#how many surprise albums can you drop n stuff before things become less of a surprise snd more of an expectation like

[3416]

haven't listened to the anthology yet, but i do think her music is suffering from the sheer quantity she's putting out while doing all this other stuff tbh. feels more like an overproduced electronic cashgrab than real layered music despite some tortured lyrics. like ttpd the first half has such a sameness to over half of it.... and that sameness is tied to midnights too imo. i really wish i could experience the joy of albums like 1989/folklore/evermore and def her country earlier stuff but. she can be a lyric writing machine (she needs someone to veto some of it thoughnfjdkfjd feels like no one can tell her no) but not lean on the exact same production style for this long bc it's kinda getting old to me and i really do enjoy so much of her discography like 😭😭😭 idk. i know swifties are just gonna eat up whatever she does, and i've always been in between the absolute worshipping crowd and the absolute hater crowd but some of the music/production part is so uninspired.

[breathinginthevapor]

Falling

Summary: You miss Tom after your breakup. Based on falling by Harry Styles

A/N: Falling is my favourite on Harry’s amazing album, and I just had to write something based upon it!

Word count: 1400+

T/W: mentions of alcohol, hinting at cheating

Masterlist

//

The silky lining is cool against your skin, serving as yet another reminder of the missing presence beside you. You have gotten so used to the warmth of his body that no matter how many covers you lay under, there’s always a kiss of icy cold when he’s not there.

You bury your head in your pillow, but its rosy colour resembles the one on his cheeks when he blushes, and the images of his face wrapped up in despair becomes clearer when you close your eyes. 

So, you sit up and lean against the bedframe, gazing out of the window to the dark streets of London where drunk girls who look all too young to be out at this time of the night stumbles home, the lucky ones clinging to each other while the less fortunate hugs their jackets closer to their bodies and tries not to fall because they know that nobody is there to catch them.

Hugging your knees to your chest, you look at one girl, illuminated by a flickering streetlight. Her shoulders shake, and it looks like she’s crying as she walks only a few steps behind a couple other girls laughing loudly. You wonder why they don’t turn around and ask her to join the conversation, or at least ask if she’s alright, if she needs anything.

But then again, you, of all people, would know why; It’s way too easy to get wrapped up in the thrill and excitement of the moment and forget about everything and everyone else.

The lonely girl takes a left turn and disappears out of your field of vision along with the chatty group that enters an apartment complex, and soon, the street is empty. Unusual for a Friday night in London, but you shouldn’t be surprised that even strangers avoid being near you.

And you don’t blame them, don’t blame your friends that have grown tired of you or Tom who has left you because of those terrible things you’ve done, this awful person you’ve become.

Truth be told, you are beginning to question whether you’d want yourself around.

You’ve always thought you were a good person. Not the rainbow-out-your-ass type of good, but a supportive friend, a caring daughter, a gentle lover.

But good persons don’t do what you’ve done.

Today was the second time you’ve seen him after the break-up. The first time, just a couple weeks after your split, he was standing outside your flat with a big cardboard box.

//

“Don’t want your stuff lying around anymore,” he said, coldly, his face in an emotionless expression, like cut in stone. He held the box out for you and waited for you to grab it, but you didn’t, you couldn’t, you just stared at him and soaked up every small thing about him, from the acne scars on his chin to the tilt of his eyebrow to the dark brown colour of his eyes.

He dropped the box to the floor and turned around, taking a few steps down the stairs.

“Stay, please, I- I haven’t slept since you left, I don’t know what to do without you, I’m so sorry, Tom, please, I-“ you begged him.

He paused, shoulders raised, before he ran down the remaining stairs, the door slamming behind him.

//

The box he handed you that day seems to be mocking you from its place beside your cabinet. It’s been months, and still, you can’t unpack it. You don’t want to know which things he has put in there, like whether or not he has kept the picture you painted together on your second anniversary or the Spiderman T-shirt you gave him for his last birthday.

