What Is Gaga's Best Concept Album?

[imogen2133 581]

13 hours ago, bxr said:

Was part of ARTPOP‘s concept the decay of the blonde pop star or was that a fever dream reverse birth of venus de milo memory manipulation?

yes in 2011 shortly after BTW came out Gaga started making Princess Die/decided the album would be called ARTPOP and that was the original concept but it obviously changed sometime around 2012/13. That doesn't mean that it was a concept that was a full album obviously but it was a concept she later changed. 

[imogen2133 581]

13 hours ago, codymonster said:

To me, ARTPOP. The whole experience of the album brought the concept to life (her different characters as she left hotels, her art references, the living portraits, and all the creative things she explored). It really felt like she lived in the concept. 

Yes I agree the concept was explored well through the era and visuals but I meant the album only/strictly and the lyrics.

[imogen2133 581]

13 hours ago, Controversiaga said:

THE FAME

Some highlights in terms of concept:

lovegame

paparazzi

beautiful dirty rich 

the fame

money honey

starstruck

paper gangsta

truly her BEST CONCEPT ALBUM with born this way right behind it.

the rest of her albums have no concept.. they’re just compilations of random and unrelated songs with a verbal explanation from Gaga really reaching to make them be connected to one grand theme 

Could it not be argued that songs like I Like It Rough, Summerboy, Again Again, Poker face, Just Dance, Eh Eh, Boys Boys Boys and Disco Heaven are disconnected from the main "inner fame" concept though? I think the only songs that fit this theme (the main one) are Lovegame, Paparazzi, BDR, The Fame, Paper Gangsta, RDF, Starstruck and Money Honey. However the secondary idea/concept Gaga gave of choosing between love or fame/arguing about that idea is probably stronger and better represented especially through songs like Paparazzi and Lovegame but also because half of the songs explore the theme of fame and half are about love/romance. 

Edited 6 hours ago by imogen2133

[imogen2133 581]

13 hours ago, Ladle Ghoulash said:

Easily BTW. 

I actually largely agree with this, Most if not all the songs fit the ideas of self empowerment and love and a journey through life until you reach your destiny very well and mixing it in with the religious themes also adds additional layers. 

Empowerment through self love: BTW, GH, The Queen, Bad Kids, Highway Unicorn 

Empowerment through recognizing struggle and getting through life's challenges: Judas , MTN, Bloody Mary, Scheibe, Americano, Hair, the Edge Of Glory

Empowerment through love and connection: FOHL, You And I, Electric Chapel 

Empowerment through life's journey/ experiences: BJ + AF, HML 

 

[bxr 2,285]

1 hour ago, imogen2133 said:

yes in 2011 shortly after BTW came out Gaga started making Princess Die/decided the album would be called ARTPOP and that was the original concept but it obviously changed sometime around 2012/13. That doesn't mean that it was a concept that was a full album obviously but it was a concept she later changed. 

Ah, indeed …

I also zoned on the lyrical anchor for conceptual evaluation … I‘ll have to go through the liner notes / verbatim lyrics but I would level BTW (as you, Ladle, and others have mentioned) up to the top echelon with The Fame and ARTPOP … I‘ll definitely have to revisit Joanne lyrics but I might actually keep it at a number two … or maybe an honorable mention … Joanne‘s caveat is that we don‘t know the details of Joanne‘s life … in that way … so the songs could very well echo or express elements of her life and/or artistry (I think she was a poet?) that we simply do not know … which could be part of the more intimate connection Gaga endeavored to establish with her namesake through the songwriting process

That said … ARTPOP deals heavily with duality and maximalism and privacy in public … explicitly so … Swine, Jewels n‘ Drugs, ARTPOP, Aura, G.U.Y., Applause (however said lyricism is received), MANiCURE, Venus, Sexxx Dreams … all explore juxtaposition, duality, and a necessary collision between polarities in motion toward cataclysmic creation of something new within its adaptation or synthesis … there is a strong undercurrent of this new feminine form and its fraught journey through contemporary culture … as well as, again, explicit expression of this collapse between reality and fantasy (as evolved from BTW, for instance)

The Fame … my goodness even from “Daddy, I‘m so sorry—bang bang“ … the girl was always on a mission to eclipse conventional Fame … and possibly usurp the patriarchy along the way (though it‘s not a studio album lyric “I killed my boyfriend” is one of the most consistent narrative themes throughout Gaga‘s videography (cinema included) … 

But, again, I‘ll have to dig through the lyrical crates for verbatims … and, as always, just salt grain musings into the airwaves … and, really, ‘tis all quite subjective from our audience perspective … quite enjoy the thread, so, thank you!

