Lady Gaga – Seventh Album

[areyoureadytojump]

^Latest figures are out:

Oldbloke:

ALBUM SALES WEEK 10

Rank - Estimated 2019 Sales - TITLE - Artist ( Estimated Total Sales)

01 - 284,000 - A STAR IS BORN (OST) - Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper ( 988,000 ) 1xP
02 - 273,000 - DNA - Backstreet Boys ( 273,000 )

1 million scanned on the next Billboard 200.

[Enigma.]

I've never read a story more SPOT ON than this!!

'G.U.Y.' Turns Five: When Gaga Rose From the Ashes

Five years ago, after a preternaturally long reign over the charts, Lady Gaga had arrived at a nadir.

by Brian O'Flynn, 22 March

Her ARTPOP campaign across 2013 and '14 had been plagued with problems, and her inner circle was fracturing. Gaga left bleak statements on her fan forum Little Monsters, such as: "Those who have betrayed me gravely mismanaged my time and health." By anyone else's standards, the album was still a chart success, but relative to her own career peaks, it was a deep, deep valley. Inevitably, the world "flop" pervaded headlines, as ARTPOP (nicknamed ARTFLOP) sales were reportedly 75% down on Born This Way.

Pop music is a notoriously fickle mistress, one whose acolytes thirst for blood and bangers in equal measure. As Gaga herself shrewdly foreshadowed in her unforgettably gory 2009 VMA performance, and more explicitly on 60 Minutes in 2011, people were awaiting her downfall: "That's what everyone wants to know, right? What's she gonna look like when she dies..."

Over three albums, Gaga shifted the pop paradigm to pivot on her example. Hers was an almost messianic arrival, defining pop forevermore as either pre- or post-Gaga. Her mastery of shocking visuals in "Bad Romance," "Telephone," and "Alejandro" was unparalleled — but in pop's consumption cycle, which trades in the dizzying rise and tabloid-fodder fall of artists, Gaga had soared too high for too long. Critics leapt on bald revelations about her professional turmoil to call long-awaited time on her reign. When the "G.U.Y" video (ultimately a lengthy feature incorporating multiple ARTPOP tracks at once) finally debuted this day five years ago, it was dismissed by some as a dumping ground for the residual visual material of a disastrous album cycle.

For fans, the lead-up to "G.U.Y.'s" release was saddening not so much because of falling chart figures, but because Gaga seemed so discontented. Throughout her albums, her lyrics had seemed often preoccupied with the idea of selling out or losing herself. "Poker Face" was about figuratively f**king money while dreaming of artistic freedom, "Love Game" hinted at the same Sophie's Choice ("Do you want love, or do you want fame?"), "Monster" was about a masculine figure who "ate her heart." She used a symbology of masculinity and femininity to represent the battle between commercialism and creativity. Gaga never alluded openly to this double meaning, but her later public revelations — about how she felt forced to compromise her vision to pander to money-hungry pop managers — confirmed these subtle references. In Netflix documentary Five Foot Two, she again lamented that dissonance: "What I've done is that when they wanted me to be sexy or they wanted me to be pop, I always f**king put some absurd spin on it that made me feel like I'm still in control"

In the bumpy lead up to "G.U.Y.," it seemed Gaga — after maintaining a seven-year balancing act of pushing the artistic envelope while remaining a viable commercial product — was finally losing the battle. The public, the media, her own close confidants, even some fans, had all turned on her. The video, fittingly, opened with her angelic figure broken-winged in the dirt, trampled by a horde of monkey-suited-men squabbling over money.

While some critics briefly scanned the video and dismissed what they had already pre-determined was a flop, fans lit up in delight after the first few seconds of screentime. The sense of excitement was palpable to us: Gaga was back.

"The easiest way I can describe this video for the fandom is: salvation", says Dovydas Laurinaitis, 22, a longtime fan from London. "It was her reclaiming control of her creativity. Its quality, concept and execution were what we had associated with Gaga, and it seemed like she was reshaping the era to what she wanted it to be. The fandom went crazy."