Thankfully, he had been kinder today. Softer around the edges, forgiveness braided into his tone. He was doing good, he told you while you were standing in the line. Was working on a new film he was really excited about, something about royalty and a heist, and he had had this charming grin on his face and his eyes had lit up, hands gesturing wildly to mimic explosions.

And you think that it made it worse, that you would have preferred him to be mad, to still not have gotten over the what you had done because at least it would mean that he hadn’t gotten wholly over you either.

And you suppose that makes you selfish, and that you should want him to be happy, and you do, but you wish he could be happy with you again.

It hadn’t been your usual barista today, and maybe that was good because the small café close to his parents’ house already held too many memories.

You had sat at your usual table, and out of habit, he had ordered the usual for both of you. You were surprised he remembered, honestly, but when the barista came to your table with only one cinnamon bun, it had gotten quite awkward.

“Do you remember that first time?” you had asked him before thinking it through. “I thought it was so romantic that we shared.”

He had chuckled and broken the cake in half, just like he always did, giving you the bigger half.

“How could I forget. That was our thing.”

And he had nudged you gently with his shoulder and pushed his glasses up his nose, and you had hated yourself for hurting him.

Perhaps he had felt that, because he looked at you worriedly and asked you how you were doing.

“Do you care?” you had asked him.

“Of course I care, Y/N.”

And he had taken your hand, and you had tried to blink away tears, but to no use. Drying them off with the back of your hand, you had told him that you missed him.

“I miss you, too. Terribly so. But this is for the best.”

“Not for me,” you had sobbed.

You had immediately regretted saying it, but of course, there was no way to take it back. Still, you cursed yourself far away for continuing to be so damn selfish.

“I’m sorry.”

“I’m sorry, too,” he had said, gently, and his gaze had pierced your eyes in what felt like a silent declaration of love.

And you had known right there that the two of you had run out of things to say. That everything beyond this point wouldn’t change a single thing or offer any of you more consolation.

Still, you had small-talked a bit, and he had told you a funny story about Sam, and you had laughed in that whole-hearted, head-tilted-back kind of way that you only did with him. And he had asked you about your job, and you had complained to him about your stupid boss, and the whole time you just sat there and thought that this was ok. That having him here beside you, not as a lover but maybe as a friend, was better than nothing, because gosh, you might not want yourself around anymore, but if it was up to you, he’d always be a constant figure in your life.

“What are you thinking about?” he had asked you.

“I think you’re the best person I know,” you had said, honestly, and watched conflicting emotions playing on his features.

“Thank you,” he had said, and it had sounded like he meant it. But then, he had smiled apologetically, “I have to go, sorry.”

He had stood up and shrugged on his jacket, blue denim sitting tight on his broad shoulders and a black beanie hiding his unruly curls. Giving you a quick hug, he had left a few bills to pay for the coffee and then turned around.

He had taken a few steps before turning back, crooked smile and sad eyes making it out for contrast on his face.

“Don’t be a stranger, ok?”

“Ok,” you had promised with a brittle voice.

But you wondered if you already were.

And now, lying in a bed meant for two under covers you never would have bought for yourself, it feels like falling, like a wake-up call. It’s time to be responsible, you figure, time to turn your life around and ensure that you can be someone you’d like. And the first step is unpacking that box from Tom.

You eye the cardboard as if it’s a dangerous animal, trying to figure out if it will go after you before you decide that unpacking is a task for another day.

You have to hit the ground first.

[bye-bye-byler]

what about 40 and 52 for the byler kiss thing

Hella!

40. Hiding/hoping not to be caught kiss52. Accidentally Witnessed kiss

Background: It’s 1987. Mike and Will are 16 and 17 respectively (I think??), both Juniors in high school. Will has a job at a record store (which is very slowly losing business since everyone is buying cassettes because of their durability and portability). The boys have only recently gotten together, and have been keeping it a secret from everyone but Joyce since she was so abundantly accepting and supportive when Will first told her he’s gay. So,,, yeah. Without further ado, I give you Byler!

