Lady Gaga - The Chromatica Era

Ag's starting points/addition is a little off for both Kylie and Madonna. Taking 1984 for Madonna and 1987 for Kylie, Gaga now is somewhere around the time of Something To Remember for Madonna and the tail-end of Impossible Princess for Kylie - so leading into what was the comeback period for both, but not quite there.

If anything Gaga's running ahead of schedule, given her rehabilitation was arguably at the time of A Star Is Born (which was pretty much her Evita) :disco:
 
So is she in her early career or would we say she's about mid career now?

Also, one criticism I've been seeing lately is that Chromatica doesn't really show any music 'evolution', which might limit her overall longevity.
 
I also find it weird to think of her as being on her Light Years/RoL already, I think for two reasons - for one thing I was actively a Gaga fan since day one but not even born when M or K-Mo started out and so, like my own life, it's passed by in a flash. But also, it feels like Gaga hasn't spent as much time out of the limelight.

Kylie was barely a blip on anyone's radar for at least half of the 90s (more really). Madonna has actually had a very similar trajectory to Gags - four years between albums from lowest commercial ebb to big comeback, split by an acclaimed soundtrack album/film role in between. But even then, Madonna was gone for a good 2 and a half years prior to RoL - it feels like just yesterday that Shallow was #1. Long story short, Gaga has KEPT IT MOVING and kept her profile HIGH at almost all times.

Perhaps that's why it doesn't even really feel like a comeback. She never disappeared.
 
I was thinking that Gaga felt like she essentially disappeared from 2014 to 2016, but then I suppose there was American Horror Story.
 
KindaCool said:
So is she in her early career or would we say she's about mid career now?

Also, one criticism I've been seeing lately is that Chromatica doesn't really show any music 'evolution', which might limit her overall longevity.
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Mid-career I'd guess? Which is a hell of an achievement for someone who's been around for a decade anyway. We're still going to be talking about her in some fashion in ten years.

I don't think creativity is really going to be a limitation for her though. Although if anything, I wouldn't have expected that an album which more or less feels like a gay audience consolidation album would be anywhere near as big as this has been.
 
Penelope said:
I was thinking that Gaga felt like she essentially disappeared from 2014 to 2016, but then I suppose there was American Horror Story.
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And Cheek to Cheek that basically saved her. She was on the verge of quitting altogether after the Artpop backlash.
 
I hope that Chromatica's success will be freeing for her. I would love to see her really unchain herself and diverge from the two major musical templates she established on her debut, and has followed through quite consistently over her career to date.
 
i've decided that the 2nd and 3rd interludes are utter useless shite. it's actually odd to randomly throw in some orchestra between 90s dance tracks. when all is said and done, they really don't interact well with the tracks besides the initial "omg the transition between chromatica ii and 911 slayed me!". especially if you're not listening to the album from track 1 to 16, which im sure most people won't do. for a pop record, they end up feeling like a surface level commitment that don't patch the album as primarily intended.

there's nothing wrong with the instrumentals themselves, on their own they sound sublime, but violin notes have no business opening power bottom anthems, sorry. i feel as if the lack of guitar and real instruments on the record had Gaga calling for an urgent meeting that stressed the importance of throwing in "real music" somewhere in there, and so the idea of "sectioning" the album was birthed.

surely i can't be the only one thinking this?
 
joanne said:
surely i can't be the only one thinking this?
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You are love, I’m sorry.

The intro is just all kinds of EPIC.
911 has to be listened to with Chromatica 2, it makes it even MORE pleasant.
And Chromatica 3 is a perfect Eurovision-like introduction to the Eurovision-like anthem “Sine From Above”.:disco:
It all makes sense.
 
all that text just to say the interludes suck when interludes ALWAYS suck!
 
unelss you're miss janft!

this bathroom is TOO FUNKY for me :disco:
your pussy gon' swell up and FALL APART :disco:
J
Jo
dunk
booty
Damita Jo, isn't that like a country name?
The Damita I don't think is country
It's the JO that's COUNTRY :disco:
which JUST HAPPENS to be my father's name
WELL, my mother is from the south, so...
DAMITA JO
 
And the Chromatica interludes are very well placed and serve as a needed bit of a pause/respite in between all the upbeat songs, since there are no ballads.
 
OutSynk said:
OMG at when she gives Tony that painting. It’s like that Gladys episode from Friends.
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Very much a potential Lady Gaga album cover.

1563295673398-Screen-Shot-2019-07-16-at-124734-PM.png
 
Jark said:
Kylie was barely a blip on anyone's radar for at least half of the 90s (more really).
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You weren’t there. She remained a constant media presence if not the chart force she was. The only years Kylie disappeared were after Impossible Princess to Spinning Around. It was, and felt like, a genuine comeback, but to say she was barely a blip for the rest of the 90s is nonsense.
 
