The Fame Analysis

[imogen2133 439]

So obviously The Fame is a great debut album and was the beginning of everything.

The 2 main concepts Gaga gave for the album were the idea of feeling famous even without any riches, status or notoriety/feeling famous with very little and just your confidence and "inner sense of fame" and the idea of choosing between love and fame and exploring if having both is possible as a worldwide famous superstar. 

So I thought I would have a go at figuring out the song meanings and seeing how they fit into these concepts, let's analyze

Just Dance: A song all about dancing and partying, forgetting your troubles and getting so drunk you forget where you are and what's happening. Doesn't really fit in either concept but still a great song nonetheless.

Lovegame: A song all about the game of love, in which Gaga finds herself in the club with a guy that she isn't sure about and is unsure if he just wants a fling with her or something long term. One lyric here nods towards the idea of choosing between love and fame, "Do you want love or you want fame, are you in the game?" which positions Gaga as someone already famous and shows her trying to figure out if he wants a proper romance or if he is just trying to get with her due to her famous status. 

Paparazzi: It is about Gaga chasing after a famous guy like the paparazzi chase celebrities and her imagining a relationship with him in a stalker like way where they are both famous and are photographed together by the paparazzi regularly.  It could also be read as a commentary on how the celebrity loves the paparazzi just as much as the paparazzi loves the celebrity/how she will be their "paparazzi" and follow them and how the celebrity will do anything to get their attention even in self destructive ways. This is one of the strongest examples of the idea of having to choose between love and fame because the song could be read as Gaga loving the guy like the paparazzi loves celebrities or read as Gaga singing about her love for the cameras because they amplify her message and status to the world. 

Poker Face: About Gaga's bisexuality and how Gaga is seducing the guy to be with her (in the verses) and how good she is at playing the "lovegame" and playing him but when she sleeps with him all she can think about is being with a woman. 

Eh Eh (Nothing Else I Can Say): About Gaga breaking off her current relationship and moving on to a new guy she wants to be with.

Beautiful Dirty Rich: All about Gaga's time partying/clubbing downtown with her friends in NYC and feeling famous with little money and while wearing cheap clothing. Fits the theme/idea of feeling famous with no big status or money very well.

The Fame: About Gaga's dreams of being known worldwide as a big star, about Gaga contrasting what is currently popular in society and with famous people like runway models, fancy cars, celebrities drinking alcohol, ****ography/celebrities using their bodies and only being known for their sex appeal and plastic surgery with her vision of fame and what it will look like for her like classic Hollywood glamour, retro sensibilities, that older kind of fame and things that are "odd" or out there. There are also parts that acknowledge the darker side to fame like the fact that people chase fame endlessly and are just in it to get their name out there and are in it for shallow reasons. (Similar themes to her unreleased song Hollywood) Fits the theme of feeling famous without status or wealth quite well and shows that you can still want to chase worldwide fame and status while still maintaining an inner sense of fame and confidence as well.

Money Honey: About Gaga (and by proxy the listener) imagining herself as a famous celebrity living the life on boats, drinking champagne, being rich, living in a mansion and going on island trips but saying despite all of that she still prefers the romantic love of her lover. Fits both themes of choosing between love and fame and feeling famous without wealth or status very well.

Starstruck: About how Gaga likes a guy and is "starstruck" by him like a fan is with a famous celebrity. Fits the theme of choosing between love and fame well.

Boys Boys Boys: A song celebrating men and boys and male culture (as per Gaga's words) and a song written to impress her rock n roll boyfriend at the time (Luc) and as a reverse or response to Motley Crue's "Girls Girls Girls". Doesn't fit either theme but still a great song nonetheless (and one of my favs from the album).

Paper Gangsta: A diss-track towards her old record label for asking her to use autotune on her songs and how she doesn't want any fake people in her life. Fits the concept of being famous without having any status or wealth decently, especially for people aspiring towards that lifestyle.

Brown Eyes: A sad breakup song about mourning lost love and Gaga being sad because her guy has moved on to someone new. Doesn't fit either concept but still quite good and adds some variety to the album as a break from the synth/dance pop tracks.

I Like It Rough: A song all about how Gaga keeps getting herself into relationships with toxic people and people who are not good for her, how messed up she is and how she is upset with the guy when he is not rough with her or when he treats her well. Doesn't fit either theme but still very amazing.

