Is Gaga a Mediocre Songwriter?

[ALonelyNight 456]

1 hour ago, nATAH said:

chormatica has some great song writing on it though?

Not at all. Songwriting is so much more than just poetic lyricism, and Gaga's strength has always lied in taking catchy memorable lines and packaging them into a killer hook. It's almost like baking, it's pure chemistry.

On Chromatica, that ability was stunted. Where an anthemic chorus would have been, a drop was placed, and a cheap, even lifeless one at that. It also didn't help that her lyricism was at its weakest too, as she tried to be confessional and descriptive of her pain but wound up making clumsy references and awkward one-liners.

It sounds harsh but there's a reason she's moved on from that time

[PartySick 172,678]

She doesn't have the most creative or expansive lyrics when compared to some of her peers but her ability to use those "mediocre" lyrics to convey incredible themes and build entire worlds is pretty much unmatched imo.

If lyrics were paint colors, some girlies are using turquoise, maroon, verdant green, papaya, and eggshell to paint something that belongs on the fridge while Gaga is using red, blue, green, and the occasional yellow to paint works that belong in museums.

She manages to be thought provoking without having to crack open the dictionary or reinvent the metaphor. And I appreciate that, personally.

[nATAH 57,149]

23 minutes ago, ALonelyNight said:

Not at all. Songwriting is so much more than just poetic lyricism, and Gaga's strength has always lied in taking catchy memorable lines and packaging them into a killer hook. It's almost like baking, it's pure chemistry.

On Chromatica, that ability was stunted. Where an anthemic chorus would have been, a drop was placed, and a cheap, even lifeless one at that. It also didn't help that her lyricism was at its weakest too, as she tried to be confessional and descriptive of her pain but wound up making clumsy references and awkward one-liners.

It sounds harsh but there's a reason she's moved on from that time

no

[ALonelyNight 456]

22 minutes ago, PartySick said:

She doesn't have the most creative or expansive lyrics when compared to some of her peers but her ability to use those "mediocre" lyrics to convey incredible themes and build entire worlds is pretty much unmatched imo.

If lyrics were paint colors, some girlies are using turquoise, maroon, verdant green, papaya, and eggshell to paint something that belongs on the fridge while Gaga is using red, blue, green, and the occasional yellow to paint works that belong in museums.

She manages to be thought provoking without having to crack open the dictionary or reinvent the metaphor. And I appreciate that, personally.

Great explanation

[ALonelyNight 456]

2 minutes ago, nATAH said:

no

To each their own

[Ladle Ghoulash 53,537]

29 minutes ago, ALonelyNight said:

Not at all. Songwriting is so much more than just poetic lyricism, and Gaga's strength has always lied in taking catchy memorable lines and packaging them into a killer hook. It's almost like baking, it's pure chemistry.

On Chromatica, that ability was stunted. Where an anthemic chorus would have been, a drop was placed, and a cheap, even lifeless one at that. It also didn't help that her lyricism was at its weakest too, as she tried to be confessional and descriptive of her pain but wound up making clumsy references and awkward one-liners.

It sounds harsh but there's a reason she's moved on from that time

While I do think Chromatica’s writing gets a bit unfairly ragged on because I do think the melodies and lyrics are generally pretty good, I agree on the whole. MAYHEM, imo, incapsulates so much of what she’s great at as a songwriter: hooks on hooks, delicious vocal and instrumental harmonies, layered production and instrumentation…the instrumental component in particular is what I think is missing from Chromatica: the production is often very on the nose and one dimensional and I do think, with better production, the actual top line melodies and lyrics would be better served, but yeah, she obviously wasn’t firing on all cylinders there.

[Ivy 13,734]

On 7/31/2026 at 4:35 AM, ALGAYDO said:

Love it when you call me “Legs,” 

in the morning, buy me eggs 

Not even joking this is one of my favorite lyrics  specifically when it's together with the part after

"Watch your heart when we're together,

boys like you love me forever" 

[PartySick 172,678]

39 minutes ago, ALonelyNight said:

Great explanation

Yeah, like idk how to explain it further other than to give an example.

For a while, my favorite song from Mayhem has been LoveDrug and that second verse really gives what I love most in her music.

Thought we'd last a lifetime
When I'm mumblin' alone
I taste the last words that you spoke to me like wine
My heart is in a bind
If I could bear it on my own
I wouldn't try so hard to numb what's left behind

On their face, these lyrics aren't really revolutionary. But the way the song is produced with that driving, dull beat, droning bassline, and guitars that almost sound like a ticking clock underneath her incredible, emotional delivery?

Anyone else producing and singing a song with these lyrics would probably fall flat but Gaga? You can FEEL the grief. She excellently conveys not only this desire to dissociate but that dissociation is familiar and a safe place to be, especially when things hurt as bad as neglect, abandonment, or betrayal.

The way you can feel this is sung by someone who is extremely aquatinted with numbness and chasing down pain with vices.

She does this sh*t all the time and NOBODY DOES IT LIKE HER  

ARTPOP and Joanne are also full of these moments that just send me into a f*cking spiral, god I lover her