It’s an agonizingly slow day at Hawkins Vinyl and Will is bored out of his mind. He’s got some scrap paper attached to a clipboard and he’s sketching some random scenery while he stands behind the counter. His neck is beginning to ache from hunching over to get closer to the paper, but he doesn’t mind; he’ll simply rub at it or stretch and roll his head periodically until he’s comfortable enough to resume his position.

Will doesn’t know if he’d rather have a customer walk in or even just a ton of records to stock- just something to keep him busy, but it’s almost 5 PM on a Saturday and people have better things to do than come browse albums in a record store. He also doesn’t know if he prefers it this way, getting hours of peace and quiet so he can be alone and draw. Will is about to start shading some trees when he sees someone park their bike outside the store in his peripheral vision. When the bell above the door rings to indicate someone’s entrance, Will looks up from his drawing to greet who he thinks is a customer, but realizes much to his relief that it’s Mike. Mike marches right over and immediately goes behind the counter to plant a kiss on Will. Will is shocked, as he always is when Mike kisses him anywhere but in the safety of one of their homes. He’s always afraid to get caught. Mike, however, is less afraid.

“Mike,” Will says in a hushed tone after he breaks away, even though there’s no one else around to hear them. “What are you doing here?”“You aren’t glad to see me? I can go if you want.”“What? No, you jackass! I just meant-”“I know, I know, I’m just teasing.”Will truly is glad to see his best friend (and more recently his boyfriend) even though they’d only just hung out yesterday at Mike’s house with Dustin and Lucas. Their two best friends don’t know about their relationship yet, and neither Will nor Mike are sure if they want to come out with it yet. After all, it’s only been three and a half months. They’re practically still just testing the waters, so they’d both rather wait until they’re sure it’s a good time. Even so, the two are still teenagers with raging hormones and intense emotions, so they’re not exactly taking things too terribly slow. They cling to each other and constantly show affection when no one is looking, touching and laughing and kissing and holding hands like any straight couple would. The only difference is that Mike and Will, unlike everyone else, feel like they have to hide it.

“So, What have you been up to?” The taller boy asks eagerly, gesturing to the work in progress on Will’s clipboard before heaving himself up to sit on the counter top just next to the cash register.

Will glances at his handiwork and huffs out a small laugh. “Killing time, waiting for my shift to be over. I really hate being the only one here,” he begins, adding a heavy sigh before continuing. “It always happens on the weekends. I have much more free time than all the adults so I get to hang here all by myself until Brent comes in and takes over. I hate it, Mike. It’s always dead here.”

“Well, yeah, because who wants vinyl anymore? You can’t carry those around and listen to them on a Walkman. Do you know how many record players I saw in garage sales over the summer? There were at least fifteen.” Mike stares at Will’s drawing as he speaks, admiring the attention to detail that Will is known for showing. It doesn’t take too much studying, however, to realize that there’s a faint outline of the shadow monster from years ago looming over the landscape. It looks like Will had just begun to add it in, as the lines are still messy and not very defined. It reminds Mike of the strikingly similar drawing Will made about a week after he’d returned from the Upside Down. Suddenly forgetting whatever he’d just been babbling on about, Mike raises an eyebrow and brings his gaze to meet his boyfriend’s.

“Will?”

The brunet’s small amused smile fades quickly when he sees what Mike had been staring at, but he tries to play stupid in the hopes that Mike will drop it.

“Yeah?”

“Do you…still see him?”

“Do I still see who?”

Mike gives Will a disapproving look that clearly states he’s not buying his bullshit.

“Don’t pull that crap on me, Will. Do you still see him? Is he back?”

Will shrugs and averts his eyes, staring down at his sneakers. “No. He’s not back. I just,” he pauses, considering his words. The air around them is becoming heavy, and Will wants nothing more than to avoid the topic. “I just still think about it from time to time. All the stuff that happened. That’s all, I promise.”

Mike reaches out and grabs hold of Will’s arm, tugging the boy gently towards him. Will lets himself be pulled into a hug, and he’s trying his best not to let the thought that Mike is going to baby him enter his head. Mike knows better. Mike knows he hates being treated like he’s fragile.