Summerboy: About a fling that lasts through the summer that will be over after summer ends. Doesn't fit either theme but still a very good song.

Disco Heaven: A song heavily inspired by the 70s and the disco fever of the era. Also about partying and boogieing on the dance floor. Doesn't fit either theme but still a great song.

Retro Dance Freak: A song inspired by Gaga partying with her friends in NYC that is similar to BDR and about her feeling famous and glamourous. Also about Gaga's love for retro glamour and an older era of music. 

Again Again: A song about Gaga's ex coming around to a bar where she is with her new guy, her thinking about him and her admitting she still has feelings for him. Good song but feels a bit short compared to most of the other songs on the album.

So overall songs that best fit the theme of feeling famous without any status, fame or wealth: Paparazzi, Beautiful Dirty Rich, The Fame, Money Honey, Starstruck, Paper Gangsta and Retro Dance Freak

Songs that best fit the theme of choosing between love and fame and about if you can have both or not: Lovegame, Paparazzi, Money Honey, Starstruck

However another way to look at the theme on the album of choosing between love and fame could be that at least half of the songs explore themes of fame and the other half explores love and romance. This is one of the strongest readings thematically and the one that probably fits the album best because it encapsulates almost all the songs (except Just Dance and Retro Dance Freak), but some songs fit both quite well as I mentioned before.

Songs about fame: Paparazzi, Beautiful Dirty Rich, The Fame, Money Honey, Starstruck, Paper Gangsta, Retro Dance Freak

Songs about love: Lovegame, Poker face, Eh Eh, Boys Boys Boys, Brown Eyes, I Like It Rough, Summerboy, Again Again

Side Notes: I think some of the unreleased songs from this era like Heiress, Vanity or Retro Physical could have easily replaced songs like Brown Eyes, Summerboy or Eh Eh since they fit better thematically overall. Also unpopular opinion but I think the album tracks are great here and are almost as strong as all the singles.   

My favs from the album/top 5: I Like It Rough (one of my all time favourite Gaga songs ever, extremely underrated), Poker face, Paparazzi, Disco Heaven and Boys Boys Boys

 

 

[bxr 1,955]

Solid retrospective … I drafted a sort of audiobiographical take on the album back in the day … it‘s not a proper track-by-track analysis … but maybe more of a conceptual episodic observation … a bit of a verbose vignette, but a neither-here-nor-there share fwiw

Spoiler

Pop: grab your old girl with her new tricks; if this were Gaga’s first and last album, it would be just as complete as it is in context as a dynasty starter.

The Fame is nothing more and nothing less than a perfect Pop debut through and through. Visceral, catchy, panoramic, reflective, progressive, chock full of hit singles, formidable filler, and fun; foreshadowing or foreboding depending on how you look at it — and yet, so very simple. The Fame is merely a skeleton, and the beats are nothing more than an atmosphere. In Britney’s wake we saw a sea change: where Spears’ genesis was plot-driven – the tale of a singer at the helm of heavy production, and a girl at the whim of a weighty world – Gaga’s voice is the fuel behind The Fame. She gives life to the beats, as much as she injected the joie de vivre back into Pop’s consciousness.

The sound is underground and mainstream, simultaneously past and present. “Just Dance” couldn’t be more straightforward as it rips the disco skeleton from the past, fleshes it out with simple synth layers, and slaps an electro-futuristic veneer on for 21st Century tech propulsion. The beat is a night out: airy synth, simple percussion, minimal layers, basic four-count – nothing crazy, nothing coercive, just dance music. The lyrics are universal: just dance, gonna be okay – and repete after moi.

Gaga is “that girl” from the club. This is the first step into the journey through a necessarily tumultuous relationship between lovers: the celebrity and the scene, the artist and the industry, the author and the audience. It all starts with “Just Dance.” You just dance to get to know their name, you just dance to get on Page Six, you just dance to get that record deal, you just dance for reassurance that it’s going to be okay—and this is The Fame.

Beyond that, at first listen, “Just Dance” is any other Pop track, a brilliantly choreographed debut. It couldn’t be more literal, and at a time where the world is a collective skeptic for good reason – the truthiness behind WMDs – that clear transparency was a scene coup de quo in and of itself. Everything the track is not makes it everything it is. It is not new, it is not groundbreaking, it is not particularly deep or profound—and yet, coming from a world of life under-rug-swept it was that very transparency that broke America out of its shell. Just. Dance. No more, no less, no hidden agenda. Before auto-tune and vocoders, before ice and chains, there was lighthearted, carefree disco: the most fundamental, infinite, constant, life stream of music by method.

