Capitol may have hoped 2008 would see Katy Perry emerge as the year’s leading breakout act, but there was no doubt that title was held by Lady GaGa by the year’s end, overshadowing the singer’s ‘One of the Boys‘ with her critic-pleasing LP ‘The Fame.’
World domination came next, seeing the native New Yorker become Pop’s fastest rising star, riding on a wave of infectious Pop bops, fashion-fuelled headlines and fans that saw her brand rise to rival Beyonce‘s, earning two collaborations with the “selective” chanteuse.
However, it wouldn’t be long before things to a turn for the worst, beginning with the release of the singer’s second studio album ‘Born This Way‘, marking the start of the singer’s commercial decline and fall from grace in the eyes of the general public.
So, what did her first two eras (see ‘The Fame Monster‘) serve that the panned ‘Born’ didn’t?
Our theory? “Black” music.
A blanket term to describe any sound born out of the African-American experience, “Black” music (or Urban) has played a major part in the success stories of many an Interscope act, including the subject of this article.
Indeed, where other labels have failed to arm Pop acts with Urban music successfully, Interscope has succeeded, credited for the success of the undeniably authentic Fergie, Gwen Stefani and Nelly Furtado, all of whom enjoyed major success with Hip Hop kissed releases shortly before GaGa’s arrival.
Though ‘Just Dance’ served as its lead single, it was the rap-sung ‘Poker Face‘ that kicked off ‘The Fame‘s chart reign, doing so with help of a video akin to that of Remy Ma‘s ‘Conceited’, a Boney M. sample, and a culturally diverse crew of backing dancers…performing moves whipped up by former ‘Fly Girl’ Laurieann Gibson.
GaGa has found a formula, and an authentic one at that, fusing Synthpop with R&B / Hip Hop flavoured melodies to create a sound that was to take her to the top.
Indeed, save for ‘Bad Romance’, ‘Speechless’ and ‘Just Dance‘, GaGa singles followed this aforementioned formula.
There’s ‘LoveGame’ and its rapped intro, R&B soaked melody and a middle eight that may remind some of that of 3LW’s ‘I Do.‘
There’s ‘Alejandro’, inspired by the Ace of Base reggae fusion classic ‘All That She Wants‘…inspired by the Nigerian recording artist Kayo’s ‘Another Mother.’
When ‘Telephone’, ‘Monster’, ‘So Happy I Could Die’, ‘Starstruck’ and ‘Fashion‘ are thrown into the mix it’s easier to understand why the last GaGa single to receive a GaGa-sized was the mid-tempo synthpop and R&B track.
It would seem, after ‘Born’s failure to fly, that GaGa is at her best when she “goes back to Black.”
What???
What does Remy video have to do with poker face
3 L W? Who wrote this
The real question is….. who cares about this 99cents queen/ Xerox machines anymore????
😆 😆 😆
Lets thrash Gaga’s performace at the Oscars….!!!!!!!!
Sweetheart, I wouldn’t expect a simpleton like you to struggle to understand this article.
1. Listen to the ‘I see you and me together’ part of 3LW’s I Do and then listen to the ‘I can see you standing there’ part of Love Games and get back to me.
2. Conceited’s video is the same as PKerface’s, . Look at the similarities.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2WjyuC3vPs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bESGLojNYSo
They seem nothing alike BYE UGLY
Did you even read the article?
right ?! i never once thought that Lady Gaga sounded black smh.
Who said anything about sounding black? They said she was making r&b / electro music and they’re right.
Gaga is so 5 years ago. K bye!
ARTPOP was a tragic mess. Now she is a jazz singer who cant evel fill up arenas. 🙁
Gaga and her stupid bullsh*t and gimmick! Boringgggg!
#1 album and a grammy but ok boo.
So 5 years ago but still scoring #1 albums and Grammy’s? Shut up, delusional Beyawnce stan.
BEYONCE>ArtPOP
Stay in your lane
Thanks to an ancient Tony Bennett, gurl…. 🙁
Sad that she has to depend on 80yo grandpa to stay relevant 😀
The album just sold about 500 000
gaga is garbage just like her music, fashion & art!
Ummm Gagas music has always been POP. In the beginning it was very catchy and infectious then became mindless noise over time. People then grew tired of her gimmicks and moved on to the next fad (Miley).
Yep, this is pretty much the only explanation needed here where it comes to gaga’s career.