The video was a brilliant, postmodern, narrative epic. Gaga, arrow through heart, drags her near lifeless body from where it was abandoned by industry figures in the desert to Hearst Castle, where her beloved Haus of Gaga, her kindred creative spirits, await. They ritualistically carry and submerge her body in healing waters, before she's reborn as Venus, the Goddess of Love. She then greets Himeros, God of Sexual Desire. With gorgeous symbolism, Gaga represents the feminine (her art) finally meeting the masculine (commercialism) as equals — both deities. "Lay back," she told him (and us) commandingly, "and feast as this audio guides you through new and exciting positions." While in previous songs, Gaga seemed to search desperately for some way to make art and pop commune without destroying her, here she has already found the answer.

As the video rolls on, a regenerated Gaga mounts a counter-assault on the forces of capitalism, lays siege to the headquarters to the music industry and replaces its figureheads with the true creatives of her own Haus. Her art is reclaimed.

The lyrics are ostensibly about f**king, and Gaga trades in a conventionally sexy aesthetic in the video. As one critic wrote in a piece called Drowning, Not Waving: The Slow and Bitter End of Lady Gaga's Career: "... no one has ever wanted or even asked Gaga to be properly sexy." What they ignored was that these visuals perfectly complemented the personal victory the film represented for Gaga — it was about her enjoying feeling sexy, without having to put "some absurd spin on it" to feel in charge. It was an allegory about marrying the sex with the love, i.e. the pop with the art, and it represented a glorious culmination of a four album-long personal journey for her: "I'm gonna wear the tie with the power to leave you, I'm aiming for full control."

The video was so multi-level in its meanings that every tier of fan was satisfied. The hardcore, hawk-eyed fans were teary-eyed at her personal triumph, the surface-level skimmers enjoyed what was a well-crafted and wry pop banger, while the gay fans were gleeful at what they dubbed a power-bottoming anthem: note the winking double entendre of "I don't need to be on top to know I'm worth it." Gaga's mastery of language and metaphor was at its most potent.

Otamere Guobadia, 24, a gay fan from London, tells me how textually rich the song and video are. "G.U.Y is her magnum opus," he gushes. "Lyrically it's impossibly brilliant. She's at her most playful and daring with language. It's so literal (obviously about f**king) and simultaneously all so figurative, so f**king camp but so brilliantly self-aware."

Gaga takes side-quests into so many other mythologies it's hard to keep up — she features the Real Housewives as a heavenly band, Andy Cohen appears as Zeus. "It interlinks with Donatella's mythos too because Gaga is effectively playing a version of her taken to its most absurd conclusion." Gaga strives to make high and low art, godliness and reality TV convene within the space of the video, proudly defying critics and standing over the empire she has created. This art is not lesser because it is pop, she seems to say.

Tying all this together is the thread that runs through the whole video, this notion of the categorical insecurity of the masculine and feminine, or bad vs. good art: "I wanna be the Girl Under You, wanna be your G.U.Y.", she de-stabilises. Ultimately, this was the aim of the project that was ARTPOP, the ability to make peace between two warring factions — commercialism and creativity — by finding their common ground. In perhaps the best summary I've heard of the song, Otamere concludes: "It's about usurping, about gaining control by giving up control."

The single "flopped," and the general public concluded Gaga was over. Fans meanwhile, knew that the single was Gaga's manifesto for the future — a proud end to one seven year-long journey, and the beginning of a new, brave direction. Gaga stayed true to "G.U.Y.'s" statement of intent — "I don't need to be on top to know I'm worth it" — and she went on to make her jazz album, then her country album, and finally pursued her dream of acting. Gaga has now come full circle after more than 10 years in the spotlight — post-A Star Is Born, she is once again universally revered, and lauded for her polymathic achievement. Her confidence to pursue passion projects stemmed from that newfound sense of control over both her personhood and the products she sold — her story is incomplete without acknowledging that "G.U.Y." was the fire from which her phoenix flew.

The video stands as a testimony to the secrets only fans can know — to the sometimes gaping chasm between public perception and the personal journey of an artist. While it may sit in the hall of records as Gaga's biggest failure, to fans it remains a monument to the brilliance, resilience and vision of this pop behemoth.

www.papermag.com/lady-gaga-guy-artpop-5-years-2632467533.amp.html

[#LisaRinna]

ICONIC.

Enigma. love that article, thanks for posting.

[Enigma.]

