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Welcome to Chromatica: Part I
127 Plays4 years ago
Welcome to Chromatica! In this week's episode we are talking all about our obsession with Mother Monster, the one and only Lady Gaga, and her newest album. What is LG6 and how can we apply what Lady Gaga is saying to visual culture? How is she talking about mental health? And is Chromatica really a response to Artpop and Joanne?
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Transcript
Introduction and Nostalgia for 'She's the Man'
00:00:34
Speaker
Hello, hello, and welcome to Alleria! Welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome to Alleria. I just wanted to have you in today to say welcome. Yeah, so I truly hope that all of you have seen the iconic film, She's the Man.
00:00:56
Speaker
Because we certainly did this week. Such a great watch. It was finally put on HBO. I've been waiting for somebody to put it on some kind of streaming platform. And alas, it is finally here.
Admiration for Amanda Bynes and Mental Health Concerns
00:01:09
Speaker
So yeah, great movie. It was a good watch. I haven't seen it in a long time. Oh my god. It's so funny. Do you like cheese? Paola, do you like you have a secret? Oh my god, Amanda Bynes. Girl.
00:01:25
Speaker
I know. I'd love her. I really hope that she's doing well. I hope she's like okay. I hope so too just because that movie is just everything. I know it's so good but I read some stuff about how like that movie was like kind of led her to like the
00:01:41
Speaker
downfall-ish if you want to call it that period of her life. Yeah because it was really weird she talked about how like her playing Sebastian, like playing the role of a man kind of messed with her head a little bit and made her feel like ugly and not pretty and I just like you're beautiful Amanda Bynes. My god. I know, I know which makes me so sad because the movie's so good. I have such mixed feelings now. I thought you knew that.
00:02:08
Speaker
She was in that other TV show. What was it called like the Amanda show was it the Amanda show? No, it was like that other one what I like about what a girl know She's in what a girl wants. It's a movie, but there's that show. Yeah, what I like about you Yeah, yeah, and like Jesse McCartney was on that show. Do you remember that?
00:02:28
Speaker
I thought that at that point, that show, because that was after She's the Man, so I kind of thought that was the downfall part. I read something from her about how She's the Man was weird.
00:02:45
Speaker
for her to make. I honestly am still to this day. We have so much to talk about today. How are you feeling about this episode today?
Personal Struggles and Mental Health Awareness
00:03:05
Speaker
so nervous. I don't know why but yesterday I just had like a day so I think we'll get into it when you get into the content but like I was just like in my feelings like all day yesterday and was just like not okay and honestly I was really worried about recording today but I feel so much better today. I think it's we were having a really
00:03:29
Speaker
hard time narrowing down our content for today just because I felt like my brain was just like ping pong-ing in my head. Yes. All this week it was just really overstimulated by like all the things that we wanted to get into. Yeah.
00:03:44
Speaker
Obviously, there is still a lot going on right now. We are still in the midst of COVID. We are still having a lot of great Black Lives Matter protests. So in regards to that, I wanted to first talk about some relevant art news in regards to the Black Lives Matter movement.
Debate on Confederate Statues and Cultural Heritage
00:04:01
Speaker
and the Confederate statues that are being torn down amongst the protests and some of which are now actually being removed by local officials or local governments and I wanted to first talk about these statues in terms of what their purposes are
00:04:18
Speaker
What was the intent behind their creation? Which is the idea of historical preservation, but when considering location, when a statue was put on display in a public or outdoor setting, that is also unmistakably a conscious action of celebrating and honoring the life or the idea
00:04:37
Speaker
of the person captured in the statue. So there are contradictions within these statues because we know that we use art to document and learn about history, but we also know that we need to end the glorification of Confederate leaders, slave traders, or colonizers, and also question our own history that we have been taught at the same time.
00:05:03
Speaker
So there was a really interesting New York Times article that was published just last week addressing the question, what does it mean to tear down a statue? And they interviewed an art historian, Erin L. Thomas, who specializes in looking at the destruction of cultural heritage. And she addresses the topic
00:05:24
Speaker
by first looking at the funding or the expenses and maintenance fees of what it really takes to go into preserving these statues and there was a 2018 study where taxpayers had paid around 40 million dollars in preserving
00:05:40
Speaker
specifically Confederate monuments and sites. That's crazy. $40 million on these Confederate monuments alone. She states in the article as an art historian, she said many people might assume she is on the side of preservation. But in reality, maintaining these problematic sites are really just money pits, right? On top of the other problems that come along with glorifying these figures. Exactly.
00:06:09
Speaker
In addition to that, it's also a money pit. Right. So she states that if we are going to put money into maintaining public art, why can't we just use that 40 million instead to support African American and Native American history instead? Why can't we put that money into preserving
00:06:27
Speaker
other cultural heritage sites and monuments and amplifying those sites. Exactly. Yeah. So she gives us some backstory to the history of statue destruction, because we know this is something that has taken place since antiquity. As we go back further in time, the destruction of statues become more common because we have more turnover
00:06:51
Speaker
in who's in power or perhaps now we use this bronze that the statue is made out of and we melt it and then we turn it into weapons for our new war, right? So the fact that we have been living with public art for so long that is able to be maintained is actually fairly new in comparison to our very large and entire history of the world. Right.
00:07:16
Speaker
And she calls this perceived legitimacy. So I think it's just an interesting idea and thinking about the destruction of art and what's going on now because that's not something that we are used to because America hasn't been invaded.
Economic Aspects and Symbolism of Public Art
00:07:32
Speaker
we've been able to pay for the maintenance of these statues and therefore like we've just had them preserved so now we're like what do we do with them? And I think it's also important to note that we are preserving our own history as in a rich white privilege history so that is the history that we have chosen to preserve because again museums are not exempt from the idea of
00:07:58
Speaker
colonization, and just as America has come in and taken land, we have taken artifacts and we have taken art from other cultures that was not ours, and we have destroyed it, but we are preserving this other problematic history that perceived legitimacy. Right.
00:08:16
Speaker
So when looking at what is happening now and understanding why people are deliberately destroying these statues, these are signs that what we are not only questioning is our future, but also our nation's past and one that is rooted in extreme white supremacy. And we need to question and challenge what we are learning from these monuments.
