Well that just isn't true at all though, is it?

Single wise, Judas is the only one to under-perform. Ironically it has the most popular video of the era. BTW was a huge hit, TEOG was big too and Y&I is currently in the top 3 on iTunes.

Album wise, it was dramatically front loaded. Naturally it dropped off to smaller - but consistent - numbers. Those million units had to come from somewhere. It's approaching 5 million sold only 3 odd months in. She's second only to Adele in this department, and as others have mentioned...Adele is experiencing a rare success, rather than Gaga failing. She'd have the best selling album of the year and be unquestionably the biggest act around without her.

The UK has been a bit weird with her this era though, granted. Not sure if it's because they only have eyes for Adele right now or whether she just hasn't shown face enough (i.e. Rihanna becoming a National obsession after her multiple X Factor and Brit appearances). I doubt it has anything to do with the material because we have all seen the kind of crap the public lap up here. Hopefully things will turn around.

You have to remember that Gaga's only half way through the BTW era. She'll have singles sorted until next summer, I'd imagine.

BTW was a slight falter, at best. Struggling is definitely an exaggeration.

Many interesting points are raised in this thread. I think it’s quite evident (from a neutral consumer stance) that she is no longer the hot topic she used to be; notably during the peak charting of “Bad Romance”.

No one’s denying her current chartings are successful however they are not as successful in ratio to her previous outputs. For her diehard fans there is a little bit of irony now involved as they were the ones criticising outputs by rival artists (for example Christina) and now they are defending Lady Gaga (and her ‘alleged’ decline) against the success of Adele.

One thing that is definitely going to weigh her down is the fact she is a brand (all the way down to her stage name) similar to the Spice Girls during the 90’s. Also, Lady Gaga debuted in 2008, therefore her fans have already aged by 3 years and counting; considering the fast pace of today’s social media trends; that’s a long time! Fans who were still kids (say 10, 11) are now hitting 13 and 14; wherein music by Lady Gaga is not a particularly a good look.

I think you can tell she is trying to punch above her target audience, one example being her alignment with Brian May. However, in the next 4-5 years she is going to drop off faster than Lindsay Lohan on a nytol binge. My opinion; instead of creating the alter ego of Joe, she should’ve created ‘Stefani’ as her alter (but real) self – much like the new Marina & The Diamond's project (Electra Heart). Then she could slowly merge into herself and use the fanbase she gained from Gaga to release albums that truly reflect who she is not who her record label says she is.

I think we're already seeing plenty of Stefani in the piano performances.Everyone has an image, but GaGa tried to show a bit more of herself.And btw Stefani became GaGa much before she was signed.Have you ever thought that Stefani wasn't comfortable with herself, so she created GaGa to get more confidence.Also, the opposite of what you stated may have happened: what if GaGa slowly merged into Stefani??Just saying...

And vice versa... if shes telling all these kids to be who they are then why did she completely transform herself into something else? works both ways!

Agreed with this 100%.

oh please you behave like it was gagas idea to change herself into who and what she pretends to be today --- it was her record companys- its marketing - its buisness ....she will become more in controll of her career and image though


who would have bought stefanis album if she was just sat on a piano with brown hair jeans and t shirt !!!

You make some good points except you have posted something fundamentally wrong.

A study carried out a few months ago by The Word Magazine on current crop of female popstars show her core fanbase is older and more male than those of Katy Perry, Rihanna, Beyonce & Britney Spears. Most interestingly she has a significant fan base amongst males over the age of 30 compared to the other four female popstars, who recognise she is a throwback to the pop art culture values of the pre-SAW days. The survey showed she is also far more successful amongst the indie-rock audience (again with only Beyonce coming close to appreciation), I guess a by product of being a far more credible artiste in control of her own image.

Historically it is pre-teenagers and females who are the most fickle (least loyal). This is the area she has the least success in, as I guess she is too weird for that audience. The survey showed she trailed both Katy & Rihanna in this area by some distance, and in fact trailed in last behind Britney & Beyonce in this area.

