Lady Gaga – Seventh Album

[Rose "Payola" Nylund]

I loved Speechless from day 1 and the ballad criticisms around her always confused me because that song was always so epic to me. Looking back now, it was kind of foreshadowing of her gritty piano bar sound that she’s kind of touched on a few times since then that I hope she someday dives into fully for a side project or something. Like, make an album of “Die with a smile” “speechless” smokey piano jazz underground bar rock songs.

[Choco]

Speechless was fine but it was the least interesting thing she was delivering back then to me.

[85la]

Certainly Gaga is not all to blame for Folie A Deux's failure, but it really bothers me for those who are saying "it was not her fault at all," "she will come out completely unscathed," and that the prospects for her career are still "very strong." To have such a belief just seems so far-removed and out of touch with reality, and certainly would not be said of other artists you aren't fans of who are in the same situation. And this is coming from a huge fan of hers who has been following her very closely since day one; Yes, I would much rather see her succeed than fail, but I am just describing things as I am objectively seeing them, not how I want them to be (and everyone should be reminded this is not a fan forum, so all types of commentary that aren't just positive are completely fair game).

To deny that both her music and acting career have been on a substantial downswing, both commercially and often critically, since her A Star Is Born resurgence, is failing to acknowledge reality. Chromatica was a solid underperformance compared to her earlier hit albums, House of Gucci was nowhere near a major critical or commercial success, and though Gaga's performance in Folie A Deux might not have been the worst to come out of it, I didn't see any "glowing reviews" anywhere (I personally didn't find it special at all), so reception of her work must have been mildly positive at best. Ultimately she chose the script and agreed to participate in the film, was the second-highest billed actor, and the fact that it bombed at the box office, has the worst second-week drop of all time, and has terrible critic and audience reviews, sorry, but her name is inextricably associated with this and it will make her chances of achieving any sort of comeback much harder.

[die Lotterie]

Lady Gaga literally has 104,000,000+ monthly listeners on Spotify, the #1 song in the world with Bruno Mars, a pop hit at 38, an excellent new EP, she just knocked one of her career best televised performances out of the park, and she’s about to drop LG7 on your faces and this is how some of y'all wanna celebrate? 💀

[Rose "Payola" Nylund]

People believe she'll come out of the flop film fine and others think her career is damaged as a result. We'll eventually find out what will happen. Let's all circle back on this in a year from now, k?

[Enigma.]

Oct 13, 2024 22:49:26 GMT -5 85la said:

To deny that both her music and acting career have been on a substantial downswing, both commercially and often critically, since her A Star Is Born resurgence, is failing to acknowledge reality. Chromatica was a solid underperformance compared to her earlier hit albums

This is a wild statement considering:
-the album spawned two top 5 singles and one of them went #1 in the US and the UK - beats Joanne, ARTPOP and ASIB there already
-the album debuted at #1 in numerous countries (US, UK, Australia, Canada to name a few)
-it was selected among the top 20 best albums of the year by ten or so publications (Consequence, NME, People, Rolling Stone, Slate)
-it was basically the second most successful dance pop album of the year behind Future Nostalgia (which was a behemoth of a success)
-it sparked a 20-show stadium tour which was all sold out and got rave reviews ("The show was as predictably unpredictable as you’d expect from a Lady Gaga concert with everything from incredible choreographed dances to avant-garde theatrics and lots of special effects that made it a night to remember for all in attendance." - Clash)
-the album opened with 48.3M streams on Spotify which at the time was one of the best opening days for an artist not called Taylor Swift or Drake.

I would like to know what are your criteria of a successful project exactly...

[spiritboy]

I never liked Gaga's ballads until ASIB. From that moment, she started record and release more traditional ballads which i prefer.

Regarding JFAD, it will definitely hurt her movie career. Musically she'll be fine but hopefully she won't release a collab as the lead single as will be accused of relying on collaborations to have a hit single.

[kmbgs]

I think the only way JFAD hurts Gaga is her rate goes down significantly - she has proven she can't carry a movie on her name alone. This won't stop her from getting roles, though. Everyone knows this movie flopped because of reasons unrelated to her acting.

