All these years later I still don’t get the appeal of Lady Gaga

They're both gorgeous Italian American ladies who made it big as pop stars a generation apart. Madonna is a dancer who sings a little, Lady is a singer who dances a little.

She’s a good singer.

[quote] a generation apart.

Just the one, dear?

I didn't understand the appeal of Poker Face back when it came out, and I still don't understand her appeal now. Once you take the outrageous costumes away, there just isn't much left.

great song 🎵, full of energy & moxie

Gaga is not gorgeous though.

Why do people like cheese? I’ve never understood the appeal. It reminds me of milk that’s trying too hard.

People should stop liking cheese because I do not understand its appeal.

OP I'm completely with you. She's really just a wanna be drama club kid. Her whole performative shtick is so tired.

I enjoy some of her songs, but "Abracadabra" didn't do much for me. Lots of people seemed head over heels about it when it was released, but to me it sounds dated. It also seems like it will go somewhere big but doesn't quite get there, missing the mark.

When I heard it, my first thought was that it reminded me (not musically) of "Pandemonium" by Pet Shop Boys, a song that was too much "them," almost like self parody or something. That's what "Abracadabra" sounds like to me--Lady Gaga trying hard to be what people expect. For me, it doesn't really work well.

I'm the lone person out there who liked Artpop. I don't compare Madonna to Gaga: I love them both, in different ways.

You're right, it is a tough comparison. One of them has actual musical talent to back up the artist claim. The other once had lovelier tits.

Although both of their music is enjoyable on the same level, Gaga is genuinely talented whereas Madonna is not.

They’re both talented. I’m sorry that’s the boring take, but it’s also the correct one.

Madonna will be remembered as a trailblazer while Gaga will be remembered as an imitator.

Gaga managed to captivate David Patrick Columbia (The New York Social Diary) with her performance at the 2015 Oscars. I think it's clear that Gaga has a better voice, but I still prefer Madonna's overall output.

She had such a moment though, back in 2010. Bad Romance, Paparazzi, Alejandro… it was so unusual to see this short duck-faced weird new girl own a top place, maybe even the #1 place, in pop music and its culture. Absolutely OWN it. Again just for that moment.

By the time she was flopping around onstage breaking a hip to retread material like Judas, the bloom had fallen from the rose.

R15 But not Sondheim.

Duncan Jones also disliked her David Bowie tribute.

Poker Face and Just Dance sound so badly dated now. Paparazzi and all the singles from The Fame Monster have aged much better.

R9, it sounds like she just recycled Alejandro and Born this Way. And the video looks even more recycled.

Those NYC diphthongs kill it for me. She sings “eyes” like “ah-oh-eez.”

I find her career trajectory a bit unusual. She went from Artpop to Cheek to Cheek and Joanne (which made sense since her "weird" schtick no longer worked) to A Star is Born. But after that, she went back to Chromatica and Mayhem. Madonna's career from 1982 to 1992 makes a lot more sense. It's like she hasn't found a sound that truly fits her since her debut.

She can sing. She's had some great songs.

Madonna was a trailblazer in that she startet the area of recycling and Gaga re-recycles for younger generations. I don´t blame neither because image-, looks- and fashionwise the world has seen it all. They (re-)discover only what´s already here.

I prefer Madonna's songs but Gaga has the better voice

Gaga's voice is "better" but what's the point if it's attached to mediocre songs? All that talent and the singles she chooses are "Rain on Me", "A Million Reasons", "The Cure", "Abracadabra",etc? So many mediocre singles. I know "Rain on Me" hit number one but was because Ariana was attached to it. Let's be honest, there was barely a song there. She is not a great at releasing smash singles on her own.

I knew about her way before I had ever heard one of her songs, and when I did for the first time, I was surprIsed because I didn't think the songs she sings and her image matched. Btw, that meat dress she wore was just gross and pointless.

She appeals to the musical theater guy in me. Her coachella performance was two hours of dancing and real singing. At times when doing something very physical, she was gasping for breath every few notes, which is a level of realness most in the pop world won't let the audience hear.

