gagzus 19,158 Posted March 5 Share Posted March 5 20 hours ago, AsleepOnTheCeiling said: Agree. I still think Gaga turns out artistically where it matters (live shows, photoshoots). A lot of money went into the Mayhem Ball set design as well as costumes. And I'm sure she would have poured more into the Grammy performance if she had been given the time and proper heads up. It was very last minute and she's mid tour. We (sadly) live in the world of content creation and fast everything. Now once an album is out, once we’ve seen a tour live/on YouTube, once we’ve seen an outfit once, a wig once, a music video etc people want something new. This is exactly why AI has become so popular because it makes people have to wait less to get what they want. 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pachinko 10,664 Posted March 5 Share Posted March 5 On 3/4/2026 at 6:38 AM, Bronco said: Honestly, I think we overstate Gaga as a music video artist/visual artist. She had a run of good videos between Paparazzi & You & I at a time when music videos had become the big IT thing in the industry, but outside of that window when the industry was obsessed with music videos and pumping millions into them - she's not really been a video focused artist. She's a theatrical artist, her primary selling point and focus point has been live performance. So I think the only thing we've missed out on this era is the frequency of promo performances she used to do - but realistically, those slots she performed in are largely gone. Late night tv shows are less popular these days and they're not spending the same $$ to book musical guests. We've lost so many of the big award show stages/seen the remaining ones decline in relevance and as a result pull stunt bookings to try and make teens turn in. There's little to no musical spots on morning tv circuits anymore. The big shows like X Factor/Idol/America's Got Talent are either dead or irrelevant. Exactly. The music videos for Mayhem era have great moments but lack something overall. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
LGAte 609 Posted March 5 Author Share Posted March 5 (edited) 10 hours ago, Alxjcgn said: My bad, didn't see that. I've been reading the posts quickly while making dinner lol. The album itself is definitely cohesive and one of the best she has done in terms of making everything flow yall are deaf. Disease (90's industrial) and Garden of Eden (mid-00s pop) and Abracadabra (2010s German Techno meets early 90's Piano House meets Ray of Light tranceness) and Killah (Bowie-esque funk) and Zombieboy (Chic/Nile Rogers disco meets 00's cheer romp) and How Bad Do U Want Me (Yaz/80's synthpop) and Shadow of a Man (Michael Jackson meets Prince) and Don't Call Tonight (Daft Punky Cali-rock) and Die With A Smile (mid-70's soft rock) I get these are all cool sounds but this was not a "cohesive" album. I think streaming has caused people's literal listening abilities and ability to approach music like a Humanities or Critical course has lost all relevance because everyone just thinks they like everything or calls everything everything these days and blends it into a soup and says its cohesive because of a narrative in their own head. When I first heard this record THE FIRST thing I said was....this is her least cohesive album. VISUALLY it is VERY COHESIVE. YES! Musically. Not at all. Even she said it's not. It's like 3 or 4 different albums smacked together. She literally stated Die With A Smile was not meant for the record. It's BLATANTLY obvious LoveDrug was sold to studios for the Top Gun: Maverick soundtrack (it has the producers and same DNA of the synths and guitars and even winks at the first Top Gun stylistically) and then added She even said she wanted the album to be more like Perfect Celebrity (and it was even called that at one point) and then Michael convinced her to do the funk thing more. And she even said Killah was a random fun thing she did with Gessaffelstein off the cuff that decided to work for the album. Also the fact The Dead Dance was made for a kids TV show and was literally recorded for that purpose as a sister to Bloody Mary's success and that world. How does one actually sit there and go, "yep, that's the bones of a cohesive album." Edited March 5 by LGAte Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