[balletgirlmom]

I agree.  This movie was a big flop, but GG was NOT!  She did great in her role and was the BEST thing in the movie.  Everyone sees that. Now, I hope the Academy nominates her for Best Supporting Actress.  I wonder what her odds are?

[SPRΞΞ]

just goes to show you how viral word of mouth goes these days. But I also think it's misleading and disingenuous to show trailers that don't reveal it's a musical. What was up with that? I remember seeing a trailer during Alien: Romulus and it didn't have any music in it. Maybe a note or two, but certainly not "oh, it's a musical!"

[Rose "Payola" Nylund]

Is there an actor (or even singer-turned-actor) whose career dramatically suffered because of a flop film? I'm sure there are examples. I don't have a lot of knowledge about films and film careers.

[Ｓｏｕｎｄｃｌ🕤ｃｋ]

Million Reasons is an amazing song !

[Choco]

Have you guys seen the movie? No one was gonna be able to carry that. They truly made a mess, made it a musical no one wanted, gave it a courtroom plot not worthy of an ABC show filler episode, the songs aren't even close to what's popular today, gave it an ending that made fun of the fans that liked the first... and even then it was a sequel to a polarizing film that was always gonna have at least a moderate decline bc a lot of people weren't coming back anyways.

Of course her rate goes down. I still don't think it's her fault it was poorly written. Like remember when Madonna tried to act? She actively made her films worse. Not the same case here. This film and House of Gucci had budget issues. This outright tanked, but on paper an adult skewing drama like HoG doing 150 something million is nice, especially post Covid. But it had a huge ass inexplicable budget.

As for Chromatica I mean yeah, it didn't necessarily set the charts on fire like The Fame did but it did what it had to do, especially factoring in the messy campaign when COVID derailed the whole world. The one attempt at mainstream music success she's currently pursuing is doing amazingly.

[Ivy Leegue™]

Ordered the Harlequin vinyl. Can't wait for it to arrive! Such a great album.

[NeRD]

Well, this settles it.

[Love Plastic Love]

Oct 14, 2024 14:44:51 GMT -5 Rose "Payola" Nylund said:

Is there an actor (or even singer-turned-actor) whose career dramatically suffered because of a flop film? I'm sure there are examples. I don't have a lot of knowledge about films and film careers.

Most of the examples I can give are either 1. People who eventually recovered or 2. People who were trying to become the next big movie star and a horrible flop held them back from doing so. But, also, maybe they weren't meant to be huge movie stars on par with Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise anyway? So like, Taylor Kitcsh who couldn't quite ever made that leap and John Carter flopping sealed the deal or Matthew Modine who was almost there before Cutthroat Island. It's weird because I can think of way more women who just petered out, flop or not. Like, just kind of disappeared even if they didn't have a massive bomb on their record.

Gaga is weird because I think she wants to be a big movie star? So, if her goal is being a huge, A-list bonafide movie star, then yes this flop will hurt her. But, if her goal is just to take on acting roles that interest her here and there, then I don't think it will hurt her at all lol. Like, what exactly is the goal here? Oscar bait and blockbusters? Or just doing what interests her?
It makes way more sense to me for her to do the latter, but I kind of think her focus may be the former.

[shakemaki]

$150m+ is just an absurd amount of money to lose for the sequel to one of the most profitable and surprising CBM success stories ever.

Anywaysss, as many others have illustrated, I still fail to see how this affects Gaga outside of acting??? As far as acting, yes I think it could be harder for her to land big roles with big paychecks for now since she’s basically running off of one movie hit from 6 years ago. But maybe she doesn’t even want that. Though I feel like she wants an acting Oscar, and that is her ultimate goal in acting. I think she’s probably got a bit of a Cher idea in her head for how she’d like it all to play out. Who knows though.

[Enigma.]

It's not black and white with Gaga and movies - she might not earn as much money from her next role but everyone knows that she is dedicated to do her best, is nice to work with and a compelling figure on big screen. So, I don't think casting Gaga is a risk to any movie even after Joker 2, still quite the opposite.