The weight of modern Pop’s heavy production reflected a population beneath the barrage of their own environment. Britney’s voice battled in dynamic bombast with Danja’s basslines, Nicole Scherzinger and Co.’s voices were as empty as the stars they aspired to be, and this was the subtle soundtrack of our daily lives—conversing and communicating in a modified tone, rehashing dialogue gathered from the news, the Facebook, The Hills, the White House; we had no control. Everything was entirely too complex, and we gave up. We woke up waiting to see which institution had failed us now, which neighbor lost their home, or which coworker lost their job; meanwhile, Gaga woke up to see which club she had failed to name last night, which bartender found her keys, and which bouncer found her phone. It could all be so simple, and even though you made it hard, it can all be so simple again – just dance, gonna be okay.

The signature sound is as apropos a sonic aesthetic for Gaga as any you could possibly fathom. Disco: the rainbow coalition rallying cry emerging as the pulse of the marginalized and socially-oppressed communities. Disco, the uber-derivative genre that pulled its identity from soul, jazz, Calypso, funk, rock, Latin, and infused those indigenous sounds with new synth technology. Disco, the cultural anomaly with which to be reckoned, that self-contextualized subculture hidden-in-plain-view, the Anti-Red-Blooded America full of the gays, the blacks, the women, the progressive post-hippie problem.

Gaga: the rainbow-haired bad romancer emerging as the pulse of the Generation Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell fringe networks. Gaga, the uber-derivative artist that pulled her identity from Lorca, Queen, Jim Henson, Motley Crue, In Living Color, Rilke, Kubrick, Yoko Ono, and infused those influences with a modern Pop veneer. Gaga, the cultural anomaly with which to be reckoned, that self-contextualized subversive supernova hidden-in-plain-view, the bleeding red corpse of American celebrity hanging from the rafters.

Disco and Gaga, the liberating voice, the heartbeat and pulse; when Nixon put the fringe elements away, when Bush put the freaks in the doghouse, Disco and Dance music are what the subculture whistled while they werqed.

They turned the basement into the big house, they made the freak fabulous, they Studio 54ed on the floor and Monster Balled out of control. They took the clandestine and made it social currency. That ironclad community, that bond of the oppressed, is what fueled the funk. Metal heads hated Disco, but the genre bordered Glam Rock and birthed Hair bands; rap culture is notoriously homophobic, but the genre birthed hip-hop. Disco – Electronic Dance music – is universal, it is liberating, it is innate, it is self-made, it is the high-hated, it can’t pay rent but it is gorgeous, and it’s never dead—just beautysleeping in a trance, but never sleeping to dream: and this is The Fame.

The Fame is Pop; Pop is as personal, as it is political, as it is a commercial vehicle. The Fame is exactly the same; each song is a scene from a story, and it means whatever you want it to mean. “LoveGame” is the classic tale of a one-night mayhaps, and so very distinctly the sample-come-surrender story of a star and her beloved Pop. “I wanna kiss you, but if I do then I might miss you babe,” considers the struggling artist as she wedges her foot in the door: I want fame; I want to taste that beautiful life, like Paris, Lindsay, Britney, but like that harrowing hat-trick I know it’s a one-kiss-to-commit sitch. Fame is a drug, like cocaine the champagne, one line is too much and a million is never enough.

So, we venture along as the Lady reminds us of this lovelorn path most stumbled: the path of Pop stardom, the little boy monster. “Hold me and love me, just wanna touch you for a minute / Maybe three seconds is enough for my heart to quit it;” it all comes down to one question: “Do you want love, or you want fame?” Art is passion, fame is vapid: vanity please, Ladies first.

Then come the Paparazzi, and with the fatal flashes come the fans, the fiends, the frenemies, the cold cruel world beneath the hot, hot lights. Fame is crumbling beneath the weight of your own ego, The Fame is making it work and faking it until then—fight flash with the facade; you don’t hustle this hard to fall harder. Gaga just danced her way into a love game with the industry, willy-nilly and aloof, but beneath the pink haired My Little Pony shell was a Trojan Horse.