Ya’ll just love to tell yourselves that she was a fad. FADS don’t last 6 years and score multiplat #1 albums and Grammys after fading!
Very ture.
I wouldn’t even call the fame monster her second album just a repackged. Too much hype and she got full off herself. There was only so many ideas,outfits that she could think of that could stun people. That whole egg s*** at the Grammy’s 2011 people knew from than. Should of stayed commercial with redone and she’s about as urban as Mikey Cyrus
LOL neither Artpop nor C2C are platinum never mind multiplatinum. Sia and 5SOS got #1 albums and they were never the biggest popstars on the planet. Also it’s not hard to win a Grammy when there’s barely any competition and you’re doing it with a Jazz legend…
It was generic crap, not catchy
Lady GAGa was ushered in on a fad (EDM) and became the poster child. When EDM died, so did her career. Now she’s desperately clinging to 99 year old men to maintain relevance. How sad. 🙁
EDM killed Usher career too.
Like a 99 year old corpse is gonna make her relevant, lmao. But what he did give her was a #1 album that outsold all your faves, a Grammy, and an image boost, everyone is realizing how talented she really is and not Katy Perry.
What image boost ? She sounds as generic as always and has no taste, tacky garbage
Edm was a thing before her, she never was the “posterchild”
Urghhhh…next?
Nah you are reaching 🙂
I know this was about success, not quality, but anyway, I have to say she has only grown as an artist. She keeps going through an evolution at a pretty fast pace. The Fame is her most basic album, whether you like it or not, she´s been improving since then, especially showing us her real voice and diversity. About being a chart topper, it´s more about image and finding the right single. Most singles topping charts don´t come from the best albums out there, so I really don´t give a f***. So ready for real albums to slay me this year (Florence, I´m waiting!).
She doesn’t have diversity, making different genres doesn’t automatically equal being diverse
Wait!! Why am I suddenly clocking this truth tea. Her first two albums were low key urban.
She did too much too soon!!! Her music has never been “black”. It was fun dance pop music and her shocking gimmicks were the icing on the cake. Her antics and gimmicks became annoying after a while and people stopped supporting her.
This is so random. Is the site in need of hits or something?
Weird post I agree.
I actually liked it.
Her gimmicks marked the start of her career woes. Just the mention of her name makes me puke …. Like she did on stage at that concert. She’s so repulsive.
Black music? She was a bubble gum pop artist…
Not really sis, she was sold as bubble gum but the reason she slayed Grammyless is because she had edge and was genuinely “different.”
I don’t agree that her career went to the shitter cos she “left black music” but I am living for the receipts that prove that she was inspired by black artists and rapped a lot of her songs.
I didn’t even hear the link between LG nad I do until today
I feel it.
Not “ARRRRRRRRT” ? ;P
Hmm 70% of the comments already look like they come from the same hater who always says the same things under different names, using every pop star name in the process 🙂
Her career did a nasty nose dive after she sold her albums for 0.99 to reach 1 million first week 😆
Gaga is becoming normal n overrated like RiRi.
OMG according to this blog Black people invented every form of music. I wouldn’t be surprised if yall came for Susan Boyle next.
Please stop, they never said that. Secondly, you probably have a hard time accepting that because you have limited musical knowledge. Black people have created most contemporary forms of music, including rock. When it comes to Gaga? This is avery interesting look at her because I always thought it was urban and wondered why they never marketed her as an urban act.
She has f*** all to do with urban
So sick of people saying that edm is a fad when in reality it is the BIGGEST selling genre of music in the world.
To me, what started gaga’s “decline” was listening to the gays.
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For example is did not want the f*** G.U.Y. To be the next single because it was to camp for commercial radio and droney. I would have proffered sexxx dreams
She’s s*** end of
EDM is/was a fad. Deal with it. It started creeping into the top 40 in 2008, permeating it in 2009, totally overwhelmed it in 2010 and much of 2011, then started drying up in 2012. After that it only continued to exist as crumbs while the rest of the music scene looked for a new sound to move on to next. Doesn’t matter what’s happening in the rest of the world, the US is king. We’re the biggest music market and the one the rest of the world always has its eye on, and we’re pretty much over that ridiculous video sounding crap.
Oh?
And Americans wonder why there are at odds with people from so many other countries….its because of that ethnocentric attitude that turns people off.
EDM might have been a fad in the states, but it is still a thriving genre outside the U.S.
They’re***
I’m on mobile. Please excuse the spelling/grammar errors.