Kind of agree OP. Maybe if I was still into clubbing when she hit I’d care more. I’m glad kids embraced her. - even if it’s all a put on she stood out. Offered them something (visually) different.

Madonna cannot sing or play a musical instrument.

nor can she act or direct, R29

Madonna was lucky to be around at the right time, she would never have the skills to make a career for herself today.

Gaga can sing.

Gaga can't act and she needs to leave that behind.

[quote] Btw, that meat dress she wore was just gross and pointless.

Speaking of gross and pointless.

Op 2012 called and wants it’s analysis back. Gaga can actually act.

I like the Bruno Mars duet a lot

I thought Gaga was fine in AHS Hotel and House of Gucci. Not great but definitely not as craptastic as Madonna when she acts.

Gaga actually made more sense to me when she only used the freakish costumes and the heavy makeup, and you couldn't get a good sense of what she really looked like. She genuinely has enormous musical talent, but she's not pretty, and this approach made her singing and musicianship stand out more. Once she started letting you see what she really liked, she lost appeal--I'm glad she's regaining it because she's genuinely quite talented.

I thought more artists might take this approach (since it also worked for David Bowie and Alice Cooper and for KISS), but really not many musicians have followed in her footsteps since she took off and also disguised themselves. Maybe Orville Peck? Although oddly he's attractive underneath his mask.

[quote]Madonna was lucky to be around at the right time, she would never have the skills to make a career for herself today.

I don't know but Madonna came up in the midst of the Reagan administration when government and society were very conservative. Artists like Madonna and Prince were much needed to counterbalance the smug, phony Falwell types and the fake 50's mentality that they were trying to bring back. She was a woman who was proud to talk about sex and proud to show her body. She also brought gay culture into the mainstream at a time when the administration was actively declaring war on the community with their deliberate ignorance on the looming AIDS crisis. She brought light and hope into a terrible time.

Of course, Gaga didn't have the same impact. It's apples and oranges and ridiculous to even compare. But that doesn't take away from the fact that Gaga has talent and has carved quite a niche for herself over the last almost twenty years.

r10 I liked 4 or 5 songs from Artpop. Are you saying you liked the whole entire album?

OH GAWD are they lame. "I don't get the appeal of..." threads.

Gaga is hit or miss for me. Sometimes she is craptastic but sometimes she hits it out the ballpark.

Madonna is greater than the sum of her parts while Gaga is less than the sum of her parts.

R40, Yes, I liked the whole shebang.

Madonna has much better songs. Gaga has done well for someone with relatively few memorable songs.

I always thought lady Gaga was singing “butt fuck her face” and I wondered what that meant.

Watch this recent live and unplugged version of Abracadabra ... she's got a lot of talent.

Gaga has real musical ability but has not had the career trajectory Madonna has/had.

Steady and slow wins the race.... I wouldn't want Madonna's downward trajectory over the last 15 years...

Gaga will not win the race unless she can get number one songs without attaching herself to others. She hasn't even sold 100 million records yet and she's been releasing music for the past 17 years.

Why does she need to "win the race"? It's a young person's game, nobody stays the current gold medalist for long.

She's sold 170 million records worldwide, and she's had an amazing career. She is already in the 1% of the 1% of anyone who has wanted and tried to become a pop star.

I'm not her biggest fan but come on. If you were to list the dozen most successful female pop stars of the past 20 years, Gaga is absolutely on the list. That's victory, in and of itself.

I like them both. The reviews of Gaga's Coachella set(s) are ecstatic.

Gaga's been in as long now as Madonna was at Ray of Light. I want to say Gaga might have more youth appeal at this 16 year mark but Ray of Light may have been bigger than I'm remembering. Even if I didn't know Gaga can out sing and musician Madonna all day long, I still see her talents.

R52, Ray of Light was massive, not as much in America, but it was massive globally.

Gaga has not sold anywhere near 170 million records, those are Whitney Houston numbers. She may have sold 170 million in digital singles but that's not the same thing.

