Gaga, emerging from an egg during a performance of "Born This Way at the 2011 Grammy Awards in Los Angeles.Īt the 2011 Grammy Awards, Gaga did not walk the red carpet, but instead curled up inside a giant egg and was carried, on a platform, into the ceremony by a group of her dancers. Her first two years as a recording artist were triumphant, and they laid the foundation for the decade to come: She prioritized experimentation so early on that stylistic reinvention - elevated to new levels to accompany every new piece of music - became her constant. ("Bad Romance" featured original designs by Alexander McQueen the song would soundtrack his spring 2010 runway show.) Dresses weren't sewn from fabric, but made of plastic bubbles or drapes of raw meat music videos sprawled into 7-minute arthouse epics with plots, social commentary and status symbols. Now her appearance grew more eccentric and daring with the drop of each new single. She looks, and sounds, beyond human in her sightless latex bodysuits she'd played with cartoonish styling on tour and in her "Paparazzi" video, but she was always an amplified version of herself, never alien. "Bad Romance" introduced a new component - a high-concept narrative - into her typical mix. "Bad Romance," in particular, dumped a bucket of kerosene on the fire of Gaga's creativity that culminated in a dangerous, high-fashion music video. But the majority of the nine new Fame Monster tracks were an eclectic mix, one that included Elton-esque ballads ("Speechless") and industrial dashes of Europop (the Ace of Bass-channeling "Alejandro"). Some of The Fame Monster's songs - namely "Telephone," her duet with Beyoncé - extended The Fame's throughline of cohesive, edgy-yet-approachable Top 40 gems. She won best new artist at the MTV Video Music Awards that fall, and released The Fame Monster, a reissue of The Fame including an EP of new material, that November. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in January 2009. "Just Dance," the first single, was inspired by the many blacked-out nights she spent on the sticky club floors of her neighborhood - as were her disco ball bustiers, giant shades, towering platforms and leotards, which established her signature style.Ĭritical and commercial success came quickly: "Just Dance" earned her first nomination (for best dance recording) at the 51st annual Grammy awards before reaching No. She signed with Interscope, who released The Fame in August 2008. She welcomed the instrumental change-up, and carried over her keen sense of melody and lyrical dexterity. He was impressed by her piano ballads, but encouraged her to tap into the rhythms of her downtown life by working a drum machine into their sessions. She moved into the cheapest apartment she could find in the Lower East Side, and began working with producer Rob Fusari. In the spring of 2006, Gaga - then simply Stefani Germanotta, a born and bred New Yorker with a powerful voice and years of piano lessons under her belt - dropped out of New York University to pursue her music career. Two attributes were consistent in early coverage of Lady Gaga: Everyone agreed that her songs were undeniable earworms, and everyone fixated on her apparent allergy to pants. The Club Kid Becomes The Fame Monster (2008-2010) Two weeks later she would release "Paparazzi" as a single, which would go on to become the fourth top 10 hit from her debut album, The Fame. Lady Gaga at Glastonbury on June 26, 2009. "Just Dance" remains timeless and "Shallow" is forever, but Chromatica is where she's at right now: happy, hopeful and healing in her hard-won electro-pop utopia. But Chromatica is both a return to form and a full-circle moment, a complete revolution back to the music she not only loves to perform, but loves to hear. The dance-pop of Chromatica may seem like a work of Little Monster fan-service, a batch of bangers and blockbuster music videos that recall her greatest hits. A glimmer of a dance hit came in 2017 when she released her stand-alone single "The Cure," but Gaga's synthetic impulses have mostly remained dormant for the last half decade - until Chromatica, her sixth studio album out May 29. When she eventually returned to the studio to record her fifth album, Joanne, it was in pursuit of a completely new sonic palette, one that banked on guitars instead of the thudding pulse of '90s house. But after shelving her electronic inclinations while focusing on their lounge act, she leaned into the creative reset that gave her space from the sound that had come to define her. At the time, Cheek to Cheek, 2014's album of jazz duets with Tony Bennett, felt like a way to flex a different kind of diva muscle.
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