gagzus 19,158 Posted March 5 Share Posted March 5 People forget that she’s a well established artist going up against primarily new or artists at their commercial peak. It’s an AMAZING feat that a popstar who’s almost 40 can get MULTIPLE worldwide hit singles from one album with a concise era. Also all these new artists she’s up against are throwing ANYTHING at the wall and could only dream of being as big as Gaga. In fact almost all of the other female artists she’s up against want to collab with her and admire her as an artist. That’s worth so much more than some gay boy on the internet not being happy she doesn’t have a generic Table Stiff style single or era. We’re like almost 8 (technically 9) studio albums deep and she still managed to get a #1 single and a hit viral single. Like… Taking away how HARD she’s working her ass off on tour and with promo, even numbers wise she’s smashing, she had the biggest song of 2025 (DWAS) and a single that was heralded by her critics as a return to form (Abra) like come on now… 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ladle Ghoulash 40,392 Posted March 5 Share Posted March 5 19 minutes ago, LGAte said: well you were 14. I just feel like...to act like Just Dance, Poker Face, and LoveGame are generic great pop videos without acknowledging that pop music leading up to that was Rihanna's SOS, Fergie's Big Girls Don't Cry, Nelly Furtado's Maneater, and Pussycat Dolls music....Gaga coming out and grabbing her crotch in a semi-androgynous way and writhing around homosexually was seen as....not normal. Why was this girl making music for the gays and not the straight boys? Even Katy Perry's "I Kissed A Girl" video still was very much so made for the eyes of teenage boy to like. Girls at a slumber party acting cute and horny. Gaga was literally with a grown woman in a police uniform in a gritty subway writhing and wearing **** that the average boy in the suburb would have thought made her "goth" or "a weird drama club kid". I remember Gaga saying she wanted to confuse boys and make them question whether or not they were attracted to her. It was very that. And that was like...during PokerFace promotion... And like I said...Just Dance felt very clued in on the hipster/millennial/artsy/city kid culture in a way that pop had still not really embraced yet...it was still either straight up HIP HOP & R&B or POP or Country. The semi-electronic warped club kid thing hadn't been injected in pop. I know that seems minimal because we live in an era of brat. Even compared to Gaga's own work, Just Dance is hardly stacking up to the crazyness of ARTPOP. But that's because she normalized that. So I don't like the idea that Just Dance,Poker Face, or LoveGame weren't groundbreaking. I don't think they were as thought out and cinematic as Paparazzi (which is when it was really fleshed out), but her first three singles WERE pushing at the edge and had people calling her the weird club girl/new Madonna/gay pop queen before Paparazzi ever came into the chat. The concept of explaining the era to someone who was there and capable of grasping its significance We have forgotten our public MANNERS 1 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
LGAte 609 Posted March 5 Author Share Posted March 5 10 minutes ago, pachinko said: Exactly. The music videos for Mayhem era have great moments but lack something overall. Love Abracadabra. I think it is the best example of her summing up (not her entire career) but a core part of her lore into one video. Disease was....idk....it felt like Lady Gaga trying to be Lady Gaga to me. It wasn't actually daring or intellectual to me. It was just kind of an aesthetic. The song grew on me though. The Dead Dance is absolutely lazy. She traveled somewhere, put on an outfit, and hit record with some generic Diet Bloody Mary vibes. Not groundbreaking. Die With A Smile plays into the whole popularity of the 70's aesthetic. These videos are well done basic videos. What we are missing is her pushing boundaries again and saying something important. And I hate to say it, her avoiding saying certain political things (when she used to be loud af), only adds to that.....something is missing feeling. 1 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
gagzus 19,158 Posted March 5 Share Posted March 5 (edited) 12 minutes ago, LGAte said: yall are deaf. Disease (90's industrial) and Garden of Eden (mid-00s pop) and Abracadabra (2010s German Techno meets early 90's Piano House meets Ray of Light tranceness) and Killah (Bowie-esque funk) and Zombieboy (Chic/Nile Rogers disco meets 00's cheer romp) and How Bad Do U Want Me (Yaz/80's synthpop) and Shadow of a Man (Michael Jackson meets Prince) and Don't Call Tonight (Daft Punky Cali-rock) and Die With A Smile (mid-70's soft rock) I get these are all cool sounds but this was not a "cohesive" album. I think streaming has caused people's literal listening abilities and ability to approach music like a Humanities or Critical course has lost all relevance because everyone just thinks they like everything or calls everything everything these days and blends it into a soup and says its cohesive because of a narrative in their own head. When I first heard this record THE FIRST thing I said was....this is her least cohesive