I disliked gaga in the 2010s but during Covid I just snapped out of it and mostly get a kick out of her.

Take away Gaga's costumes and what do you have? A better than average singer, and...? What else? Her acting in Star is Born was wildly overpraised. Gucci was a mess. She's not untalented, but to pretend she is at some meteoric level is ridiculous. Madonna may be less talented vocally, but she knew what to do with her voice. Gaga will never have a catalog as remotely impressive as Madonna's.

Gaga has already had a better career than Madonna because of her film career. Gaga had the success of A Star is Born, won an Oscar for best song, and got a nomination for best actress. Madonna's attempts at a film career were unsuccessful.

The idea that Gaga is all digital singles is stupid. The whole music landscape has changed. For example Madonna's last album, Madame X went #1 but only sold 169K copies. That's formats: CD, digital download, LP, cassette box set. Presumably a total count. Most everyone's album sales are trash now excepting Taylor Swift.

I wasn't paying attention to much pop in 2011 but I remember hearing Edge of Glory at the gym a bunch not knowing who it was (but knowing idk Just Dance a bit). That's a transcendent pop hit right there. Madonna you always know it's Madonna.

Great gowns, beautiful gowns.

Gaga has a better, more powerful voice but she could never put emotion or feeling in a song like Madonna did with Rain, Bad Girl, You'll See, Love Tried To Welcome Me, Frozen, etc....

I don’t think the argument that she hasn’t sold as many records as Madonna is quite the serve you think it is. Nobody is ever going to sell records again like Madonna, Whitney, Michael in their heydey. It’s called streaming.

R61, but what IS an argument is that Taylor, Beyonce and Rihanna are all outselling her with streaming. Of course, Lady Gaga just released a new album so her daily streams are high now. But on a general day, Beyonce, Rihanna and (of course) Taylor outstream her. Rihanna hasn't even released a new album since 2016 and she generally beats her by a wide margin. I don't think people are saying Gaga is disappointing because she hasn't sold as much as Madonna--that would be a ridiculously high bar. She is disappointing because she was, to quote Tori Amos, a meteor and then crashed for a few years. Then, she came back with a Star is Born. But since A Star is Born, her biggest singles--Rain on Me and Die With a Smile--are successful because of the other artist attached to them, not because of her. That is disappointing for a star who was once called the successor to Madonna (by the media and some of her fans) in the late 00s.

Let's check Spotify! The platform everyone uses. 675M listeners worldwide.

Lady Gaga #3, Rihanna #7, Taylor Swift #12, Beyonce #35, Madonna #91 worldwide.

While I agree about the "being weird" comment in the OP, I do have to admit that Lady Gaga is a much better singer than Madonna.

Gaga is great. Her Coachella show was so damn cool!

And I love her new album. Her best since her peak. I've had five or six songs on repeat since it was released.

Comparing any pop star to Madonna is a zero sum game. Madonna is the apex pop predator. But Gaga is one of the biggest and best to ever do it in her own right.

R63, that's because she just released a new album. That happens to ALL younger stars when they release new music. She is generally nowhere near that high.

At first, I kept interchanging Gaga and Amanda Palmer because I only skimmed over anything related to either of t hem. These days I'm ambivalent about Gaga and agree with the "drama club kid" comments about her performance artist persona. Amanda Palmer is loathsome, whereas Gaga is not.

I'll add that I do enjoy Madonna, or at least I did in her peak decades. She arrived on the scene while I was in my 20s so, you know, fun party times, ahoy and she added some spice to the decades that followed. No complaints!

Gaga is musically trained. She writes, produces, plays multiple instruments and can actually sing. Sorry, Madge.

Gaga will pass Madonna soon in worldwide sales.

Gaga co-writes and co-produces--same as Madonna. R70, certifications are not the same as sales.

Ouch!

Gaga's film career???

I think she sounds better as a jazz singer than a pop singer.

She has a couple of catchy tunes

I think she sounds better on mute