DUKE

Keep in mind that most preorders are probably made on iTunes and other digital music retailers. I expect most copies to be sold digitally other than physically, so I don't regard all this as too urgent. Besides, judging from the instagram she posted, it looks anything but as "one of a kind" as she advertised it.

I love that I saved a lot of money preordering the physical copy of the album early on amazon.de! I've been looking around to find The Love Club on CD, too, featuring "Swingin Party" instead of "Royals," but this version seem to be exclusive to the US iTunes Store only. Too bad, I don't really want to buy the same track twice or three times on different formats... this means, if I decide to buy The Love Club, I actually paid for "Royals" three times. I'm all for supporting her, but... I'm a broke student, what can I say?

If you're from the US, I'd say the chances are extremely good. I have a feeling this print will be exclusive to the US. Pleasant surprises appreciated.

Sorry to be a downer, but there are no comprehensive lists like this out there. There are plenty of Gaga forums, but n o n e (not even the most popular one) of them offer sufficient information on what you are looking for. Gagapedia is incomplete and anything but a reliable source. I am, however, working on such a list which does not only include the song titles but also extensive information on recording dates, production info and qualities available. It will take a while, though. Once it's finished, I am all for sharing it.

Sky Ferreira - "You're Not the One"

Absolutely not...

They are efficient placeholders for the actual music videos in order to take advantage of new regulations in many countries that now count online plays/hits/spins/whatever for charts. Since the production of lyric videos is relatively cheap and quick, they can easily be released in conjunction with a song being sent to radio and its release to digital formats. From an artist's point of view, this is helpful since the label may determine the budget for the music video based on its initial commercial response. I am not saying there will be a video for "Aura" eventually, but this is how it usually goes. From a publisher's and the label's point of view, lyric videos are another way of making money. Each time a song is played on the radio, publishers collect a certain amount of money. Same goes for online plays. The latter is becoming a problem in countries such as Germany where various associations are trying to make platforms pay the artists/record labels, because it is just another way of listening to free music (like the radio). However, there are countries in which these royalties are indeed paid.

This is so great, I can't. She must've fought her ass off to have this album exactly the way she wants it to be. Can you think of anyone with an album cover like that? I can't. I honestly can't think of a better way to give this album a face. It's kind of bad-ass and fragile at the same time, which, I believe, is the essence of who she really is.

That looks like some early 1990s grunge album cover, I love it! Also, I would have imagined anything but a high-profile fashion magazine shot, so this is indeed fantastic.

This is what I thought when she made that that Venus tweet a while ago. Even when she announced "Temple" as a song title, I've figured it might be connected to the Venus theme because she was talking about beauty, etc. I'm beyond happy she scrapped "I Wanna Be With You" as a song title. As for the retitled "Dope," I don't know if you guys have seen that but the song is produced by Sucky Stefani and Rick Ruben ("Ride" "Ride" "Ride" "Ride" and so on...). I didn't expect much from the lyric video since it seems to be serving as film promotion other than being the next single. I suppose they edited the song a little... if this is the edit heard on the album version I will be so disappointed. Those film clips are annoying. And the vocal track is distractive because you can tell that her vocals were not recorded during the same session. She rerecorded her vocals, as one can easily tell, and replaced those amazing edgy parts in the first verse with a totally redundant new take. I'm going to wait to hear the final version, maybe that'll work eventually, I don't know. "Sexxx Dreams" doesn't look as corny as "Sex Dreams." Now that was a big deal for me, glad she solved it with the addition of two X. I am not too trusting of that app eventually being a platform to release those non-album tracks on. Don't see this happening, to be honest. What's wrong with b-sides? Good old b-sides on a fucking single format, preferably physical so we don't have to settle for digital only. But no... Can't say I'm particularly surprised that she has to have one of those song on it. And since RedOne isn't listed as a producer this time around, who else take his place better than will.i.am, seriously? "Fashion!" is probably a potential single, a club banger and one of the fun fun fun songs on the record, but even though I am kind of put off by the producer choice, I have good faith in her ability as a producer. Who knows what the two came up with. Perhaps this will mark a turning point in will.i.am's career, also. Like, away from the banging dance songs that sound familiar to what we've heard before. The bottom line is, I am positive everything will be fine. I think that this time, she might have been more sharp sighted than ever before when it comes to compiling a cohesive and strong album out of the hundreds of songs she allegedly recorded. We shall see...

Exactly! I always had the impression that in the beginning, particularly the pre-The Fame Monster half of 2009, she saw herself forced to justify what she's doing in a way. She appeared, as you said, very defensive and instructive when interviewed by someone who had obviously not done their homework. It must have been very frustrating for her in this early period of her career, having this tremendous ambition and will to push things forward, but not being taken seriously regardless of the often emphasised talent and potential. I think another reason why many people are easily turned off by her is because they cling to an old model of the music industry. That means artists, as well as executives, but especially music audiences. It's hard to explain... it's like there has been a turn in the music industry; a paradigm change, so to speak. I am generally interested in the phenomenon "Lady Gaga" because of that. I don't need to point out how much I love and adore her, but she's an interesting research subject because of said paradigm change. Due to the topic's currentness, it's impossible to make precise statements on why "Lady Gaga" is working even though she is not playing by the old industry rules. I just recently wrote a seminar paper on commercial success in the digital era where I talked about this in particular. We can't say if she ignited that change, or if her appearance coincided with her. It's easy to hate Lady Gaga for so many reasons, apparently, yet no-one has the answer to why she is being so incredibly successful, and especially influential. I am not referring to the plenty of numbers, records or whatever figures that fans always allude to when trying to defend her, but her cultural impact reaches much, much deeper than anybody else's. She's really worth to be looked at through scientific glasses. I am beyond thrilled to see what the future has in store... Speaking about being thrilled, I am extremely excited to hear ARTPOP. Not (only) because of the new songs, but I am particularly eager to pay attention to the sound of the album. I'm just assuming, but it seems like she's been engineering herself, supervising mixing and mastering phase, so I am incredibly pumped to actually hear the whole thing. Can you imagine how pedantic she must have been in the studio, completing the album? Obsessing about single frequencies and having breakdowns over ambient noises that cannot be removed... I think this is so much better than sending the entire album over to Sterling Sound NYC because it probably stays what she wanted it to be, sonically. Well, if she didn't assist all that, then let's forget I just composed an entire paragraph on this matter.

