JackOfHearts

I always found his music to be verrrrry hit or miss. Like his hits were so much fun but some of the rest were the worst flaming garbage. J-Christ was atrocious, and the holiday song, and so many others were just so terrible. But I do miss his presence in the scene, I hope he comes back with the right head space and great energy again.

I just listened to Still and it almost put me to sleep. Not a bad song, but it's been a long day and it was just not what I would listen to when I'm already tired. And DWAS is just so good. Gaga and Bruno's voices are so beautiful together.

Lately? Gaga helped Bruno get out of severe gambling debt 😘 But seriously, she's used her platform to speak out for trans rights, she spearheaded that weird concert during Covid when she gouged all the millionaires' wallets, she's got the Born This Way foundation (idk if the bus is still running), and she's always been pretty vocal about her support for the LGBTQIA+ community. Within and outside of those realms are more specific details, but there's lots to count and I don't know what was the most recent.

I vote Katy, cause she's consistently trying. Christina has been out of the game too long, and I don't think she's hungry for that kind of success anymore.

Better single choices. I just don't think NMT nor its MV were her best foot to put forward. And I don't even remember what else she put out as a single after that. I vaguely recall her using WooHoo but I don't think anything got a MV after the first single. Elastic Love or Glam could have opened or closed the era, they both would bookend the sound she was delivering nicely. Desnudate or WooHoo for a sexy second single. Birds of Prey if she wanted something slower to break up the louder sounds in her singles. More music videos, nothing like the NMT video because it was so garish. Feed more into the animatronic angle she had for the album photoshoot.

I think it could do well. Her fans might prefer the more thumpier clubby stuff, but they'll still listen to her softer stuff. The GP seems to love her softer stuff in general. When she puts a bit of rock into her music, it sounds great, but it tends to be the harder variety of rock. She could definitely pull off soft rock tho.

Very much this. Madonna was outrageous and confrontational and lookin to shatter the glass ceiling as much as she could. She did that, too. These days, the ceiling was shattered, then rebuilt, probably shattered a few more times, but always rebuilt. The goal posts shift every year. Now other things have come in to focus, especially things like MENTAL HEALTH. Of course the new girls will sing and talk about the way they perceive these issues in the modern day, THINGS CHANGE. It's not "whining" it's just the new standard of what the new girls deal with today in terms that people today understand better. Also, if you don't think Madonna was annoying about dealing with fame back in the day, I think you're probably too young to be making this comparison.

I don't think this is that unachievable, it's kind of… idk it's just kind of a staple of Shakira's where she has some lines that showcase her. But several artists have staple songs that showcase them just as much as this one does Shakira. For example, Lady Gaga. She has Poker Face, which if anyone covered, would never, ever hit the same. Within that song, she has stylized lyrics that seem unique to her, from the stuttering effects (not unique to her, BUT you'd recognize a ma-ma-ma as being Gaga-esque). She has clever lines like "bluffin with my muffin" which speaks to her latent bisexuality, which bloomed further in her later eras, or at least speak to her support of the rest of the LGBTQ+ group. Some of the lyrics are kind of dark ("Russian roulette is not the same without a gun" for example), a pretty significant aspect which has always tinted a lot of her songs and MVs, in each album, whether peppered over fun party songs or being more centre stage. These kinds of things all carry over into other songs like Bad Romance, which is ripe with all these identifying traits that make them very Gaga-esque. I'd say Hips Don't Lie very much identifies Shakira, for sure, but I'd also say many other artists have a song, or a few, or several, that are equally as identifying.

The title of the thread said to be realistic, no? Smile wasn't a terrible effort, but it was definitely a step down from Witness, which already wasn't received very nicely. It still gets some plays now, even more than when it was released maybe(? I'm not certain, I know it's had some upticks since then is all), but I'm not sure the pandemic was the problem with this era.

Checking out some of the replies on twitter is WILD. It is so disgusting how many people still fawn over her and act like she's some matronly sage, and they just regurgitate all the same revolting ideals back to her. I don't even think they're all barbz, a huge chunk of them are just these pinheaded MAGA moms and it's so sad to think that all their kids are gonna grow up with these twisted mindsets, or some of them won't even grow up at all. This is SO harmful.

She really was just tarnishing her reputation with the last few singles albums. I do hope she can manage to either stay away long enough that she can come back to people actually WANTING new music from her, or at least come back and start making more authentic music without trying so hard to be this pop bop star, because that label wrinkled up and peeled off a while ago.

I definitely think Gaga would have "blown her load" (so to speak) early, with the giant rollout plans her team had for Chromatica. She was already having to be kinda dragged to the studio to make the album, so having to run through that whole promo schedule would have probably crushed her energy and we would never have gotten MAYHEM. Silver linings to that plague, I guess.

I'm not gonna track by track, but I think I'm gonna say Confessions II for me.

Does this boy still make music? All I ever hear or see is him at the beach.

We couldn't collectively behave for one RIP thread? That's disappointing, people hate on this group enough without giving ammunition :/