Mike clears his throat and pushes Will back so he can press a kiss to his forehead, and already that heaviness in the air is dissipating. Mike knows. And for Will, he’s not going to push anything. “Just don’t forget that I’m the one person you can come to if something happens, yeah?”

“Yeah.” Will’s smile returns once more, and he inclines himself to stand on his toes so he can eagerly kiss those warm, soft lips he likes so much. It’s a quick kiss, ended abruptly when Mike slides back onto his feet and in turn hoists Will up onto the counter, earning him a surprised squeak. Without missing a beat, their mouths crash together again, much less gentle this time, but no less sweet.

Will is totally into it, but his eyes frantically attempt to scope the surrounding perimeter for witnesses nonetheless. There is no one. The room is utterly quiet save for the ticking of the clock on the wall and the soft sounds of their breathing, but still, Will is paranoid. Placing his palms gently on Mike’s shoulders, he pushes the other back just slightly. “Mike-”

“We’re not gonna get caught if that’s what you’re all tense about,” Mike grins smugly, proud of himself for having read Will like an open book.

“I’m not tense!” Will’s cry does nothing to erase the wicked smirk on his boyfriend’s face. He carefully glances around one last time, then turns back to Mike and sticks out his tongue. Then, deciding for once to let his guard down, Will throws caution to the wind and yanks Mike as close as possible to resume kissing him. He allows his eyes to slip shut, trying his hardest not to care who might see them.

One half of Will is thinking about how amazing it feels to have all this adrenaline coursing through him at once, to feel like a badass who doesn’t give a shit what anyone thinks as long as he’s with Mike Wheeler.

The other half of Will is a coward who feels weak and vulnerable in putting himself out there like this. The other half wants to pull away yet again, apologize to Mike for being such a baby, and continue their little make out session later in the privacy of Will’s own room.

He forces that second half of him all the way back to the recesses of his mind.

Letting himself get lost in the moment, Will tangles his right hand in curly black locks and scratches gingerly at Mike’s head. His other arm occupies itself by resting lazily over Mike’s left shoulder. Both of Mikes hands are cupping Will’s face, which is growing warmer and redder by the second. Will relaxes into the kiss and they each part their lips ever so slightly, allowing them to slot together perfectly. It’s nice, Will can admit.

But then, just like that, the moment is cut short by the ring of the bell at the door. Will and Mike both turn at lightning speed to face the door, and to Will’s horror, he finds that Brent had decided to show up early for his shift. It’s the first time he’s ever been early. Brent is never early. 

Such is Will’s luck, though.

Mike steps away from Will who immediately slips off the counter, face beet red, to greet his manager. He opens his mouth to speak, but before he can get any words out, Brent is already talking.

The man’s eyes are squeezed tightly shut, and his countenance is one of pure distaste. “When I open my eyes, that dark haired boy is not going to be here, and you are not going to speak about anything that just happened if you don’t want to be fired for acting so inappropriately on the job. Right, Will?”

“I, uh- right,” Will manages to choke out through his embarrassment.

Mike takes that as his cue to almost silently dash out the door (that stupid bell dings again, of course), casting Will an apologetic look before grabbing his bike and scrambling out of sight.

Brent opens his eyes again, and Will smiles sheepishly at him, earning him nothing but a very forced smile and a demand to leave for the day.

As Will runs to catch up with his boyfriend, he finds that only a small part of him really would have cared if he’d lost his job, because he loved being with Mike and, well, that place sucks anyway.

A/N: Holy shit I actually finished something??!?! It’s kinda just a tad bit shitty but I don’t mind all that much because I’m honestly just reeling over the fact that I actually finished something for the first time ever. To whoever sent me the ask, I hope you enjoyed this!

