ARTPOP is actually about identity

[gagzus 27,013]

ARTPOP would have worked better as an exploration of Gaga’s celebrity identity vs. her real self

I’ve been thinking about ARTPOP differently lately, particularly after rewatching the Zane Lowe interview about Mayhem. She talks about previously trying to force her music into a particular “outfit” or sound. I think that explains part of why ARTPOP has always felt a little disjointed to some of us conceptually, despite having some of her most interesting music.

We know the concept for ARTPOP evolved several times throughout its development, and I can’t help wondering whether the music ended up being shaped around the concept rather than the concept emerging organically from the music. Sometimes it feels like the album is trying too hard to make all its different elements fit into one overarching artistic statement.

However, I think there was a much more compelling concept hiding in plain sight: ARTPOP as an exploration of the relationship between Gaga’s public persona and her private self. She already (allegedly) was going to tackle this in the DWUW video too.

Think about it. The ART side represents Gaga as an individual, the artist behind the spectacle, with her own thoughts, feelings, insecurities and desire for genuine connection. The POP side represents Lady Gaga as a celebrity, the public-facing persona, the spectacle, the expectations, the fame and the version of herself that the world consumes.

Rather than being two separate artistic mediums that need to be reconciled, they become two sides of Gaga’s identity. One is the person; the other is the persona.

It isn’t just about bringing art into pop and pop into art. It’s about the tension between the person creating the art and the celebrity who has become the product.

And crucially, neither side has to be entirely false or entirely authentic. Gaga’s public persona is itself a form of artistic expression. The question is whether she controls that persona or whether the expectations attached to it begin to control her.

I also think a different tracklist could have communicated this idea much more effectively. Imagine an album that gradually moves between the celebrity and the vulnerability of the person underneath. Songs like Donatella, Fashion!, Venus, GUY, Sexxx Dreams, MANiCURE those all sort of tackle the “popstar” persona of what people percieved her as at the time. Then Mary Jane Holland is sort of the “mania” of dual identity where she sort of said “ok I give in, you want me to be this person well here she is”, and then Dope, Swine and Gypsy offers a much more intimate perspective.

DWUW and Aura feel like a conversation with the audience about her persona and misconception.

Then you have the title track, where those two identities finally come together. Applause then follows as Gaga acknowledging that the relationship between herself and her audience, between the artist and the celebrity, is inseparable from who she is.

The title track becomes the philosophical resolution, and Applause becomes the emotional one.

I think this would have given the album a much clearer narrative without sacrificing its musical diversity. The songs wouldn’t all need to sound the same or communicate the same message. They would simply need to contribute to a larger exploration of identity.

And this is where I think Mayhem worked so well, it tools us back to The Fame almost in terms of natural diversity rather than diversity for the sake of coherence. Gaga has spoken about moving away from forcing her music into a particular outfit, and I wonder whether ARTPOP is an example of what can happen when the concept becomes too prescriptive. The ambition isn’t the problem. It’s when the music has to justify the concept instead of the concept giving the music room to breathe.

Ultimately, I think if she’d have marketed the album as the two sides of her it was so much more simple to follow.

ARTPOP as the collision between the artist and the celebrity, the private self and the public persona, she even basically started off with this idea when she used to post things like Private in Public on Tumblr and when she started making Princess Die.

To me, that’s a much more compelling way to frame the album, and it makes me wonder how differently we might have understood it if that had been the central narrative from the beginning.

[Starmie25 22,970]

Isn't G.U.Y. mv bout Akon?