Her gimmicks went out of style.
Like futures condoms.
LMAOOOOO!
King David has slain my life once again.
Look b****, David could sell condoms to a eunuch but this article is a reach and a fricking half.
He should stick to promoting flop artists because he’s actually good at that.
Eh, it’s not that much of a reach. Their examples were spot-on, and it’s worked for Katy with E.T., Dark Horse type tracks. There was a huge genre shift for Gaga between TF/M and BTW, which naturally downsized her appeal. DWUW could’ve been her biggest hit since her early years because of what they’re attempting to say. It has a rhythmic/urban-leaning appeal, which for a pop singer works wonder radio reach wise. Versus when you go full industrial pop like with Judas or country-rock w/Y&I.
It actually isn’t a reach when you think about it. Your definition of black music is narrow which is why you can’t see it but everything he said makes sense when you put it together.
I never thought of it this way until now. Gaga was making urban/ electro pop music and stopped when she did bTW. Eveyrhting about her was cut from the same cloth as Fergie and Gwen and are we forgetting that most of her songs were rapped? Listen to Fashion on ha first album.
Hmm you do have a point.
Too pretentious and too gimmicky.
Your username is funny, funny bc she had a #1 jazz album in 2014 and hasn’t released a single since Applause in 2013. lol
How can one even call that Jazz, apart from Tony Bennett, it sounded diddly daddly. One has to laugh calling that s*** Jazz.
Hope she will join Mariah in Vegas…..
Girl bye, unlike Britney, Jlo, Mariah and all those other faded stars she’s actually still getting #1 albums, Grammys, and just had a hit last year. She’s not about to retire to Vegas.
Mariah went to Vegas after 24 yrs into her career. Do not group her with any of these ladies. Gaga has never or will never be on a Mariah Carey status.
Urban was never here for Gags like they were for Gwen, Nelly and Fergie. She had little urban influences here and there, but she was pop/EDM all the way. Katy ended her career.
Pretentious, self-absorbed, irrelevant and mediocre = Lady Gaga!!!
Interesting article. In BTW era, she seemed more inspired by British rock artists like Queen & Bowie. For ARTPOP she went all electro and it got boring fast.
LOL acquainting BTW with Bowie, what the F*** !
That garbage was mediocre Mall Ibiza s***. Are you a comedian or something ?
Whoooo?????
Not this stupid American cow again! 🙁
The dumbest theory I’ve ever heard. David, you tried. You should’ve posted something like Keyshia Cole going independent since you steal article from ŘÁP-ÛP all the time.
Lol you rude b****
Not really darling, TGJ can be shady but they get the news first, R-UP always fllows. Why else do you think the Navi still uses them.
Wish I could agree with you sis. I really do.
I don’t know who Gaga is as an artist. She should have established a REAL fanbase instead of just catering to fickle twinks who jump ship once you start flopping.
I don’t know.. But Applause from ARTPOP, which is far from “black music” is one of her biggest radio hits and one of the biggest hits of 2013, so…
She n her team bought the singles like Bey…..
No hun. The one that did payola big time to win over Applause was Katy Perry with Roar. Applause was one of her biggest RADIO hits without payola of any kind (plus that comment was talking about radio, not sales).
Her “career” lasted 4 1/2 pathetic years which proves that she was just a fad. Miley teas…
wow David, its all fine and good talking about ‘influence’ of her music but the END product is pure EDM euro pop that is the definitive sound of GAGA.
when poeple think of her they do NOT think black music and never have
what
a
F******
REACH.
Good point but she fell off when she put out an exclusively EDM album.
Ain’t nothing black about her basic edm music . She has no Talent.
Gagas biggest problem was over hyping her material everytime she released an album she came off as pretentious and obnoxious saying it was gonna be the album of the decade and in fact none of her album have yet to live up to even being the album of the year. Artpop is far from being art,i respect her artistry because she stands on what she believes in and she’s always behind all her projects and she’s very talented but gurl needs to come back down to earth and stop over hyping her music and then don’t live up to the hyped her career declined is her own fault but I think the negative response of artpop hit her hard because she hasn’t done any gimmick hopefully she learns and she showcases her talent and let the music speak for itself.
She does too much. She should have toned it down like Nicki.
And look at Nicki’s sales now.. 🙁
Pink print is gold boo and her sales didn’t cause half of her label to be fired 🙁
Born This Way went 2x Platinum+ and 8M WW. How is that not success?