[calcdad]

What Happened™ with Artpop

Right so i’m not editing this i’m just going for it but try to follow along and if it’s a bit scrambled like do let me know but otherwise here we go

So like before I get started, it really should be known that this isn’t a conspiracy theory and the illumanati is super stupid and not real and not about this shit at all but really what this comes down to is a difference between an artist and a management team, but the way in which management ran things is very indicative of how sociological phenomena come into play when making such business decisions and it’s really interesting 

also a lot of this will be copied and pasted from my friend whom i elaborated on this with and slightly modified but i’m assuming if you’re reading this you don’t need much context for how much mystique shrouds the artpop era as well as the blackout era, which is a very necessary era to examine so that we can use tools from that to look further into artpop 

For like the last 18ish hours i kind of got back into gaga demos for whatever reason and found myself on youtube with all of those artpop conspiracy theories and “demos” and like eighteen different versions of partynauseous, the unwatermarked version of red flame (which i have and it’s like okay at best), and 70 pages deep into google later this is what i’ve really gathered 

Artpop’s failure was a flop because of sabotage by her management which she didn’t know about, and the purpose of the sabotage served to mark her as  martyr for pop music so that she could enjoy more long run consistent success like britney and not burn out so fast like katy 

Before going into artpop, look to Britney Spears, her elusive original doll era before her breakdown, and her life as a whole

In like late 2004-2005-2006, after she broke her knee and right before her breakdown, she was preparing for the release of an album called original doll. she even went to a Kiss FM interview and played the demo of the lead single, mona lisa, though i don’t know if she had permission to do this and people who are reasonable and not conspiracy theorists will tell you she didn't have permission and that's why the whole album was scrapped, but in 2004 she was one of the most powerful celebrities on the planet you know like that doesn’t really just happen to people with that power(?) anyways like keep in mind there’s no secret plot to kill these girls or anything, it’s literally all just about business

the album was talked about in i think a handful of interviews, was recorded, registered, etc, and just suddenly scrapped entirely, no warning. Like put on a “don’t ask about this” list, never spoken of again except for when it was remastered and put on the extended version of the singles collection in 2009, though there were edits to the lyrics etc that refined it from the song it was, which conspiracy theorists largely attribute as a foreshadowing of her fall, into something that makes it seem less ominous and more like “i’m the only one of myself”.

then look to her famous breakdown, note how blackout originally had a bunch of jazz tracks recorded for it (like let go, baby boy) and like it really isn’t crazy or wild for albums to shift direction dramatically like that indicates no conspiracy theory whatsoever. If anything it’s really just indicative of the fact that she was going through it and artistically she was trying to express her emotions but because she was going through it she couldn’t really like...do it with precision and stuff because she was all over the place and like this makes sense because she’s checked into rehab for amphetamine problems before, abuse of which can be required by pressing management to keep constant energy but also cause psychosis-like side effects which closely resemble her behaviour in 2007 but also like she’s recently confirmed that she has bipolar disorder and was likely not getting the treatment she needed! like, that’s normal, there’s no illuminati involved 

an important factor to point out is that Britney Spears has been a star all her life, and when she was signed on to be the songstress of baby one more time, she forever changed the boundaries that hollywood would have with women, and she was just the puppet for the idea. like, britney spears was 17-18-19 and on top of the world, SO sexualized when she was 17, and i’m sure to her she didn’t care because money and fame is promising at that age you know? but like the moment she was nearly nude on magazine covers when she was 17 and 18, it really gave photographers and directors the okay to gradually make younger and younger girls sexualized and poor britney is just out there living her career (which she may or may not have even really wanted as several interviews indicate)

But look further! She was harassed in interviews SO many times during her relationship with justin timberlake about her sexuality and she was a teenager! a young girl! Several industries, though it was clearly not their foremost goal, used the product of Britney Spears as a virgin to be deflowered before the world for our entertainment. What comes after she’s used up? that doesn’t really matter as long as she’s making the money at the moment

In looking at this, you really have to keep in mind that like...Britney Spears and Lady Gaga and Madonna and all entertainers are abstract entities of a sort. I’m listening to artpop as I write this right now, and those vocals on the track are stefani germanotta’s yeah, but like, Britney and Stefani are people off stage and when they’re out of the public eye. When you’re in nothing but the public eye for your entire life the way britney was, it’s not surprising to find that she might struggle with an identity crisis and wonder who she is at some point when she isn’t Britney Spears the performer. she isn’t stupid either, and i’m sure her current day activity is indicative that she’s reflected on who she was when she was younger and ignorant and she doesn’t want any part of that kind of a person anymore. Imagine living 25 years thinking you know who you are and then you realize that one day, who you’ve always been which is the person you are on stage, will some day step off the stage for good. you have to wonder a bit what is left with your life you know?

