Now that Lady Gaga’s new single “Perfect Illusion” is out, fans should also revisit one of her older albums. I’m talking about the criminally underrated ARTPOP.
Aside from "Applause," and "Do What U Want," ARTPOP as a whole never quite got the love it deserved, nor recognition for how cutting edge it was for its time.
Since its onset, the relationship between Electropop and EDM began as a dipping of toes in water. We've seen inklings of EDM gradually permeate Top 40 on early 00's Billboard charts in the music of Rihanna, Nicki Minaj, Ke$ha, and Britney Spears; Gaga was the first who fully embraced an EDM-centric album with the likes of Zedd, Madeon, and a slew of other house and trance producers at the helm.
While EDM gradually infiltrated pop Top 40 (and took over all the music festivals), Gaga fully embraced it back in 2011, finally releasing ARTPOP in 2013. It took two years of incubation for the album to see the light.
For Gaga, ARTPOP aspired to be “reverse Warholian” in the sense that, as Warhol brought pop culture to fine art, Gaga aspired to bring fine art tenets into pop music. Her lyrics contain allusions to Greek and Roman mythology, jazz pioneer Sun Ra, fashion icons, and even featured an album cover created by Jeff Koons.
While it performed well into its first week, it under-performed in sales, which set off a wave of backlash from critics on numbers alone, not musical merits. ARTPOP debuted in November 2013, peaking at #1 on Billboard Charts before slinking to #103 at 2013’s end. However, throughout 2014, the album had a resurgence and shot up to #34.
On the Billboard Dance/Electronic Album charts for those same years, it placed #2 and #1 respectively.
Three years later, we find ourselves inundated with EDM and, for the most part, it'd be out of place for a pop artist not to be collaborating with an EDM artist in some way, shape or form. What people found radical and daring is now par for the course. Lady Gaga was an arbiter of change that people didn’t realize until now.
Simply put, critics weren’t ready for such a revolutionary sound. It’s climb upwards in a year’s time proves its longevity and value despite initial wet-blanket criticism that nearly doomed it to be a flop. Meanwhile, EDM-pop collaborations have now become all the rage with the likes of Diplo, Skrillex, Zedd, DJ Snake, and many more.
While you continue listening to "Perfect Illusion," give ARTPOP another whirl as well. You'd be surprised how well it holds up, and when Zedd or Madeon (going by his real name Hugo Leclercq in production credits) are working their magic.