What does Gaga have to do to secure a general field Grammy?

[BadKid58 397]

11 hours ago, bim said:

I’d been thinking about this leading up to the Grammy’s and here’s where I landed. I feel like Gaga is an artist where if you get it, you get it. If you don’t, you don’t. And she’s not the easiest person to understand, especially when a lot of her career, she didn’t even understand it herself. The fans have seen her artistry from the start, but I’ll never forget when she did the Sound of Music tribute at the Oscar’s and the headlines were ‘who knew lady Gaga could actually sing’. Meanwhile, the fanbase has been obsessing over the theatrical, cabaret piano covers of her songs back in 2008. It was no shock to us that she could pull off that tribute, the general public saw it differently. The Grammy voters have essentially told us they don’t always listen to the music or spend too much time digging into all this, and they let their bias control their voting instead of letting the music speak for itself.

Which, to be fair, her music doesn’t always speak for itself in the way it would gain a win in the main categories. She’s approached her albums from a lens of ‘making music with my friends and young producers’ pretty much up until Mayhem. While this is fine for the fan base, from a technical perspective, it can be a bit unpolished compared to some of her peers. The production on Mayhem felt different in a good way, much cleaner and tighter, more simple, even less on the nose, like with the outro of Zombieboy. Let’s be honest, Bad Romance not winning, let alone even being nominated in a main category is almost criminal, and The Fame Monster is an incredibly well crafted album, which at least got flowers via nomination. I just don’t feel people understood who and what she truly was. Maybe performance of it all was making it harder for people to see. I feel it’s important to remember how much she changed the industry with what she brought to the table. Look at the fashion and theatrics of pop music before and after Gaga entered the scene. It’s not that it didn’t exist, she just so boldly shoved it down the throats of pop culture that it changed things for everyone. The fashion has become a standard/expectation instead of just left for the artsy/cool kids/etc. It’s easier to understand the grit and beauty of what she was doing when looking back compared to when it was being debuted to the world. Perhaps the academy saw and heard the grit, but not the beauty  

I also feel as much as we’ve loved and celebrated her, she’s gotten a lot of bad press, especially during the ARTPOP era. And the Grammy voters have admitted this is part of their decision making. Even part of the fanbase themselves threw her under the bus during Joanne, and is even continuing to do so as recently as dragging her performance last night. I even saw a user on here say it was one of the worst performances of her career. Her public image has definitely changed for the better, people understand what she’s capable of now, and it feels like this is possibly the first era where she has been universally loved and respected as an artist. It makes me excited for what’s to come and hopeful she has a shot at the big categories.

Just a little thought dump. I could talk about this woman and her music until my final breath. 

Great take on it 

She became a legend, but at the same time remained an underdog.

[juicyjuicy 2,002]

I hear you - and I get that on paper, she should win in these categories. However, just to say, in 20, 50, 100 years' time, I doubt anybody's really going to discredit her legacy as an ARTIST and musician based on how many general field Grammys she has won (and she still has loads of time!). 

IMO she has already cemented herself as one of the most legendary musicians of ALL TIME. Can't say the same even for some of the ones who have won Album of the Year. 

[Glory 2,271]

Timing… if dwas or shallow had been released later if would have won.

to her ROTY it needs to be a US hit sadly…

about AOTY she never was so close

[elegidadedios 4,428]

As long as an AOTY win would be very cool to brag about, legendary artists/bands never won one, like Queen. Gaga has 16, so I think she'll be fine

[zzbrandon 184]

Die with a mile could win if it is in this year period, 

So in my watch for the winners, the pattern might be: record of the year are mostly for Hit that atop at least 10 weeks on hot 100, and globally smash; record of the year really care about chart performance and commercial performance and culture impact too

Song of the year, for recent years,  i can't see a pattern,but it mainly focus on profound meaning...and not just chart performance

For album of the year,as  from Wikipedia, it said to honor artistic achievement, technical proficiency and overall excellence in the recording industry, without regard to album sales, chart position, or critical reception. Well, we all know it's not true, it depends on what kinds of artist that we talk about,if it is about pop artist, grammy care about album sales, if it is not,grammy care about critical reception or album overrall art completion,or in these days, culture factor,like race,but most of all, it must be balanced between these factors.

So for Gaga, i think she should try find her steps to win which one first?  I'm not saying that there's not chance for her to sweep like adele or billie did in the past, but it is hard.But it is patterned to win aoty,it is patterned to win roty, soty might not be patterned, so i think for her, if  she try to win aoty, as her pop artist background, she should try release a non-pop album like Taylor with folklore, or release a pop album like harry styles,that is whole album well balanced, with first single top the chart, and album top the chart too of course.

As we all know, dance/electric music is not friendly when it comes to aoty,only daft punk won once for random access memories, i don't think it will work for gaga,and dance music is experience fatigue for years, not something that the industry will feel the need to honor or take seriously.

Even Beyonce's win also patterned, but reasonable, as that year is country year, and she celebrate country music with respectful through history,that's why she won.And the album both has no.1 single and no.1 album, and critical acclaimed. 

 

 

 

[Petie Estie 5,642]

It does feel a little ridiculous to complain when she has 15 grammys lmao. It's fine really. Not everyone can win the most prestigious Grammys. Gaga has never had a cultural moment that was both universal + socially meaningful, born this way was huge but at least at that time and maybe even now, it's not taken as seriously as other issues. I don't like to complain about stuff like this because the winners deserve it. Especially Bad Bunny. 

[Gaga Scholar 232]

@mamo @bim I'm with you. And thanks for the eloquent and thoughtful discussion on this. You stated how I feel/think with rationality and clarity, while I wrote about my feels very hysterically in @Nagini's thread. 