00:08:38
Speaker
So the article is really short, give it a read if you're interested, but she ends by acknowledging that not all acts of statue or monument destruction in history are completely the same, of course. But what is common is the well, what is the common issue within this destruction is the point of view that the statues represent within public places, because that is extremely different than learning about a statue
00:09:07
Speaker
or a sculpture in a museum because again having ownership of a public location as she states in the article suggests that that is the version of history and that is the public's version of history but as we know from these confederate
00:09:26
Speaker
statues, that is not our version of history. And we need we are questioning that and we are challenging that. Right. Public art is so fascinating. Not only is it extremely costly to maintain, like you talked, and we were talking about this at work the other day to just how taking care of a public art piece or sculpture or anything that's outdoor just because it's outdoor. Yes, it is made to weather some of the elements
00:09:54
Speaker
you know in the short term but that doesn't mean that like care and funding and money don't go into these public sculptures and like who is paying for that like that's also a really fascinating aspect to public art and to these statues outside of you know what they also symbolize too yeah like where like the economic factors behind public art are
00:10:16
Speaker
just as important as the content. Right. And I think also goes back to the idea of location and how that isn't to be overlooked. That ownership of that spot, of that place, that really means something. So that is why public art is completely different than just taking that statue, putting it in a museum, and learning about this, perhaps, Confederate person. When you put it out on display in a public place,
00:10:45
Speaker
that idea is taking ownership of that spot. And therefore, like what the art historian said in the article, that is the perception that we're getting of our version of history. And that statue is therefore speaking for the public. Right. And also, lest we not forget that none of the land that these statues are on is ours anyway. So there's also a place in terms of community
00:11:12
Speaker
and class, like that all comes into place as well. But all of the places that these are her most likely place are not ours to begin with. So that's just another layer. Like, actually, this shouldn't be here anyway. Right, right.
Mental Health and Activism Article by Allie Raine
00:11:29
Speaker
So
00:11:29
Speaker
Some interesting art news for the day that I just wanted to share and then also really quickly one of my dear friends Allie Raine wrote an article for the Odyssey called In Order to Fight Hard for Change You Need to Take Care of Your Mental Health in which she talks about how in order to fight change and take care of others you first need to make sure that you are taking care of yourself as well. So I will link her article in
00:11:55
Speaker
on our resources page on our website if anyone is interested in giving that a read. Yeah also we just posted it to our instagram but Tatiana Fazlalizadeh who we mentioned in our protest art episode has just released some more downloadable images which you can take to protests
00:12:13
Speaker
Those images are available from Tatiana, so definitely check those out if you're going out to protest and bring some art with you. Yeah! Yay!
Introduction to Lady Gaga's 'Chromatica'
00:12:22
Speaker
So today, oh my gosh, it is the day. It is here. It has arrived. We are so excited because we are talking about Lady Gaga's sixth studio album, Chromatica.
00:12:35
Speaker
We have been thinking about the best way to break the album down and introduce her to you in the way that we think about her as fans but also as people involved in the art world and to really think more critically about the album and what she's trying to say than just fangirling over here.
00:13:00
Speaker
Definitely think that the concept of posthumanism and posthuman bodies are clearly important to the structure of chromatica, both in the audio and throughout the visuals we're seeing, but for today's episode we are going to break down the album and do some analyses on some specific songs. We're going to talk about mental health and posthumanism a little bit.
00:13:25
Speaker
But we believe that we are getting two more music videos coming out. So according to some Twitter threads, some Twitter rumors, people are speculating that Free Woman and Babylon are getting videos. And I wouldn't be surprised if Free Woman gets a video just because there have been so many ads for it. Like there's a lot of visuals for that song. So what we would like to do is a part two
00:13:50
Speaker
episode on Chromatica and talk about post-humanist visuals we're seeing in the videos and the overall aesthetics of the album and compare those to kind of some post-humanist visual art. Before we get into the album I also just wanted to note that we will be talking about mental and physical health in this episode so before listening to it or moving forward I just want to make sure that you feel like you are in the right space to do so.
00:14:18
Speaker
Also, I might be cursing a lot in this episode. I will try to contain it, but I just have a lot of feelings. I had a mental breakdown myself yesterday, so we're just gonna roll with it. I think it'll be good.
00:14:37
Speaker
the album of Chromatica, Gianna, I wanted to kind of think about our relationship with Gaga and our history with her and I've been thinking about some of my own favorite songs from her entire discography, not including Cheek to Cheek or A Star is Born because
00:14:57
Speaker
Yeah, I wouldn't be able to. I just feel like pure lady Gaga. So I was thinking about my top 10 favorite songs and I was looking through all of it last night and it's almost painful to give just 10 songs because
00:15:17
Speaker
the air she breathes is my favorite thing. So like, I can't, Bianca, I know I was like trying to do this and literally just having this is where I had my like mental breakdown last night. And in my notes I have written down this was an impossible fucking task. And I had them listed off like one through 10, but I couldn't even include chromatica in it.
00:15:42
Speaker
Yeah, I did because I just need to hear what yours are in no particular order. Also, if you haven't heard these songs, some of the ones that I picked are not singles you hear on the radio or whatever. Please, for the love of God, please listen to these songs. For the love of God! So I have bad romance, speechless, I would just, Lady Gaga, if you're listening.
00:16:11
Speaker
I would just jump off a cliff to hear you sing speechless in person. So then I have art pop, of course, AO, Just Another Day, Fun Tonight, Hair, Sign From Above, Replay, and Teeth. Love teeth. That's such a good one.
00:16:31
Speaker
Okay, what are yours? Okay, yes, yes, yes. This was impossible. I can't – so this is also in no particular order. So I have Dancing in Circles, which is the iconic song about masturbation. Iconic. Iconic. And then I have Manicure. I also have John Wayne, Just Another Day, The Queen.
00:16:58
Speaker
Dance in the Dark, Marry the Night, Beautiful Dirty Rich. I love that song. And one of my all time favorites, Donatella. I'm skinny. I'm rich. And I'm a little bit of a bitch. And then I have Americano.
