[Music] The Lady Gaga Thread

[Rageissues]

Well the choreography was nice... I may or may not have skipped the first 8 minutes.

[Badpaladin]

Watched it. It really could have done without the narration and silly acting.

[Deleted]

It's here! (officially this time )


---------- Post added 2011-12-02 at 10:24 AM ----------

Watching it right now, this is some weird ass shit. Even for Lady Gaga.

[Laptop]

Ehh, in my opinion, Lady Gaga was better during 2008-2009. She was more attractive and the music was catchier. Her new album is so-so, just seems way to mainstream now imo. Not awful, not incredible. Just my opinion.

[Deleted]

This is mainstream?
The Fame was straight up mainstream dance/pop music. Right now she's experimenting with electrical music, country and more. I think this is the least mainstream music she has made so far.

[ELYPOP]

Her lack of mainstream success proves that this era is far less mainstream. For example, Marry the Night is only at 15 in the UK charts.

P.S. I'll be watching the video when I get home.

[iLive]

I don't want her music to be "good in the market". I want her music to be nice.

[Badpaladin]

Her lack of mainstream success proves that this era is far less mainstream. For example, Marry the Night is only at 15 in the UK charts.

P.S. I'll be watching the video when I get home.

That's pretty big mainstream success. It is good that she's experimenting, though. I suppose.

Cheerios all over.

[ELYPOP]

Nah, I mean that it's been.. 2 weeks now? And the song has merely peaked at number 11, and has begun its drop already.

The other songs from this album didn't do fantasticly either: Born This Way peaked at 3, Judas at 8, Edge of Glory at 6, You & I at 23 (this is just for the UK, anyways).

Back in The Fame/Fame Monster era, she was getting way more number 1's.

I'm not saying that's bad. The experimentation in this new album is good. It's just not something that mainstream wants.



Edit: So, my thoughts on MTN.. that video was interesting. But, I think You & I + Judas sort of beat it (for the Born This Way era). She put this one together herself, and it gets a little random towards the end, with the flashing images of her life. That could have somewhat been done better, as could the part when she's walking up to do the dance routine on the street towards the end. That looked wierd to me.

Although, I liked the little bit about her going to Interscope Records (her current label, which made her big), as well as the phoenix hinting towards the end (even if that fire looked tacky). Sort of like.. if you fail, you can start over. Never give up. Just like her. The choreography was also her best yet.

I'd have to say that this was more like an inspirational video, if anything. Less on the actual music, more on the actual storytelling. Which isn't neccessarily bad, but not something to be frequently repeated either.

Editx2: I guess I was wrong about the stomach scar. But seriously, how do you stab yourself in the back?

[Xevan]

Riddle me this, what is mainstream? I'm not a fan but I enjoy some of her music... From what I've seen so far I'd think she'd mainstream.

[ELYPOP]

Riddle me this, what is mainstream? I'm not a fan but I enjoy some of her music... From what I've seen so far I'd think she'd mainstream.

"Mainstream music denotes music that is familiar and unthreatening to the masses, as for example popular music, pop music, middle of the road music, pop rap or pop rock." - Wikipedia.

Her current music is not mainstream. Just Dance and Poker Face were, but her current music is not strictly that. More electronic stuff, more jazz, more country music, etc, on her new album.

Compare the Edge of Glory (Gaga) to Price Tag (Jessie J):

[Badpaladin]

Uh-huh. Mainstream, like pop music is not a sound (come at me badpaladin). Mainstream is what the average person knows of or enjoys. She could be making post-avant noise junglecore, and if it topped the charts, that would make it mainstream.

If you're not careful then I'm going to troll you with supergenres again.

But yes, GaGa is mainstream. The genre elements she puts into her music has nothing to do with the fact that she's one of the most popular artists in the world right now. If she was doing this stuff but didn't see mainstream media and radio attention, then she would be "underground". It also has not a small correlation to her record labels -- indie labels don't typically get mainstream attention, but labels like Def Jam and Interscope absolutely do.

Mainsteam music without the "catchy to dance to" chorus:


It doesn't need to be "that pop artist sound" to be pop.

[ELYPOP]

She's currently different/less popular mainstream then. Honestly, her current music is vastly different to the mass of generic mainstream stuff that you hear on the radio.

P.S. I don't like being wrong. I get what I mean, but it's not super easy to explain.

[Xevan]

I just don't think so. I hear about her daily - local pop station, news papers, etc. I think being mainstream extends beyond just being "known"... A place where whether or not you get 50million views on YouTube in a week or sell 500k albums in a week does not matter. When you ask the general public who the big players in pop are right now, or even just in music in general - I think the majority would say Gaga first, then maybe followed by Katy Perry, Nicki Minaj, etc.

And as a disclaimer, there is nothing wrong with being mainstream. Hating an artist because they're successful is fucking stupid.

[Badpaladin]

She's currently different/less popular mainstream then. Honestly, her current music is vastly different to the mass of generic mainstream stuff that you hear on the radio.

P.S. I don't like being wrong. I get what I mean, but it's not super easy to explain.

