Loving pop culture as I do it shouldn't come as a surprise that I like Lady Gaga. She recently release her much anticipated third album, entitled ARTPOP. Well, it was about time. I was dying for new music. But it wasn't at all what I was expecting.
Gaga, herself, is a sucess. She didn't need to make another record forever and she would be known forever on the pop music trivia. She changed the landscape of pop music forever. Bad Romance changed pop music. Like it or not you can denied her influence and creativity.
Her second album, Born This Way, was a sucess like no other. In a time where records don't sell shit and artists have to tour the world to get money, Gaga's second album sold an impressive 1,108K only in the first week! Beating that is almost impossible.
ARTPOP debuted at #1 at Billboard album chart selling in its first week a great 258K copies. Now let's compare numbers. Selling 250K in the first week used to be a great thing for everyone until Born This Way. Katy Perry's Prism sold 286K in the first week and Miley Cyrus' Bangerz, 270K. So selling 250K in the first week it's not as bad as you'd think. These were the two greatest records of the fall. The timing wasn't perfect. It was a heavy weigh divas fall competition. The surprise of the year was Miley Cyrus and not Lady Gaga. Miley stole the spotlight (well deserved if you ask me) and her songs Wrecking Ball and We Can't Stop are a major sucess.
Another reason ARTPOP "failed" is because of its message. It's too artsy for the general audience. Born This Way, the lead single of Gaga's second album was an anthem of freedom and love that everyone could relate and dance, while Applause, the lead single of ARTPOP, is about what the artist loves and lives for. With amazing lyrics like "One second I'm a Koons, then suddenly the Koons is me", well this is just too much for the massive crowd that loves Gaga. Most people don't even know who the fuck Jeff Koons is. Well, know they do, so big congratulations to Gaga for educating the world. When the single came out no one could relate to the music because most people aren't artists. Applause was not the best lead single.
On her second record Gaga could easily choose a single, because the album was really full of great power-house songs. I don't feel that way about ARTPOP. The song that entitles the record is so beautiful written but it suffers from the same problem Applause does. It's too highbrow. Most people don't get it. And it's not really a great dance track, it's just a very good song. It won't play on radios or at discos.
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| Gaga + Koons. The ARTrave. Presentations of the album. |
She rushed three more singles, Venus, Do What You Want and Gyspsy. But are not as powerfull as The Edge Of Glory and You And I, or even Hair. I personally like Venus and think that was a good direction for the new record but it's the only song of its kind. MANiCURE is another great song that I don't understand why is not already pumping on the radios. I think it's one of the best tracks on the album. It should have been the second single. Being the first Venus (risky but new).
The rest of the album is really cool but it's not as powerful and cool as Born This Way. Is it bad? No, of course not. Gaga's voice is impeccable on all the tracks and it's a really fun album. But it's not the direction I was expecting. Anyway... Even the less good tracks on the album are better than most of the tracks out there. Gaga is a great artist and this "not so huge successful record" will not have any impact on her already great career.
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