00:17:16
Speaker
all such good ones I just truly yeah it was impossible and all the ones you listed I'm also like yeah so we asked you guys what some of your favorite songs were of all time
Favorite Songs and Emotional Impact of 'Chromatica'
00:17:33
Speaker
and we've got edge of glory and you and I oh my god you and I of course come to mama oh my god g u y john wane teeth telephone
00:17:46
Speaker
Edge of Glory, Fashion of His Love. Such a good one. Fashion of His Love, I almost put on my top 10. Mine was just so hard. I know, it was so hard. And then we also asked you guys from Chromatica, what are your favorite songs from this album? We've got Babylon, Rain on Me, Fun Tonight, 911, Babylon. I think a lot of people are like heating up on Babylon. Yeah.
00:18:11
Speaker
signed from above, Enigma... Enigma's really good. Also, I would just like to say, from the Starsborn soundtrack, her version of La Vie en Rose is just a big fat stab to my soul. It's so good. I will never forget when we watched her sing La Vie en Rose at Tony Bennett's birthday.
00:18:36
Speaker
it was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen in my whole entire life this is why I couldn't choose anything from I just feel like two ever since Joanne came out like there's not one song I don't like on Joanne there's not one song I don't like from Stars Born even why did you do that like that song is a bop
00:18:58
Speaker
I had to kind of make another list for specifically Chromatica because I was having so much anxiety that I needed to include everything. I saw this tweet that was like, there are no skips on Chromatica and I was like, I've never seen anything more true in my whole life. There are no skips on Chromatica.
00:19:17
Speaker
but my favorite moments overall on the album first is the chromatica 2 transition into 911. When the string instruments transition and the beat drops I don't know how to explain it but I just want someone to like take the like bow and just like stab me in the heart with it.
00:19:39
Speaker
I need you to know that Gianna, as she says this, is making a stabbing motion to her heart as she just cries. I just like, I imagine just like a string quartet and then just like, I don't know how to explain it because I just love it so much. But with 9-1-1, that song particularly addresses things about Gaga's life and dives into her mental state that not many people know about. So I just also really love 9-1-1.
00:20:07
Speaker
The next would have to be Enigma because it's just a goddamn bop. And lastly, Replay. I think in Replay there is some ambiguity in that song as to what she's exactly addressing, but the topics are embedded within this broad spectrum of trauma, which I think allows for a lot of personal connections to be made, which is why I just really enjoy that one. So 911, Enigma, Replay, and just all of it. Just the whole thing. The whole thing.
00:20:36
Speaker
Agreed. So yes, I love everything.
00:20:39
Speaker
You just said including being stabbed in the heart by I think everyone like honestly Like the memes and the tweets that are come in the tiktoks that are coming out of the transition from chromatica 2 to 911 Are just like so one point stab me in the heart. That's the only way I can describe it I know it's crazy because like does anyone else feel this way? I mean like I'm sure you do it's just I think it's hard to explain like for me that I don't think people really understand like when I say that like
00:21:09
Speaker
I am in love with this woman. I know. She's the air that I breathe. I don't have another way of defining my love and need for life. Do you know what I mean? I mean, I do. Does anyone else feel this way? Because I just don't, I don't even know that I'll ever be able to love somebody as much as I love her. Oh yeah, no, I'm like totally wrecked by Gaga. I just even know this. Yeah, he knows. It's goes Lady Gaga.
00:21:39
Speaker
you've been. And me. And yeah, you're there too. Oh, that's nice.
Gaga's Interview and Personal Reflection
00:21:45
Speaker
So yesterday I listened and watched basically this hour-long interview that Zane Lowe did with Gaga for Apple Music.
00:21:55
Speaker
And let me just say like I thought listening to the album was intense but hearing her speak about the album and how it fits in with her other discography was just so interesting and just like so personal and she just it's like she just I don't know how she does it. It's like everything she says is like what I'm
00:22:15
Speaker
feeling and I don't understand how she has the ability to do that. So quite frankly, honestly, I was not okay during watching this video. After it, I literally had to leave the house and I had to go to the park for a walk and I just cried because
00:22:32
Speaker
she just makes me feel everything and she makes it okay to feel everything and I think she brings out things in me that I'm not normally aware of or that I try to ignore or whatever. And then I literally came home and I had to watch Titanic just because I needed to just be sad some more. So I want to go over.
00:22:57
Speaker
I just feel that so hard. I just needed to watch Titanic because I needed to be more sad. I needed to be more sad. I don't know why. I came home and I couldn't even, nothing I could have done. The reason why I say that is because we were both watching Titanic in our rooms on my left.
00:23:20
Speaker
We were both doing the same thing, but we just needed to be sad alone. I needed to be a sad girl in my room. That is really funny. I came into Gianna's room and it was like, ooh.
00:23:35
Speaker
I was like, okay, I was watching that too. Salim. So let's talk about kind of the major themes found within the album and what the artist is trying to say and the issues that she's trying to tackle here. So there's kind of a long list. Of course, it can be interpreted differently, but really there's a lot going on. So in their interview,
00:23:59
Speaker
She talked about the timing of the album. She says she was making it with this idea of love and connection and connecting to other people in mind.
Themes of Love and Healing in 'Chromatica'
00:24:09
Speaker
However, when it came time for the release date, she obviously felt very conflicted releasing it in the middle of the pandemic.
00:24:18
Speaker
And now we have race relations taking place in this country and all over the world as well. So when we feel divided and are often told in this situation to distance ourselves from one another, you know, it's hard to think about this album bringing people together through the connection and healing power of dance.
00:24:37
Speaker
But at its core, this record is for Gaga about getting back to the people and bringing people together. So it's kind of interesting the timing of this and how are people coming together, but also how are we physically separated too.
00:24:52
Speaker
So then, you know, we talk about the concept of her own celebrity and this exchange of her talent that we've seen throughout her entire career. So as an artist, she has continually given us her love and her talents and her hard work.
00:25:09
Speaker
But then in return, the people who she's given this to tell her what she can and cannot do with it. It's a story about believing in yourself and knowing that you're good enough. It's about constructs. It's about gender, social constructs, political constructs, and popular culture. She is trying to heal the world.