Jark said:
I also find it weird to think of her as being on her Light Years/RoL already, I think for two reasons - for one thing I was actively a Gaga fan since day one but not even born when M or K-Mo started out and so, like my own life, it's passed by in a flash. But also, it feels like Gaga hasn't spent as much time out of the limelight.

Kylie was barely a blip on anyone's radar for at least half of the 90s (more really). Madonna has actually had a very similar trajectory to Gags - four years between albums from lowest commercial ebb to big comeback, split by an acclaimed soundtrack album/film role in between. But even then, Madonna was gone for a good 2 and a half years prior to RoL - it feels like just yesterday that Shallow was #1. Long story short, Gaga has KEPT IT MOVING and kept her profile HIGH at almost all times.

Perhaps that's why it doesn't even really feel like a comeback. She never disappeared.
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Madonna was never out of the limelight in the mid-90s still.

I remember her still being absolutely the Queen of Pop in the 90s, even when she wasn't releasing anything and always in gossip columns and things like that.

Remember that Evita only came out 14 months before Ray of Light too... so Don't Cry For Me Argentina and Another Suitcase, whilst not being as massive as Shallow, were keeping her on high profile right through the mid-90s on the charts.
 
I agree with Sheena and cwej re both Kylie and Madonna. In the case of Madonna, it's ridiculous to say she was gone for a good two and a half years prior to Ray of Light.

Madonna released RoL in February 1998. At the start of 1995 she was still promoting Bedtime Stories and released two more singles from it. She went straight from that to releasing You'll See and Something To Remember at the end of the year, with further singles keeping that ticking over into 1996.

Later in 1996 she released You Must Love Me and Evita, with the film and soundtrack keeping that going well into Spring 1997.

She wasn't out of the singles chart for even a year between the last Evita single and the release of Frozen.

And all this is ignoring all the talk and promo around the film, which I'd say was far more talked about and anticipated than A Star Is Born, even though I'd agree that Gaga pulled it off more successfully both artistically and commercially.

Madonna wasn't 'gone' at all before Ray Of Light - (if anything I'd say she was 'gone' more prior to Like A Prayer in 1989) - she just pulled off the greatest reinvention of her (and possibly anyone else's) career.
 
As someone who started to actively to pay attention pop music in 94-95, I would say that both Madonna and Kylie were largely absent from the major narrative of the time (Britpop, Eurodance, Spice Girls). They were still charting, of course, and might have been names you encountered but they were absolutely not vital forces at that point. Much in the way that Gaga was around Joanne - scoring signature performances at Award shows, but light on REAL hits.
 
lolly said:
I'd accept that a lot more for Kylie, but not Madonna.
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The point to be made here is what I said. Kylie wasn't a chart force post "Confide In Me" until "Spinning Around" but she was still a regular on the tv circuit and in the media, absolutely so. It was only post "Impossible Princess" she properly went quiet.

My point with Madonna is absolutely in line with @lolly - she was still a major chart force (both here and in the US where, lest we forget, Take a Bow was the biggest hit of her career at that point, Something to Remember spawned a top ten single and then Evita was a hit). Ray of Light may have been seen as a comeback after four years without a proper album, absolutely, but to say she disappeared is complete nonsense. She remained the biggest star in the world.
 
Loufoque said:
As someone who started to actively to pay attention pop music in 94-95, I would say that both Madonna and Kylie were largely absent from the major narrative of the time (Britpop, Eurodance, Spice Girls). They were still charting, of course, and might have been names you encountered but they were absolutely not vital forces at that point. Much in the way that Gaga was around Joanne - scoring signature performances at Award shows, but light on REAL hits.
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Err, no.
 
I agree entirely with @Sheena and @lolly here.

I really don't want to go into a 'You had to be there to get it, and let's not rewrite history' type of post, but that's basically where I am with it.

That being said, I am increasingly uncomfortable with the new narratives nowadays of trying to rewrite history and other strong independent females' achievements. Gaga is doing great with her new album and that is wonderful for her, and I totally understand that Madonna is the 'benchmark' but must we always drag other female artists to compare and contrast in some dick measuring stan war type of contest?

Of course I've been guilty of it myself as well, but I increasingly try to avoid it if and when I can.
 
Anyway -

10 Alice
06 Stupid Love
09 Rain On Me
09 Free Woman
06 Fun Tonight
05 9/11
05 Plastic Doll
07 Sour Candy
08 Enigma
07 Replay
07 Sine From Above
05 1000 Doves
07 Babylon
 
Iguana said:
Also, the film went down pretty poorly here generally
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oh wow. what is the demographic makeup of active Moopy members? age, race, orientation, etc. is there a thread on this? it'd be interesting to find out.
 
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