That being said, a “step backwards” might actually be a good thing. Thus, we are greeted with Artpop‘s first single, “Applause” - and, surprisingly, it sounds like a step backwards for our crazy pop queen. As Born This Way proved, Gaga has more ambition than a dozen of her peers, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t get overwhelmed by her own creations. Yet, as is often the case with Gaga and divas of her ilk, the need to be important, smart, and self-aware has lead her to be meta, deliberately complicated, and sometimes downright confusing even among the most devout of her Little Monsters.
Gaga, meanwhile, has let us know well, well in advance that her new album is going to be called Artpop, and the title alone lets you know everything you need to know about Gaga’s aesthetic: she truly believes that it’s possible to create great, smart, and deep art while also making it as broadly appealing as possible (hell, Prince’s Purple Rain is the de-facto blueprint for that fine line between being groundbreaking and commercial all at once). There’s nothing complicated about Perry’s music, and there never will be, even as she stows her best songs away as album cuts (“Hummingbird Heartbeat”) or gives them away to other singers (her co-write of Kelly Clarkson’s “I Will Not Hook Up”). Even the most jaded of critics would have to acknowledge that Perry is capable of some truly transcendental moments, but that also means suffering through such base, surface-level throwaways like “Last Friday Night” and “The One That Got Away”.
While there is a lot of similarities between the singer-songwriters (and to their credit, they do have a hand in writing their own songs despite what you may hear), their objectives are remarkably different: Katy Perry loves big broad pop music and enjoys making a litany of #1 hits. common sense, the media is more than ready to hype up a battle of the pop divas, as Katy Perry’s remarkably hackneyed sing-by-numbers anthem “Roar” was unleashed to radio just days before Lady Gaga decided to debut “Applause”, both of them lead singles from their hugely anticipated albums.
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