00:25:31
Speaker
what this did was and it ended up healing herself. And she talks about this human desire to be loved and just to love one another. So love
00:25:41
Speaker
is the healing power across all these different kind of themes. And then it aims to kind of help her and all of us know ourselves a little better. It's about forgiving yourself. And I think importantly, she says and she wants us all to know that this is not absolutely not about the glamorization of trauma.
00:26:02
Speaker
You do not have to hurt yourself to feel better and you can talk to someone and ask for help. It is okay to ask for help and it is okay to talk with other people about this.
00:26:15
Speaker
In the album, we have these three instrumental sections that split the album into three different parts. First of all, I mean, stab me in the heart, there's something, okay. Stab me in the heart. And I think it's an incredible way to not only split the album and to tell a story, just like you would when you're reading a book, you have chapters and, you know, when you have a show, you have episodes, you know, but to explore these different kinds of music and to merge dance music with these
00:26:42
Speaker
classical threads. And I think that is Gaga, you know, Lady Gaga and Stephanie Germanotta, we have like this classically trained incredible artist. And then we have something that is technologic, right? We have something that is kind of fabricated. So we have Chromatica one, two and three. So Gianna, tell us what really is
00:27:05
Speaker
chromatica and what are these instrumental interludes conveying? Oh, well, I would just absolutely love to tell you what chromatica is. So in breaking down these manifestos and in the words of Gaga in these special segments, she states that chromatica is a world
00:27:25
Speaker
for kindness, punks, everywhere. And the meaning of what chromatica is is linked to the themes expressed in each song which conveys a spectrum of personal traumas, loss, fame, and physical and mental pain. It finishes with the celebration that is this continuous journey of finding and owning one's identity
00:27:45
Speaker
acknowledging the pain and finding that place in which you belong. And chromatica is that place where you belong. It's where, as she says, no opinion and no perspective is greater than another, but it is a place and a home for you to navigate your experiences and freely
00:28:03
Speaker
form connections to the lyrics in a universe that she created where EDM, 90s punk, kindness and love rule all. So we are going to go through the songs in the album in order and that is how Chromatica was designed to be experienced as we all know. But we are going to be skipping over now, just for now, a few songs with music videos and ones that we
00:28:30
Speaker
are supposedly, you know, we might be getting some music videos, finger crossed. Honestly, I really hope that Babylon gets a video. I really just, for personal reasons, I think fun tonight should get one just because I'm obsessed or sign from above. Like if we got a video with like Sir Elton John. I know. But I think the Babylon video is going to be really cool if we get it.
00:28:55
Speaker
I yeah, I understand. I completely understand why Babylon would be the music video. But anyways, whatever we get me and Bianca will be doing a part two of chromatica where we analyze the visuals paired with those songs.
00:29:08
Speaker
At the beginning, we start with Chromatica 1, where this magnificent, harmonious and triumphant crescendo of orchestrative sounds are here to welcome us into the world of Chromatica and lead us into our first song.
00:29:25
Speaker
Alice. Bianca, let's fucking get into it. Okay, wait. Before we jump into Alice, I kind of think it might be good to place Chromatica within the history of Gaga. So we've talked a lot about this supposed relationship between Artpop and Chromatica. And in this YouTube interview, Gaga says that Artpop was very rebellious. Artpop could mean anything.
00:29:54
Speaker
And she frankly just kind of thought the world wasn't ready for Artpop. Like it got a ton of backlash from quote unquote critics, whatever. She has never, nor was she trying to subscribe to anything that makes this world comfortable. Like she has never done that in her whole career. And so people got mad when they got uncomfortable with Artpop, which is what she thinks essentially happened with the album. She says,
00:30:22
Speaker
that it's a love for electronic music and
00:30:25
Speaker
you know, at her core, she's fascinated by a computer's ability to make music soulful. Right. I just like I'm about to get heated because I was no really, I was reading stuff yesterday and I was like getting physically I just if anything comes from this podcast, like get ready because I'm about to break it down for everybody and just then we can stop talking about how art pop wasn't good because actually like it's fucking fantastic. So here we go. Because I was telling Bianca earlier that
00:30:55
Speaker
I was getting frustrated reading some of these reviews about Chromatica, not because the reviews were bad, because overall the consensus is that the album is a fucking bop and I concur. But we all know that I think we all know that for the love of God. But what is annoying is this comparison that people are making to Chromatica against both our pop and Joanne.
00:31:18
Speaker
So what these critics seem to think is that although fans love ARPOP, critics did not. And although critics liked Joanne, Gaga fans were confused by the new musical direction, which this is just some fake news at its finest. There's nothing about Joanne that confused me as a person who
00:31:47
Speaker
Breeds air that this woman gives like there's nothing about Joanne. I was like, that's weird There is nothing confusing about any of Lady Gaga's music Especially apparent in chromatica because she is the most direct lyricist you are ever gonna meet So I'm just but not out there right now. So as a little monster that is the hill that I am willing to die on truly I
00:32:12
Speaker
As a human being, I will die on that hill. That little monsters have understood from the beginning that musical diversity that Gaga brings within pop culture, like that is why we love her. And then also critics are saying that Chromatica is the perfect combination of everything Joanne and our pop were trying to accomplish.
00:32:36
Speaker
and it has finally come to fruition. I also just fully reject this claim as well because as we will talk about, yes, the themes and ideas that Gaga talks about in Chromatica have been addressed in her music before, but it is always different and it's presented in new ways and I think exists in a variety of accessible forms.
00:33:00
Speaker
And at the end of Chromatica Gaga states in her interlude that the manifesto of Chromatica is never ending because that is how she makes sense of the world. And that is how each of her prior albums are able to stand alone because that is how she's able to honestly communicate to us.
00:33:18
Speaker
during the time of their existence.
Artistic Evolution of 'Chromatica'
00:33:21
Speaker
So no, the accepted parts of our pop and Joanne together do not make LG six because if they're really not at all, if there's one thing that we're going to take away from this amazing album is that it is a life force of its own. Truly, it is another planet. It is another world like I just don't pop tacking.