[imogen2133 581]

8 hours ago, nATAH said:

do we mean our favourite album's concept or our favourite concept album? cus lowkey she doesn't really have one but ARTPOP could have been if she was allowed to retain her vision

No I explicitly said which album that has a concept do you think has the most songs that fit that concept with the strongest lyrics to support that as examples. 

[imogen2133 581]

8 hours ago, Oriane said:

ARTPOP is the one that is closer to the original definition of a concept album and the songs are in that order in the tracklist to tell a story.

I can share my analysis if I can find it (it's the first post I ever made here which used to be easily accessible but now you can only go a year back )

I would love to see and read your analysis and see how you think ARTPOP works as a story from start to finish because I agree but I am also interested in other interpretations. 

[PartySick 172,990]

I'll be the lone Joanne vote  

Not only inspired by and dedicated to her aunt but also inspired by her family, especially her father, who she theorized was an entirely different person from who the real Joanne knew because pain is transformative.

It's like she took the metaphor for Judas (your pain and experiences makes you who you are now) and expanded it across a whole album that really deserved to be a visual album imho. A feature length film with its own narrative and unique character that basically any human could relate to. Something ASIB coded almost  

Lemme write a script for funsies  

[nATAH 57,328]

2 hours ago, imogen2133 said:

No I explicitly said which album that has a concept do you think has the most songs that fit that concept with the strongest lyrics to support that as examples. 

well born this way I guess because the rest don't count

[bxr 2,285]

19 hours ago, imogen2133 said:

For reference these are the stated concepts/ideas for each album:

The Fame: The idea that one can have an inner sense of fame and carry yourself with confidence and star power even without being rich or having access to high/expensive fashion or being known by the public, this can be achieved by walking around in a way that makes people want to know who you are or by dressing in glamourous ways using small amounts of money.

Here … I would continue that the inherent conflict with inner fame is the polarity between your own inner fame and external conventions of Fame (Fame vs. The Fame) … that conflict is central to the conceptual expression of the album itself … a battle to have your own inner fame eclipse that of preconceived notions / social constructs of conventional fame (the backdrop of celebrity culture when The Fame dropped)—when people tell you “you‘ll never be famous” and you will your own fame into celebrity culture supremacy by being the explicit antithesis … also, by exposing the true nature of existing fame in its vapidity and exploitation … there‘s also the undercurrent of a The Fame Femme Fatale … seduction and the traverse between attraction and repulsion / explusion is present as well …

Spoiler

Just Dance:

Spoiler

Half psychotic, sick, hypnotic, got my blueprint, it's symphonic
Half psychotic, sick, hypnotic, got my blueprint, electronic
Half psychotic, sick, hypnotic, got my blueprint, it's symphonic
Half psychotic, sick, hypnotic, got my blueprint, electronic

[Bridge: Lady Gaga]
Go, use your muscle, carve it out, work it, hustle
(I got it, just stay close enough to get it on)
Don't slow, drive it, clean it, Lysol, bleed it
Spend the last dough (I got it) in your pock-o (I got it)

LoveGame:

Spoiler

Let's play a love game, play a love game
Do you want love or you want fame?
Are you in the game? (Huh!)
Doin' the love game
Let's play a love game, play a love game (Huh!)
Do you want love or you want fame?
Are you in the game? (Huh!)
Doin' the love game

 

I'm on a mission
And it involves some heavy touching, yeah
You've indicated your interest
I'm educated in sex, yes
And now I want it bad, want it bad
A love game, a love game

[Refrain]
Hold me and love me, just wanna touch you for a minute
Maybe three seconds is enough for my heart to quit it

I can see you staring there from across the block
With a smile on your mouth and your hand on your (Huh!)
The story of us, it always starts the same
With a boy and a girl and a huh! and a game (Huh!)

Paparazzi

Spoiler

I mean … if you‘re on the forum you already know the canon

Poker Face

Spoiler

See above … 

Eh, Eh

Spoiler

This reads like the continuation of Fame‘s personification and/or the conflict between the famous life and the personal life (ex. Papa-razzi) … she‘s leaving her old life behind, she found someone new—and that‘s money

 

Boy, we've had a real good time
And I wish you the best on your way, eh-eh
I didn't mean to hurt you
I never thought we'd fall out of place, eh-eh, hey

Not that I don't care about you
Just that things got so compliquées, eh-eh
I met somebody cute and funny
Got each other and that's money, eh, eh-eh, hey

