The Fame (Monster) best-selling album of 2010
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Ninja Scooter
Member
legend166 said:
:lol as if Madonna didn't rely on gimmicks and shock value.
writing around on stage in a wedding dress pretending to orgasm is pretty transparent and deliberate too.
brianjones
Member
if gaga was genuine she'd adopt a fake british accent
Kitschkraft
Member
legend166 said:
Everyone has a gimmick. The image that a band or artist or whatever displays is always a factor.
I saw Arcade Fire on SNL, they were dressed up in uniforms with flashing lights on them. Maybe not as outlandish as a meat costume, but at some point, these people had to sit down and discuss putting on these (gimmicky) outfits. I'm using them as an example because they seem to be a band that people look at as ultra "genuine" or something. But you can look at almost anyone and find similar aspects.
Where do you draw the line between "gimmicky" and "showmanship"?
People like Gaga and Madonna (Not sure why you are trying to separate the two, Gaga might just be a degree more silly than Madonna, but Madonna was faaaar more controversial at times) are simply more straight-forward. In some ways...you might even consider Gaga more honest than a lot of people. Everyone has pretense, not many are as open and transparent about their pretense as Gaga is. And this is coming from someone that isn't really much of a fan, I think her music is pretty generic but I'm not gonna hate her because of her clothes.
PhoenixDark
Banned
Gaga fans crack me up. Sooner or later a more vapid artist wit less talent will appear and make her irrelevant. The dangers of disposable music
I wonder what Kanye's numbers will look like in a few more months. Initially people argued he was bigger than Swift worldwide, which is true but kinda irrelevant considering how popular she is in the US. That 3mil is all from one country; no one gives a shit about her overseas
I wonder what Kanye's numbers will look like in a few more months. Initially people argued he was bigger than Swift worldwide, which is true but kinda irrelevant considering how popular she is in the US. That 3mil is all from one country; no one gives a shit about her overseas
Gaga is catchy and I don't mind her music as its just good pop music but I hate hate hate when she tries to pretend to be something she isn't. When her fans try to claim she is more than she is. She makes love songs mostly with catchy ass beats and hooks. Stop pretending like you are some sort of profound new age new wave artist.
I bet if she was prettier/sexier she would have followed the standard "Britney Spears" route of overly sexualized pop star with the exact same music/lyrics/message.
I bet if she was prettier/sexier she would have followed the standard "Britney Spears" route of overly sexualized pop star with the exact same music/lyrics/message.
Weapxn
Mikkelsexual
Madonna had gimmicks too. So did Janet Jackson, although she has become irrelevant nowadays. Go back and look at both of those artists albums. Their looks change from CD to CD.legend166 said:
Gaga might have a gimmick, but even it has changed from from The Fame to The Fame Monster. Her gimmick has evolved more naturally (...for lack of a better word) between albums than Madonna's did. I'm interested to see how it morphs again with next year's release of Born This Way.
I would also like to congratulate Taylor Swift on making it onto that last considering her album came out shortly before Thanksgiving. Some of those albums came out in late 2009/early 2010.
Ke$halegend166 said:
Rihanna
Nicki Minaj
Lots of people are copying Lady Gaga. "Gimmick" is a useless term when it comes to pop music because whatever makes you stand out or makes you interesting is what makes you popular. Compare Nicki Minaj to however many female rappers that have tried to get popular in the last decade. Lady Gaga invented gimmicks
You don't understand pop music or how the industry works at all, confirmedlegend166 said:
Ninja Scooter
Member
legend166 said:
You say that now because her career is in it's infancy compared to Madonna. I'm sure plenty of people felt the same way about Madonna after 2 albums.
PhoenixDark
Banned
apana said:
No, the album is the definition of subpar. His flow is so stuttered and fractured it's almost unlistenable; Not Afraid is a perfect example of this, and one of the worst songs of the year. I can see a white chick with little exposure to rap outside the radio being impressed but not many other people have an excuse
How fucked is the music industry when a $60 video game can sell more in 24 hours than the most popular $12 CD in the country can in a year? I know there are more ways to monetize music than just selling albums, but these numbers seem obscenely low given how much more pervasive music is in our culture.
TekkenMaster
Banned
PhoenixDark said:
But the wordplay is solid and it's great pump-up workout music for us white folk.
ZephyrFate
Banned
it's not so much that it's a videogame but that it's a piece of shit like Call of Duty: Black OpsKnox said:
smokeymicpot
Beat EviLore at pool.
Only cds I bought on that list are Mumford and Sons and Gorillaz. No idea Mumford and Sons sold that much good for them.
brianjones
Member
Knox said:
the medium of music lends itself to piracy so much easier than any other i think
PhoenixDark said:
i preferred em when he didnt take himself so seriously. he comes off as trying too hard these days
Ninja Scooter
Member
Knox said:
Music is still a lot more easy and acceptable to pirate than games. Plus music has become a lot more singles heavy thanks to iTunes and ring tones. A lot of people who might be fans of say, Lady Gaga or Eminem would rather just make a mixtape with their favorite 3 or 4 songs than buying the whole album. People's listening habits have been thoroughly "Pandora'd".
