It’s no secret that I’m a huge Lady Gaga fan. From small town Iowa Homecoming dances where I did the choreography to “Poker Face”, to driving around my first university town at midnight blasting Artpop, to my time working at an LGBTQ+ non-profit during the Chromatica era, Lady Gaga has soundtracked so much of my life and been tied to my experience as a queer man. Coming out at fourteen years old right when The Fame released, I looked to Lady Gaga as an inspiration for being myself, for expressing my creativity, and for being an advocate for the communities around them. That’s perhaps a lot to put on a pop artist (and, let’s be real, most people have some form of parasocial relationship with a musician they admire), but across her career, Lady Gaga has constantly evolved and transformed, challenging herself to grow just as much as her music inspired fans to be a little more theatrical, a bit less reserved, a smidge unhinged even.
And now, there’s Mayhem, Lady Gaga’s latest studio record: just like the fractured mirror of its cover art, the album acts as a reflection and retrospective on her career, as well as a facecrack worthy reminder that while artists such as Chappell Roan, Sabrina Carpenter, and Charli XCX have taken on the mantle of contemporary pop’s newly crowned royalty, Lady Gaga was here first, pushing the boundaries of what a pop star could be just like her many idols (Prince, David Bowie, and Madonna, to name a few). For this week’s episode, The New Sincerest highlights some favorite tracks from Mayhem, and traces Gaga’s past influences and present contemporaries.
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