Early AP era: did Gaga pretend to do well?

[AVeryGagaHolyDick 32,822]

Back in the Applause days, she always looked so happy and excited. Was she actually as happy as it seemed? 
Cause we know it was a hot mess behind the scenes, and we know it was a hot ass mess in the media.

Did she not mind it all at first? Was she in denial? Was she actually happy?

What do we know exactly from that specific time (Applause days)?

Discuss

[Lucas 32,162]

That's how she started all her eras after the TFM album tbh. "I was unhappy during my previous era but now I'm healed". She did it for Born This Way, ARTPOP, Joanne, Chromatica and MAYHEM. Only the MAYHEM era feels like she is genuinely happy.

[bxr 3,947]

1 hour ago, Lucas said:

Only the MAYHEM era feels like she is genuinely happy.

 

ETA: To your point, a familiar pattern … LG8 will be a revelation, as always 

Edited 4 hours ago by bxr

[Adelka Jergova 352]

I feel like she was quite unhappy, she was also on a lot of drugs pretty sure? Can't quite remember though.

She also has explained that she had a lot of unprocessed trauma from everything that occurred in 2005, and it's possible this era, combined with all the physical pain and drama that was going on, was a culmination of all of that.

[VelvetVenus 341]

I think that even with all the bullsh*t backstage she was like “ok, let’s make it work” and had true hope behind it 

But as time went by, things started to fall apart and the media was very against her as well due to BTW’s overexposure 

Then we had the blackout from basically album release til G.U.Y release til tour start

[RochesterJoannster 4,317]

It all goes back to how ARTPOP was originally supposed to be course correction to her super-serious Mother Of All Humanity persona that started to get old to the GP in the BTW era
 

She kept trying to approach it with playfulness even as things were falling apart. And I think at first: it worked. She started the era with her reputation in no way damaged from her previous overexposure, but then with everything else happening…the era was  doomed from the inside out.

There’s something unsettling about how she tried to act like everything was so great. In contrast to something like the Joanne era, where she was openly and actively trying to heal, (although she ended up not being able to in all the ways she hoped, there was an openness about it)

Edited 4 hours ago by RochesterJoannster

[AVeryGagaHolyDick 32,822]

2 hours ago, Lucas said:

That's how she started all her eras after the TFM album tbh. "I was unhappy during my previous era but now I'm healed". She did it for Born This Way, ARTPOP, Joanne, Chromatica and MAYHEM. Only the MAYHEM era feels like she is genuinely happy.

Yeah but she didn’t LOOK happy at all during Joanne/Chromatica

[bxr 3,947]

21 minutes ago, AVeryGagaHolyDick said:

Yeah but she didn’t LOOK happy at all during Joanne/Chromatica

When is the last time you feel she genuinely LOOKED happy … like the unspoken glow of pure joy at the debut of a creative release she loved the reality of sharing with the world … just looking at her during the era you felt that intrinsic joy of an artist who expressed the craft of curious wonder in the work they were about to deliver 

[JohnPokerface 1,814]

2 hours ago, Lucas said:

That's how she started all her eras after the TFM album tbh. "I was unhappy during my previous era but now I'm healed". She did it for Born This Way, ARTPOP, Joanne, Chromatica and MAYHEM. Only the MAYHEM era feels like she is genuinely happy.

ehhh I wouldn't say she seemed happy in Joanne era, she cried a lot during interviews, her voice got noticeably lower, all that talk about how she misses people and real connections, you could tell she was not ok at that time

[JohnPokerface 1,814]

3 hours ago, AVeryGagaHolyDick said:

Did she not mind it all at first? Was she in denial? Was she actually happy?

What do we know exactly from that specific time (Applause days)?

Discuss

I wouldn't say happy, but definitely excited. We know she had a lot of plans for ARTPOP era before it all went downhill. Idk if pretending really makes sense here since she didn't bother to do that for the Fame perfume/BTWB era which was just a year prior to release of Applause

[imogen2133 833]

I would say so, Even though it all became a mess later I think at this point she was still excited for the era and about the album, I mean the way she looked when she performed the new songs at the iTunes Festival looked very much like she was singing from her soul and I think she genuinely loved what she had created with ARTPOP and that she was excited to share it with us. I think that the album isn't even the part of that era that Gaga dislikes now as well it is everything else like the management issues, betrayals and it not going the way she intended too. I think if she was truly negative and sad about the album itself we most likely would not have gotten the tour or the G.U.Y video (self funded mind you) and I think she would have abandoned the era all together instead. 

[Addison Rae 18,461]

well applause was still a smash during this time and the album didn’t come out yet, i think even the chaos behind the scenes was still comforted by how much promise everything had. only when she parted ways with troy and then the huge hatetrain that happened post album release was when it was clear that she wasn’t doing well imo

[imogen2133 833]

5 hours ago, Lucas said:

That's how she started all her eras after the TFM album tbh. "I was unhappy during my previous era but now I'm healed". She did it for Born This Way, ARTPOP, Joanne, Chromatica and MAYHEM. Only the MAYHEM era feels like she is genuinely happy.

When did she do that with TFM, BTW and ARTPOP? I have seen many interviews from 2009-2013 and I don't remember her doing that.