That wasn't your original point. Your original point was some form of attack against Gaga because her image relies on shock factor. Given the mounting evidence that all pop acts (nay, all popular acts) use gimmicks and shock, you are now flip flopping your position to "everyone else uses gimmicks, but Lady Gaga is a gimmick." How you got there is beyond me.legend166 said:
And thank Buddha Lady Gaga isn't some boring bitch wailing on a piano (even though she does go down on a piano, considerably for a pop star). If that's your cup of tea, you have millions of aspiring artists doing this exact same thing; go listen to them. If the Gaga, the Janelle Monáe or the Madonna want to use their music as a vehicle to put on a show, then so be it. If it weren't for the few artists trying to put on a freak show, sincere or otherwise, the music industry would be infinitely more insipid than it already is, because there are already more than enough "normal human beings" standing on this planet.
The music industry is much less unified behind single banners than the video game industry. Much moreso than video games, music is a matter of taste; that there is nothing resembling fundamental agreement on what makes for baseline quality in music whereas videogames are much closer is indicative of that.Knox said:
Not everyone can see why Lady Gaga might be interpreted as a quality body of work, whereas even gamers who don't like the game can recognize that most well-selling games are of a certain level of quality, even if they're not to their tastes. Because the music industry is trying to be like the video game industry (by consolidating taste to refined, safe releases) sales are getting worse by the year.
EDIT: No, the music industry is not in trouble because of piracy. The industry is in trouble because people have always found ways to listen to music they haven't paid for and as soon as people find something that they like more than the mainstream, they stop paying for it. If the industry put some effort into backing a larger spectrum of artists, they may find that more people will hear of them and buy their shit. People don't pay for music that they don't like; that anyone needs to be told this is downright baffling.
PhoenixDark
Banned
Ninja Scooter said:
Plus people have really bought music at the same pace they buy movie tickets or videogames today. Then you have free radioplay, television music (well not anymore) etc
Discotheque
Banned
Lord Boyle sold all of those albums within 2 months.
Discotheque
Banned
I still like Madonna more. If only for Ray of Light album. That was so baller.
brianjones
Member
Discotheque said:
"frozen" is an amazing song
Discotheque
Banned
Yeah man that song was so good.
Discotheque
Banned
Yeh, she did good teaming up with Thin White Duke dj guy. Don't know why she went to Timbaland for her following album. What a dumb move.
Fugu said:
Agree.
According to my basic marketing classes at school, Gaga wins this thread, doesn't matter if you like her or not; you're talking about her and spreading the word about her product with other people, which is not happening with other genres or artists. Same case with the fools posting hate comments about Justin Bieber in every musical video.
As I said earlier, it's not that bad, music needs any artist with good sales right now. The sad thing is that this is not happening with more people. I would love to see some quality "sellout" rock icon like a contemporary Iron Maiden, Pearl Jam, Sex Pistols, etc. doing fine in the mainstream scene, just to show the businessmen that the interest for that kind of music is still there.
Dreams-Visions
Member
My only thought here as well.ZephyrFate said:
Souldriver
Member
I think both Confessions on a Dance Floor and Ray of Light are the high points of her career. I occasionally enjoy a few separate songs of her, but those two albums as a whole are great.Koodo said:
I wonder if she'll ever release something significant again, or if Hard Candy will really be the turd on top of the giant cake that is her career.
Nothing before "Rated R" could be classified as "weird." I think it's false to say Rihanna copied Gaga (those desperate attempts at imitation are the ones that end up in failure, i.e. Christina Aguilera). I think it is correct to say Gaga opened the door for more freakier styles though. Rihanna wouldn't have been allowed to look like a cockatoo if Gaga wasn't walking down the red carpet in a meat dress.N4Us said:
Combichristoffersen
Combovers don't work when there is no hair
-Eddman- said:
Metallica's s/t album was neither experimental nor innovative. It's a decent middle of the road rock album, nothing more, nothing less. All of they post-s/t album releases have been way more experimental, especially St. Anger (which admittedly sucked dirty ass, but I'll give them props for at least experimenting a bit)
Combichristoffersen said:
Yeah I agree, maybe I didn't write it properly, but I was trying to put that record in the "big budget" category. The kind of expensive production with easy and catchy singles that sells millions and helps other smaller, more experimental acts to get some exposure at radio, TV, etc. I don't see more of that albums happening in rock, at least in the near future. Like it or not, the Black Album was an awesome commercial album; it might have been the start of Metallica's downward spiral, but the music -and specially the production- were top tier at the time.
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