A N Y W A Y S britney had a great comeback from a legitimate personal struggle and like, she’s the comeback queen of our generation, but furthermore, her and her camp are guaranteed financial security from her product for at least another ten or so years. America loves a good comeback. We don’t love it enough to give her a #1, but she’ll scrape top 40 for the next ten years, and you know the clubs will never stop paying homage to her old music and poor remixes of her new stuff which isn’t even bad but is so clearly departed from the woman who went through the breakdown that it’s almost a new product entirely  

Set the stage to artpop: this was said to me by a friend of mine who cares about lady gaga much more than I do, and like, it doesn’t even seem that farfetched so i’m gonna copy and paste it here- "What happened was that her management team was pushing her to keep going after her hip surgery so she started self medicating in heavy doses of opiates and then her team saw the danger coming and saw the potential for lost money so they dropped her and left her addicted to opiates, a half healed hip, fibromyalgia and ptsd"

I mean, this sounds a lot like britney and her amphetamines to keep up energy for her workload right? But like, looking further, Lady Gaga had amassed a LOT of fame and power in SUCH a short time. This is a highly unstable structure in any discipline, be it economics, chemistry, psychology, or jenga. She was under a lot of pressure to keep surpassing the bar that she herself had raised so high, her hip being broken was awful, but also i know she’s intelligent enough to understand the sociological cycle of celebrities. 

There’s only one celebrity who comes to mind who can really handle being a public personality for an extended period of time the way these girls have to be, and that is Madonna. And like, that’s really why she’s around. She’s been at least 100 distinctly different people over her career because she draws a very clear, hard line between who she is as a performer and an icon and who she is as a person, and it is remarkable that she’s kept these two entities separate for so long. Her life is not always madonna the entertainer. She very much goes home, “clocks out” of being madonna, and goes back to a relatively normal life. She’s an entertainer as a job, and some of these girls become privy to the mindset of being the entertainer who they are, which can have sever psychological consequences.

Further, to again clarify the identity crisis that these people like, reasonably go through, is like “subliminal lyrics”. Like, i do think they put words in their songs sometimes, not because "it's the only way they can speak", but because they're so fucked that they really think it is the only way they can say something you know? Like these girls aren’t literally going to be murdered for speaking, but we have NO idea what is in their contracts and what they can and cannot say, especially in the stage of being massively popular but relatively new. They won’t die, but the legal or financial implications of fulfilling a certain image or product that the company wants to produce could be extremely severe that they could realistically never recover. This is nothing new, either. hollywood has always been like this and there is no reason to think that these girls couldn’t have gone through a similar position.

Do I think artpop would have done better if she hadn’t paraded around promoting it as god come to earth in an album? absolutely. It’s a phenomenal club album, it’s a glorious acid trip of a dance album, and she really should have just called it that. I do think that Artpop Act II was legitimately planned and she had such high hopes for all of this, but so much is also out of her control.

Personally, I haven’t really spoken to anyone who personally thinks artpop is as bad of an album as everyone said it was. Literally, not one person i’ve discussed this with thinks it was a bad album at all. Gaga herself seemed so...shocked that it did so poorly. I was shocked that it was received so poorly. Mainstream media ruined her over it, yet it debuted at #1 and was the 9th best selling album of the year despite coming out on November 6th.