Well in a less sugar-coated way, yes you're wrong. Your perception of her music as being totally different compared to the rest is a little skewed -- Rihanna has been doing the Dance-Pop thing for longer than she has. Madonna has been doing it over a decade ago, and often times with the same styles of music being sampled. While it may sound original or fresh, what she's doing has been done before by multiple artists, and "her" style has been employed by multiple artists during her time as well.

But that's why music is subjective. What other artists have done may not simply sound as good to you, or vice/versa. I'm attempting to be objective about this because I simply don't like a lot of GaGa and her contemporaries. From where I stand, there are that many differences.

As for being less famous, that's like saying you were ranked one or two places lower than the DPS record for some WoW fight -- she may not be the most popular thing every week, but the instant there's any news about her people swarm all over it.

You want an example of "less popular" pop music?

http://rateyourmusic.com/charts/top/album/2011

PJ Harvey and Tom Waits are both mainstream artists. How many times do you hear them on the radio internationally? Just don't be under the misconception that being super popular somehow equates to being bad. I personally don't care for GaGa's music that much, but I'm not about to call her a bad artist because of that. There have been tons of absolutely incredible super-popular albums in the past.

[ELYPOP]

Well in a less sugar-coated way, yes you're wrong. Your perception of her music as being totally different compared to the rest is a little skewed -- Rihanna has been doing the Dance-Pop thing for longer than she has. Madonna has been doing it over a decade ago, and often times with the same styles of music being sampled. While it may sound original or fresh, what she's doing has been done before by multiple artists, and "her" style has been employed by multiple artists during her time as well.

I'm saying that Gaga is trying new stuff. I wasn't disputing her creativity/originality. I know that Madonna did this years ago (when you grow up with one parent that's a Madonna fan), and that Gaga is basically a new version of her, trying to appeal to a younger generation.

And yes, she's mainstream. But the music that she's creating is not something that mainstream neccessarily wants, that's why she hasn't been as successful with this new album (see the positioning of her singles on the charts, not as high as The Fame/Fame Monster's singles, as well as the fact that Born This Way only sold a quarter of the number of The Fame/Fame Monster albums).

Anyhow, let's just end it at that. Don't want to dispute this any further.

[Deleted]

What I meant Longview, as I agree with you, is that pop/dance music seem to be the most "mainstream" at the moment. And since she is moving a bit away from the generic pop beats, etc. I'd say she is less mainstream than ever. I don't think popular=mainstream. I think Lady Gaga is popular because she has made some great music and she can sing, she's interesting. Stuff like Bruno Mars, Katy Perry, etc. is just mainstream. They don't get half the recognition Lady Gaga does, but they're still popular, but that is because they cater to the masses. Lady Gaga used to do the same, but now she seems to be experimenting so much that it is throwing some people off, because it is no longer generic pop that caters to the masses. She just has a lot of loyal fans who loves everything she does, she has people like me who respects her as an artist, likes quite a lot of her music, but is still able to say "Holy crap, that sucked" without feeling guilty, and she has haters who will do everything to label her as a hermaphrodite

What I'm trying to say is that mainstream is really hard to explain....
I'd define it as artists doing the music that will sell the most, aka catering to the masses. They don't care what genre they are, as long as they make music that makes a lot of money. Sell outs might be a better term, but for me that requires the artists to once having used another genre, one they liked, but then changed to only sell more records. I think it might just be me, having a hard time separating mainstream with sell-out. I guess mainstream isn't an insult in reality. My head is a mess right now! Hope I haven't said anything completely stupid.

[ELYPOP]

Hope I haven't said anything completely stupid.

You've said exactly what I've been trying to say. Thank you.

[Badpaladin]

Mainstream isn't hard to describe at all. As far as music is concerned, it's pop culture -- that's it. It's music that is popular. GaGa isn't any less mainstream than she was. In fact, "weird" dance pop has become more popular right now because of her. This is her second album nominated at the grammies, debuted top five across the world. It's certified platinum 2x or more in 6 countries, even with the huge rise in people who flat out don't buy music.

Marry the Night was posted only a day ago on YouTube and it's already surpassed Justin Beiber's latest Christmas bullshit. I don't understand how any of this somehow qualifies as not mainstream.

http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/indus...05267092.story

Number two on the list of top-selling albums of 2011 mid-year.

I suppose you could make the case that she's not the top-selling artist for this month right now, but that's because she hasn't released an album since the beginning of the year.

[Deleted]

But why do we need a deteriorating word (I still can't help but hear it as an insult, although as I said earlier, it's possibly just me putting too much into it) to describe something that already has been defined. I know pop stands for popular, but I hear people call Eminem "mainstream", and I also hear people calling Coldplay "mainstream", whether or not they're just using the word in a wrong place is not really something I can proof as of now. I'm pretty sure Eminem is hip-hop and I am pretty sure Coldplay is rock, while some may define them as "pop-rock" and Eminem as a sell-out, me included , but are they mainstream?

I ask all this because I still find it hard to understand mainstream stuff in the world of music. What if some unknown name makes a really good song that captivates botch rock fans, pop fans, hip hop fans, etc. etc. someone unknown just makes a piece of art in music. It's completely original and everyone loves it, it is not directly pop music, but it takes some features from there to perfectly smelt it together with other genres. This song then shoots to the top of all charts because this piece of music is so good that nobody can say otherwise. Is this artist then mainstream, because this artist made something popular?