Lady Gaga is a mess. Her ARTPOP album will probably lose her label millions of dollars. No one cares about her crazy costumes anymore. Her little monsters are frantically trying to rescue her career, to no avail. And Gaga’s Muppet holiday special was a total flop. So, is The Madness of Lady Gaga finally over? As I said in a previous post, it’s not even that people consider Gaga to be an inconsequential pop star – she used to make fun, gotta-dance-now pop music. But then she started taking herself way too seriously and people have pulled back the curtain on the Mother Monster façade. And what they see is a seemingly coked-out wreck. So… The Daily Mail is just putting another nail into the coffin on Gaga’s career:
Lady Gaga stepped out in a bra-flashing outfit in Tokyo on Monday, amid claims her career is taking a nosedive.
A source revealed: ‘Lady Gaga’s empire is crumbling – and there are quite a few people who are very happy about that. She completely believes her own hype and has become so obsessed with trying to be an artist that she is no longer a very good pop star.’
The 27-year-old singer is currently in Japan on a promotional tour for her new album ARTPOP, and has spent her time in the country tweeting fans, drumming up support.
She said: ‘I’m about to perform on Music Station in Japan! I’m so excited! To all my Japanese fans I hope you love the performance I love YOU #Applause’
But a source revealed to The Sun the pop star’s popularity is falling, and so are her album sales. Her most recent album ARTPOP suffered an 80 per cent decline in sales last weekend, having been in the charts for just three weeks. After hitting the top spot in the charts, it’s now at number 24 in the charts – a disappointing figure for its second week in the charts.
This is in stark contrast to her debut album, The Fame, which was release in 2009 and spent a whopping 7 weeks at the top of the charts.
Frank Fredericks, Gaga’s first manager, told The Sun: ‘It seems to be a trend in America to discover people, worship them and then find ways to tear them down.’
Gaga’s performance at the American Music Awards with R&B legend R Kelly wasn’t the outrageous show she’d hoped it would be and she was usurped by younger model Miley Cyrus and her underwear-baring sing-a-long.
Oh, please, Frank Fredericks. This is NOT about the “American trend” of building people up and then ripping them to shreds. In case no one noticed, the latest American trend seems to be UNLIMITED “second chances” for even the worst possible people ever, like Chris Brown, Charlie Sheen, Anthony Weiner, etc. Isn’t it possible that… GASP!… Gaga’s last two albums just aren’t that good? That the hype machine became bigger than the talent machine? Isn’t it possible that Gaga needs to get off the drugs and get away from her sycophantic yes men and little monsters and just go somewhere and write an album full of good songs? Songs that don’t sound like reworked Madonna songs?
Photos courtesy of WENN.
I still love her,I mean she is very talented ..you can’t say she’s not.
I don’t know…I think “talent” is subjective. I would agree that she does have talent, but I recently saw someone post a similar comment about Katy Perry being unarguably “very talented” and, well, I just don’t think so.
I’m sure she still has the talent in her. She became so big because she made good pop music.
Here and there her songs are still pretty good. The article states it well. Drugs and yes men. Drop those. Stop believing your farts are ART. Start getting yourself in order.
I can. She isn’t talented. She is gimmicky. No one could tear their eyes away from a man with panties on his head and her in a wheel chair as they did their “art” thing on the MTV stage to Paparazzi. Now, panties on a man’s head are boring, the wheelchair has been done, the blood is old hat and the songs suck.
Adele is talented. Michael Jackson was talented. Whitney Houston was talented. Lady Gaga is Yoko Ono reimagined singing songs about how much she loves the applause. Maybe she should learn to love singing and the applause will come with that.
Yoko Ono has made some incredible, truly avant-garde music. Gaga WISHES.
This is true. My apologies Yoko. I was specifically thinking of a comedy performance Yoko gave on an episode of Mad About You where she told Paul to “film the wind” when I used her name here.
If you can still think straight after listening to Yoko’s screeching you’re doing good.
Being talented yes. She can sing. She can play piano. These are talents.
Innovative -in terms of music- she is not. Her songs are tedious, there is nothing new. There is no substance in her music and listeners aren’t idiots.
For a musician who is adept at playing piano, she brings out this autotuned computerised rubbish.
I totally agree with your post, especially the last sentence. She doesn’t need to do what I would call disco/electronic crap.
Oh yeah, that hit the spot.
She has raw talent, I suppose. Lovely voice. Can play instruments well. BUT–what she has done with that talent is just awful. Rotten pop songs (not original at all), a huge dependence on autotune, ego inflation to the nth degree, stupid pretentious costumes and statements…. Meh. Talent is largely what you do with it. She’s actually not done a whole lot with her talent. A lot of dazzling spectacles, sure, but that gets old. As we’re now seeing.
She’s just a walking, talking gimmick. A whole lotta schtick. And borrrring…despite her dumb costumes.
She is, but she’s not thaaat talented. She has good voice but she’s no Whitney H. She’s ok dancer but she’s nowhere near MJ. Her songwriting is bellow average. She’s not in Annie Lennox or Grace Jones league as an artist.