I'm starting to think that people (Grammy voters) are just jealous. 

 

[LUST FOR GAGA 90]

an adult contemporary album of a star is born type songs would definitely give her something

[JustTea 6,866]

Do some JnD type of ghetto hiphop, Kendrick won with that... 

[Nycboy 1,157]

In my opinion, having more personal storytelling through her lyrics would help. People connect to raw emotions, especially heartbreak (see: Adele, Lemonade, old Sam Smith, Brat, Billie). Less big anthemic pop metaphors (“dance in the shadow of a man,” “i can cure your disease,” “rain on me”) and more subtlety, authenticity, and lyrics that can be traced to real stories (like how we were dissecting VIY as an homage to Tony). That would represent artistic growth that I’d love to see. Even though Gaga has opened up a lot about the highs & lows of her life through her lyrics, for some reason her lyrics always feel very far removed to me as a listener, like a wall is up between her as an Artist and the audience.

I think she should steer away from commentary on Fame, since it’s getting repetitive. She got away with it on Mayhem as a “return to form” but can she really rehash that topic again? It’s getting stale although I do love it.

Having an album that marks a cultural zeitgeist is important, but she already achieved that with BTW and I don’t know if she can again because that’s not something you can plan on.

Having a huge hit is pretty necessary to win AOTY and she’s 100% capable of achieving this again, but who knows if she will top DWAS/Shallow, and those didn’t pull off major wins.

I also kind of agree that a stripped down singer/songwriter piano album might help since the general field rarely awards dancepop. This might make her come off similarly to Adele…but I’m not sure that’s the best move creatively. And I’m not talking Joanne, I’m talking ARUTW, Shallow, VIY, Happy Mistake.

She’s a force to be reckoned with and my all time favorite artist, but I’m still waiting for her to put out an album that’s goes down as one of the best of all time, like Ray of Light or Melodrama, because she’s capable of it. Or at least a perfect listen from front to back & as critically acclaimed as Renaissance. 

 

[Blackout19 14,910]

she needs to do a new ”chromatica” album 

[mamo 20,309]

2 hours ago, SEANGT said:

It does feel a little ridiculous to complain when she has 15 grammys lmao. It's fine really. Not everyone can win the most prestigious Grammys. Gaga has never had a cultural moment that was both universal + socially meaningful, born this way was huge but at least at that time and maybe even now, it's not taken as seriously as other issues. I don't like to complain about stuff like this because the winners deserve it. Especially Bad Bunny. 

I'm not complaining, I'm just wondering. What is the point of being on GGD if we can't write our thoughts and have conversation? I'm not being malicious or attacking anyone, I simply made a thread asking a simple question. 

But to respond to your comment: Why does she have to have a "moment" that is socially meaningful?  Taylor won with Midnights, Harry won with Harry's House, Billie won with wwafa,wdwg, Adele won with 21 and 25 and yet most of these artists I named haven't needed a social or politically driven narrative to secure a win. They aren't even politically outspoken when you compare them to Gaga and the activism she's done over the course of her career. 

 

2 hours ago, LUST FOR GAGA said:

an adult contemporary album of a star is born type songs would definitely give her something

Baby...Joanne is right there. Heck, even ASIB soundtrack didn't get nominated for AOTY. 

 

1 hour ago, JustTea said:

Do some JnD type of ghetto hiphop, Kendrick won with that... 

Honestly I'd be here for an R&B/Hip-hop influenced Gaga record. DWUW, Paper Gangsta, Starstruck, J&D, Cake Like Lady Gaga, Chillin', Video Phone, Reloaded, Second Time Around, Bitch Don't Kill My Vibe, Red Flame etc...the material is there honey! But I don't think the pop obsessed fans will be happy...

[Petie Estie 5,642]

3 minutes ago, mamo said:

I'm not complaining, I'm just wondering. What is the point of being on GGD if we can't write our thoughts and have conversation? I'm not being malicious or attacking anyone, I simply made a thread asking a simple question. 

But to respond to your comment: Why does she have to have a "moment" that is socially meaningful?  Taylor won with Midnights, Harry won with Harry's House, Billie won with wwafa,wdwg, Adele won with 21 and 25 and yet most of these artists I named haven't needed a social or politically driven narrative to secure a win. They aren't even politically outspoken when you compare them to Gaga and the activism she's done over the course of her career. 

 

Baby...Joanne is right there. Heck, even ASIB soundtrack didn't get nominated for AOTY. 

 

Honestly I'd be here for an R&B/Hip-hop influenced Gaga record. DWUW, Paper Gangsta, Starstruck, J&D, Cake Like Lady Gaga, Chillin', Video Phone, Reloaded, Second Time Around, Bitch Don't Kill My Vibe, Red Flame etc...the material is there honey! But I don't think the pop obsessed fans will be happy...

Yeah you're right I'm sorry, just went with my thoughts in general but wasn't really directed at you. 

I know others have won without a social issue or whatever, I guess I am just thinking zeitgeist? It just feels like there's always 1 or 2 bigger "moments" in the culture when she releases an album. Now Harry Styles...I can't explain that  I guess I'm just protecting my peace by having low expectations lmao

[Anderson123 41,749]

16 minutes ago, Blackout19 said:

she needs to do a new ”chromatica” album 

[StrawberryBlond 15,370]

She has to do what any girl would do...

Sorry, I just couldn't resist. The more obvious the joke, the more it has to be addressed.  I'll make a serious reply later when I've read more of the responses and stopped being so immature.