00:33:40
Speaker
Joanne like I'm so done with having this conversation about art pop. I yeah, I'm so over it I will write it on the gravestone Here lies art pop's den God
00:33:58
Speaker
i was reading some of the reviews and again like it's it's not that they were bad but it was just an absolutely useless comparison of nonsense from people who just probably don't even call themselves monsters and i just it's it's fine to to not call yourself a monster obviously like you can admire artist's work from different perspectives that's totally fine but what i didn't appreciate was again that like
00:34:23
Speaker
i just felt like it was so generalizing and almost demeaning to be like monsters didn't like this because it's like low art or whatever it was dumb for them to finally now like i think one of the interesting things about gaga having to create this world is like it took her to create an entire fucking universe for you for you to get everything that she has been telling us from day one you know what yeah i'm just gonna be like i'm gonna be
00:34:51
Speaker
grateful that hopefully I hope people understand it with Chromatica. Gianna's gonna burst. But no, totally, I totally understand. So, and don't get me wrong, I appreciate the universe of Chromatica. And I'm very happy that it is here. But I'm happy that people are finally getting it. But don't tell me that Chromatica is a combination of Art Pop and Joanne because it's not because here's things because each album is an evolution based off the next one. Well,
00:35:20
Speaker
If they had done any homework at all, they would know that Joanne is also an album about trauma because it's an album about her dad's trauma and it was about healing her family. So it was about taking care of other people and absorbing other people's pain.
00:35:39
Speaker
When she's talking about chromatica, no matter what she makes, she can make chromatica and it took her this to realize that she's not going to fix her dad. She can't fix everybody. It's really hard to grapple with how can you heal someone who is broken.
00:35:58
Speaker
fix someone else that you love so much. And she was talking about her medical history and how she's learned about genetic trauma and the way that her body expresses itself on a biological level is rooted in that genetic trauma from her father. In the end, she realized that she couldn't fix her dad with Joanne, but the sound and the music brought her back to chromatica. So she is dancing with her dad now, not for him.
00:36:27
Speaker
And Joanne is distinct to her because of course it's about her. It's about the person Joanne. It's about her aunt. It's about finding Stephanie and about that battle between Stephanie and Lady Gaga. And I think Chromatica and this sound for her is universal. It's about
00:36:45
Speaker
they don't have to battle one another. She's made this place for herself and for others looking to find it. But it's not a way of fixing other people, which is what Joanne was about. It's still about trauma. And then also in Joanne, we have the song, Angel Down. And Angel Down is about
00:37:06
Speaker
the trauma of the Black community, and it's specifically written about Trayvon Martin, who was the unarmed Florida teen who was fatally shot by George Zimmerman.
00:37:17
Speaker
In an interview with the same interviewer from Apple Music, but about Joanne, Gaga said, I was overwhelmed by the fact that people just stood around and didn't do anything about it. And the justice system just continues to, over and over again, not seek justice for these families. And she said that she had young African American fans tell her about their fears for their safety.
00:37:44
Speaker
They tell me they drive their cars and if they hear a siren, there is a paranoia that rushes through their body that they freeze up, that they can't think. This is a tremendous anxiety. This is something that I care about. This is something that has to stop, something that we all need to heal from. So I also think that with Joanne, she's looking to other people and I think it's kind of fascinating to also see the movement that we're seeing now. Obviously Chromatica is not connected to the protests that we're seeing, but
00:38:14
Speaker
it is interesting to think about the evolution of trauma and what we are realizing. I hope that what many people are realizing about genetic trauma and particularly within communities that have been discriminated against, we see genetic trauma and we can trace that. So these critics, if they had thought just a little bit harder, I think you can see that each of these albums stand
00:38:43
Speaker
in their own way. Yeah, absolutely. 100% agree. So here we go. We open obviously with Chromatica one, the beginning of her journey to healing and this inspiration for other people to heal and love this radical acceptance.
Alice in Wonderland Metaphor in 'Chromatica'
00:38:59
Speaker
There's this feeling of pending doom facing all these things.
00:39:03
Speaker
you know that scare her but she's not giving up hence leading into the lyric her name isn't Alice but she'll keep looking for Wonderland it is a mental issue and she's looking forward she's looking to Wonderland she's not giving up this interlude and leading into Alice again is about trying
00:39:21
Speaker
Yeah, oh my god I'm so excited. So Alice is an especially clever song because from listening to Gaga's manifestos we know that Chromatica was designed as a way to share the ways in which she has been existing in two different realities. One being our earthly reality and the other which she describes as a dream. A vision of a world where herself and her ideas are valued and they were performed and expressed through song.
00:39:50
Speaker
And this is the moment where Chromatica was born. So when using Alice from the classical or, sorry, classic story of Alice in Wonderland, it's used as a metaphor for how Gaga has been grappling with existing in these two realities, where she is struggling to find peace within her mind, but is also trying to actively search for a sense of home, a place
00:40:14
Speaker
that has kindness and love and acceptance. And Alice is also a character referred to quite often amongst visual artists, especially amongst feminist artists, such as Kiki Smith, who I have referenced before, because in fairy tales and myths, they have the ability to examine the light and dark within human experiences and our constructed society. And by inviting us into this imaginative or magical world,
00:40:43
Speaker
these especially female characters become allegories for larger social and moral ideas. So when she says, take me to Wonderland, this fictitious world where when Alice now has the freedom to practice a lot of self reflection, she is then able to come into her own when she is able to return home and return back to reality, which I think is really interesting.
00:41:07
Speaker
Yeah, I love that you brought up Kiki Smith because her piece, her sculpture, Alice, was actually in front of the Northwestern Mutual Building where I worked. I had an internship in Milwaukee and Kiki's Alice was part of this program called Sculpture Milwaukee.
00:41:25
Speaker
So yeah, I think mythology and storytelling has such a fascinating play on feminism and identity. And I think that this is so interesting also in terms of the story of the Looking Glass idea. And so even though it's a different story from Alice in Wonderland, I think Gaga also uses like mirror motifs a lot, like an Ayo, the lyric mirror on the ceiling.
00:41:50
Speaker
And in Fun Tonight, she says, I stare at the girl in the mirror. But obviously, Alice and the Looking Glass plays into feminism, into ageism, into celebrity culture and vanity. So I think it's a perfect way to start the album because generally, I think most people know the story of Alice. So you can kind of pick up on like what's happening, like you are being transported into another world. So you may not know much about Gaga, but you can kind of understand this in this initial breakthrough.
