I don't think it's pretentious. Why? Because the lyrics aren't all about 'da club'?

 

I know I am biased by my intense dislike for her, but anyone denying the album is off the pretentious scale needs to hit up a dictionary. STAT. It DEFINES pretention.

 

My main issue with it is that it really isn't that good, the fun has vanished since The Fame and we're left with a handful of really not very good songs with poor production, weak melodies and 'messages' shoved in for good measure.

Poor production? Really? Listen to Fame Monster and then this and you'd have to be deaf not to notice the massive uplift in the quality of production between the two. Born This Way is slick as hell. Both of the last two had typical cheap/generic RedOne production littered throughout.

 

There's about three 'message' songs.

 

Born This Way (the song) has one of the best productions in quite a long time imo. Shame it got covered with controversal lyrics otherwise I would think it'd do better than what it did long term wise.

 

Is the album pretentious? I got this off Google as I had no idea what it meant:

 

"Attempting to impress by affecting greater importance, talent, culture, etc., than is actually possessed."

 

Judging by the description, I would say the album is pretentious in how Gaga described it. She wanted the record to be the Greatest of the Century and that she hopes the album will influence people with songs like Born This Way. It's not at all on how she described her record to be as it's far from the Greatest Record of the Century and arguably The Fame Monster is better than Born This Way despite being less than half its length. On the influence scale, I don't really see the album making an impact on peoples thoughts lyric wise as well so it is indeed "Attempting to impress by affecting greater importance, talent, culture than the record actually possesses".

 

ALL THIS SAID, I guess it's down to opinion as her record could've affected a great amount of people that we never know of and the quality of the album can also be opinion stated.

 

Plus Gaga is nominated as the Villian of the Year and Worst Album of the Year at the NME 2012 Awards and yet they gave her 8/10 for her album..?

Edited February 24, 201213 yr by Oricon

'The Edge of Glory' is beyond overrated and truly banal, although not quite as awful as 'Hair'. 'Schieße' and 'Heavy Metal Lover' etc are more interesting and definitely the stuff she should be making.

 

This. I weep thinking about the missed single opportunities for this album when you see some of the songs and music videos that were actually put out.

 

Reminders of Dance in the Dark not being released BYE.

I think the only thing PRETENTIOUS about the album is when she said it was the "album of our generation".

 

Which makes her as a person pretentious, not the album.

This. I weep thinking about the missed single opportunities for this album when you see some of the songs and music videos that were actually put out.

 

Reminders of Dance in the Dark not being released BYE.

Completely agree. 'Heavy Metal Lover' and 'Schieße' were crying out to be singles, the latter more so. If three of the five single's she released hadn't had flopped (lets be honest), she probably would've released them.

 

How 'Schieße' is the most pretentious track on the album is beyond me, its one of the more 'fun' tracks, which according to them the album is lacking. How it can go from being a 8/10 album, to the 'most pretentious album EVER' in less than a year is ludicrous.

How it can go from being a 8/10 album, to the 'most pretentious album EVER' in less than a year is ludicrous.

 

She's going through a backlash. Every pop star that has a unique brand goes through it at some points... and even multiple points, in their career.

 

Rolling Stones originally gave Britney's 'In The Zone' a 4 1/2 star rating at it's release. But once she went through a public backlash, they changed it to 3 1/2.

 

f***ed up.

Any diva/pop superstar worth their SALT does indeed suffer a backlash, most of them multiple backlashes! The public are extremely fickle. If they care enough to jump on a backlash bandwagon it's basically a sign that you're interesting. How many backlashes has Madonna had? And by contrast how few has had Beyoncé had (if any)? Proves the point perfectly...

 

Poor production? Really? Listen to Fame Monster and then this and you'd have to be deaf not to notice the massive uplift in the quality of production between the two. Born This Way is slick as hell. Both of the last two had typical cheap/generic RedOne production littered throughout.

 

I don't like it at all, it sounds far too busy. 'Poor' is purely my VIEW of it, for others it might be perfect, but I'd much rather The Fame-esque production, heck I don't even rate Monster beyond the first 2 singles.

 

I think the main problem with this entire era was GaGa's pretentious attitude (particularly rife throughout the music on Born This Way) since the last era ended. As much as I like her and the album, it's pretty damn obvious that her (slight) decline in popularity and credibility in some quarters is down to that. NME are spot on.

Her attitude is separable from the music though. Yes when she does interviews she's a pretentious tool and it even shows in her performances much of the time. But not in the album. IMO naturlich.

 

I wouldn't say that it's the most pretentious album ever at all. 'the fame monster' was a lot worse in that department. admittedly there are a few songs on BTW which could be considered pretentious because they're so unrelatable, as if she's trying too hard to be strange or mysterious. 'scheisse' is a good example of that, whereas songs like 'hair' are much more relatable.

funnily enough it's the pretentious songs from her which get more appeal from the general public, it's what makes gaga gaga.

Her attitude is separable from the music though. Yes when she does interviews she's a pretentious tool and it even shows in her performances much of the time. But not in the album. IMO naturlich.

 

 

With that comment you contradict yourself. The general public doesn't separate the two... even if we might. The same as with Britney and Madonna, Only difference is a lot of people were expecting this album to be amazing from her previous effort. Gaga has a serious following, be that as it may... she became a lot more serious with this album. I'm not saying that's bad... artistically it's great. But the general public doesnt appreciate artistry... they appreciate songs like 'Womanizer' and 'Pokerface'.... not songs like 'Unusual You' or 'Heavy Metal Lover'.

Edited February 25, 201213 yr by Tyler

With that comment you contradict yourself. The general public doesn't separate the two... even if we might. The same as with Britney and Madonna, Only difference is a lot of people were expecting this album to be amazing from her previous effort. Gaga has a serious following, be that as it may... she became a lot more serious with this album. I'm not saying that's bad... artistically it's great. But the general public doesnt appreciate artistry... they appreciate songs like 'Womanizer' and 'Pokerface'.... not songs like 'Unusual You' or 'Heavy Metal Lover'.

 

^That

 

Hence why you see all the Katy Perry and Rihanna songs top charts again and again even if they all sound the same and generic. The public doesn't want an artistic song but a catchy song that grips them.

But the general public doesnt appreciate artistry... they appreciate songs like 'Womanizer' and 'Pokerface'.... not songs like 'Unusual You' or 'Heavy Metal Lover'.

I disagree... I mean I can maybe see your point but not with those examples you picked! Half the reason Heavy Metal Lover is such a fan favourite is that it's more simple and not that far removed from songs like Poker Face. I don't know what you mean by 'serious' because HML is not a serious song in any respect!

 

I disagree... I mean I can maybe see your point but not with those examples you picked! Half the reason Heavy Metal Lover is such a fan favourite is that it's more simple and not that far removed from songs like Poker Face. I don't know what you mean by 'serious' because HML is not a serious song in any respect!

 

 

Ok I was intoxicated. Let us say 'Marry The Night'.

Marry The Night has more of a public appeal image than Heavy Metal Lover IMO.

Marry The Night has more of a public appeal image than Heavy Metal Lover IMO.

 

Aye. It would have been huge if second instead of Judas.

The singles in this order...

 

01 Born This Way

02 Marry The Night

03 The Edge of Glory

04 Heavy Metal Lover

05 Bloody Mary

 

...would've been huge. Flawless campaign.

 

The Edge of Glory shouldn't even be on the album never mind as a single.

HA! Whatever you think of it it was a huge hit so obviously it was a great single choice.