Then preceded to birth a tour that made 180+ Million with only 90 dates…
I have no clue what this article means. She never made Black Music. She just parted ways with RedOne. They are back together now, expect salvage..
And the whole Lady Gaga is over thing… solo 2 years ago. She’s still here and clearly not going anywhere.
Making music for 80yo. Lol
You are delusional if you think BTW was a success my dear, it’s where all of her problems began. Truth be told it only sold because of TFM’s hype and then started to tank when people realized they didn’t like how it sounded. And 8 million sold? Try 8 million shipped.
@BEACH
Yea right f**! BTW was extremely successful! Born This Way the Single, The Edge Of Glory, Judas Music Video, You and I! B**** have several! That entire era bred critical acclaim AND ALOT of sales! BTW is a GREAT f****** album, just because ARTPOP wasn’t successful y’all f*** trying to justify why y’all didn’t like an album y’all bought!
AND LETS NOT TALK SALES BECAUSE UR A BRITNEY FAN AND SHE DIDNT EVEN SELL 500K WORLDWIDE WITH BRITNEY FLOP!
*waits for you to bring 20 year old receipts*
Cant stand this clown. yakkk tuihhhhh….!!!!
I see her flopping at least one more time before she has a “loose” styled comeback.
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But if what David says is true, it must be the same case for interscope village goat lana.
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Once fad rey took the bass out of her music for ultrastruggle, she couldn’t even out sell cheek to cheek
Ass To Mouth has been stuck at less than 1M worldwide since December but please, go on about how Lana “flopped” with literally no promo compared to the Jazz album that had to be performed multiple times on television (including the second most watched awards show in the US).
LOL I love Gaga, but damn, at “Ass to mouth” lol smh
I laughed at first but I’m seeing what they mean now I read it through 2bh. It can’t be a coincidence that the last song any of us cared about was DWUW which is basically a Christina ripoff.
Not sure if I agree with her success being down to Urban but do think she doesn’t get enough credit for mixing R&B with EDM. Everyone knows how career went tits up when she started working with DJWS and that she slayed something vicious when she was with LGibson and Red One.
So I guess there is alot of truth to this.
Nope. Gimmicks only last so song and the GP got tired of it. Thats all.
Not the monsters being press over queen Onika 🙁
You started it by bringing Onika up in here, don’t try it. Even after flopping Gags can sell get a #1 album, sell 2.3 Million copies of it, get a grammy, and sell out stadiums. Nicki wishes.
Flop!
Gaga never established herself as a real artist. She’s a gimmick…a parody… Nobody cares anymore sis…
See you want to believe that soo bad! 🙁 But the facts and STATS say otherwise. Who are the 2.3 Million people that bought a copy of ARTPOP?
LOL! As if 2.3 million (WW) is some kind of an impressive number. Didn’t her first album sell like 12 or 13 million, the second sold like 7 or 8…then she dips down to just over 2. That’s a flop, sweetheart. Gaga was already on a noticeable sales decline from album #1 to #2…but her drop with ARTPOP was literally down into the valley. Especially since this album was supposed to be her pop star “comeback” after BTW was met with a cynical response.
Gaga’s problem is that image wise, she tried to out Grace Jones, Grace Jones.
Also musically borrowing so heavily from other artists (like Madge) and announcing how her albums were so amazing, were all serious missteps.
She needs to be more authentic and original. Maybe then people will support her by the legion, again.
People here mentioning rosies ex – l.gibson but without gagz, where is she? Her solo singing career take flight? Lmao
Famed metalhead Ozzy Osbourne is sick of Lady Gaga’s bullsh**.
Ozzy’s revealed in the past that he’s a huge fan of Gaga. But now the Black Sabbath frontman and confirmed bat-eater is expressing that he’s tired of all the gimmicks.
Ozzy shared his feelings with NME, saying he loves Gaga as a performer, who has an amazing vocal talent, but that her “shock tactics” take away from what the popsinger is really all about.
“The thing about Lady Gaga,” Ozzy said, “is if I walked down the road wearing an orange on my head, a beefburger on my face, and a fu**ing dead cat hanging out my a**hole, people would just go, ‘Oh, that’s what Ozzy’s wearing onstage tonight.’”
Ozzy believes Gaga should keep her wacky costumes and shocking behavior for the stage.
“Go and make a sensation,” he told NME, “but don’t wear it on the fu**ing street — wear it at the show! At least there’s an element of surprise then!”
