The Fame Monster

[imogen2133 457]

So this is something that has been bugging me for a while so I thought I would share my thoughts on this here. Many people look at The Fame Monster as being the "darker side of fame" and exploring that but I don't see how it does, the fears presented on the songs are all fears that Gaga faced that are not necessarily exclusive to fame or famous people (fear of insecurity, death, love, sex, men, suffocation, attachment, alcohol and truth) and some are ones Gaga experienced before she was known worldwide as well like fear of love, alcohol, self or attachment. Gaga even said during her 2009 Fuse interview, "On this album I didn't write about money or fame or Paparazzi, I wrote about everything else", so yes they are fears Gaga experienced while being famous and on her tour bus but I would not say they are fears exclusively faced by famous people. The closest it gets to this is parts of DITD or SHICD but the lyrics in DITD's bridge where she named the famous dead icons is more so to reinforce the theme of insecurity and the SHICD verses are more so about fear of narcissism and using her image to cope with her troubles. This all being said I love TFM vocally, thematically, sonically and I love the conceptual storytelling element that is used to explore each of the themes I just don't really see how it is exploring the "darker side of fame" (except for being called The Fame Monster).

[JohnPokerface 389]

ngl after I found out that Telephone was originally meant for Britney and her album I stopped looking at TFM as this very thought out and conceptual album about Gaga’s fears that surfaced after she became famous. There are songs on it that are about that but ultimately, I think TFM was recorded and put out too fast for the concept of the dark side of fame it to be fully realized.

[Controversiaga 15,525]

Yeah I don’t think the songs on TFM have ANYTHING to do with fame.  Perfect celebrity is her most dark side of fame song. Or princess die.

but TFM is just love songs. Relationship songs. Relationships with men or relationship with yourself. But none of the songs have anything to do with the consequences of fame.

The fame and BTW are her only genuine theme/concept albums.  The rest are just compilation albums 

[TheARTPOPball 1,501]

I think it’s more like the fears were amplified by  the fame

All of these fears you listed are common but can definitely be become much more common and problematic in their nature when you become famous 

Insecurity - your now being looked at by everyone and subjected to everyone’s opinions 

Death - grasping mortality when your living a life kind of alienated in a way from a regular life and missing out on pivotal life experiences 

love, sex, men - there’s now a power dynamic wether you want it or not that comes along with ur social status and money as a woman, for any most men you are interested in romantically 

Suffocation - people in ur face all the time and labels controlling you and never actually being alone with security by ur side nearly 24/7 bc ur living out of hotels 

Alcohol - all substances become more available to you and also easier to overindulge in when it provides you a temporary escape from stress and ur new life you aren’t used to 

[TheARTPOPball 1,501]

59 minutes ago, JohnPokerface said:

ngl after I found out that Telephone was originally meant for Britney and her album I stopped looking at TFM as this very thought out and conceptual album about Gaga’s fears that surfaced after she became famous. There are songs on it that are about that but ultimately, I think TFM was recorded and put out too fast for the concept of the dark side of fame it to be fully realized.

Well I mean - I don’t think an album necessarily has to be planned to be conceptual. You can read through a bunch of songs you wrote and decide what they mean together as a piece, at a later time. I write songs often and don’t really figure out what they mean until the song is finished, or pair certain songs together to convey a greater message the songs create as a unit, even if they weren’t made in the same general time periods

Edited 14 hours ago by TheARTPOPball

[Lucas 30,728]

Unless mistaken, she said that The Fame Monster was about the new fears she experienced during The Fame ball tour, and that it was the dark side of fame. I always thought the album was linked to The Fame in that way

[imogen2133 457]

24 minutes ago, Lucas said:

Unless mistaken, she said that The Fame Monster was about the new fears she experienced during The Fame ball tour, and that it was the dark side of fame. I always thought the album was linked to The Fame in that way

I don't recall her saying it was about the darker side of fame at the time.

[imogen2133 457]

1 hour ago, Controversiaga said:

Yeah I don’t think the songs on TFM have ANYTHING to do with fame.  Perfect celebrity is her most dark side of fame song. Or princess die.

but TFM is just love songs. Relationship songs. Relationships with men or relationship with yourself. But none of the songs have anything to do with the consequences of fame.

The fame and BTW are her only genuine theme/concept albums.  The rest are just compilation albums 

I would still say TFM was a concept/theme album I just don't think it explored or was about the dark side of fame but more so exploring each of Gaga's fears she experienced on the road. 