I would like her to portray an original character that we know nothing about beforehand though. ASIB was a remake, Patrizia is a living person and Harley is a comic book character. So far, she has mostly done "her versions" of the characters. She devoured the role of The Countess on AHS, so she is definitely capable of that.

[ampersand]

The movie bombing will have no impact on her music career—she has an active pop single right now that is smashing. As far as her film career goes, critics routinely singled her out as the best part in a bad movie, so I doubt she retains any of the stink from this. Will she be able to get $12 million for her next role? Probably not. But I’d rather see her in an indie film that challenges her than another would-be blockbuster anyway.

[Choco]

She could eat a Marvel supporting role imo. Just don't make her the star of it, at least right away. And no musical angle either.

But for example if you're watching Agatha All Along, Gaga would have been fun as part of the Coven.

Other than Marvel there's little in terms of "safe" choices for blockbusters. I think she'd eat a horror role too.

Honestly aside frol all that what I need from her is a full on era with her next album. Promotion, multiple videos... give us the effort.

[SPRΞΞ]

put her in the next Beetlejuice.

[spiritboy]

Even though she's young, i would like to see her as Norma Desmond if they shoot a movie of Sunset Blvd musical. She'll be great in it. Though i would advice her to stay away from musicals and do something different for her next role. For now, she should focus only on her musical career.

[#LisaRinna]

10/19 Billboard charts

Hot 100
6 5 Die With a Smile

Billboard 200
108 109 The Fame

Radio Songs
14 13 Die With a Smile

Digital Songs
9 7 Die with a Smile

Streaming Songs
3 2 Die With a Smile

Catalog Albums
43 42 The Fame

Soundtracks
12 12 A Star Is Born

Pop Airplay
12 9 Die With a Smile

Adult Contemporary
7 7 Die With a Smile

Adult Pop Airplay
11 8 Die With a Smile

Rhythmic Airplay
39 36 Die With a Smile

Top Dance/Electronic Albums
2 2 The Fame
6 7 Born This Way

Dance Mix/Show Airplay
40 32 Die With a Smile

[balletgirlmom]

I did not like Joker 2, but loved LG.  Of course, I did!  She WILL follow CHER and win an Oscar for Acting.  Unlike Madonna, who could not act, LG CAN act.  I look forward to the new single and album.  It will smash!!!!

[SPRΞΞ]

Oct 15, 2024 17:44:48 GMT -5 balletgirlmom said:

Unlike Madonna, who could not act

you are right overall, but Desperately Seeking Susan, A League of Their Own, and Evita are great movies. That's her trinity. The rest can go tho, lol.

[Enigma.]

What happened to Madonna with the movies after the 90s needs to be studied for real! Has anyone really analyzed it?

[ObhiDonna]

What’s there to analyze? Madonna is a godawful actress and everything post Evita flopped to the point she vowed never to act again after Swept Away.

On another note, Harlequin is expected to reach top5 on UK albums chart post the physical release. Wonder if it will reenter in Billboard 200.

[pnobelysk]

While I realize Harley was not the downfall of this film. I do wonder if Warner brothers will finally move away from her.

The first suicide squad did excellent at the box office but got horrible reviews. Then birds of prey and the second suicide squad flopped big time (even for a covid release).and now this. I think Harley may need a break from the big screen

[Ｓｏｕｎｄｃｌ🕤ｃｋ]

a H.I.T.

[SPRΞΞ]

Oct 16, 2024 1:31:54 GMT -5 Enigma. said:

What happened to Madonna with the movies after the 90s needs to be studied for real! Has anyone really analyzed it?

The Next Best Thing was so awful, but then the soundtrack was absolutely PHENOMENAL!! I need to relisten to it, cuz I was obsessed with the whole thing back in the day.

overall tho, I stand by her trinity as being great movies with great performances by her. Maybe even Dick Tracy as 4th. But the rest are awful and should be deleted from existence. But it never did hurt her. She always had hits at the same time. Even her flop movies had #1's. Swept Away didn't stop Confessions from being a global smash.