Fooled Me Again Live

[AVeryGagaHolyDick 27,925]

Damaged or not, I think her best live vocals were during The Fame era. Extremely strong tone and Amy-like low register

and it’s interesting cause you don’t hear those vocals on the album, but you can hear them throughout the entire The Fame Monster album, but not in TFM’s live performances. Then, a little bit of that voice was here and there in the Born This Way album (especially in Marry The Night’s verses) and after that, it disappeared forever.

Well actually, I kinda hear a liiiiiiittle bit of it in Abracadabra 

Edited January 5 by AVeryGagaHolyDick

[27monster27 14,614]

53 minutes ago, FameHookah said:

Yesss! I wasnt a fan of how she sang Poker Face 2010 onwards (but now she nails it along with the high note songs too!)

she also had some damage back in the vegas residence days (shallow era) she struggled at the oscars and now she belts it out like nothing, im glad she knows how to work her voice like that, usually other singers completely lose theirs.

 

also her vocals during 2013-2015 ughh heavenly

stanning her its like being a fan of 818191 artists at the same time (from faces, hair, fashion, GENRES, acting, personalities and most importantly VOCALS) haha its so magical how can she sound so different from song to song even on the same albums.

Yeah something was off during the time after Joanne. She started smoking heavily again during that time and there were rumors that she stopped visiting a vocal coach too. Fibromyalgia can affect the vocal chords which probably played a role too since she was very depressed during that time.

[FameHookah 4,731]

6 hours ago, gagzus said:

I mean I’m almost the same age as her and as a “proper” adult or whatever people call it, I understand her. She was living out her delayed childhood for sure at the time.

Mayhem and Harlequin are the first albums and eras that give me the vibe of what I fell in love with her about tbh

Im 34 and yeah i feel like we matured together😭

[FameHookah 4,731]

6 hours ago, AVeryGagaHolyDick said:

Damaged or not, I think her best live vocals were during The Fame era. Extremely strong tone and Amy-like low register

and it’s interesting cause you don’t hear those vocals on the album, but you can hear them throughout the entire The Fame Monster album, but not in TFM’s live performances. Then, a little bit of that voice was here and there in the Born This Way album (especially in Marry The Night’s verses) and after that, it disappeared forever.

Well actually, I kinda hear a liiiiiiittle bit of it in Abracadabra 

Yeah Just Dance and Paparazzi at a lower POWERFULL range are ICONIC, poker face got elevated so hard also

The only downside is that she couldnt do any high high notes at all like she does now

so yeah i think she found the perfect balance this era

[Ladle Ghoulash 32,667]

21 hours ago, 27monster27 said:

 

She had severe vocal damage (likely) due to drug use. Lady Gaga has revealed consistently that she did severe drugs in her early career (~2007 - July 2013), so that is the only likely possibility.

The evolution I like to use:

Pre-damage

Early damage (starting in October 2008 you could tell that something changed as her voice consistently sounded "heavier")

Middle damage (admittedly January 2009 isn't the best showcase because she clearly was sick during this month, but there is where someone without a trained ear can more noticeably hear a difference)

Worst vocal damage in March 2009

----

Early healing (Notice how by May 2009 she isn't straining quite as much, and certain parts of songs sound "smoother")

Noticeable healing (V Festival in August followed by the VMAs is the strongest example of this; note how comfortable she starts to sound here with different notes as well as experimenting with different riffs)

(with the VMAs I would also reccomend listening to some fancams as MTV autotuned her performance; for example, she actually went flat during the build up to the first high note in the second chorus)

----

I tend to end this here because this is where her eating disorder kicked in which threw off her vocal changes. She became very nervous and low energy which caused her to develop bad vocal technique. This is why she sounded very uncomfortable during the Monsterball 1.0 and early Monsterball 2.0 and other performances around this time like SNL. I assume personally that the deeper more strained sound from mid-2010 was due to this combined with her possibly being exhausted, though it doesn't explain why she started sounded better (more Born This Way era-esque) come late-2010.

Trying to tell when her voice fully healed is hard because of her changes in vocal technique (starting due to her eating disorder) and vocal styling (starting with the "Dope" voice in 2013). My best guess is that she probably was fully healed sometime in 2011 - 2012 and definitely by the time the ARTPOP era started, though it should be noted that severe drug damage can't always fully heal itself.