I agree with klaas.
C’mon now, she is decent at best. She is nowhere near deserving of all the attention and fortune she’s amassed. Yes, she can carry a tune. Yes, she can play the piano. But you know what? There are quite literally thousands of people out there that are just as, if not more, capable than she is. And this is coming from someone who works in the music industry and has had the great pleasure to witness a mere fraction of all the truly brilliant artists out there who won’t get a second glance. She has built a career out of ripping off other people’s ideas and selling out, and no matter how well she technically can sing or play an instrument, she should have her title as an artist revoked simply for these transgressions. That’s not art. It only goes to show that her “talent” only goes so far as pure spectacle. The reason why she was successful back when she was just a silly pop star is because that is what’s believable. The reason why people think she’s taking herself too seriously is because she is a joke that has gone stale. And why can’t she be taken seriously in the first place? Well, because she has nothing profound to contribute, and she has sacrificed nothing. Behind the flashy costumes is no depth; in fact there’s nothing there at all. They are just to distract from the bland and uninspired emptiness that dwells within.
I find her most memorable when she simply sits and the piano and belts out a song.
The gimmicks just seem like Freddy Mercury and Madonna copies. Just SING. She’s got pipes.
i love it when she does her singles with just a piano. eventually, she will get over all this whickety whack and just sing.
Lol, I would say it’s absurd to even compare her gimmicky mess to people like Freddie and Madonna who revolutionized the industry and possessed true showmanship. These are people who truly had these larger-than-life characters residing in them and needed a proper arena to honestly express themselves. Gaga is not this same kind of performer – she has no flair for what she conceives as a bold and outrageous display. I cringed so hard when she did that little awards show act a few years ago, where she played her male alter ego. It was awkward and forced, and she was trying to so desperately be this ballsy and raw singer when it just isn’t her. Who she is, is somebody who initially tried to make it as a rock singer but failed miserably, so she went into pop music. Then she kept getting overlooked as a pop star, and she began getting so starved for attention that she decided to get it in the most superficial manner, by adopting this outlandishly faux veneer, instead of relying on talent alone and trying to improve herself and her music and EARNING that applause she has grown so fond of. If she goes back to the basics, instead of focusing so hard to fulfill this grand image, and accepts herself for what she is instead of the musical “genius” she blows herself up to be, than she would be so much more respectable. As it is, it’s just insulting to us as an audience that she even thinks we would fall for this crap.
But more than anything, I don’t think she is especially talented. I think she is lucky that, for the last decade or so, the public has become so accustomed to these auto-tuned, manufactured pop stars that we are actually astounded when we discover one of them can actually sing. I will give her credit for being able to take advantage of that fact.
I’m exhausted just looking at all those getups, I don’t know how she can put SO MUCH energy into being weird.
I’m not a big dance or pop music fan, but I loved her first album. I didn’t think it was particularly innovative or genius, but very solid. I didn’t really care for anything she did after that, but maybe I just don’t get AHT
Evelyn, the word you may have wanted is “contrived.” And possibly the word “derivative,” and maybe “utterly” just before both.
Alejandro, Telephone and Judus are the last few songs of hers I’ve liked. Oh, and that one about hair. All the rest have been a little bit bland and blah… I really liked all her big stuff, but perhaps she’s put more effort into her image instead of her music.
Her antics out of the recording studio got tiresome. Her gimmick could not last forever.
The meat dress did me in. Ovah!
yeah, the meat dress sucked. and it was oh so 1997, i.e., not at all original.
@Sumodo1 – The only thing about the ‘meat dress’ that fascinated me (besides wondering how the hell she could *stand* the feeling of having *raw meat* against her skin all over), was when someone consulted a major deli & found out about how much all those steaks were actually probably worth… I can’t remember the number, but it was around $100, just for the meat alone.
I just thought it was stupid… It would’ve seemed less so if she’d been trying to send some sort of message about vegetarianism or whatever, at least there would’ve been some reason for it.
America didn’t force Gaga to become a gimmick. That was her choice, and that’s the reason she’s failing. People grow tired of gimmicks when there’s nothing good about the music to back it up.
We posted almost the exact same thing, at the exact same time! Smart minds….
I’d say *brilliant*. Lol
+1
‘(She) has become so obsessed with trying to become an artist that she is no longer a very good pop star’.
BINGO!!! That sums it up for me
The first time I heard a Gaga song, I was shocked by how thin and reedy her voice is. I could not understand how she became so popular. Now, perhaps, others are seeing beyond the endless distraction of her appearance and realizing that she’s just not talented.
Her voice isn’t thin and reedy at all… Have you listened to any of her acoustic stuff? She actually has one of the strongest, most versatile voices in the game right now. I don’t think lack of talent is her problem. Her problem is her OTT, exhausting persona as an “arbiter of true art pop.” She’s like the Goop of Top 40.
@ Grant
You beat me too it. Posted the same below.