00:42:20
Speaker
You have that like contextual information until I get you going. Right. And thinking about transportation and how she is taking herself on this journey, but she's asking if someone can pull her out of this alive. And she's inviting us to come into this space and search for Wonderland with her.
00:42:38
Speaker
Yeah. Okay, so, oh my god, I'm nervous. So I wanted to jump to Fun Tonight, and like I said before, I just freaking love this song. The moment I heard it, you know, I think I talked about it on a previous episode, but like, I just instantly started crying and I didn't like really know why, I just thought I really liked this song.
00:43:01
Speaker
And thinking about it, of course there was a reason and it meant so much to me at first, but I wasn't totally sure what. So in the interview with Lo, Gaga says, Fun Tonight is a song that means a lot to me. Same. And every time I listen to it, I get choked up. Same.
00:43:20
Speaker
because I can't tell you how many nights that people that really love me were trying to get me to smile or to laugh or be optimistic. And I just had no ability to be happy. It just wasn't there. But then I write this music and I would listen back and I'd go, why is that so fun? Why is that so happy?
00:43:39
Speaker
And so I was reading some more about what people may think this song is about, quote unquote, if you want to call it that. And some people were kind of speculating that it's about her past relationships and maybe more specifically, it's about her last relationship with Christian Carino. Then in the song storyline on Spotify, the text for the song reads, when you listen to this song, imagine you're singing it to yourself. Yeah.
00:44:08
Speaker
It really occurred to me yesterday after I watched the interview that I think for me, this song is the place in Chromatica where I reside the most. If I was going to Chromatica, I would live here.
00:44:24
Speaker
I think one of my biggest fears is just not being good enough and disappointing people. And she says in the song, I can see it in your face, you don't think I've pulled my weight. That's just how I feel all the time. And I think that this concept of pushing through it to please other people is just something that I struggle with.
00:44:49
Speaker
She says what happens now? I'm not okay, and if I scream you walk away when I'm sad You just want to play then the chorus. I'm not having fun tonight And I think this is something that I'm like maybe just hypersensitive to but trying to please people in everything I do but making trying so hard to
00:45:10
Speaker
have fun when I'm pleasing those people. All they want is just for everyone around me to have fun all the time even though if maybe I'm not, it just matters that other people are having fun.
00:45:20
Speaker
And I think this song for me is also representative of my relationship with Gaga and with other people. I make mistakes, obviously. And then I feel like I just, from other people, I seem just so naive all the time. I'm not liberal enough. I'm not woke enough. And because I wear makeup, I'm not a good enough feminist. And because I do this, like I'm just like never good enough.
00:45:44
Speaker
So as an art historian, I'm always trying to please other people and it's all about pleasing other people just to get the degree but it's like I was not a good enough art historian because I try to have fun and I like pop culture and I like Lady Gaga. For me when I listen to this it's just about letting go of those justifications like I don't need to justify
00:46:06
Speaker
how I feel about her to make other people happy. That relationship between having fun and being yourself is so interesting in this song. I feel everything that you feel within this song. I know that we've both talked about our inherent need to please people all the time. That's one of our big struggles.
00:46:35
Speaker
Yeah, it's it's it feels like a situation where you can never win because if I am doing something in my field, even like with my friends in my field, it's like, oh my god, I'm taking myself too seriously. But then it's like the flip side where it's, you know what I mean? It's like this whole double standard that I get so frustrated with, frustrated with all this time, all the time, because then
00:46:57
Speaker
When I get to have fun, then it's like ooh like mom's out You know what I mean like mom finally came out and had fun with us tonight. Yeah. Yeah, so I Yeah, I also think it's you know in terms of relationships with colleagues or ex-boyfriends or whatever I'm just so tired of justifying that I like popular culture and yeah, I Fucking love Lady Gaga and I will never not stop trying to tell me that
00:47:24
Speaker
Oh, she's not she's not really an artist. Like, oh, she's not really good enough. No, I'm tired of justifying that. I'm tired of justifying my relationship with her to other people. It's exhausting, right? You like whatever you like it, right? You like whatever artists you like and you like whatever music you like. And right, you do you. But yeah, I think it's really interesting. Like me and Bianca definitely identify ourselves being within the fandom of Lady Gaga and in the fandom of being a little monster. But I
00:47:52
Speaker
fully think that you don't have to be so enthralled in that fandom. You don't have to identify as a little monster to connect to or enjoy her music. And I think for some people
00:48:03
Speaker
they don't think that and they're just like oh well like I'm not a Lady Gaga stan or I'm not a little monster her she's like a fake punk person yeah and I just am so over I again yeah same thing I'm so over and you know what whatever that's fine like I'm not gonna force you to like an artist that I like but also could you just respect my opinion you know I like and like yeah it's just it's not about and I think that's that
00:48:31
Speaker
you know, album as a whole, too. Everybody's different. And like, why can't we all just like, why can't we all just get along? Like, I'm just, you know what I mean? I'm just so tired of justifying everything about everything all the time. And I know that sometimes it's necessary. Obviously, conversations are important and dialogue and exchange of knowledge. And of course, there are things that are problematic and
00:48:52
Speaker
do need to be changed. Let's talk about it, you know? Yeah, I love that song so much. I think it really just it does make me reflect on like the double standard of I also shouldn't care so much all the time what people think about me if they're also not putting the effort into being like a
00:49:12
Speaker
a good person in my life, you know? Friendship and just relationships are like two-way streets. Yeah, so it's just a really good song for self-reflection, I think.
00:49:25
Speaker
Moving on, at this point we have now entered this second phase where Gaga has dived deeper into talking about the psychological and mental effects that these past traumas have had on her. And she's able to do this because she is now fully in the realm of Chromatica or she has found Wonderland at this point, a place where she's
00:49:49
Speaker
not going to apologize for loving or who she's loving as addressed in Stupid Love. And she's at the point where she can fully talk about the pain because she has acknowledged and claimed ownership of her trauma.
00:50:03
Speaker
and has realized these shared experiences such as addressed in Rain On Me. So the song 9-1-1 captures her battle with mental health and the frustrations she has in not always being able to deal or control what is happening to her or the world she lives in and what's happening around her.
