Is Gaga a Mediocre Songwriter?

[nkta 653]

This forum made me wonder - 

Considering with what passion many of you reject: Stupid Love, TDD, Runway, HBDYWM, Perfect Illusion, Free Woman, Plastic Girl… 

Do we think Gaga is actually a strong songwriter, or not really?

I think it’s a legit question, cause she’s an undeniably TERRIFIC performer and vocalist, but as for her songwriting - for every Abracadabra there are BOG and TDD… And I admit - myself I can’t listen to some of her ballads - like Hold My Hand, or Queen…

Being a strong vocalist and having such a charisma - she’s able to make listenable songs like The Cure and 911, but I wouldn't call those songs really well-written…

A lot of her hits are camp (Telephone, Applause to a degree), some songs are redundant (Born This Way, Judas), ballads are very hit or miss (Million Reasons has always been meh to me)… Does that make her a not so good songwriter? Or she’s great - cause she wrote Bad Romance, Shallow and ARUTW - and that’s all that matters?

What’s the truth?!

 

[RAMROD 117,048]

Don't blame gaga on other people's shortcomings 

[LateToCult 41,848]

She’s got her strengths and her weaknesses when it comes to creating music. 

[Decodekid 30,683]

Let me get comfortable 

[NUTELLA 26,702]

5 minutes ago, nkta said:

redundant (Judas)

Thank you!

I also would have accepted "reductive"

[holy scheisse 22,927]

I think melody is her strength lyrics can get messy 

[nkta 653]

5 minutes ago, RAMROD said:

Don't blame gaga on other people's shortcomings 

well… I think Till It Happens to You is bad - but I haven’t mentioned it cause Gaga was not as involved there as a songwriter… But Hold My Hand?! She’s quite responsible for that! or Blade of Grass?!)

[ALonelyNight 224]

5 minutes ago, nkta said:

well… I think Till It Happens to You is bad - but I haven’t mentioned it cause Gaga was not as involved there as a songwriter… But Hold My Hand?! She’s quite responsible for that! or Blade of Grass?!)

Til it Happens to You gives me the ick from a lyrical point of view honestly. Just the title alone is so incredibly ominous. It seems to be saying that in order to understand what a sexual assault victim is going through, you have to wait until it happens to you, hence the title, as if it's some required future occurence. A less ominous way of phrasing would be "unless it happens to you" but even that seems to be excluding of people who have suffered other forms of abuse and trauma who might be able to empathize with a rape survivior nonetheless

I know fully that this is not what Gaga intended when she sang it, I just wish the song would have been entirely different. Diane Warren made a very peculiar choice

[Decodekid 30,683]

There's def a few lyrics here and there that make me cringe but hey there's also many highs.  

But it's all perspective, I roll my eyes at lay you down like 1 2 3 but I could write a whole essay on how rhyming girl in your head ain't real - how bad do you me want me for real was fkn genius

Spoiler

 

Edited 8 hours ago by Decodekid

[TheFrenchGuy 5,614]

She's very clever and efficient. She can write amazing hooks and really smart wordplay. That said, I do think her storytelling in the past few years could use some love. Some of the concepts feel a bit surface-level, and I wish she'd push her ideas further. She's sometimes a little too efficient in her songwriting; for someone who used to be such a maximalist, she's so edited and curated now I've been missing her twisted sensibilities a bit. Songs like Hold my hand, Shape of a Woman, and even some songs on Mayhem are very straightforward, I miss the half psychotic sick hypnotic and the skeleton guns of it all you know? 

Edited 10 hours ago by TheFrenchGuy

[Julien Lockhart 841]

She has her highlights but yeah she's better to find great melodies 

Mayhem is her weakest in term of lyrics and to me Monster is her best one 

[IllusionLover 7,594]

53 minutes ago, nkta said:

Plastic Girl

Plastic Doll* honey 

In my personal opinion the "Who dressed you where'd you get that hat, why's she crying what's the price tag who's that girl Malibu Gaga? Looks so sad what is this saga?"

Is a well written lyric, y'all just hate Chromatica for no reason. 

[nkta 653]

30 minutes ago, Decodekid said:

I could write a whole essay on how rhyming girl in your head ain't real - how bad do you me want me for real was fkn genius

I’m obsessed with that line too!

And somehow it reminds me of Who’s that girl - Malibu Gaga? Looks so sad, what is this saga?

Absolutely iconic! To me, HBDYWM and Plastic Doll are spiritual sisters

[nkta 653]

1 minute ago, IllusionLover said:

In my personal opinion the "Who dressed you where'd you get that hat, why's she crying what's the price tag who's that girl Malibu Gaga? Looks so sad what is this saga?"

OMG YES!!! I literally just wrote the same thing above too haha

Edited 10 hours ago by nkta

[AVeryGagaHolyDick 31,991]

No artist only has amazing songs. She’s doing great.

As someone said, her biggest strength is her melodies. She also creates amazing hooks and draws clear pictures.

Look at Bad Romance. You can clearly tell the lyrics weren’t written by Shakespeare and yet, it’s still a fabulous song. It has its own world, its revolutionary hooks and super strong melody. 

I do feel that she neglects her lyrics or melodies every now and then, but it’s quite rare. Most of her songs are really solid. And after all, not everyone will enjoy the same songs. 
 

And at the end of the day, the best song of all time will be bad if the singer doesn’t use the right emotion. She writes songs for herself, you can’t fully dissociate her songwriting and vocal performance. Sometimes, the voice tells more than the lyrics.

Edited 9 hours ago by AVeryGagaHolyDick