Why The Internet Is Buzzing About This Lady Gaga Album That Bombed
It's not a "Perfect Illusion" — a once-skewered Lady Gaga album now has fans (and Gaga herself) beside themselves.
In 2013, Lady Gaga ditched her "Monster" hitmaker persona and went full dance-pop (for the first time, not the last!) for her third studio album, ARTPOP. As Entertainment Weekly wrote, "despite the album debuting at No. 1 in the U.S.," and "producing one of her most successful radio singles to date ('Applause')... ARTPOP was regarded by critics as an overall disappointment." Indeed, the world perhaps wasn't ready for its avant-garde club beats, or for the "Poker Face" singer to release a collection of pulsating dance songs that included her shouting the word, "Swine!". Outlets like Rolling Stone called the LP, "bizarre," and in response, Gaga played herself as a fading pop star in a (quite... melancholic) Saturday Night Live skit. She even famously tweeted in 2019, "i don't remember ARTPOP." Boy, how things change.
In April 2021, a Change.org petition demanding ARTPOP's unreleased B-sides, a.k.a "Act II," see the light of day. It has more than 42,000 signatures of this writing. As the petition reads, a "main producer... responded to a fan asking if we'll ever be able to hear the infamous ACT II." DJWS [producer DJ White Shadow] responded with, 'Gotta petition Gaga on that one'. So, we did."
And now, the album is being celebrated in a way that it's never been before. Get the scoop below.
Lady Gaga is feeling a 'tremendous warmth' as ARTPOP rises on the charts
On April 13, 2021, ARTPOP hit No. 2 on the iTunes U.S. album chart eight years after its release, all due to the Change.org petition. How has Lady Gaga responded to ARTPOP's re-emergence on the charts? Here's what she wrote.
"The petition to #buyARTPOPoniTunes for a volume II has inspired such a tremendous warmth in my heart," Gaga tweeted on April 13, 2021. "Making this album was like heart surgery, I was desperate, in pain, and poured my heart into electronic music that slammed harder than any drug I could find." She added: "I fell apart after I released this album. Thank you for celebrating something that once felt like destruction. We always believed it was ahead of its time. Years later turns out, sometimes, artists know. And so do little monsters." Yes!
How are fans responding to Lady Gaga's excitement, and the possibility we may actually get those B-sides now that ARTPOP is seeing justice? "I LOVE HEARING LADY GAGA TALK ABOUT ARTPOP, what a GREAT day!" Canada's Drag Race winner Priyanka tweeted. "Our paws are up and ARTPOP is on repeat all day," Spotify penned. DJ White Shadow, the producer mentioned in the petition, wrote on Instagram: "We made a plan to get together after Italy and discuss your wishes. No promises made."
Justice for ARTPOP has arrived! Can we get Carly Rae Jepsen's EMO-TION to chart next?