G.U.Y. might have only reached #76 on Hot 100 but went #1 in our hearts

[thezatch]

That bridge on "G.U.Y." might be my favorite GaGa moment ever. So melodic, so poignant, the impact!

[Enigma.]

The Fame is still charting on BB200, been around #170-180 for several weeks.

[#LisaRinna]

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bvg8d0cHs0f

Talent recognises talent.

[#LisaRinna]

YTD ALBUM SALES WEEK 11 from Ukmix:

Rank - Estimated 2019 Sales - TITLE - Artist ( Estimated Total Sales )
01 - 302,000 - A STAR IS BORN (OST) - Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper ( 1,005,000 )
02 - 276,000 - DNA - Backstreet Boys ( 270,000 )

[Enigma.]

Steady sales, is it also #2 on YTD sales + streams behind Ariana?

[mc54]

90% of ARTPOP was shit. That's that on that.

[adamalterlago]

Mar 28, 2019 9:39:46 GMT -5 mc54 said:

90% of ARTPOP was s**t. That's that on that.

Although there were some s**t tracks for sure, I consistently go back to ARTPOP. I think it's aged well (same for BORN THIS WAY). There are really high highs and really low lows. I wish the album would have been:

1. Aura
2. Venus
3. GUY
4. Sexxx Dreams
5. Do What U Want
6. Artpop
7. Fashion
8. Mary Jane Holland
9. Gypsy
10. Applause

[Enigma.]

ARTPOP > BTW tbh, end of discussion

[Rose "Payola" Nylund]

Nobody:

Enigma.:

Mar 28, 2019 11:50:08 GMT -5 Enigma. said:

ARTPOP > BTW tbh, end of discussion

Everyone: 😬

[#LisaRinna]

Mar 28, 2019 11:50:08 GMT -5 Enigma. said:

ARTPOP > BTW tbh, end of discussion

Alright taste!

[BDGeek]

_{...but Born This Way is better...}

[#brayden]

Mar 28, 2019 11:39:43 GMT -5 adamalterlago said:

Mar 28, 2019 9:39:46 GMT -5 mc54 said:

90% of ARTPOP was s**t. That's that on that.

Although there were some s**t tracks for sure, I consistently go back to ARTPOP. I think it's aged well (same for BORN THIS WAY). There are really high highs and really low lows. I wish the album would have been:

1. Aura
2. Venus
3. GUY
4. Sexxx Dreams
5. Do What U Want
6. Artpop
7. Fashion
8. Mary Jane Holland
9. Gypsy
10. Applause

Great taste! My ten track ARTPOP would be very similar if not the exact same.

Only difference I’d maybe make is removing “Aura”, putting “Artpop” as the opener and adding “Donatella” back in. I’m not sure “Donatella” is worth all that, though. I like the production on “Aura” but I find it trash otherwise.

[Albie]

Happy birthday Mother Monster!

[Caviar]

Mar 28, 2019 11:55:36 GMT -5 #LisaRinna said:

Mar 28, 2019 11:50:08 GMT -5 Enigma. said:

ARTPOP > BTW tbh, end of discussion

Alright taste!

“Aura” >>>>>> everything on BTW

[#LisaRinna]

Mar 28, 2019 16:43:43 GMT -5 Caviar said:

Mar 28, 2019 11:55:36 GMT -5 #LisaRinna said:

Alright taste!

“Aura” >> everything on BTW

Behind the aura, behind the curtain, behind the burqa

A bop

[Love Plastic Love]

I am so afraid the cd is going to come out and it will all be Shallow type music. Like, Gaga, plz, I need some pop anthems.

[jumpb4uthink]

www.instagram.com/tv/BvjhvMbAcPp/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=17p7g4e48n5sz

[Enigma.]

Mar 28, 2019 17:37:32 GMT -5 Love Plastic Love said:

I am so afraid the cd is going to come out and it will all be Shallow type music. Like, Gaga, plz, I need some pop anthems.

What makes you think that? She's not Pink.