Given the timeline you laid out, I feel like it’s also equally as likely that she might’ve just been overworked at the beginning of her career and her voice/technique hadn’t caught up to the demands of being a full time pop star until 2009-2010 (which, as someone who’s worked as a professional singer, feels more likely to me).

[Ladle Ghoulash 32,667]

10 hours ago, AVeryGagaHolyDick said:

Damaged or not, I think her best live vocals were during The Fame era. Extremely strong tone and Amy-like low register

and it’s interesting cause you don’t hear those vocals on the album, but you can hear them throughout the entire The Fame Monster album, but not in TFM’s live performances. Then, a little bit of that voice was here and there in the Born This Way album (especially in Marry The Night’s verses) and after that, it disappeared forever.

Well actually, I kinda hear a liiiiiiittle bit of it in Abracadabra 

Ngl probably one of my least favorite eras from her. Late TFM -> BTW and Harlequin -> MAYHEM are Gaga’s best vocal eras to date, imo.

[27monster27 14,614]

1 hour ago, Ladle Ghoulash said:

Given the timeline you laid out, I feel like it’s also equally as likely that she might’ve just been overworked at the beginning of her career and her voice/technique hadn’t caught up to the demands of being a full time pop star until 2009-2010 (which, as someone who’s worked as a professional singer, feels more likely to me).

She definitely did overwork her vocal chords at times no question (especially when she still sang with the track and started oversinging in order to not be seen as a lip syncer). Lady Gaga was singing a lot and working like crazy since February 2008, and I feel like the bad technique would've hurt her starting at least by July. I should've mentioned in my timeline that the change in her voice started abruptly in October 2008. I don't think bad vocal technique would've cooked her this quickly though. Madonnas bad vocal technique got up quick on her 2000s tours, BUT that was when she was also going through menopause and not taking good care of her voice. Rihanna also had bad vocal technique for much of her career, but it didn't start to hurt her a lot until 2011 and definitely 2012 (though you could tell it was declining before this).

[Ladle Ghoulash 32,667]

1 hour ago, 27monster27 said:

She definitely did overwork her vocal cords at times no question (especially when she still sang with the track and started oversinging in order to not be seen as a lip syncer). Lady Gaga was singing a lot and working like crazy since February 2008, and I feel like the bad technique would've hurt her starting at least by July. I should've mentioned in my timeline that the change in her voice started abruptly in October 2008. I don't think bad vocal technique would've cooked her this quickly though. Madonnas bad vocal technique got up quick on her 2000s tours, BUT that was when she was also going through menopause and not taking good care of her voice. Rihanna also had bad vocal technique for much of her career, but it didn't start to hurt her a lot until 2011 and definitely 2012 (though you could tell it was declining before this).

That’s kind of what I’m saying: I actually think the abruptness leans more towards fatigue and away from damage. I can tell you that overworking my voice as a singer has lead to me sometimes losing my voice after very active periods and it remaining husky for a period of time after without adequate rest and honestly I’d say that’s what I think was going on with Gaga.

I think she was adapting to being able to sustain a higher volume of performances and a greater workload, resulting in her voice being functionally fatigued for a few months, but the technique gradually stabilizing and improving overall as she started to get used to it, adapt to it, and find ways to adequately care for her voice, resulting a better quality and more consistent vocal from that point on.

In a way, what happened there is probably similar to what happened this year: Gaga was out of practice in terms of maintaining vocal health and hygiene during a high volume tour, she pushed herself a bit too hard, strained her voice, cancelled a show, took it easy for a bit vocally (sounding huskier, opting for lower harmonies, sometimes dodging high notes) and then gradually recovering and recalibrating. This year, similar to what you’re describing, she sounded incredibly healthy until her voice hit a wall and then, once she came back after cancelling Miami, you could hear for the next string of shows just how tired her voice was.

Edited January 6 by Ladle Ghoulash

[FameHookah 4,731]

21 hours ago, Ladle Ghoulash said:

Ngl probably one of my least favorite eras from her. Late TFM -> BTW and Harlequin -> MAYHEM are Gaga’s best vocal eras to date, imo.

ARTPOP and the sound of music tho