“Poker Face” was just that, a bluff and a front. Two number one singles later: we still weren’t sure whether or not Lady was a Lord; whether he/she/it was from Yonkers, Mars, Sweden, or Manhattan; whether or not her pants allergy was contagious; what her “real voice” sounded like; or how on Earth name she got the name Gaga — and no, the interviews didn’t help, they just further hindered a clear view of this character and where her Achilles’ was (we later found out it was in the back pocket of that pair of pants she wore in seventh grade, along with her keys and phone), barring the ease in our building and breaking of her accordingly.

Fame is Britney’s assumed fate, The Fame is treating that as a cautionary tale instead of a crystal ball; as the Lady herself said: “They can’t scare me if I scare them first.” Russian Roulette isn’t the same without a gun, and baby when it gets to that: Didi Mao, cut, and run.

Meanwhile, in real life, every major institution had crumbled beneath our very feet – the world was in a tailspin, running about like headless KFC chicken-products; and while some sat dumbfounded atop their collapsed house of cards, Gaga took said hand and made it marvelous. Pulling yourself up by the bootstraps, when you’ve only got stripper heels to pay your way through college: and this is The Fame.

“Beautiful, Dirty, Rich” is the soul of The Fame. It builds from the rich rasp of funk percussion, hard piano, wailing synth, and rock guitar riffs, reflective of the eclectic gritty sounds of a New York block or brownstone. The sound builds into a scene. It’s Gaga’s signature scene: back for the first time. “Beautiful, Dirty, Rich” was the promo-single-that-couldn’t-quite, was the track that got Gaga voted off the island of Def Jam, was why she had to just dance to be okay.

Where before she knocked on fame’s door with a formal request for entry into the house, she now knocks the door down; riding in on the four singles of the Pop Apocalypse, her own Haus in tow. The kids do the dance right, they have got it made like ice cream topped with honey; they’ve got the red light scope dead set on two things: the father and the fame; Daddy I’m so sorry: bang, bang.

“The Fame” is the epitome. It is a vapid title track, a decoy focal point — just like “Telephone,” just like the meat dress, it is the assumed “moment,” the expected apex, the exalted “to what end” – and because of that it is the typification of perception:

Doin’ it for the Fame ‘cuz we wanna live the life of the rich and famous. Fame: doin’ it for the Fame, ‘cuz we gotta taste for champagne and endless fortune. We live for the fame fame baby, the fame fame, isn’t it a shame.

It’s the veneer, but like everything else: it has as much value as you give it. It begs the question: what is fame? More importantly, does it matter what you call it? A fish trap only matters because of the fish: once you have the fish, forget the trap; words only matter because of the meaning: once you have the meaning, forget the words – fame is just a title. The beautiful, dirty, rich ones want nothing more than to overthrow the entitled in a Clockwork Orange County coup; if New York is where stars are born, and L.A. is where they go to die, the beautiful, dirty, rich are infantile, and the famous are a beautiful lie.

Of all the scenes and teams, of all the things that make The Fame great, there are those that make it a great void. The Fame is a mockery of its own alter-ego, its own false projection, its own diminished reputation branded true by those who have no clue. “The Fame,” “Money Honey,” “Starstruck,” “Boys Boys Boys,” ride through like a ringtone rendevous. The Fame Boys and their money, honey.

The third quarter of the album is an embodiment of the expected artificial. Deep bass beneath heavy mettle guitar chords and dense airy synth exude a sense of nightmarish fantasy. Yet, this is Gaga being what it means to be a pop star. The vapid-bombastic tracks are the most famous: it’s what you live and die for; it’s what you fell into the LoveGame hoping to attain: bad boys, fast cars, delicious dollars, star partners, the works. It’s so ridiculously hyperrealistic, and again with the transparency, it is the called spade that knocks the cynicism out of the skeptic. 

The Fame is funny because it’s true, but funnier if it weren’t. Gaga wrote it into being, and if this were her first and last album she would have a famous obituary; but her inevitably legendary career will be looked back on with The Fame as the starting point – the catalyst, not the final mark of success: and this is The Fame.

“I’m shiny and I know it, don’t know why you want to blow it; you got me wondering why I like it rough,” maybe because love is a losing game. As Gaga eases out the album with “I Like It Rough,” it’s the track that reminds us there is no end; we always want what we can’t have, and once we have it we’re on to the next, and after it leaves we’re standing ashore, missing it only because it’s gone… and so it goes. Christians are born-again if only to sin, celebrities sober up if only to get that much closer to the dragon, lovers part if only to make up, and the industry kills stars if only to resurrect them for a comeback tour.