[bxr 3,554]

I was JUST thinking about “Private in Public“ earlier today … but/and like on-and-off for the past few days

I absolutely see the core thesis, and there is a lucid clarity (Stache instant callback) to how you explore the process and presentation. Somewhere, I feel like that was the aim, but and sort of in the vein of You Can See Everything (non-spoiler) how the actual project rolled out almost collapsed into its own core concept (but, with different degrees of translated intention, but I don‘t know if that makes any sense how it reads) … quite radically with ARTPOP, of course, but/and that, again, sort of plays into the lived reality of embodied duality—particularly within the lens of (Post-Bush / Post-Britney) Millennial celebrity entertainer in the age of reality theatre, or virtual reality theatre … 

Gaga almost quite literally collapsed into the crucible of that concept … the person vs. the persona … that haus divided could not stand … but/and it can always resurrect

It feels like the sort of campaign that just exists as its own definitive undoing … its unfolding into definition … which, when approached artisitically, I guess, the work itself finds its strength in the artist‘s apparent vulnerability to whatever is the contemporary human condition … so, I guess, in context of Gaga‘s origin frame, The Fame, ARTPOP feels like it is that flipped inside out … building a new blueprint by dismantling its foundation … and building or exhuming the next iteration from said ruin

So, that‘s just more of the overarching vantage on the first blink … not really details or anything, just the first blush … and not sure if any of this made any sense within the OP context … just musing salt grains into the airwaves

 

Edited yesterday at 12:40 AM by bxr

[gagzus 27,013]

12 minutes ago, Starmie25 said:

Isn't G.U.Y. mv bout Akon?

It’s about music execs in general but Troy Carter, Jimmy Iovine and Vincent Herbert specifically.

[ANVEEROY 67,065]

Didn't Gaga say, ARTPOP was a vibe? 

[Duella Dvil 12,684]

43 minutes ago, ANVEEROY said:

Didn't Gaga say, ARTPOP was a vibe? 

Exaaaaaactly you see the vision

[Future Lovers 7,973]

You have assigned more meaning to ARTPOP than Miss Ga ever did I fear. That album was running damn near purely on vibes, not concepts. 

[27monster27 16,309]

Interesting analysis. I think that ARTPOP primarily still is important in its execution of anti-capitalism and anti-corporatism. Lady Gagas public persona I think was an extension of that. The prejudice that she and many groups that she cared about faced is inextricably linked to the initial album idea of going against big business and corruption. I think ARTPOP was the natural conclusion of "phase one" of her career where she finally made sense of all aspects of fame and how people are perceived based on their differences. A lot of this opened a can of worms of her own problems, and she then had to try and make sense of it and survive through her trauma on the following projects.

[TimotheeChalamet 7,155]

5 hours ago, Starmie25 said:

Isn't G.U.Y. mv bout Akon?

Huh?

[TimotheeChalamet 7,155]

That's exactly how I envisioned ARTPOP before she started talking about Greek mythology and stuff and was a bit confused when she released it, I like the "identity" concept of some songs like DWUW, ARTPOP, Aura etc. 

Edited yesterday at 06:21 AM by TimotheeChalamet

[gagzus 27,013]

3 hours ago, Future Lovers said:

You have assigned more meaning to ARTPOP than Miss Ga ever did I fear. That album was running damn near purely on vibes, not concepts. 

I think the bones of what I’m talking about were there though. Aura, Do What U Want and Princess Die are from the same time period, so I think she just was trying to let the concept inform the music (hence why it changed like 2-3 times over 2 years) instead of her just making the music and then realising a common theme/sound/idea.

[gagzus 27,013]

4 hours ago, ANVEEROY said:

Didn't Gaga say, ARTPOP was a vibe? 

Retroactively yes. But that’s not at all how she described it at the time, plus the overlapping themes of identity whether she realises they’re there or not are absolutely there.

[AVeryGagaHolyDick 32,609]

8 hours ago, gagzus said:

I can’t help wondering whether the music ended up being shaped around the concept rather than the concept emerging organically from the music.

Well the first option is better

[gagzus 27,013]

2 minutes ago, AVeryGagaHolyDick said:

Well the first option is better

I personally disagree because having a concept that restricts your art and isn’t the best imo. ARTPOP is massively hindered by restricting the music with the concept or sound, whereas The Fame Monster and Born This Way concepts work because they emerged organically as she wrote and experienced things. 

Although I still think TFM’s concept is kind of bogus and doesn’t hold water. Mayhem also happened organically. 

[GaGaAst 13,125]

Art pop is mostly all about sex directly or indirectly. Most of the songs.