He added: “But if you take all the gimmicks and shock-value bullsh** away, she’s still a very, very talented woman.”
Ozzy shared similar advice with Gaga back in 2010.
“Every day it is something else,” he told Us Weekly. “The specialness of her is gonna get killed if she doesn’t calm it down. Who manages her? Someone should whisper in her ear and say, ‘Back off for a couple of months!’ — let people gain interest back. Let people want you…
“You know?” Ozzy said.
Oh Ozzy. Thought he had better taste.
Clinging to an old man to stay relevant ….:(
A serial copycat
David darling, you forgot one important point. Jimmy. It’s not a coinkydink that her label boss is basically the same guy that gave us Em, 50 and helped Dre become a billionaire with Hip hop music.
I had to come back for this. What a mess. Yes the urban sound is back in, but if Gags try it, it would flop and come off very fake and corny. Gags, just like Ciara, just like Asanti, just likeBackstreet Boys came out around the same time as a new trending sound. EDM is the Disco of our time, it came, it became HUGE and it died. Like disco artist, a lot of them will die with it. Ciara blasted off with this new ATL sound, when it died, so did her career. People like Rihanna and Katy are well balanced, sound wise. They did pop, edm, urban and so on. Gas is done unless she comes out with a Blues with a splash of rock album.
You’re stupid lmao.
Just ignorant AF!
Madonna, Kylie minogue, etc have been doing dance music since the 80s hun. What is “edm” about born this way? One commercially less successful album doesn’t mean she’s “over.” Screaming that you would even attribute that to Gaga when she just won a f*cking grammy for a jazz album, which typically don’t sell more than 300k worldwide. Not only that, but many songs on born this way were clearly inspired by queen, Bowie, etc.
How can one connect the s*** that is BTW to Bowie ? Stop wtf
Honey can you read? It clearly says “inspired.” Do you even know Bowie?
Um, edm is decades old, what the f*** are you even talking about. LOL !
Exactly, he’s f*cking stupid. Edm is an umbrella term for all the dance genres : house, dance, europop, trance, electronic, etc. these girls have been hitting number 1 w dance singles since the 70s. Lmfao
Gaga did not get famous for her music it was more for her antics.Once the antics got played out her career to a dive .
I LOVE luxurious!!! That’s my favorite Gwen song
The gimmicks overshadowed the “talent”
The delusion is real!
What a confusing post filled with even more confused commentators.
Probably the biggest reach I have ever seen on this site. Everyone knows the main reasons he fell off are:
•she became seen as a “gay” artist (especially during BTW)
•EDM became outdated
•people got tired of his gimmicks
•she became way too pretentious for the music he was making
That’s it. Nothing to do with “black music”.
The edm thing is a reach too. Dance music has always sold. She just made s***** camp dance music for gay clubs. All she needs is a big pop hit and she’s back.
I know EDM itself isn’t really outdated; just the type she was making that sounds low budget compared to the generic Calvin Harris/trap/etc. that constantly smashes in the UK and become big radio hits in America (although their sales there aren’t as great)
I think something similar to The Fame (but less dated sounding) would easily be a hit for her these days.
I think everyone in here pretty much summed up the reason for her failed career. She put the gimmicks before the music which bored the gp. She should stick to singing jazz standards because the pop world is through with her..
They made a good point! Yall are reaching with your comments… Sure sweep it under the rug that Gagas debut didnt have the perfect mix of Urban influence, yet still pop enough to slay that genre.
Where did that outdated crap slay ?
It sold 15 mil ww stupid b****.
A chunk probably bought by the record company and the rest by idiots.
What a f****** generic crap album
Wtf has her music got to do with black music
This isn’t a reach at all if you ask me. Her first album was inspired by rap and r&b but was done in such a way that it was still electro. How can anyone say this isn’t true after listening to paper gangsta, or star struck, or love game.
I don’t see a link with R&B and Hip-Hop here. Its clearly just Electro-Pop to me. Its a shame with Lady GaGa because her music is crap now.
Are yall f****** kidding me? Clearly you’re running out of ideas for articles.
Funny thing is when she first came out I loved her… Although her music isn’t what traditionally listen to, it was something about her. Now that you mention that I can see it. It had a very urban.. Pop meets R&B tease to it… Then she went strictly pop. Do what you want is the thing she released that I love… She’s talented as hell no one can take that from her but I think she needs to find her sound & stick with it. She’s all over the place