Understanding that each human’s ear perceives things in its own unique way, I will stand by what I wrote. And no, I haven’t bothered to listen to her acoustic stuff. If someone gives me a food that offends my palate, I don’t keep going back for seconds.
Grant, I agree 100%.
Well, you might want to considering broadening that palate if you’re going to make sweeping statements, particularly with regards to someone’s talent.
What are you on? Her voice isn’t very strong, nor that versatile. She has a lovely tone, I will give her that. But it certainly isn’t a very full one. And I for one have seen her acoustic performances.
Actually have to disagree on the part of her not having a good voice. I’ve heard her sing with just a piano and she sounds lovely. She has talent but it gets over shadowed by all the distractions.
I agree completely.
Me too.
Although no Gaga fan (I believe I referred to her early in her career as the “poor man’s Madonna”), she has an AMAZING voice. Listen to her duet with Tony Bennett.
Actually she has an incredibly strong voice and can actually dance her butt off and her voice doesn’t suffer for it. Honestly, nobody else does that. She rehearses by running on a treadmill singing as loud as possible and expanding her lung and voice strength. I only like about half her songs but she can belt it out like Merman.
She uses a lot of backing tracks. I am not dissing Gaga. She’s a great live singer, but let’s not be fooled. In fact, it’s why I like it better when she stands still because she sings most of the song. Dancing has the heavy backing tracks and often they do the heavy lifting and then she comes in and sings a shorter line over it in places or dances. Even her fans admit this because it’s what all pop singers do during dancing and that’s how they defend it. She took a big fall last tour and the vocals never stopped or wavered.
She did Judas on Ellen and let her backing track do parts of it and then she would just come in yelling a line in a few places while dancing. It was embarrassing watching her try to do some stupid dance moves and obviously not singing and then just yelling something.
Again, I am not dissing Gaga as a singer, because she’s a powerful singer. Just don’t be fooled about how much she uses a backing track for dancing.
I understand but I’ve seen her do it both ways though. Depending on the song she either relies SOME on tracks or not at all. But she’s always on mic, singing.
Now comparing that to really all of the other singer dancers out there, I see them all not even singing. I’d love to know if anybody else out there can actually sing and dance.
@gg – This is totally not argumentative, as I’ve seen what you’re referring to in regards to dancing & singing well at the same time. But the most recent performance I saw… I wish I could remember what it was from, it looked like a concert, & she was performing ‘Do What U Want’.
She was moving around, but not a whole lot, & sounded totally out of breath. (She went off key several times). I only bring this up, not to prove you wrong, but because I think it’s good (possible) evidence that her drug use is hurting her voice & stamina. She does have a powerful voice, but it’s probably being buried under whatever drugs she’s (no doubt) taking. Which is so sad, I hope she gets hold of it before she does something to ruin it for good. =(
She is beautiful without all of the stupid make-up and get-ups. Her voice, on its own is beautiful. The hype overshadows all of that. I think she’s in some coke-haze believing a bunch of BS about how great she is. Being a pop artist is about selling-out isn’t it? Isn’t that what appeals to the masses? She’s illustrating the point that you may have to suffer for your work if you *must* be such a tortured, misunderstood artist.
Same with Miley. There’s a CMT Backyard performance (I think it was CMT) where Miley had no makeup, a flowy skirt & a mic. Her voice was absolutely lovely and her country music was great. That was around the time she got engaged. Now, that’s all lost. She’s twerking and licking wrecking balls. Such a shame & waste of talent.
Those ladies have forgotten what got them where they are. It was being the way they WERE, NOT the way they are now.
@Jacqueline – I’m pretty sure they’re called ‘The Backyard Sessions’. =) She’s singing with a small live band, playing the guitar (herself) the whole time. I especially liked her performance of ‘Jolene’. I was really shocked when I first saw it, since her natural voice sounds very different than the mess she uses on this album.
Some songs are nice, sometimes you can hear some of her real potential in one or two tracks (on ‘Bangerz’), but there’s so much ‘try-hard’ attitude in her voice, & obvious effort on her part to keep her natural ‘twang’ out of it. Which is really a shame, the twang works for her. =)
Back to gg’s comment, I don’t see how anyone can sing and dance at the same time. I teach zumba, and even talking during dancing is so hard. You have to be super fit, and I can’t imagine that is possible to do both together to any degree without significant abilities, both in singing and athletic ability. Maybe I’m just ignorant, or maybe since I’m a “mouth breather” it is extra hard for me, but I don’t see how it is possible to take in enough oxygen to make it happen. If it’s true that she trains by singing/running on a treadmill, that would definitely be an excellent way to prepare, but still, so hard!!
As someone who actually likes the majority of Artpop (Manicure, Donatella, Artpop, Swine–they’re all great pop bangers…) and who appreciates Lady Gaga as a very talented vocalist, I believe LG’s problem is that she’s trying to pass pop music off as art. A slinky pop tune doesn’t HAVE to be an artistic masterpiece. It’s ok to simply release music with sick beats and catchy hooks without any ulterior motive. If Gaga presented her record as exactly what it is–passable pop music–instead of trying to pass it off as some kind of cultural zeitgeist, she wouldn’t have exhausted the public so much.
