and I think where she shines is how she uses her songs as instruments for storytelling (and, as a pretext, assigns a certain mutability to the lyrics to allow for them to serve as springboards for theatrical extrapolation), so I think both Abra and BR in how they’ve been contextualized in her MVs and live performances are rich with meaning, but I’m not sure I’d go as far as to say *either* are profound in and of themselves.

BR’s surface interpretation (what’s actually in the lyrics): Toxic relationship, a codependent yearning for every part of someone even though they’re bad for you.

BR’s meta interpretation (via MV, live performances): A song from Stefani to Gaga, Gaga to her audience…I know fame could get ugly, but I want every part of it. I’m going to embrace my own darkness and the darkness of everything I encounter as Gaga and take it on romantically even if it (or especially if) it hurts me.

Abra’s surface interpretation (what’s actually in the lyrics): Dancing as a form of striving to get better, to get stronger, to overcome adversity, to find yourself, to find love, to survive in a club where the stakes are existential (literally life or death)

Abra’s meta interpretation (via MV, live performances): A summoning ritual for “Gaga,” a protection spell against negative energy from any detractors, synthesis of darkness + light. Striving, not as suffering as it is in BR, but as a way of growing, purifying, and integrating.

IMO, I think Abra, in that context, is deeper than BR (and the stakes are absolutely higher), but I also think that its meaning at least partially builds on BR, so they’re complementary, but each can stand on their own.

But part of why I love both songs (and why I would never make my children fight each other) is that I think both are quintessentially Gaga in every sense: they function as surface level, indulgent, absurd pop bombast, while simultaneously being dramaturgically and semiotically weight bearing for Gaga’s meta theatrical narrative. 

The quasi-Latin of Abra just don't hit as hard as the "rah rahs" do (at least for ME), but I do agree that both have elements of sonic progression that can only really be done by Gaga. I also agree that Abra feels more sonically distinct and builds and moves beyond the BR blueprint, as it were, compared to a track like Judas (but that breakdown in the bridge remains one of the more sonically daring things I've heard in her catalogue).

I agree that Gaga's (best) lyrics allow the songs to take on multiple meanings for whatever meta-narrative she wants to portray within the lens of a pop song, but that's also why I think BR soars over Abra. While the meta-narrative can be seen as overshadowing the lyrical content, I think the fact that BR stands as such a stark demarcation of her work that it would be difficult, if not impossible, to see and listen to the track without that context. I think that meta-narrative also enriches the song's meaning. It carries with it a sense of urgency for both Gaga the artist and the public's relationship with her art, and I think, especially when considering the pop-performance art that was much more (literally) meta at the beginning of her career, makes it that much more compelling. 

Abra's meta-narrative does also carry that urgency with its lyrics and video being an invocation to a muse (The Lady in Red/capital "g" GAGA) for protection and salvation; however, I would argue that, for laypersons (like truly the common denominator public), that meaning might be misunderstood and lost, therefore making BR much more accessible and a triumph of a pop song where all of it, from the yearning lyrical content, the 'transgressive' production and composition, and the meta-narrative, propel BR from just a pop song to a pop moment that carries with it the weight, history, and urgency that the original music and vocal performance also demand from its listeners.

But you are right my sistren, let's not pit her beautiful, bombastic children against each other 
 

[HotLikeMexico 5,459]

It is not. But I’ve learned that some people on this site are just factually incorrect, backed by science in fact so it’s okay.