[#LisaRinna]

Learning From Lady Gaga's Grit And Authenticity Playbook



Mar 26, 2019
Caterina Bulgarella 

The curtains have come down on the last awards season; but the glitter around some of this year’s stars continues to sparkle. Among all, the iconic singer Lady Gaga, who with her cinematic breakthrough role as Ally in 2018’s remake of “A Star is Born” has struck a chord. The latest version of this Hollywood classic tackles issues of love and self-love with uncanny contemporaneity; yet also relays a number of important reflections about talent, performance, hard work and the costs of success. Both Ally’s ascent and Jackson’s descent, the two symmetric trajectories that unfold in the movie, illustrate how even the greatest potential can either erode or remain unnoticed.

Lady Gaga and Ally, two very different personas, share an important piece of self-knowledge: that the quality of our talent depends on whether we can remain true to ourselves. At the beginning of the movie Ally may sound like somebody who’s given up on her dreams; but she is not somebody who’s given up on who she is. Like Ally, Gaga has defiantly stuck with herself. Whether through ‘un-conforming’ looks, intentional soul-searching in her song-writing and performances, or the championing of social causes that focus on equality and genuine acceptance of diversity, she’s built a legacy, as an artist and a role model, that unabashedly celebrates authenticity.

Both Ally’s and Lady Gaga’s hard-earned success are proof that perseverance pays off. But what keeps them both on a path of continued growth is the ultimate ingredient - their authenticity.

The Virtuous Cycle That Links Authenticity And Grit

The nexus between grit and success is rather intuitive. As Lady Gaga put it in her Oscar acceptance speech:

"If you…are watching now, all I have to say is that this is hard work. I’ve worked hard for a long time, and it’s not about…winning…but what it’s about is not giving up. If you have a dream, fight for it. There is a discipline for passion; it’s not about how many times you get rejected, but how many times you stand up and are brave, and you keep on going..."

Grit combines passion and perseverance for very long-term goals. According to Angela Lee Duckworth, the lead psychologist who’s studied grit in kids and adults over the past decade, grit is about “sticking with one’s future day in and day out, not just for the week, not just for the month, but for years, and working really hard for making that future a reality.” While talent benefits from grit, grit doesn’t depend on talent. This asymmetry is the reason plenty of talented individuals fail to follow through on their potential.

Having a growth mindset—holding the belief that setbacks are an opportunity to refine and strengthen our talents—is critical to the depth of desire to keep on going and refuse to ever give up. But in the context of fulfilling our potentialities and helping others to do the same over the long-term, we shouldn’t neglect the link between grit and authenticity.

Authenticity entails awareness of the emotions we feel and what they mean to us, a genuine understanding of our own values and the meaning they hold for us personally, as well as protecting our core self from external pressures and limitations. Staying true to oneself is associated with higher self-esteem, a stronger sense of personal mastery and autonomy, a sturdier orientation towards growth and learning and higher levels of intrinsic motivation. Authenticity can help us build internal assets that affect our ability to persevere in the long term.

The very fact that grit tends to increase with age shows why practicing authenticity is likely to make us more purposeful and perseverant. With time, we are positioned to gain a better understanding of our internal truth, higher awareness of what disappointment and rejection mean to us and greater clarity of the goals that more authentically propel our own growth. If, throughout this process, we succeed in connecting with our core self, our ability to persevere is likely to increase, not just because we are at lower risk of compromising our values; but also, because our persistence acquires deeper and clearer meaning to us.

At the same time, cultivating grit by attaching our passions to long-term goals can help us more clearly define our personal values. Instead of jumping from one thing to the next, persistence in the face of long-term objectives is likely to force us to look into ourselves, challenge our own fears and define our deeper motives. The impact grit has on authenticity is also why it is so strongly associated with one’s wellbeing. The affirmative feelings we gain from applying discipline to our passions doesn’t simply have to do with higher odds of success, but instead, with achieving a state of deeper alignment with our true self.

Practicing Authenticity And Grit In Today’s Culture

While the positive effects of grit and authenticity are not specific to any demographics, it may be more difficult for some groups to access them than others. Women in leadership positions, for example, have always had to thread a delicate balance between the female traits that are expected of them and the more masculine traits that are associated with most leadership roles. Unsurprisingly, authenticity remains a key consideration within this group when it comes to the potential impact of life choices to one’s career and long-term professional aspirations. The same applies to other minority groups who, like women, may long to bring their authentic self to work but feel there is no room for it in a culture that continues to not properly value diversity and inclusion.