Well said !!!!!! ^
Agreed!
Agree. That said, I watched the Muppet thing last night and thanks to Elton John, found it very enjoyable. 3.5 million people watched that thing – I would not call that a flop.
I actually don’t like Artpop except a few songs because I think it is missing what you think it has, catchy pop dance music. The hooks and songwriting aren’t as good as her earlier days where her songs had momentum in them.
But either way, it’s not a bad album. Even though I can’t get into it, I can see why some would enjoy it. And I think you’re right. This whole closely tied to association with art overpowered it. This album isn’t brilliant nor is it some kind of brilliant Bowie album. It’s got a lot of generic electronic songs in there that make for an energetic dance album but have zero to do with art. Maybe that turned people off or they just aren’t connecting to the album like I’m not. The song Artpop is great though and I like Aura and Manicure. Sexxx Dreams started off so amazinglyl but then kind of lost me. Venus could have been great, but that stupid namng the planets in the middle and Your Anus just made it so cheesy and will date the song anyway. Applause is a good song.
And her empire isn’t crumbling. She will have a huge tour. People can write it, but it doesn’t make it so that her empire is crumbling. She just isn’t at the heights she was during The Fame Monster. If she doesn’t improve her songwriting and catchy songs, she may never be again, but she still won’t be a flop either. Her songwriting is what was lacking on this album.
The special was low ratings because of the big game. But it probably wouldn’t have done a whole lot better anyway.
I think she has a pleasant voice but when you listen to artists from all around the globe, in many musical genres, I don’t think that ‘strong’ is an apt descriptor of LG’s vocals.
Also, the phrase ‘cultural zeitgeist’ is an example of tautology. ‘Zeitgeist’ alone is sufficient.
I’ve always thought she was talented and beautiful, but she lost me with that whole marina abromovic method video where she’s naked ,screaming and standing on her head in the middle of a forrest. .
Oh lord if it was Marina Abramovic inspired, I hope all that nakedness, screaming and headstanding was in sloooooooooow motion.
Kaiser I have to agree with you on mr. Fredericksburg comments. Too often I think people default to the jealous/hater when someone is crtical or saying something they just don’t want to hear. And when people start to run short on being known for their craft is when we start to see them trade on their personal lives, and recently GaGa went there by discussing her bf. I think she just blew up too fast and all the hero worship enabled her to keep creating they way she had. You know Madonna is somewhere having the last laugh while bathing in virgins blood.
Madonna had to deal with this very same stuff.
But where Madonna was different was she kept putting out songs with strong melody and strong hooks. Madonna had an ear for good melody as some of the songwriters that worked with her have said. And Madonna put out hit albums for ten years before her big fall with Erotica. That is the reason whatever Madonna did couldn’t take her down, which is she kept making great pop albums and great pop videos. Which Erotica is a beautiful and sophisticated album, but it was her antics with the Sex Book and the movie that turned people off to her and didn’t buy the album.
Gaga’s music has taken a real downward turn and she’s only been in the game five years. I think her problem was she did blow up so fast and was praised for being weird and putting out some really catchy songs that were different at the time. She kept bragging about her songwriting and the hype got to her that she felt this pressure to put out weird songs, whether that be just a weird lyrics or song structure. She was so intent or that that she just forgot to write songs with heart and melody and better lyrics and great hooks.
I Agree with Jayna: Madonna published great albums, amazing videos and put on amazing shows (she still does that). After her second album every time Gaga has a new single she starts announcing it like the newThriller…and instead is a mess.
She did, and she responded to it by putting out strong albums and regularly updating her image when her old one became stale or unpopular. I think Gaga has the potential to do that as well, but it’s time for her to get moving on it.
Madonna is a marketing genius.
The difference is that Madonna for the most part didn’t really care and was never try hard. She was in your face like it or not and if she was ever self
-conscious or insecure you never knew it. She had all those amazing songs to back it up too.
That’s why she’s the Queen.
Yep, Madonna dealt with it first….no need for a copycat to come along and do it again. I wish she’d just be Gaga without the hackneyed gimmicks.
@Nev: B.S. Madonna ALWAYS cared and still cares. I agree with a lot of the posts here, in that LG needs to go back to/focus more on her talent. She’s a million times more talented than madonna, but agree again with previous posters…. madonna is a marketing genius. LG is simply not playing “the game” correctly.
P.S. Madonna ripped off/copied so many artists. Her saving grace? No social media at that time and she eventually fessed up to it, which made her honest.
Art “pop” – bubble burst. You had a good run GaGa – hope you saved some $.