The Fame, Money Honey, Starstruck, Boys Boys Boys, Paper Gangsta

Spoiler

Literally the lyrical imagery of Fame culture … explicitly … 

Brown Eyes, Summerboy 

Spoiler

Echo the Eh, Eh personification … relationship with the Famous lifestyle … what‘s being left behind 

I Like It Rough

Spoiler

This one always reminded me of a metaphorical parallel with the star as the diamond … The Fame as exhuming the diamond (inner star) from the rough … but and also liking the pressure it takes to transform from coal to the diamond … or the pressure of the fame as a crucible to become a star

 

Your love is nothing I can't fight
Can't sleep with the man who dims my shine

[Pre-Chorus]
I'm in the bedroom with tissues and when
I know you're outside bangin', then I won't let you in
'Cause it's a hard life with love in the world
And I'm a hard girl, loving me's like chewing on pearls

Don't know why you wanna blow it
Need a man who likes it rough
Likes it rough, likes it rough (Baby likes it rough)
I'm shiny and I know it
Don't know why you wanna blow it
Need a man who likes it rough
Likes it rough, likes it rough (Baby likes it rough)

Disco Heaven

Spoiler

I mean … c’mon … that‘s the post-Fame victory lap after party …

 

Again, just neither here nor there personal POV interpretations … ARTPOP … on and update / edit … I think PartySick summarized Joanne well … 

ETA: ARTPOP

19 hours ago, imogen2133 said:

ARTPOP: The idea of merging ART and POP together to create a hybrid, bring high art concepts into pop music and it is Gaga's pain exploding in electronic music/exploring her life at that time.

Also incorporating the “I am every icon” conceptual reference, and the overarching “Reverse Warholian“ paradigm … so just riffing on the earlier foundation

Spoiler

That said … ARTPOP deals heavily with duality and maximalism and privacy in public … explicitly so … Swine, Jewels n‘ Drugs, ARTPOP, Aura, G.U.Y., Applause (however said lyricism is received), MANiCURE, Venus, Sexxx Dreams … all explore juxtaposition, duality, and a necessary collision between polarities in motion toward cataclysmic creation of something new within its adaptation or synthesis … there is a strong undercurrent of this new feminine form and its fraught journey through contemporary culture … as well as, again, explicit expression of this collapse between reality and fantasy (as evolved from BTW, for instance)

… with neither here nor there lyrical interpretation

Spoiler

Aura

Spoiler

Seems obvious … ?

I killed my former and
Left her in the trunk on Highway 10
Put the knife under the hood
If you find it, send it straight to Hollywood

I'm not a wandering slave, I am a woman of choice
My veil is protection for the gorgeousness of my face
You want to pity me 'cause was arranged one man to love
But in the bedroom, the size of him's more than enough

 

Do you wanna see me naked, lover?
Do you wanna peek underneath the cover?
Do you wanna see the girl who lives behind the aura, behind the aura?
Do you wanna touch me, cosmic lover?
Do you wanna peek underneath the cover?
Do you wanna see the girl who lives behind the aura?
Behind the aura, behind the aura, behind the aura?

[ and so on and such forth ]

Venus

Spoiler

Diving right into the cataclysmic creatrix between masculine and feminine in the newly emerging form … also, establishing the cosmic intercourse aspect of this interdimensional union between ART + POP … the artist and her fans … etc. … additionally, considering Gaga is an Aries … the emphasis on Venus quite literally establishes the union between Mars and Venus the cosmic mythological archetypes of masculine (war, will, active) and feminine (love, desire, receptive) within her own iconography / cosmic androgyny … take me (Mars) to your planet (Venus) … also Venus rules Taurus and Libra … undercurrent motifs of the Gaia creature comforts and cosmic balance … also, the overarching expression of pure sapphic amidst the predominant male gaze of her cultural iconography … 

Rocket number nine take off to the planet, to the planet (Venus)
Aphrodite lady, seashell bikini, garden panty (Venus)
Let's blast off to a new dimension, in your bedroom (Venus)
Aphrodite lady, seashell bikini, get with me (Venus)

I can't help the way I'm feeling
Goddess of love, please take me to your leader
I can't help, I'll keep on dancing
Goddess of love, goddess of love
Take me to your planet (To the planet)
Take me to your planet (To the planet)
Take me to your leader (To the planet)
Your leader, your leader (To the planet)
Take me to your planet (To the planet)
Take me to your planet (To the planet)
Take me to your Venus (To the planet)
Your Venus, Venus (To the planet)

[Chorus]
When you touch me, I die just a little inside
I wonder if this could be love, this could be love
'Cause you're out of this world, galaxy, space and time
I wonder if this could be love (Venus)

