ARTPOP flopped because of Born This Way

[little legend]

Personal opinion: 

A main reason that ARTPOP flopped is Born This Way era. 

Born This Way was a huge success but very front loaded. It's huge debut was due to the absolutely massive hype Gaga had from the Fame Monster era. Anything she will realeased after that monster era ,would have been a success (well except from Stupid Love) . But with Born This Way era she started to turn the GP off and so even tho it started with big success ( cause of the hype) ,the era was frontloaded. The ugly oufits, horns,controversies and etc. didn't help either and made the GP hate her. 

I absolutely admire that she almost destroyed her career in order to share with the world a such an important message ( equality, gay rights and etc.). So i love BTW era and i don't regret that BTW era happened obviously. Just wanted to point out that the reason that ARTPOP flopped wasn't just the mess with her manager/ average album and etc. The source of this started 2-3 years before , in late 2010 and especially in 2011 , Gaga was seem like an artist that only gays stan ,in the point that even if someone from the GP likes her ,he would be embarrassed to admit it . Born This Way era was lucky cause it had The Fame Monster hype but all these exploded in 2013 with ARTPOP. 

So i think that the real reason ARTPOP flopped is that the GP started to dislike Gaga (from the Alejandro video and all the BTW era) . In order to reverse this situation ,she had to rebrand her image for 5+ years . 

What do you think? 

I just want to point out that i loved most of BTW era and especially it's message, and I'm happy that Gaga was trying to share such an amazing message, i loved her controversial outfits and etc. Just saying that the GP might been closeminded and didn't appreciate her art . Misunderstood her and starting to dislike her.  So the point of the thread is not to criticize Gaga but just to point out that the GP started to dislike her from late 2010 and 2011 and that was crucial for her flopping (for her standards) in 2013

[little legend]

1 minute ago, Delusional said:

So you wanted her to go the commercial route instead of the activism route 

k got it 

[ItsGenuineGuy09]

It's one part of it. With that record she isolated the GP too much - but what she did was produce something that really cemented who she was and doing it at her peak meant it was always going to smash (as in sell 1m first week and 7/8m WW). 

With ARTPOP, instead of getting them back in line she pushed them further away - the intention actually was to be even more experimental before Troy and others wanted her to water it all down. Had Gaga tried to toe the line a lot more successfully between fans and GP (As she's done with Chromatica) there would still be a decline, but no way near as much. If you look at the songs that smashed around Applause like Roar and Wrecking Ball, they were so GP friendly in theme.

DWUW was the only thing to salvage that record, and it could've smashed so much harder with a better feature and a MV and consistent promotion. 

Edited April 8, 2021 by ItsGenuineGuy09

[Miaou]

ARTPOP flopped cause it’s a bad album 

[MissAsia]

Alejandro started the backlash but the song was huge especially in Europe..

The gp turned on her because of the whole btw/express yourself fiasco... The BTW video didn t help

[blastertoyo Pronounshe/she/they/blaster]

38 minutes ago, MissAsia said:

Alejandro started the backlash but the song was huge especially in Europe..

The gp turned on her because of the whole btw/express yourself fiasco... The BTW video didn t help

Judas was the true decline 

[Battle For Your Life Pronounshe/him]

It flopped (by Gaga's standards) cuz Gaga was overexposed that time.

[ItsGenuineGuy09]

I do think as well as much as fans get butt hurt about their fave record flopping coming up with X or Y reason, sometimes the music just doesn't connect with GP hence there's no staying power after the first month. Artpop was extremely well promoted. 

[blue Pronounsshe/her]

I think about this all the time because I hate BTW but I love when popstars get in their own way 😈

I wouldn't want it any other way. 

Edited April 8, 2021 by blue

[lavenderblondee PronounsShe/her]

I think ARTPOP was not going to perform super well anyway, but sure it definitely could of aided in the fact. Everything about ARTPOP was not GP friendly. Applause did well but I still think the fact that the lyrics aren't relatable didn't help it.

At the end of the day, I just don't think anything could of made ARTPOP a commercial hit. The GP only wanted "weird" Gaga when she was making hits like BR.

[danwasd Pronounsthey/them]

Yes, that's what happens when you release a bad album like Born With Fillers

[BenG]

6 minutes ago, danwasd said:

Yes, that's what happens when you release a bad album like Born With Fillers

[danwasd Pronounsthey/them]

2 minutes ago, BenG said:

BTW inspired Gaga to get Epione, wbk 

[Miaou]

Artmess and Born This Noise are both in the same boat anyway  

[nynj nights Pronounsshe/her]

20 minutes ago, lavenderblondee said:

I think ARTPOP was not going to perform super well anyway, but sure it definitely could of aided in the fact. Everything about ARTPOP was not GP friendly. Applause did well but I still think the fact that the lyrics aren't relatable didn't help it.