It’s because she’s nothing but a gimmick. Sure, her costumes and behaviour were “shocking”/interesting when she first came out, but it’s just old, tired, and EXHAUSTING already. I can’t think of any “artist” who has maintained a very long career on being a gimmick. How doesn’t she realize that people are bored and over it? She has an amazing voice, can play the friggin’ piano!, and can write decent catchy pop songs. Why aren’t her people telling her to focus on those things? I’m not saying she has to get rid of her costumes completely, but why not just save them for performances? I mean, to wear sh*t like that day in and day out? Does she even know who she is as a person anymore, or has the Gaga persona completely taken her over?
And sadly, I believe the drug rumours. I still think her hip surgery was an attempt to get her in rehab and off of drugs.
You took the words right out of my mouth and my mind! Right on! She does have talent (not my kind but still) but it has been overshadowed by all the garbage she has put on. Time to just get out there and sing, girl, without the distractions!
Completely agree. The closest example I can think of is Katy Perry. A few years ago, she was the same way as Gaga – crazy costumes, clothing, hair color, etc. Katy has changed all of that. She does the stuff for her shows, but not everyday anymore.
As for her subpar song-writing, I think Gaga is too drugged out to write decent songs now. She has admitted in the past that songs like “Born This Way” were written in under an hour. So she was able to spit out some silliness before, and turn it into a hit, but none of the recent songs are any good. However, she probably envisions herself as some druggy-arty-genius mess, a la Kurt Cobain or Andy Warhol.
I think she made a mistake when she broke with that woman who was helping her creatively–sorry, can’t remember her name. It seems to me that she’s putting much more emphasis on her public appearances, social media interactions; less so on her music and videos, which is where her creativity used to flourish. It’s been a long time since I found myself humming a Gaga song, and when I do, it’s one of her older ones.
Lady Starlight?
Maybe. Probably.
On edit: Nope. Laurianne Gibson
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/laurieann-gibson-lady-gaga-statement-263066
I think Gibson should regret it too, since she went on to do that overly try-hard stuff with Nicki Minaj that clearly didnt work. That terrible Grammy’s performance with the priest and the exorcism? Ugh.
@Bridgett – For some reason, I don’t think that, had Gaga been open to collaborating with her (to gain more creative input) as opposed to taking over entirely, that Gibson would’ve likely walked away, considering how insanely popular/huge for her career/& no doubt lucrative it was, working for Gaga (as it gave her a chance for her work to be seen by a huge audience, & no doubt would’ve continued to result in further better job opportunities in the future.
I got the impression (from the article you quoted) that Gaga probably either fired her (& agreed for the sake of Gibson’s PR, to present it as a mutual parting of ways) or/& that Gaga decided to take over pretty much everything that was Gibson’s job to be in charge of, so there wasn’t much for her to actually *do* as a result, & either Gaga decided to let her go because of this, or Gibson simply didn’t see a reason to stay because of it.
.
But I agree with you, it definitely didn’t seem to go too well for her after the split… (& ‘her’ could be either of them). They were a good team, it seemed like.
I like her voice, but her circus act regarding clothing has gotten old. She’s a great singer, she doesn’t need all of that crap.
I signed up for one reason (longtime reader of great comments on Celebitchy). I wanted to point out the bizarre white looking area under her nose in the last picture, the one with the bun-like things on her head. What is that? Is that my imagination? I clearly see some sort of white residue, maybe it’s just odd lighting, maybe it’s makeup but there is *something* going on there.
Just had a squizz back at the pic and she defenently has a bit of white powder around the nostrils thing going on. Now it could be make up but the closer I looked at her face, the more I realised that she looks pinned off her head
I’m really surprised media outlets haven’t picked up on this. Some of the more trashy sites like ROL would normally be ALL over this. We’ve seen celebs with the white makeup powder mistakes but right under the nostril? Not to mention the way her eyes look in the pic. I hesitate to make such a big assumption but that really does seem like cocaine residue to me.
**Edited to add that I zoomed in on the picture and it’s crystal clear that the white residue goes UP her nose in that nostril. Literally up her nose. Wow.
Woah! Most likely cocaine.
I used to passionately luv Gaga but now I just shrug my shoulders and say meh.
See, to me her first album was quite crap. There’s a handful of good songs on The Fame, but the rest could be filler on someone like Selena Gomez’s album. She was clearly using songs she’d planned on offloading on someone else. The Fame Monster was great because it was edited down. Born This Way and ARTPOP are messy, but they’re far better The Fame and if they were EP’s instead of full albums they could have been great.
I don’t think her music is getting worse, I don’t even think her career is flat-lining. She was on top of the world for a couple of years and now that’s just subsiding naturally. It happens to everyone, it doesn’t mean she’s about to lose everything, just that she’s no longer the popstar of the moment.
She should “disappear” for a bit and come back with a lovely acoustic album that brings her back to her roots.
Yeah… One would hope she got the memo that she needs to cut the crap, because her *last* disappearance (for super-serious-painful-hip-surgery-that-*always*-causes-scars,-but-apparently-not-on-Saint-Gaga-of-White-Nose,-who-was-stupid-enough-to-appear-completely-naked-in-a-weird-meditation-video)… wasn’t sucessful.