00:50:24
Speaker
What I really enjoy about this song as well are the lyrics and how they're presented as a stream of consciousness. So Gaga is literally just listing off all the ways in which she has struggled with mental illness and how it has impacted her. The chorus, however, is a direct reference to her dependence on an antipsychotic
00:50:45
Speaker
and pop a 911 means like take a pill to help survive help me get through this day this moment.
Mental Health Struggles in '9-1-1'
00:50:53
Speaker
At this point in the album to her voice becomes more electronically enhanced, which is also a good audible indicator that we have transitioned into this new phase and we are hitting these issues.
00:51:04
Speaker
in a new manner. So I just wanted to point out some of the lyrics in the song that tie into other themes and the manifestos and it just kind of ties the whole album together. Keep repeating self-hating phrases. This is a biological status as we know addressing trauma is something that is passed down through your family, through genetics.
00:51:28
Speaker
front, I've been around the Oasis, Paradise is in my Head, a reference to the world of Chromatica, and I think it is a pivotal moment in the album and it's just direct and honest and just an important song. Yeah, and so that line, Paradise is in my Hand,
00:51:47
Speaker
meaning like paradise is this pill that she takes like she can just take this pill that's in the palm of her hand. Yeah. And it can lead her to a place like chromatica. She's also here talking about her self awareness in the world. So yes, we all know she's a celebrity, we get it. And she knows that like she is incredibly grateful for everything she's been given. But with that gratitude, she knows that she's not the only one suffering in this world. And
00:52:12
Speaker
But she does suffer, like she is a human being and a human that regardless of her status or not needs help. In the interview she says, I can't always control things that my brain does and I know that and I need to take medication so that doesn't occur.
00:52:30
Speaker
I just love that song. I don't know I also just think I mean the whole album too I just I resonate with again We have all experienced our own trauma, but also as a person who also has battled with chronic pain as well I just think her honesty and that like I've yeah the fact that we have a pop culture icon Doing that is I just think really not to be overlooked agreed. I
00:52:55
Speaker
So, moving on, I don't want to talk about plastic dolls too much right now because I would like to discuss the song when we do a Chromatica Part 2 in relation to the visuals because this song is just a really good gateway into discussing what we have already seen and what we will be seeing more of.
00:53:19
Speaker
But I do want to talk about it today to help define the term posthumanism. This is something we have mentioned before, but now it's time to really break it down and acknowledge that this term is a really complex word that is used within visual arts.
00:53:39
Speaker
Yeah, so the term posthuman or posthumanism as defined by one of my sculpture books, which I absolutely love called themes of contemporary art, is used to suggest that humans are entering a new phase of evolution in which biotechnologies and computer science will give us the power
00:53:59
Speaker
to restructure and extend human bodies in new and artificial ways that take us far beyond purely biological evolution.
Posthumanism in Gaga's Art
00:54:09
Speaker
So post-humanism argues that the human organism is not entirely organic anymore, as we are currently using and developing things such as drugs, prosthetics, plastic surgeries,
00:54:22
Speaker
cybernetics or artificial intelligence that makes our bodies function in different ways and also defines what it means to have a body.
00:54:32
Speaker
For Gaga, whether you knew it or not, post humanism, in regards to especially what it means to have a female body is something she has been doing since she became Lady Gaga. Most of us know that she manipulates her image in responses to how critics comment on her body. But her performative expression in this manner goes much deeper as well. And for me, it's her
00:54:58
Speaker
It's this side of the visual artistic direction and her performative side that I resonate with a lot because of the overlapping possibilities that performance also has with sculpture and also just my own particular interest in the body.
00:55:14
Speaker
and how intentionally and conscious body manipulation can create connections when speaking about things such as identity, beauty, physical appearance, as it does in Plastic Doll. So I'm just so here for the song. So I think Gaga being able to change her appearance and transform like many visual artists, they themselves are more concerned with what altering the body means and are we going to use this power
00:55:43
Speaker
to allow for acceptance or will it further lead us down this path of division? With Plastic Doll 2, in relation to the idea of posthumanism, specifically in this song, we are the ones that are altering her body. Critics telling her how she can and cannot dress, people in her life, managers, fashion designers. As we talked about in the beginning, again with her sound, this idea of
00:56:12
Speaker
people telling celebrities what they should do with their power. We are also the ones altering her body in this way. So we are essentially responsible for creating a post human gaga. That's so true. No I know. It's just crazy because again her performances are her
00:56:36
Speaker
reflecting the world around her and what we're doing. So of course she does this with her image and the aesthetics for the album, but in particular in Plastic Doll she says, they built me strong. We did that. I am not yours. So I was also thinking about on top of the
00:56:56
Speaker
post-humanist structure, the gendered implications of this song. And I only bring this up because in the interview she said something really interesting when talking about the song Free Woman, how she obviously is opposed to thinking about gender in these like dual terms.
00:57:15
Speaker
But she does define herself as a woman and that's fine But you know it's sometimes she was saying it's like hard for me to think about I can't comprehend having only two genders in this world like it doesn't make sense or Gendering things at all, but she she is a woman so in Plastic doll I was thinking about this contrast between boys and girls toys and a lot of times when you take a gender class like you start thinking about gender construction and
00:57:41
Speaker
in children and how in a gendered and constructed lens, boys can theoretically play with dolls only when they're plastic, when they're over-sexualized, and when they're objectified.
00:57:55
Speaker
But then she says, if you're a real boy, don't play with me. So I thought this idea of childhood and the gendering of actual toys was interesting too. And again, that may be, I don't know, stretching in some way, but I just bring it up because she was talking about gender in the context of this interview she was doing. So yeah, thinking about play was also interesting. I don't think that's a stress at all because
00:58:19
Speaker
She doesn't say if you're a real man. She says if you're a real boy. And I think those gendered constructs, we are inherently absorbing them at a young age due to very specific reasons, such as gendered toys. No, I think that's a very astute analysis. Wow, good one. My gender women's studies mind are being predicted. Good news, you're on our pub dog. So I think we should talk about sign from above.
00:58:49
Speaker
the vinyl song we'll probably talk about today. So it also plays along into the aesthetics of the album, obviously, but we see this symbol sign, which is related to the mathematical equation.