Indeed this survey is backed up by the fact Lady Gaga's last tour was a massive success and significantly more successful than those of Rihanna & Katy Perry.

So to recap, Lady Gaga has shelved the most fickle fanbase, who are least likely to support an artist long term. They are precisely the same audience who are most likely to purchase downloads, but least likely to buy albums.

Still back in the 1970s top British teen girl magazine Jackie voted David Bowie as the worst pop act four years running (1973-76), as they much preferred Donny Osmond, David Cassidy & The Bay City Rollers; and in the 1980s/90s equivalent Smash Hits magazine Madonna was voted worst female/solo singer 5 times.

Hence The Word magazine survey concluded that Lady Gaga is most likely to go on and have a substantial longevity career.

I couldn't stand Born This Way or Judas. Edge of Glory was really good, though. But I'm long since bored of her and the singles haven't been good enough. I think she probably did too much too quickly so now when I hear she has a male alter ego called Joe, I just roll my eyes.

The fact that it's Adele who has been the big success of 2011 is probably as bad as it could be for Gaga because Adele is pretty much the total opposite. Whereas everything Gaga does seems so contrived and try-hard, Adele is far more laid back and relatable.

But it's not as if any other act (Adele aside) wouldn't be pleased with the numbers so far.

And I'm sure when Adele fails to sell 8M with "23" she'll be "struggling" too? Honestly this whole thread - along with any notion of Gaga being on the wane at the moment is ridiculous. If she was:

Would she have won Best Female video?
Would she still manage to have consecutive top 10 hits worldwide even if they aren't #1s?
Would she have shifted almost 5 million albums in 3 months?

Adele is the opposite of every female popstar often criticised for strutting around half naked and appearing too try hard - the same could be said for Rihanna, Britney or Katy Perry. This idea that Adele is destroying Gaga's career is stupid, she's just experiencing a lot more success than any other major name in pop. Yet its always Gaga being called out to compare to her

So, the majority of users on this forum continue to be obsessed with chart positions and sales figures as a measure of musical quality. Whatever happened to actually focusing on the music itself?

But even so, Born This Way wasn't aimed at bubblegum chartpop-obsessed kids so they probably think Born This Way is a bad album for that reason. No wonder most chart music all sounds the same these days when kids are buying the same stuff over and over again

I already explained in my post, which you obviously didn't read carefully.Stefani became GaGa long before the label came her way.She created the personna since she first started singing to an audience.The record label was never introduced to Stefani (supposing that they're "two different people"), they met "GaGa".They helped her with her image and her music a bit, but she already had the direction and the visual apporach ready to be served.Her label contributed very little to "GaGa".And I think that Stefani created GaGa as a more powerful, brave, bold, confident and devoted version of herself, so I can't see her getting rid of the personna.GaGa is not there just for a career.I don't know that much about "GaGa"/"Stefani", but I believe that Stefani could never bare the club performances or even an audience of more than 300 people without GaGa.

Yeah, Born This Way is a sophisticated album with lyrics about life and the continuous hardships of a real woman.'Government Hooker' is a dedication to all of those hustling housewives who have to raise 5 kids.'Scheisse' is for fired employees who want to take revenge from their boss and 'Edge Of Glory' is a soundtrack to the average person's first attempt at bungee jumping.And preach!Chart music???BTW is above that.That's why it had 2 lead singles, 2 promotional singles, promo all around the world and 9-month hype but these clueless kids cannot understand, right?And the album is not electropop/techno AT ALL!It sounds so different...These poor kids cannot understand real music even if it hit them in the face.Sigh...

She might put herself under a lot of pressure. Her sales are always going to be massive because right now she's current, but if she starts comparing to the previous album she might think that she's struggling and starting to wane when she isn't. Her albums are going to be hits, but not all of her single's might not be hit after hit, she may miss, but she'll be popular for ages, she shouldn't stress herself out.