[imogen2133 457]

1 hour ago, TheARTPOPball said:

I think it’s more like the fears were amplified by  the fame

All of these fears you listed are common but can definitely be become much more common and problematic in their nature when you become famous 

Insecurity - your now being looked at by everyone and subjected to everyone’s opinions 

Death - grasping mortality when your living a life kind of alienated in a way from a regular life and missing out on pivotal life experiences 

love, sex, men - there’s now a power dynamic wether you want it or not that comes along with ur social status and money as a woman, for any most men you are interested in romantically 

Suffocation - people in ur face all the time and labels controlling you and never actually being alone with security by ur side nearly 24/7 bc ur living out of hotels 

Alcohol - all substances become more available to you and also easier to overindulge in when it provides you a temporary escape from stress and ur new life you aren’t used to 

Yes I am aware these fears can be amplified by fame but the themes were not explored in the ways you mentioned on the album.

[Ladle Ghoulash 49,734]

1 hour ago, Controversiaga said:

Yeah I don’t think the songs on TFM have ANYTHING to do with fame.  Perfect celebrity is her most dark side of fame song. Or princess die.

but TFM is just love songs. Relationship songs. Relationships with men or relationship with yourself. But none of the songs have anything to do with the consequences of fame.

The fame and BTW are her only genuine theme/concept albums.  The rest are just compilation albums 

I mean, I think DITD is pretty explicitly a double entendre about hiding in an emotionally abusive relationship and also wearing a mask/facade as a public figure and the potential that has for tragedy (hence the reference to Marilyn Monroe, Judy Garland, Sylvia Plath, and Princess Diana in the bridge).

[Ladle Ghoulash 49,734]

I’ve probably said this before, but I think the conceptual element of the bulk of Gaga’s work is in the aesthetic, theatrical, and cinematic staging of her music and not necessarily in the music itself. Take Bad Romance: on its face, the song is basically about a toxic/obsessive relationship, but the way Gaga stages it in the MV and the live performances, it becomes about her toxic relationship with fame and with her own persona. At her best, Gaga writes great pop music that she then stages into a broader theatrical/conceptual narratives, but I don’t really think most of her albums are as conceptually dense as the eras that surround them (and I think that’s a good thing, tbh).

Edited 12 hours ago by Ladle Ghoulash

[JohnPokerface 389]

2 minutes ago, Ladle Ghoulash said:

I mean, I think DITD is pretty explicitly a double entendre about hiding in an emotionally abusive relationship and also wearing a mask/facade as a public figure and the potential that has for tragedy (hence the reference to Marilyn Monroe, Judy Garland, Sylvia Plath, and Princess Diana in the bridge).

I'm afraid she can't comprehend it unless it's a straightforward song like PC or PD 

[imogen2133 457]

51 minutes ago, JohnPokerface said:

I'm afraid she can't comprehend it unless it's a straightforward song like PC or PD 

What?

[imogen2133 457]

59 minutes ago, Ladle Ghoulash said:

I mean, I think DITD is pretty explicitly a double entendre about hiding in an emotionally abusive relationship and also wearing a mask/facade as a public figure and the potential that has for tragedy (hence the reference to Marilyn Monroe, Judy Garland, Sylvia Plath, and Princess Diana in the bridge).

But Gaga put those names (including Jesus, Liberace and Stanley Kubric) because they all dealt with intense scrutiny or hid things in their lives while they were still alive and because most of them had a "death by fame" and it connects with the rest of the song because it is about insecurity and the subject of the song feels free enough to be herself only with the lights off, I guess I could see a reading where it is about how Gaga's "persona" helped her hide herself and protected her from her insecurities but I don't see how the bridge connects to that meaning per say and I think the stronger reading is about the "death by fame" connection and how they went through things that hurt them just because of fame/stardom. I think it also connects back to the idea Gaga talked about a lot and explored which is the idea that we should appreciate the artist more while they are still alive because they are usually overlooked and only become martyrs or iconographised once they die.

[Ladle Ghoulash 49,734]

5 minutes ago, imogen2133 said:

they all dealt with intense scrutiny or hid things in their lives while they were still alive and because most of them had a "death by fame" and it connects with the rest of the song because it is about insecurity and the subject of the song feels free enough to be herself only with the lights off,

That basically ties perfectly into what I said, tho lol. Especially if you understand the lights as being either spotlights or the light of the paparazzi, which is the time when she would be using her persona as a shield, as opposed to when she’s alone (ie not performing for the public) would be when she feels freest.

Edited 11 hours ago by Ladle Ghoulash