album. VISUALLY it is VERY COHESIVE. YES! Musically. Not at all. Even she said it's not. It's like 3 or 4 different albums smacked together. She literally stated Die With A Smile was not meant for the record. It's BLATANTLY obvious LoveDrug was sold to studios for the Top Gun: Maverick soundtrack (it has the producers and same DNA of the synths and guitars and even winks at the first Top Gun stylistically) and then added She even said she wanted the album to be more like Perfect Celebrity (and it was even called that at one point) and then Michael convinced her to do the funk thing more. And she even said Killah was a random fun thing she did with Gessaffelstein off the cuff that decided to work for the album. Also the fact The Dead Dance was made for a kids TV show and was literally recorded for that purpose as a sister to Bloody Mary's success and that world. How does one actually sit there and go, "yep, that's the bones of a cohesive album." Girl literally EVERY song from Killah onwards sounds like it’s from the same album pop-rock-disco if anything the first 3 songs sound like after thoughts and songs made to be fan appeasing singles. (electropop throwbacks to her old sounds) Also Wednesday is NOT a kids TV show lmao it’s literally a 15 rating, Michael never convinced her to do anything he said she shouldn’t just make everything sound the same because that’s not who she is (which is true because no 2 of her albums sound the same) Edited March 5 by gagzus 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
LGAte 609 Posted March 5 Author Share Posted March 5 1 minute ago, gagzus said: People forget that she’s a well established artist going up against primarily new or artists at their commercial peak. It’s an AMAZING feat that a popstar who’s almost 40 can get MULTIPLE worldwide hit singles from one album with a concise era. Also all these new artists she’s up against are throwing ANYTHING at the wall and could only dream of being as big as Gaga. In fact almost all of the other female artists she’s up against want to collab with her and admire her as an artist. That’s worth so much more than some gay boy on the internet not being happy she doesn’t have a generic Table Stiff style single or era. We’re like almost 8 (technically 9) studio albums deep and she still managed to get a #1 single and a hit viral single. Like… Taking away how HARD she’s working her ass off on tour and with promo, even numbers wise she’s smashing, she had the biggest song of 2025 (DWAS) and a single that was heralded by her critics as a return to form (Abra) like come on now… To me this starts to read as excuses. She is not in her seventies and doing it for fun like Cher. She is 39. She is in her prime. Sexism is still alive and well because how is 39 old? If you have proven your iconography, you should be THE MOST daring now. Madonna was releasing Ray of Light and Music at 39-42. Kylie Minogue was releasing Aphrodite at 42 after being largely absent because she fought breast cancer. Cher didn't drop If I Could Turn Back Time until 43. And Believe wasn't even out until she was 52. Mariah Carey was dropping "Touch My Body" at 39 and "Obsessed" at 40. This narrative that it is unheard of for women to have that kind of success is not unheard of, actually. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
LGAte 609 Posted March 5 Author Share Posted March 5 2 minutes ago, gagzus said: Girl literally EVERY song from Killah onwards sounds like it’s from the same album pop-rock-disco if anything the first 3 songs sound like after thoughts and songs made to be fan appeasing singles. (electropop throwbacks to her old sounds) Also Wednesday is NOT a kids TV show lmao it’s literally a 15 rating, Michael never convinced her to do anything he said she shouldn’t just make everything sound the same because that’s not who she is (which is true because no 2 of her albums sound the same) You think Killah and Shadow of a Man and HBDUWM and Blade of Grass feel like the same album? AND YOU THINK DISEASE, ABRACADABRA, AND GARDEN OF EDEN sounds like after-thoughts???? Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ladle Ghoulash 40,392 Posted March 5 Share Posted March 5 (edited) 18 minutes ago, LGAte said: Love Abracadabra. I think it is the best example of her summing up (not her entire career) but a core part of her lore into one video. Disease was....idk....it felt like Lady Gaga trying to be Lady Gaga to me. It wasn't actually daring or intellectual to me. It was just kind of an aesthetic. The song grew on me though. The Dead Dance is absolutely lazy. She traveled somewhere, put on an outfit, and hit record with some generic Diet Bloody Mary vibes. Not groundbreaking. Die With A Smile plays into the whole popularity of the 70's aesthetic. These videos are well done basic