As always, from the night can arrive the sweet dawn, but “don’t be sad when the sun goes down, you’ll wake up and I’m not around.“ “What time is it?” Fifteen minutes and a lifetime later, we hit “Summerboy;” the sweet sendoff as Gaga heads to meet with the wild things. As she says, “we’ll still have the summer after all,” you can’t help but miss June. Aside from you, or anyone else, this is Gaga looking in the mirror and saluting goodbye to her summer self; while the world was riding her disco stick, she made her way to the bath haus to get clean with the beautiful, dirty, rich.

So here, we find ourselves looking back on 2008: the institutions had crumbled; celebrity had collapsed; the grand old party had ended; Hamptonite billionaires became slumdog millionaires — the top dropped. Yet with their last ounce of influence, they gave the false American ideal to us: that their reality check was our dream deferred, that we had failed – but when the everyman had nothing, it was nothing new, and for those who had nothing again, we had nothing to lose.

The Fame is as stylistically substantial as you want it to be: it gauges only against itself, and so does Lady Gaga. The Fame is a skeleton, the album is Gaga’s face; but her story is a tale of how to go carve out your own space:

I did this the way you are supposed to. I played every club in New York City and I bombed in every club and then killed it in every club and I found myself as an artist. I learned how to survive as an artist, get real, and how to fail and then figure out who I was as singer and performer. And, I worked hard.

It’s the hedonistic Apocalyptic sendoff, an ode to the past life that built this live and fly fast life, and 2008 was the post-party dawn. It was over, we were done, fame was dead; but in its wake, a child was born unto us: The Fame. The Fame is everything fame is not; The Fame takes time, fame isn’t worth it. Fame is what killed the country, The Fame is here to bring it back. Fame is the artifice, The Fame is the artist. When the history books are burnt beneath the rubble, you write your own tale. Britney phoenixed, up for grabs goes mortal Pop; Bush was gone, oh hai politics: meet Barack. What the famous lost was our gain – and this is The Fame.

It is timeless, and senseless, with no direction, just vamp; here today, gone tomorrow, if you want it: just dance.

· · ·

 

[River 126,106]

2 hours ago, imogen2133 said:

Just Dance: A song all about dancing and partying, forgetting your troubles and getting so drunk you forget where you are and what's happening. Doesn't really fit in either concept but still a great song nonetheless.

It's more than that and it's hidden in the chorus.

It's the first song for a reason and it's kind of the first "fame monster", celebrities parties might look fun, but hiding a very dark side that we usually don't get the chance to see it and know about it.

The chorus is basically her comforting herself "just dance, just keep going, show must go on, whatever sh-t u feel, whatever flop u had, whatever sh-t they wrote about u, forget about it, take a drug, get high, drink another glass" and then the "gonna be ok" is a very sad one, like, she lost hope but still has a little hope that without it she would get lost in the chaos of her life and the fame. 

When u think about it, it's kind of a very sad song and overshadowing her career.

[alexcal24 66]

The Fame would have made an insane visual album. Just Dance then moving to the big mansion, ups and downs with her boyfriend, getting 'killed' by said boyfriend... It all would flow so amazingly, especially the visuals for The Fame the song, Gaga by the pool drinking martini with her glasses shining.

[imogen2133 439]

1 hour ago, River said:

It's more than that and it's hidden in the chorus.

It's the first song for a reason and it's kind of the first "fame monster", celebrities parties might look fun, but hiding a very dark side that we usually don't get the chance to see it and know about it.

The chorus is basically her comforting herself "just dance, just keep going, show must go on, whatever sh-t u feel, whatever flop u had, whatever sh-t they wrote about u, forget about it, take a drug, get high, drink another glass" and then the "gonna be ok" is a very sad one, like, she lost hope but still has a little hope that without it she would get lost in the chaos of her life and the fame. 

When u think about it, it's kind of a very sad song and overshadowing her career.