But it is an “American Trend” we always build people up just to knock them down.. . I’ve even read the stark comments about Adele (although British) from American music insiders “What is she going to write about now that she’s engaged and have a baby” since her last two albums were about ex-boyfriends. So they are already predicting her next album to flop or not sell as many albums as “Adele 21”.
I always say once you’ve been interviewed on “60 minutes”, featured in Time Magazine, NYTimes, or any other prestigious media outlet ..get ready for the fallout.
I’m not saying Lady Gaga’s fallout isn’t warranted.. But, I do think she’s very talented. I truly don’t get the Madonna Comparison since she can sing (pop, jazz, R&B), dance, play piano and write her own songs. She just needs to take a break and come back in two years as Stefani Germotta.
I sort of wonder if she even *thinks* of herself as ‘Stefani Germanotta’, anymore. I definitely can’t see her coming back out in the entertainment business under any name but ‘Gaga’, but that’s partially because I think the ‘Lady Gaga’ persona has taken over her *real* existance.
Lady Gaga is the most naturally talented of the pop princesses right now. She has a better voice than many, and is musically inclined (she can play musical instruments and write songs).
The problem is–“Applause” is too intelligent for the average pop listener. It has too many lyrics and is too artsy. What sells are songs like “Bad Romance”–simple, catchy, sing-along-y.
It does not help that she has Madonna’s former stylist as her manager, turning her into Madonna.
If she is not releasing stupid, sing along songs with few words, then no one will care. she can keep the image, but she needs to put out catchy simple songs, not artpop.
“”Applause” is too intelligent for the average pop listener” bitch please! There is nothing “intelligent” about this song. She recycles the same crap over and over again. Thank god people finally got that!
Intelligent? I find a lot of it generic and lazy lyrics.
You cannot take her seriously, she has no lead in what she wears or what she sings, she just wants to get noticed. ‘Applause’ is not too intelligente for the average pop listener because we have big examples of artists who have a true voice behind great lyrics and Madonna used to be one of them. She might have the voice, she might have the skills but her attitude stinks and frankly you cannot call yourself a genius without a bomb hitting back at you. kanye West might be a talented writer of lyrics but all the ‘oh my god i grace earth with my presence’ don’t like the public and so does Gaga. She should pick a dressing style and stick to it like i don’t know… Dita Von Teese, make it her own and then maybe people will realise this is what she is and not just wanting to be weird to be noticed. I used to like gaga but wearing Leather squids, cockoo glasses and weird stuff on her face doesnt’ make it happen for me, i just roll my eyes and I think she is desperate and lonely.
Madonna never had a great voice , what made her famous was her image and her ability to reinvent herself. And that her music was really catchy. However due to working on her voice for the movie “Evita” she was actually able to sound really good.
Ella Fitzgerald, Amy Whinehouse, and Adele were/ are good singers. And yes, Lady Gaga too. Madonna was at the most an OK singer.
I think Kesha is a more talented songwriter than her but she’s a better singer.
You think the raunchy base lyrics to the song she sang with R. Kelly is too intelligent for people like us to understand? I’m sorry, but that is ridiculous. It’s gimmicky, cheap, and just plain old BAD song writing. If you want intelligent lyrics, check out someone like Leonard Cohen.
*Ahem* A sample of the lyrics from Applause:
I stand here waiting for you to bang the gong
To crash the critic saying, “Is it right or is it wrong?”
If only fame had an I.V., baby could I bear
Being away from you, I found the vein, put it in here
I live for the applause, applause, applause
I live for the applause-plause
Live for the applause-plause
Live for the way that you cheer and scream for me
The applause, applause, applause
Give me that thing that I love (I’ll turn the lights on)
Put your hands up, make ’em touch, touch (make it real loud)
Give me that thing that I love (I’ll turn the lights on)
Put your hands up, make ’em touch, touch (make it real loud)
(A-P-P-L-A-U-S-E) Make it real loud
(A-P-P-L-A-U-S-E) Put your hands up, make ’em touch, touch
(A-P-P-L-A-U-S-E) Make it real loud
(A-P-P-L-A-U-S-E) Put your hands up, make ’em touch, touch
…Yup, real intelligent. Let’s see if it follows the standard GagaTM formula. Pseudo-edgy reference to heroin: check. Using the cheap cheerleader tactic to rouse enthusiasm by spelling out words we already know how to spell: check. Masturbatory ego inflation: check. Repeating words over and over again in a half-witted attempt to get the song stuck in the more susceptible and unscrupulous listeners’ minds like some sort of cultish chant: check. And not evidenced here, but also repeating the chorus over and over again after only one additional verse: check. I seriously can’t understand why people think she’s a good songwriter, when practically all her songs are like this.
Idk, her new stuff just isn’t very appealing. I only tuned in to her holiday special to see Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and I nearly fell asleep waiting for him to come on.
Lady Gaga is so boring and predictable now her career is obviously at an end.
WTF is that leather squid she is wearing in pic 1???
If you’re old enough, you’ve seen her schtick before and you’ll probably live long enough to see it again.
This.