Sound Healing in 'Sign from Above'
00:59:04
Speaker
And she talks about how the sounds of this album have literally healed her and how she's able to dance her way through it. So we have chromatica three, which is again, the final part of the album.
00:59:17
Speaker
which as Gianna said in the beginning, leads you into this kind of joyous celebration, this healing place of love. That lyric, that thing about sign is saying, this has saved her, this world has revived her. And it's the very thing that has made her an artist sound is her existence. So she, you know, tried to heal her father and her father's pain has been transferred
00:59:45
Speaker
into sound and that has been passed down to her and made her who she is. In the interview, she was blowing my freaking mind. So she was talking about this
01:00:00
Speaker
theory that the world was created by a feminine sound wave. So she was talking about how essentially like, you know, I think we also see that with that Born This Way album, like conflicts of religion. But she was saying like, yes, I do believe in God, but it's not kind of the God that we have seen throughout art and art history, or that we, you know, see traditionally in these images. So, and especially not that I don't think the God that she references in Born This Way,
01:00:28
Speaker
So she says she believes in this theory that the world was created by a feminine sound. God is a woman. Hey Ari, you're right. And it fell into this abyss and broke into two. One was good and one was evil. And the evil pretended to be God and created divisiveness.
01:00:50
Speaker
So God for her is the sound, but in the song, Sign from Above, she said, then the signal split in two, created stars like me and you. I can't. I can't. I just, ah. God damn. I know. So in thinking about also that, obviously the sign, S-I-N-E, is important throughout the context of the album and really thinking about what sound is. Sound is a healing power.
01:01:17
Speaker
of love to heal that trauma. So I'm not a mathematician. I'm just gonna let you know that right now. I don't know if you know. Obviously we have sine, which is a trigonomic function, which helps us understand the hypotenuse of a triangle. Wow, hypotenuse. I haven't heard that word in a while. So it is also commonly used to model periodic phenomena such as sound and light waves. So the wave that we're seeing is like a sine wave of sound.
01:01:45
Speaker
the position of velocity and harmonic oscillators. It can measure sunlight, intensity, day length, average temperature. So thinking about also like, hello, STEAM, like science, engineering, art, math, like come on, like, come on, like let's bring everybody together and heal the world through the healing power of love and sound. So in this song, we also have Elton John. Oh my God.
01:02:14
Speaker
Sarah Elton John, excuse me. So she, it's no surprise Elton has been her mentor for a very long time. She says that Elton challenges her to take care of herself and her artistry, importantly. So he's instrumental to her life and he shows her that you can go all the way, like you can be this icon, but also be authentic and you can do good things and put good things into this world while taking care of yourself and being an artist.
01:02:42
Speaker
She has talked a lot not just with this album but before about that struggle to find a female mentor But she did say that Celine Dion has been like an incredible mentor to her of course of course video of Celine at the enigma concert like just Dancing and just like cheering on Gaga is the purest thing you're ever gonna see truly
01:03:04
Speaker
So she says it's been difficult for her to find that kind of mentor, but really she has Elton and his husband David in
Gaga as Mentor and Global Citizenship Message in 'Chromatica'
01:03:12
Speaker
that role. So David, David. What she didn't receive, she's trying to work through with younger artists like Blackpink and Ariana on the album. So that's how she feels about the world. She does not want to be in competition with people. She
01:03:28
Speaker
said that she loves Billie Eilish and she was kind of talking about how like yeah it hurt when I didn't get the award but you know what Billie got it and I want to lift up Billie because she's incredible and is doing incredible fucking things. She wants people to love this record of course but it's about her and her love and that feeling that you are essential and I also think that's just so
01:03:51
Speaker
poignant right now in the context of today's world thinking about like essential people and who is essential and she talks about how the first ad for this album was actually a big sign that said you are essential it's about you it's about us we matter and you should be investing in other people's lives to like do good in this world and i just think like you know we're seeing so much of that right now and it it makes me really happy and it makes me you know feel hopeful and i think it's important like
01:04:21
Speaker
You know, everybody has their thing and everybody has something, a trauma or a part of their life that you don't know about. Nobody else will understand how you're feeling ever except for you. But I think that this album is about being a citizen of the world. It's about being a citizen of Chromatica.
01:04:41
Speaker
Gaga and her evolution and you know, we talked about rebellion in the beginning like her rebellion is about spreading kindness and she has personal trauma that that's a piece of her experience like life is Hard and it is complicated and people are complicated. This is about supporting each other and at the end of the day like I'm just feeling so yeah, I guess again hopeful hopeful that we can lift each other up and
01:05:09
Speaker
Yeah, I wanted to end with quoting a line from the interlude from replay where she says, the very thing that has plagued my mind for years trauma is precisely the thing that now empowers my life force to be braver. And I think if there's anything that we're going to take away from this album is again, kind of what we mentioned at the beginning to
01:05:34
Speaker
It's not about glorifying trauma, but it's about taking ownership of identity, claiming what you have been through, knowing that that is okay, sharing experiences with other, and using that and using your own power to fuel your future. And this is just the next phase of Lady Gaga.
01:05:56
Speaker
It's a beautiful phase, LG6 is everything. And I just, how could you not get on board with this kind of world? A world of love, joy. That's all I want. It's just freaking beautiful and just another reason why we adore her so much and if you didn't understand why me and Bianca were freaking out so much when this album was first released, we hope that now this kind of
01:06:23
Speaker
hopefully brings you into the world of chromatica and helps you understand just a little bit about why we love this woman so much because we believe in her and not even
01:06:35
Speaker
Aside from her music, we believe in the person she is and what she stands for. Yeah, right. And we love all of you. I know. I just hope that all of you are existing in your love force of Chromatica. Are you little pop tarts today or are you little monsters today? I'm not quite sure. A pop monster. A pop monster. A tart monster. I'm a tart monster.
01:07:05
Speaker
Okay, friends. We love you all so much. Again, you can always email us at artpoptalk at gmail.com. You can follow us at artpoptalk. We also put our podcasts out as videos on YouTube. You can subscribe on YouTube. We're on Spotify, Apple, Stitcher. And with that, I think we will talk to you on Tuesday. Thank you, everyone. Bye.
01:08:05
Speaker
you