Biggest mistake during ARTPOP era?

[Starmie25 23,108]

Major hot take: I really don't like leaked demo of "Aura" aka Burqa 

[Bronco 29,853]

11 minutes ago, gagzus said:

Also the whole “ARTPOP was late to the EDM trend” is kinda bogus since we had EDM dominating the charts still until 2020. Hence why Rain on Me (an EDM song) was a #1 hit. And a year before Joanne came out Justin Bieber & Skrillex kicked off the Tropical House trend that lasted from 2015 until 2018. During which Gaga got her first streaming hit The Cure which was a combination of R&B and Tropical House.

Agree with all of this.

But what I will say, the age of big room House & similar edm styles were starting to sunset in favour of other genres. 

So in that sense, ARTPOP did come at the end of the wave.

[gagzus 28,033]

8 minutes ago, Bronco said:

Agree with all of this.

But what I will say, the age of big room House & similar edm styles were starting to sunset in favour of other genres. 

So in that sense, ARTPOP did come at the end of the wave.

I mean meh I still say the only songs that ACTUALLY sounded like that were Venus and Swine.

The majority of the album sounded nothing remotely like what was on trend really. Even GUY and Donatella which were pretty close to Zedd’s own sound weren’t like his biggest radio songs. Swine was probably the only song that followed the actual Dancepop formula from radio at the time which the beat drop and 30 second dance break that songs like Pound The Alarm, Clarity, We Found Love and Wake Me Up had. I even remember before we had the credits because of the leak thinking Swine was 100% a Zedd song because it had elements that resembled a lot of his songs and other hits on radio at the time.

Then we have Aura which was like HARD left of center, and still her most experimental song ever. Which is still hope every day she’ll make music that experimental again.

 

Edited 2 hours ago by gagzus

[Starmie25 23,108]

10 minutes ago, gagzus said:

Then we have Aura which was like HARD left of center, and still her most experimental song ever. Which is still hope every day she’ll make music that experimental again.

also who in the mainstream was making an 8-bit inspired song like Applause. 

[nATAH 59,870]

2 hours ago, Bronco said:

The biggest mistake was having a concept she could never really explain. 

If you're trying to make a commercial release, the concept needs to be accessible or the music does to really have a chance of landing with the GP. 

Aura would have potentially given the era a better start with the GP - it sets up the concept of the album way more than Applause did. And it was the kind of "weird" the GP had accepted with Gaga. Gaga's instincts were bang on wanting it as the lead imo. 

Aura followed by ARTPOP as a promo release before Venus would have really helped have a clear and concise storytelling for the album roll out.

i think management interference caused her to basically improvise a concept around their decisions and her vision, it was a big tug of war between genuine interest in an art movement (her) and being the next big record (the label)

from my experience, i was hyped up to believe we would be getting something quite bonkers and interesting, especially after the Aura leak but when Applause dropped, it just felt like a pop song in comparison... and it only got worse when she announced something but then it got switched due to better sales or completely cancelled cus of bts drama

[gagzus 28,033]

22 minutes ago, nATAH said:

i think management interference caused her to basically improvise a concept around their decisions and her vision, it was a big tug of war between genuine interest in an art movement (her) and being the next big record (the label)

from my experience, i was hyped up to believe we would be getting something quite bonkers and interesting, especially after the Aura leak but when Applause dropped, it just felt like a pop song in comparison... and it only got worse when she announced something but then it got switched due to better sales or completely cancelled cus of bts drama

I think she had two clear concepts beforehand and Interscope/Atom Factory just did NOT want her to make an album about depression and the fall of the superstar, nor a dance album about partying and drugs and sex using Disney imagery. Id argue ARTPOP was basically just Mayhem but not fully realised, and about identity (which I made a thread about on here before).

We know that at some point in 2012 Troy basically said “we need you to be pretty and make good dance music” which is why she suddenly became more glam and all the music she made during the time was about sex, drugs and partying. With some identity stuff coming toward the end of the year with Aura, MJH, Gypsy and then Swine, IWBWY/Dope in 2013. When she got fed up and broke her hip.

I also hate how she and the perfect artwork with Inez & Vinoodh picked out (presumably the announcement photo was the album cover) but because Koons wanted to work with her last minute she changed it to that.

Edited 2 hours ago by gagzus

[Bronco 29,853]

26 minutes ago, nATAH said:

i think management interference caused her to basically improvise a concept around their decisions and her vision, it was a big tug of war between genuine interest in an art movement (her) and being the next big record (the label)

from my experience, i was hyped up to believe we would be getting something quite bonkers and interesting, especially after the Aura leak but when Applause dropped, it just felt like a pop song in comparison... and it only got worse when she announced something but then it got switched due to better sales or completely cancelled cus of bts drama

Yeah, i am still forever mad that we lost Venus as the 2nd single after the SwineFest

[warhol killah 9,393]

As a fan I think switching the second singles was one of the biggest mistakes during the era. As much as Do What U Want was a hit, I think Venus had a potential to be one as well. We could've gotten also at least 1 more official released video if that was the case.

And speaking of Do What U Want, her team should have had went with the solo version, then released the Christina Aguilera feature as a remix. And this is not really a "I wished she didn't work with R Kelly because of the allegations" but more so I just really liked the solo demo / Xtina remix version than the official one even before.

People are gonna kill me for this opinion, but I also think putting a full-on (even if it's an electronic) ballad on an electronic dance music album doesn't really work well with me. Dope is such a good song on it's own but I never really liked it being on ARTPOP, and I think it's either the albums' Born This Way or Chromatica that deserved a ballad.

[AVeryGagaHolyDick 32,816]

Scrapping Venus was the best decision, let’s be real

[Bronco 29,853]

11 minutes ago, AVeryGagaHolyDick said:

Scrapping Venus was the best decision, let’s be real

[gagzus 28,033]

1 hour ago, Bronco said:

Yeah, i am still forever mad that we lost Venus as the 2nd single after the SwineFest

The fact we clearly were gonna have Venus, Sex Dreams and GUY as singles too

[nATAH 59,870]

43 minutes ago, AVeryGagaHolyDick said:

Scrapping Venus was the best decision, let’s be real

in favour of DWUW? lol no, because now that song is scrubbed from history

in favour of a different song? maybe, definitely debateable. i don't care for Venus much so my point is more about the long term rather than short term now that we are 13 years down the line

but seeing how a few songs from her early catalogue keep getting picked up on tiktok and spiking in streams (Bloody Mary, Judas), sticking with Venus would have opened that opportunity up too but what we got instead was a song that we must not mention

Edited 20 minutes ago by nATAH