At the end of the day, I just don't think anything could of made ARTPOP a commercial hit. The GP only wanted "weird" Gaga when she was making hits like BR.

This. So I was more a casual fan back then relative to now and the reason why the album didn’t sit well with me was because most of the lyrics (besides the choruses) were non-sensical and cryptic (e.g. Aura).

I think the first lead single was always going to do well since it was Gaga’s return from hip surgery and I remember there being pent-up excitement among the GP, but G.U.Y was the turning point. I also don’t think it helped that Gaga bent into the narrative about her being “over” 

Nonetheless I re-visited the album for the first time last year and found myself liking it a lot more and feel like some of the songs would do well if released today but the GP was not ready in 2013/2014

[GitHub Pronounsshe/her]

33 minutes ago, NYNJ Nights said:

So I was more a casual fan back then relative to now and the reason why the album didn’t sit well with me was because most of the lyrics (besides the choruses) were non-sensical and cryptic (e.g. Aura).

This is the reason I like ARTPOP the best

[nynj nights Pronounsshe/her]

12 minutes ago, GitHub said:

This is the reason I like ARTPOP the best

I feel like there isn’t much middle ground with ARTPOP. People either love or despise the album, especially back then.  My GP and younger self who wasn’t following Gaga’s career as closely was like  But I get where you are coming from and ‘ARTPOP’ the song is one of my favorites now

[NotDoctor PronounsHe/they]

1 hour ago, NYNJ Nights said:

This. So I was more a casual fan back then relative to now and the reason why the album didn’t sit well with me was because most of the lyrics (besides the choruses) were non-sensical and cryptic (e.g. Aura).

I think the first lead single was always going to do well since it was Gaga’s return from hip surgery and I remember there being pent-up excitement among the GP, but G.U.Y was the turning point. I also don’t think it helped that Gaga bent into the narrative about her being “over” 

Nonetheless I re-visited the album for the first time last year and found myself liking it a lot more and feel like some of the songs would do well if released today but the GP was not ready in 2013/2014

That's really funny to me because I feel like that's part of why I love ARTPOP

Like Venus is non-sense but it's beautiful and colorful and Aura is cryptic but the production jackhammers me into the ground and the chorus is fantastic.  I guess it's because I don't come to Gaga for easily digestible, fun little bops; I can get that anywhere.  The strangeness is what I love; I want four on the floor and spectacle. 

Aura, Venus, G.U.Y. and Applause are all weird as hell and also top tier for me

I think it's an fairly incohesive album but when it hits, it hits hard

Edited April 8, 2021 by NotDoctor

[Joannesrats PronounsHe/Him]

ARTPOP didn't even flop, though? Also, don't blame the supposed "flopping" of an album on what came before it. Applause was a great hit, it was well-received, and people were excited for her. The problem was the management and exploitation of her and her talent. People realized that she wasn't going to do what they wanted her to do and so they left her for dead. THAT was the reason it "flopped."

Btw, it sold really, really well. It was comparable to other releases at the time with first-week numbers, streaming numbers, etc. It just didn't sell the same amount of first-week sales because it didn't have an Amazon discount. 

Bold of you to call a #1 BBH100 album a flop!

[Joannesrats PronounsHe/Him]

2 minutes ago, Delusional said:

It’s recurrent streams are tragic, it’s only remembered for being an underperformance, every single move was panned and I could go on and on

not to mention BTW would have sold over 600k without the discount anyway, so that’s already almost triple ARTPOP’s first week sales

it was a flop for Gaga. Comparing it to other album releases from the time is pointless too because Dark Horse and Wrecking Ball each get more daily streams than all of ARTPOP

It was very well promoted in the start too, the issue was and still is the material...

It's completely pointless to discuss its performance today when the memory of the album is completely marred by the ending of the era with her management flaws. The only reason why TFM and BTW get better streaming than ARTPOP is because people look back on it with rose colored glasses seeing it as a peak in her career while people only see ARTPOP as a personal, professional, and artistic failure due to the media slandering and the overall public's reaction to watching her career allegedly fall apart in front of them. 

It's impossible to compare an album that was under incredibly unique circumstances to others, yes, but those albums didn't have someone's manager leave a few weeks before the album release following an injury that could've ended her career. Either way, ARTPOP wasn't a flop, but our memory and perspective of it is. Also, the material is great. As time goes on, more and more people realize that it's actually a good album.