For very different reasons including the likes of an intense use of social media and the inevitable outward focus that comes with that, the practice of authenticity and grit may also be less accessible to millennials and Generation Z. Not only do millennials score lower on grit, but, research shows that the triggers associated with the constant engagement in social comparisons found on social media have a negative effect on self-esteem. Similarly, when these age cohorts expand their online social platform, the deeper level of anxiety and depression that occurs is very much at odds with the conditions required for both grit and authenticity to blossom.

Overall, these trends remind us that, as a culture, we are likely to let talent, our own and that of others, erode or go unrecognized because of fixed ideas of what success should look like and entail. Yet, as exemplified by Ally and Lady Gaga, the gains that come from fulfilling potential require the pain and labor of digging deeper. In the absence of that we, as individuals, are bound to simply continue to submit ourselves to external measures—playing solely according to the strengths of others and allowing organizations to never grow past the point of asking people to merely follow a script. There in lies the reason that rather than encompassing what truly exists within, the potential we realize remains limited to what we are familiar.

www.forbes.com/sites/caterinabulgarella/2019/03/26/learning-from-lady-gagas-grit-and-authenticity-playbook/

L E G A C Y.

[adamalterlago]

Mar 28, 2019 16:07:49 GMT -5 #brayden said:

Mar 28, 2019 11:39:43 GMT -5 adamalterlago said:

Although there were some s**t tracks for sure, I consistently go back to ARTPOP. I think it's aged well (same for BORN THIS WAY). There are really high highs and really low lows. I wish the album would have been:

1. Aura
2. Venus
3. GUY
4. Sexxx Dreams
5. Do What U Want
6. Artpop
7. Fashion
8. Mary Jane Holland
9. Gypsy
10. Applause

Great taste! My ten track ARTPOP would be very similar if not the exact same.

Only difference I’d maybe make is removing “Aura”, putting “Artpop” as the opener and adding “Donatella” back in. I’m not sure “Donatella” is worth all that, though. I like the production on “Aura” but I find it trash otherwise.

🙌🏽🙌🏽 I almost left Donatella in. It’s the one I had a hard time leaving out. As for Aura, lyric wise messy but as far as production, it’s killer. And sonically a great bang for an album opening.

[jumpb4uthink]

billboard
CHART BEAT
3/29/2019 by Keith Caulfield

www.billboard.com/articles/columns/chart-beat/8504717/a-star-is-born-soundtrack-passes-1-million-us-sales

Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper's 'A Star Is Born' Soundtrack Passes 1 Million in U.S. Sales
Gaga tallies her fourth million-selling album and first since 2011.

Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper’s A Star Is Born soundtrack surpasses 1 million copies sold in the U.S., according to Nielsen Music. Star sold 16,000 copies in the tracking week ending March 21, bringing the soundtrack’s cumulative sales sum to 1,003,000 after 24 weeks.   

Gaga earns her fourth million-selling album, and her first to reach the million mark since May 2011, when Born This Way launched with 1.11 million sold in its first week. Born This Way has sold 2.43 million in total.  

The most recently released album before A Star Is Born to sell a million was another soundtrack: The Greatest Showman. It was released on Dec. 8, 2017 and reached the million mark in its 23rd week of release. Its total sales now stand at 1,682,000.

A Star Is Born has spun off the No. 1 Billboard Hot 100 hit "Shallow," which became Gaga's fourth leader on the list (and Cooper's first). She had last reigned with "Born This Way" in 2011.

A Star Is Born continues to be the top-selling album of 2019, with 298,000 copies sold. Just five albums have cleared 100,000 copies sold so far this year. Comparatively, at this point a year ago (week ending March 22, 2018), 10 albums had each sold 100,000 copies, with The Greatest Showman leading the pack with 624,000 sold.

[Caviar]

Legend!

[Enigma.]

Guess which song is #1 on global iTunes? 152 days and counting...

[adamalterlago]

Has anyone heard the new Jonas Bros song “Cool”? It is a complete U + I rip-off. Im actually surprised they aren’t being called out for it...

[#LisaRinna]

Apr 9, 2019 14:24:01 GMT -5 Enigma. said:

Guess which song is #1 on global iTunes? 152 days and counting...

Definition of a HIT.

[#LisaRinna]

Let me tell you something... this song is too slept on. Way too underrated!