Well that is one way you could look at it I guess but I don't see how that interpretation is really supported by the lyrics or anything Gaga has said about the song. The chorus lyrics:

Just dance, gonna be okay, da da doo-doo-mmm
Just dance, spin that record babe, da da doo-doo-mmm
Just dance, gonna be okay, d-d-d-dance
Dance, dance, just, j-j-just dance

are really just about dancing and having a good time and forgetting your troubles and partying. There were plenty of songs like this in the 2000s about partying and dancing and I would not say those had deeper meanings either really (Tik Tok, Party Rock Anthem, Don't Stop The Music). If it was meant to be a song about dancing through trauma as a way of coping with fame, personal issues or pain I think that would be more explicit with the lyrics but the chorus(and the rest of the song really) don't support that.

[Ladle Ghoulash 49,254]

6 minutes ago, imogen2133 said:

Well that is one way you could look at it I guess but I don't see how that interpretation is really supported by the lyrics or anything Gaga has said about the song. The chorus lyrics:

Just dance, gonna be okay, da da doo-doo-mmm
Just dance, spin that record babe, da da doo-doo-mmm
Just dance, gonna be okay, d-d-d-dance
Dance, dance, just, j-j-just dance

are really just about dancing and having a good time and forgetting your troubles and partying. There were plenty of songs like this in the 2000s about partying and dancing and I would not say those had deeper meanings either really (Tik Tok, Party Rock Anthem, Don't Stop The Music). If it was meant to be a song about dancing through trauma as a way of coping with fame, personal issues or pain I think that would be more explicit with the lyrics but the chorus(and the rest of the song really) don't support that.

Pretty well-supported by this somber piano version she did during TF era

 

[imogen2133 439]

3 minutes ago, Ladle Ghoulash said:

Pretty well-supported by this somber piano version she did during TF era

 

First of all this is one of my fav acoustic versions of her songs she has done (besides Applause) and I love this performance (just wish the people were more quiet so we could hear her better and wish she did it more then once). However this is a darker version with different lyrics to the original she clearly came up with on the spot. I don't think this performance shows that the original song had that meaning that was suggested. It is kind of like how Gaga would sing You And I (a song about her relationship with Luc) on tour live and change lyrics at times or specifically talk during it to make it more about her and her fans or for the couples in the audience. Another example would be Boys Boys Boys which was originally written to impress her boyfriend and a reverse of the song "Girls Girls Girls" but during the Monster Ball she said it was for "the boys and the girls" making it inclusive to straight women and gay men.

[gagzus 21,470]

i always felt as though her talking about Fame was more her philosophy and almost every song on the album is about generic pop subject matter. most of the record is essentially written about Luc Carl and DaDa and about love, sex and heartbreak. Also we know Paparazzi was made because she was asked to make a song about the paparazzi by her label (according to the producer anyways).

I think there's a lot more nuance that goes into the album, it's essentially a compilation of her pre-existing material she joined the label with and songs made over a few weeks with different producers. Then she added a concept to it. Which without her performance style and philosophy falls flat.

[imogen2133 439]

1 hour ago, gagzus said:

i always felt as though her talking about Fame was more her philosophy and almost every song on the album is about generic pop subject matter. most of the record is essentially written about Luc Carl and DaDa and about love, sex and heartbreak. Also we know Paparazzi was made because she was asked to make a song about the paparazzi by her label (according to the producer anyways).

I think there's a lot more nuance that goes into the album, it's essentially a compilation of her pre-existing material she joined the label with and songs made over a few weeks with different producers. Then she added a concept to it. Which without her performance style and philosophy falls flat.

I agree with parts and disagree with others, I think it is impressive how she was able to fit most of the songs into the concept for the album because the songs were made over at least 2=3 years and yes it was clear she did not have that concept at first when writing the first songs. It is also true that her philosophy and how she started out helps the concept a lot since she basically manifested her own starting success through hard work, discipline and hunger for that fame, but her internal sense of confidence and fame is definitely what helped get her there. I think most of the songs especially BDR, Paparazzi (even though it was a mish mash of 2 different ideas like you said), RDF, The Fame, Money Honey and Starstruck encapsulate the theme well enough even if only loosely with some (Lovegame, Boys Boys Boys). I also think some of her unreleased songs from this time and songs like Hollywood and Electric Kiss showed Gaga had things she wanted to say about fame and fame culture and so it seems like a natural progression for that to be the subject of her first album. I think the solution to make it even more coherent thematically would be (like I said) to replace songs like Brown Eyes, Summerboy or Eh Eh with unreleased ones like Heiress, Hollywood, Retro physical, Private Audition, Glitter And Grease, Vanity or Filthy Pop. There were plenty of songs that could have worked better for this (and honestly are better in some ways).