[ and so on and such forth … again, if you‘re on this forum … you know the canon ]

G.U.Y., Sexxx Dreams

Spoiler

The masculine / feminine hybridity … the meta / physical / cosmic intercourse … and so on and such forth … I really feel like you all know the lyrics

Jewels n‘ Drugs

Spoiler

The three featured artists expand on the “every icon” aspect, illustrating various elements of the high life she experiences as a star … also, again, establishing a brackish / bricolage expression of dualistic worlds (pop / trap) … and the emerging form (“This family is stupid attractive, if you‘ve surveyed the way we‘ve acted … Ain't nothin' if it ain't family
We know how to make that money”) … somewhat crude and obvious, but it is a makeshift family of apparent simplicity, also felt like a take on … “That‘s why it‘s not called show friends, it‘s called show business” … Twista‘s verse dives into a certain Gaga-toned lens of fame … even though T.I. and Too $hort express a sort of Swine-like level of spectacular exploitation

…

Come and show me the gateway into your love
I feel like the money can never do it like the club
And I feel like a diamond can never do it like a drug
And I want it so come on and take it with me so that I can hit it
I can admit it, I'm influenced by desire when I approach her
I try to provoke her by givin' money and jewelry and accessories
Instead of the recipe of a legacy of takin' her to another place when I get it
Hold up
Twista be goin' in warp speed, breakin' atoms
Blowin' O.G. has got me creating antimatter
Let her pop it and smoke on it with me, now I got her
Because she be ready to party and then move to the club (Yes)
Because you know the way I think is an anomaly
And I'ma be strange as Lady Gaga
Probably a dollar be the business
But I'd rather be in an outer dimension when I be talkin' about jewels and drugs

MANiCURE, DWUW

Spoiler

The pain, tension, conflict, fraught attempt to reconcile the fractured elements of feminine identity in her life / contemporary culture … again, I feel like you all know the lyrics

ARTPOP

Spoiler

Swine

Spoiler

Absolute expression of pain exploding …

Donatella

Spoiler

Every icon … the lyrical iconography of modern Italian living mythology … again, fraught relationship between female icons in the contemporary world … also including the conflicted relationship with the male gaze

Fashion!

Spoiler

Echoes of Paris is Burning with the French interludes … feels lyrically anchored in the hybrid of drag culture that can withstand … life on Mars echoing the Bowie (every icon) … and alluding a bit to Edie (Sedgwick Swan) … and again the cosmic identity manifest material (the immaterial love of one‘s cosmic transformation)

You've got company, make sure you look your best (Fashion)
Makeup on your face, a new designer dress (Fashion)
There's a life on Mars where the couture is beyond, beyond (Fashion)
Married to the stars
I own the world, we own the world

I take it off, I put it on
I feel alive when I transform
But this love's not material
Now take it in and turn me on
Zip me up, it can't be wrong
'Cause your new look's ethereal
Looking good and feeling fine
Looking good and feeling fine
Looking good and feeling fine (Slay, slay)
Looking good and feeling fine
Looking good and feeling fine
Looking good and feeling fine

Mary Jane Holland

Spoiler

This one just recently echoed Edie Sedgwick in a low key high level way on the bridge … Poor Little Rich Girl (on Fire) … Sedgwick Swan as the personification of Reverse Warholian 

…

I know that Mom and Dad think I'm a mess
But it's alright, because I am rich as piss
When I ignite the flame and put you in my mouth
The grass eats up my insides, and my brunette starts to sprout
Introducing, ladies and gentlemen, Mary Jane Holland!

Dope, Gypsy, Applause

Spoiler

These feel self explanatory … but the floor is open to any opposition as to how these fit the overarching concept

 

 

Edited 1 minute ago by bxr

[TheFrenchGuy 5,671]

Honestly, I don't think any of her early albums fully commit to being "conceptual." Most of her concepts came to life outside the music, through the videos, the performance art and the interviews. For an album to count as conceptual for me, the concept has to be fully integrated into a cohesive body of work that follows some kind of narrative. Her more recent releases have been a lot more consistent in that direction, and I'm here for it.

Chromatica sorta fits, but the narrative is all over the place and the execution is diluted.

Harlequin fits because of the interpretive choices. It's still a covers record, but it does work as a musical experiment built around a character.

Mayhem fits perfectly on the musical side. The lyrics don't quite add up to one cohesive story, but the show built the idea of this post-apocalyptic procession beautifully.

I really hope she goes hard on the conceptual side for LG8.