So like, what I think happened is that her management strategized sociologically. They looked at Britney’s breakdown. Britney isn’t dominating top 10, but she doesn’t need to; she’ll always be relevant and rakes in 50 mil for an easy residency. Gaga had too much too fast, and the public is waiting to claw someone so perfect down whenever they can. Gaga could claim a couple more #1s and burn out like a shooting star, or she can tumble, come back, and plateau at 3rd or 4th consistently as opposed to 1st temporarily and 10th in the end. So like, i think that her management definitely paid for some of the reviews about artpop to be bad in order to get the ball rolling on such gamble. But I don’t think Gaga knew. Like, she split with her team during that era, so if they were going to leave her, they have no reason to tell her but also they could still profit and the gamble wasn’t with their own lives that they were playing with. 

the gamble of a comeback isn’t even a new strategy. Like, britney’s was organic, and gaga’s response was organic, but there have been staged comebacks.  Madonna’s initial stumble with erotica and her evita comeback were legitimate ones, but further comebacks with Ray of Light and Confessions were absolutely and meticulously calculated by a brilliant business woman who made waves and rode them like a surfboard to the top. What sold Artpop is Gaga’s dedication. She really believed it was a good album and was astonished when she appeared to be so wrong about how much the public would like it. And that drove her to work hard and readjust her craft.

And like, I do think that she’s looking back and realizing how ahead of its time artpop was. Look at that record as a business investment not so much immediately, but for the future. SO many songs we’re hearing today are reminiscent of the insane EDM that we heard on Artpop. Aside from the slight dip into hip hop and r&b brought about mostly by beyonce and adele’s respective presences, as well as the faux trend of country pop which is dying as quick as it came, Artpop is what is on the radio today. Mark my words and just like, watch HOW many think pieces will be written in the next five years hailing artpop as ahead of its time. Artpop laid the foundations for all of these DJs to make their mark on mainstream music, and consider what DJ White Shadow posted about artpop’s little sister. It’s a reflection artpop was never bad, and now is a better time moreso than ever to venture back into that kind of music. When music historians look back on music trends, i do believe Artpop will probably be one of the most, if not the most, important album in Gaga’s catalogue because it came out four years before all of this music and predicts the exact structure and flow of what is popular, yet at the time was deemed unlistenable, which, again, i do believe was paid for by someone in order to set up for something like this long-term business investment i’ve been describing.

What’s really funny to me about all of this, is that like, comebacks do not always work. Look at Witness. I’m sure that Katy will try to spin this as her blackout or her artpop but like, it won’t work for several sociological factors discussed above. First, katy took her place as first for a fast five years and i’m sure she’s burned out by now. People really are like...over her. Second, Witness won’t define, shape, or influence anything, as it’s all really current music specific to that period of time in 2016-2017. Third, the “breakdown” associated with witness isn’t authentic. Like, it could have been predicted a mile away from that comment she made at the grammys. The subsequent hair cutting and witness world wide and all of that stuff were management’s grasps at achieving the authenticity that britney and gaga had, and like gaga didn’t even really have a breakdown. The only breakdown that Katy is going through is like, realizing that she doesn’t really bring anything revolutionary to the table nor has she ever, even though she has records. She really was a vessel for producers and a record label to rake in the cash while she got to play famous for a bit, but she’s never stood for anything or really contributed artistically, and she wont’ be able to dig deep and “find something” worth redeeming. She has been manufactured from the start, but the tragedy of her is that you can tell that she really thought she was different and ahead of the game. The struggle for her will be for her to realize that she’s nothing that her team told her she was for ten years, and she’s gonna have to deal with that alone and it’s going to be really really hard you know? There’s nothing redeemable about katy perry. Gaga will be seen as an innovator, truly the top of the influx of pop girls in the second half of the 2000s all vying for britney’s place. Gaga will be remembered as the one with the insight, the foresight ten years in advance, and not some one off like fergie or gwen stefani. Katy did a little better in the beginning, but ultimately slow and steady wins the race. And witness was a gamble that producers lost on.

This was super condensed because I couldn’t get my ideas in order the way that I wanted them to be, but like TLDR: Artpop was a gamble by management in order to place gaga as a martyr who can bring longtime success and she’ll be remembered for being so insightful with her musical intuition and what she was doing in 2013 and the illuminati isn’t real but small businesses do shady shit with contracts all the time so is it really so unrealistic as to believe that they took a gamble on artpop when the cards where in their favour to do so with all of her potential energy from being on such a high pedestal? it really isn’t because like it worked sis lmao and that’s just how business works!