She's not destroying Gaga's career - it's simply an interesting comparison because they're so different yet they've both been dominating pop music over the past few years. It's not just a comparison in taking off clothes but the way that Adele comes across so down to earth and Gaga... not so much. And of course there are going to be comparisons - they're part of a small group of massively successful artists right now. Gaga was the last female artist to blow up massively like Adele has this year.

I actually think that Adele seems more arrogant than GaGa.It's not about Adele being self-absorbed (which is probably the case with GaGa), it's just that she really can't bother with being in the spotlight and she comes across quite cocky because of that tbh.

That is utter rubbish! Clearly you know very little about album sales! Albums tend to sell consistently over time as the singles carry it. You can't say that just because it has bene out for 3 months, it has sold as much as it is going to! That is rubbish. BTW should finish up with sales in the region of at least 7-8million. Not as successful as her debut (which, bear in mind, had a re-release, and only reached 6M before that), but her debut was the most successful album of recent times...

TFM is her 2nd album :yawn: even she says BTW is her 3rd.

Hilarious You're unable to even understand what I was saying, so you take my words and go in a completely different direction, which has absolutely nothing to do with the point. I never said anything about Born This Way having any 'meaning', but you knew that anyway (or did you?) - you just thought you'd try and make yourself look clever by pretending I did.

Anyway, I don't even need to say anything to prove a point - the current state of the charts speaks for itself. If people want to measure success and quality by chart positions and sales figures, then more fool them.

I understood exactly what you said and I addressed you.You said it's not charts music, I disagreed.You said it's not bubblegum and that it's different, I disagreed.All that you said about it being different implied that you thought it had a lot of substance, I disagreed.I gave you clear and specific points.And btw, sarcasm is not used to make someone look clever (where did that come from?? ), it's used for fun.Don't take it that seriously! http://www.threadbombing.com/data/media/64/148hjx3.gif

Since this is the only Gaga topic today I'll post here :yawn:.
Anyone who says Gaga is struggling is plainly wrong. Do you think that selling almost 4.3 million copies in more than 3 months is bad? Well, that's just stupid. The album sales by the end of the year should be around 5.5 million more or less and by the end of 2012 with the new tour they should be about 7 or 8 million. As someone said here, everybody seems to forget that before the TFM was released, TF had sold 6 million copies and BTW is already getting close to that number so...
In terms of singles, well I think BTW is the fifth most sold song of the year and a few months ago it was the third most sold song but by now PRA and another song might have overtaken it. Still, fifth most song sold of the year, a worldwide smash. Judas was not big in the US or UK, but it was successful in several Latin American and Asian countries (and I think it was also successful in Spain). TEOG was not a worlwide smash, but it was a worldwide hit. So... I really don't get where all these "Gaga is done or struggling" comments are coming from :yawn:.

You have no idea how album sales work. Born This Way will NOT have sold 8 million by next year. Id even be surprised if she hit 5 million by the end of this year given her sales are now stalling. I'll explain...

Maybe in another 2/3 years it will hit 8 million but not within the next year because her sales of the album have slowed right down after a very successful first 3 months. Infact an incredible 3 months and that is why its sales are now slowing. She had a years worth of sales in just a matter of weeks. All her core fans who want the album already have it. Now she has to rely on the casuals and that's not as easy without a killer single and like it or not this era doesn't have one. There is no Pokerface or Bad Romance on BTW.

So that user is right. That is how sales work.

Sorry but this is crap. Several magazines, all high profile, said Cyndi Lauper would have a huge career while Madonna would be a flash in the pan! lol

Lady Gaga will not have a long career for the reasons many have raised in here and that is why she is milking the cash cow for every penny right now. I petty her deluded followers who hang on everything she does. It must be a lonely life if she is the highlight of it.

Common sense at last.

And I pity her deluded stalkers who constantly look for every little excuse to deride and attack her, and talk about their oh-so-clever reasons why everyone is wrong and they know better than anyone else. People have been saying Lady Gaga will be forgotten 'in a years time' since the start. Keep dreaming if you think it makes you seem clever. Must be a lonely life if that's all you ever have to do.