The little monsters here are a hoot. She is nominally talented, which means nothing in showbiz if you don’t have an act. So glad she’s over. Embarrassed for those who were or are into this Gong Show act. You have horrible taste, lol. One here called her beautiful! Lmao. The blind art collector comes to mind.
@Thom – She’s not my cup of tea, either, but theres no reason to be insulting. Not *everyone* who has said something positive about Gaga or about her potential talent are ‘little monsters’.
You should definitely voice your opinions, but you don’t have to be mean & disrespectful to the others commenting here, just because you don’t agree with them.
Saw her on a Canadian program the other night. I was impressed with her. I think she’s very talented. Fame can be extremely stressful because it comes so hard and fast and one doesn’t know how to deal with the pressure. Alot of creative ppl are very broken and suffer from depression and low self esteem. Hope she doesn’t become a member of the 27 Club.
I think the problem with Gaga and others is oversaturation. A “how can we miss you if you don’t go away?” kind of thing.
She needs to tale a break, travel, read some books, chill with friends, and then come back in 3-5 years and wow us with a fresh perspective.
She was gone. She toured, so off in another country, no time to be on TV. Then she had to cancel the U.S. because of her hip and then no word of her for six months also. If she had had a great album, we would be talking differently. I do think a gazillion outrageous outfits every five seconds puts people on burnout of her with it , seeing allof her costume changes for anything online every day more than coming back with an album after two years.
Her lyrics are horrible and her beats are really really bad. Piss poor album. She did take herself too seriously trying to prove something…
This. Her lyrics were bad on a lot of the songs, and I found the beats nothing great and no great hooks on a lot of songs. The album is fine as an energetic generic dance album, but that’s all
I kinda wish she would go back to the way she was when The Fame came out, I love the first two albums, but she started to lose me at the third. I’m not interested in Artpop, I wanted to be but I guess I’m over her.
She is morphing into Donatella Versace.
I totally thought the same thing!!!
I was going to get all gender-indignant and ask what *women* have been given unlimited second chances, but then I remembered: Lindsay.
Her name immediately popped into my head :). She’s been given millions of second chances, unfortunately.
And sadly, I think Brooke Mueller belongs on that list. (Though unfortunately not regarding something as unimportant as an entertainment career).
It’s karma for sabotaging Christina Aguilera and her career with the help of her ex “husband”, Perez Hilton.
What’s this? I must’ve missed something 0_o How did she ‘sabotage’ Christina’s career? (Genuinely curious, as I’d heard nothing about any of that). And I thought she & Perez didn’t care for eachother? (Enough for her to flip out & call him a ‘stalker’?)
Funny, the really great artists, like Barbra Streisand never needed a meat dress or any other stupid gimmicks. But Gaga is no.great.artist.
It was never art, just disposable pop. Pop music can be art, I just don’t think much of hers qualifies. I enjoyed the first album for about a month and then i got bored by it. The constant name-checking reminded me of Gwen Stefani’s non-stop plugging of L.A.M.B. on her fist solo album. She’s always been about marketing and sales, no matter how loudly she screams ‘ART!!!’
Lots of amazing albums and songs get released everyday and don’t get to number one. Doesn’t mean they aren’t any good.
This is her Madonna moment. People have seen enough of what she’s been offering musically and as a performer, and it’s gotten stale. I think she does have talent, and if she backs out of the public eye for awhile and uses that time to create a great album and craft a fresher image, that she has the potential for a long career. If she insists on beating this Pop as Art horse to death and relying on silly stunts, she’ll end up being a relic associated with one period. I hope she has the insight to do the former, but I worry she’s having too much fun partying to realize that she’s at a crucial point in her career.
I’m not a Gaga’s fan, but I don’t think she’s totally untalented. I simply think this is what is going to happen to musicians, actors and artists when they worry too much about look, make up, fame and desire for visibility.
+1! <3 You said everything I intended to, in a far shorter, more direct way.
I honestly have been hoping that one day she drops the shtick and does a straight up performance as a singer. Put her cards on the table and stop hiding behind gimmicks. Or does she not have the confidence in her ability to do this? KISS ditched the makeup eventually. John Cougar became John Mellencamp. The crazy stuff can get attention but only genuine talent can keep it. Be herself if she can remember what that is. At this point what has she got to lose?
When you have a schtick like Gaga (personality/persona driven), you still have to constantly evolve. Kinda like Madonna. She always reinvented herself from album to album.
She’s nothing but “schtick”. Style over substance, there are a million people out there with immense talent who don’t have to resort to cheap “art” personas to create art and music.
Yawn.
I think the tendency the audience has with entertainers is not building up and tearing down, that’s too easy to fall back on, and gives the performer no responsibility or accountability for their part in the transaction. It’s the audience’s prerogative to be more demanding, picky and fickle with our attention and dollars. With the proliferation of instant streaming downloadable media from hundreds of different sources, and a lot of it free, the old model of building and maintaining a career is dunzo. We don’t have to stay loyal or even interested in an act for very long anymore, there are plenty of things coming up or down the pipe to captivate us all over again. We’re also more discerning, even cynical, to OTT theatrics, novelty gets old real fast, in fact novelty is very transparent as an attention-grabbing tool these days. Gaga suffers from the very thing that created her in the first place; a young audience hungry for “new” ate her up in the beginning, but they also lose attention as fast as they pay it, and they’re off to find something new again.