videos. What we are missing is her pushing boundaries again and saying something important. And I hate to say it, her avoiding saying certain political things (when she used to be loud af), only adds to that.....something is missing feeling. Idk saying Disease has nothing to say feels like a skill issue. The video is basically about inward facing psychological and emotional sadism and masochism, a shadow self dividing and conquering someone’s psyche until a pure essence is born from the chaos and tries to unify the self, recognizing that the sadism of the shadow comes from a place of deep seated pain. It’s basically a video about shadow work and emotional + psychological integration. Not to mention that t he arc of the video, alongside Abra, became the narrative spine/framework for TAOPC, which I’d say is probably her most fully conceptually realized fusion of pop performance and theatre of her entire career. Edited March 5 by Ladle Ghoulash We have forgotten our public MANNERS 1 4 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bronco 19,719 Posted March 5 Share Posted March 5 29 minutes ago, LGAte said: So I don't like the idea that Just Dance,Poker Face, or LoveGame weren't groundbreaking. I just feel like this take is very american-centric. And the examples you used of Rihanna/Fergie etc just furthers my perception of it. It totally ignores the impact of videos like Filthy Gorgeous by the Scissor Sisters the song was a UK #1 and a Billboard Dance #1 in 2005. The video is set in a dirty queer divebar in NYC and platforms drag queens and trans performers in that setting. And it covers all the things you claim make Just Dance/Poker Face/Love Game so unique and groundbreaking. Then there's the whole indie sleaze movement of the 00s which is where that "found footage" drunken night out music video style found its footing. Like indie sleaze as a stylistic influence is massively visible in the very early days of Gaga. Like from a Brit perspective, and growing up in the 00s and seeing the rise of Gaga. The things you, as an American, are considering so revolutionary when Gaga did it in those first 3 singles are just media things I had spent years at that point growing up consuming. Like my first album I bought at the grand age of 7 was the Scissor Sisters debut. Maybe I'm just an unrepresentative example because I grew up surrounded by chaotic and sleazy queer music. But I can honestly say, because of what current music I grew up with prior to Gaga's debut that the music videos you consider groundbreaking felt like just professional high budget versions of content and ideas I'd seen done before in the 00s. The gays know how to party 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bronco 19,719 Posted March 5 Share Posted March 5 15 minutes ago, LGAte said: Kylie Minogue was releasing Aphrodite at 42 after being largely absent because she fought breast cancer. I mean...no. Kylie was not "largely absent" because of her breast cancer. She did cancel the original Showgirl Tour mid-run in May 2005. But restarted the revamped Showgirl tour in Nov 2006. That ended in Jan 2007 and she went immediately into the X era kicking it off in Oct 2007 and led to her largest tour to date at that point (and the one that's visited the most unique geographical locations to date) in 2008. Aphrodite wasn't a comeback album after her cancer fight. It was 4 years, 2 tours and 1 album after the cancer fight. The gays know how to party Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MadArchitect 1,366 Posted March 5 Share Posted March 5 how you say she "musically" gave up but then describe everything around roll out, promotion and commercial run? 3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
elegidadedios 3,947 Posted March 5 Share Posted March 5 18 hours ago, TheARTPOPball said: I still think we should get one more. Idc what anybody says, I do not count DWAS as a mayhem music video because it wasn’t intended for the album and does not fit the visual direction of the rest of the era. I know she has some videos that kind of explore a different visual theming like 911 but they still remain much more cohesive as a visual project that mayhem including die with a smile. That's still up to your own interpretation. MAYHEM technically has 4 MV and nothing will change that, lol. I agree tho a 5th one would be the cherry on top 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
elegidadedios 3,947 Posted March 5 Share Posted March 5 3 minutes ago, MadArchitect said: how you say she "musically" gave up but then describe everything around roll out, promotion and commercial run? They meant being at 2009/2011 peak again. That's all some ppl care about lmaoo 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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