Since she retweeted that NME interpretation I pretty much gave up on writing because everything has been said there, but I had a couple of thoughts in the meantime: There seems to be the widespread notion that Gaga is employing her sexuality and physique as an advertisement poster, as many other female popstars do. Sexualisation in pop music is often cited as a bad influence on children trying to make sense of the world they live in. In my opinion, however, exposure of skin and body parts in the case of Gaga can hardly be seen as a particularly sexual act.While this may apply to many current female popsingers (not mentioning names), it is very wrong to accuse Gaga of selling her body for the sake of it. In fact, there is barely anything sexual about the way she presents herself. When we look at the way she has progressed ever since The Fame in 2008, nudity has always been an element to the deformation she underwent, both as an artist and as the artwork itself. She herself, meaning her body and what she does with it, is her art in the first place. She is like a sculpture (ahem) that is ever-changing, carved by no-one but herself (and her collaborators, of course). Being the total work of art she is, the music is part of it and not, as in the case of many musicians, the art itself. The fact that she is indeed her art makes her vulnerable to critics and those that try to be. What I'm trying to say is that the intention is not to be sexual, or sexy, but that nudity, which is ironically quickly interpreted as sexual (a little simple-minded, don't you think?), is a side effect of the creation itself, and not its purpose. Look at her arguably "crazy" outfits; as "nude" as they may be, they suggest something completely un-sexual. I am not saying that there haven't been moments in which she has attempted to be promisingly sexual, but those moments stay exceptional. Also, I don't have the impression that she buys into the spreading of stereotypical beauty norms/notions, as often argued by opposers of contemporary pop singers. In fact, she is subject to permanent deformation, deconstruction and distortion of said ideal. I don't want to list her gazillion outfits, but how do the majority of them draw on beauty stereotypes when they look like an art installation over at MoMA? She has repeatedly played with androgyny and portrayed herself as anything but typically female. If anything at all, she's pushing femininity forward instead of resting on the same old idea of what's female and what's not. Something else I enjoy looking at is the amount of people ever since the release of Born This Way calling her pretentious and full of herself. With ARTPOP being a placative title, it is not hard to see that the album/project isn't any less ambitious than the oh-so pretentious Born This Way album. There have been plenty of occasions where I did raise an eyebrow at something she said, which sounded very over-the-top, but what I'm actually trying to say is the following: if you want to hate, then do it with correct numbers! I'd prefer to see no hate at all, but I cannot but be amused by the incorrect bullshit a lot people produce when attempting to sophistically hate on that dumb chick called Lady Gaga who calls herself the future of pop music and blatantly rips off all the legends that were before her. Funny, right? Well, the funny part to me is that the "pretentiousness" has been there since the very start. In my opinion, it's so hilarious how all the "pretentiousness" has only been noticed by those... very very sophisticated people and their fine-tuned artsy sensors with the emerge of Born This Way. For Christ's sake, she's been blabbing the same stuff since the beginning of her commercial career. Call it pretentious, if you want, but please widen your horizon by looking to the very beginning of her career which now - more than ever - justifies her ARTPOP theory. People look at such narrow time frames and miss out on so many things they could hate her for which basically proves how stupid they really are.

It's so hard to resist...

When I saw it coming together, I had a Born This Way déjà-vu but now that I see it in full... I think it's fantastic! Completely different to anything I've seen lately and very, very dynamic. I love the little details, such as the gazing ball mirroring parts the statue and the black and white stripes cryptically showing different angles. Not so sure if it's actually the same statue. I think it's a very courageous to leave common artwork aesthetics behind and take a completely different approach. Great work, cannot wait to see the rest of the artwork.

Fantastic! Thank you so much for this. Imagine the hilariousness of updating her Wikipedia page with all that concrete information, including dates few people care about only. I suppose a very certain party involved wouldn't be too happy about it, though.

:cher:

Satan - "Aura"

I don't think so, to be honest. Have you seen the trailer for Machete Kills? At the very end of it, there's a still promoting ARTPOP saying "the new album featuring 'Aura' & 'Applause [...]." I believe it is, in fact, the second single off the album. Including it in the film, apparently, was a particularly smart move, also.

Already entered, but thanks for thinking of me! By the way, reading most of these questions submitted by native speakers makes me cringe, vomit and pull out my hair. What has happened to people's grammar and spelling? Good luck to everyone outside Germany... because this contest is restricted to German residents only. I wouldn't count on them streaming the songs. I'm sure it'll be her arrival and entrance only, followed by a speech and that's it. Why would they broadcast the songs, really?

Thanks! Tori Amos - "Past the Mission (Alternative Mix)"

But yesterday's Facebook post does list "Sexodus." I assume it might be a bonus track in some territories...

M.I.A. - "It Iz What It Iz"

Pure Heroine is a fantastic record. Can't wait to buy it when it's out in Germany which shall be this Friday... the only thing I really don't like about it is the cover, but I sure have my ways of fixing problems like this.

I'm sorry but...

This might actually be not so wrong after all. I can see how Tropico will be shown in the course of, say, four months in different cities around the world.