Look at a band like Muse, tremendously successful, many years of hard work, collaboration, but a concentration on the craft, not the superficial. Not a silly costume in sight, the band members are barely visible off the stage. But they can drive a crowd mad with only three musicians on stage in jeans and t-shirts. They’ve figured out how to keep their fans happy. Take a page from their playbooks; tone down the theatrics, drive the music, give us your powerful pipes. Music is an amazing drug on its own and its ability to unite all different kinds of people and temperaments needs to be appreciated and nurtured. You got the tools, Gaga, no need to reinvent the wheel. Build a better vehicle, and we’ll be happy to take a ride with you for a while longer.
These sources aren’t very reliable. Their credibility is exactly laughable.
I’m no expert of Lady Gaga, her persona, or work, but I like some of her work. I usually listen to a couple of her songs when I’m working out at the gym.
As an aside to the main point of the article, R Kelly is a pedophile yet he’s referred to as a legend, is able to perform in front of millions of people and is given a great deal of money for it. He’s an evil man. Why do people so easily forget?
Apparently some people have idiotically short memory spans. They say all the ‘socially expected ‘right things’ when the news first comes out, but once it’s been awhile since they’ve heard anything about someone, & a new song with a good beat comes on, they just sort of ‘shrug’ & & nod their heads to the music, & don’t think about it.
I was disgusted when I first heard that Gaga was doing a song with this POS. But she has horrible judgment in regards to whom she works with. She said ‘Uncle Terry’ Richardson had ‘The biggest heart of anyone I’ve ever known’, gushed about his ‘talent’ as a photographer, & how honored she was to work with him.
They’re both disgusting men who used their positions in the entertainment industry to force themselves on underage girls. How soon people seem to forget the Aaliyah marriage (may she RIP). A 27 year old RKelly, who was her producer when she first got in the business, MARRIED a *15* year old Aaliyah.
Apparently some people have idiotically short memory spans. They say all the ‘socially expected ‘right things’ when the news first comes out, but once it’s been awhile since they’ve heard anything about someone, they just sort of ‘shrug’ & not think about it.
I was disgusted when I first heard that Gaga was doing a song with this POS. But she has horrible judgment in regards to whom she works with. She said ‘Uncle Terry’ Richardson had ‘The biggest heart of anyone I’ve ever known’, gushed about his ‘talent’ as a photographer, & how honored she was to work with him.
They’re both disgusting men who used their positions in the entertainment industry to force themselves on underage girls. How soon people seem to forget the Aaliyah marriage (may she RIP). A 27 year old RKelly, who was her producer when she first got in the business, MARRIED a *15* year old Aaliyah.
Edit – Ack, just replied to the above comment, I’m using one of those ‘touch screen tablets’, & it moved the cursor while I was typing, but I didn’t notice until already submitting the comment, taking out most of my ‘name’ to say ‘H’.
Sorry guys! (To the staff too! Not intentionally posting under a different name).
Lady Gaga should disappear then come back without those zany costumes and make an album showcasing her real talents. Her Artpop comes off as bit pretentious and not fun but props to her for taking a risk. The shock is over, it is time to show Stefani Germanota. Of all the current popstars, she’s the most talented so it’s a shame if she disappears into oblivion.
She should not had taken that long break. She should have kept her momentum going when she was at her peak. America has ADHD. She did believe she was the greatest and she was but we didn’t hear from her for so long. She simply dropped the ball.
Didn’t she have surgery or something? I guess it was hard to be a pop princess in her wheel chair?
Girl, you’re starting to look like you belong in Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory.
She’s got enough money to wipe her ass with $100 bills for the rest of her life.
I’m starting to pity her, she looks so sadly ridiculous these days. About her talent, I’m on the fence: I’ve heard a song when she was Stefanni and it didn’t impress me, so I guess she’s talented just when comparing with Katy Perry, Kesha, Selena Gomez and many others. Plus, I’ll never get the hype about The fame, since it was as generic as any other pop album.
What she needs to do now is ditch the costumes, wipe off the make up, put on a tshirt and make a live acoustic album. Show everyone that she can be real, and more importantly, likeable. I haven’t got any of her other albums but I think her music is catchy and I’d listen to an acoustic set. … I might not pay money for it, but I’d contribute to YouTube views.
She didn’t get one grammy nomination. That’s bad. I think she spent so much time stealing other people’s music and ideas, their whole gigs in some cases, like Daphne Guiness that it became absurd. Now she doesn’t even have herself to go back to because every thing she built a career on was gacked from someone else. Some people call that Karma. What’s interesting is how many of her peers don’t like her, not perex hilton but music peers have very little love for Gaga.