Lady Gaga is known for being super over-the-top with her outfits and different personas, but is that enough to stay relevant? Sales for the star’s latest album “ARTPOP” were expected to fly off the roof because of her canceled shows and time away stemming from her hip injury this past spring. However, it now appears the album will only reach half the sales and success that Gaga’s album “Born This Way” enjoyed in 2011. The sales are not bad by any means (258,000 copies in one week), but they don’t stack up with the first week sales of the recent releases from Miley Cyrus (270,000) or Katy Perry (286,000). Some even say “ARTPOP” shouldn’t have that many because it is available on Amazon at cheap prices. Some critics think “ARTPOP” is the worst album of Gaga’s career and that this might be a negative turning point for her, but why?
People also say this album is not selling as fast because she can’t outdo herself, which isn’t necessarily true. The music might not be her best, but I feel everything else she has made even bigger than before. The event she had in Brooklyn the night of her album release called “artRave” was over-the-top and theatrical, like always. She might not have been wearing a meat dress, but she was wearing a leopard space suit. She also wore a hovercraft dress that could apparently fly. Everything about this event screamed Lady Gaga from the performances, outfits, sculptures and atmosphere.
So I wouldn’t peg the success on outdoing herself because I feel like she has; if it was anything, I would say it was the career break. While she was having her surgery and recovering, she wasn’t in the spotlight and people forgot about her. Also, when she was gone Miley Cyrus went from just a little crazy to full on looking-for-attention bananas. Miley became this new figure that people looked for to be different, and do something completely unexpected or crazy. I don’t think people can handle two people who are out there and attention-seeking at the same time.
One thing that I am certain about though is that Lady Gaga’s Little Monsters won’t let her die out, and neither will she.