Music Marketing - Lady Gaga

Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, known most popularly as Lady Gaga is an American singer songwriter and has even endeavored into acting. She is known for her unique, dark and genre defining pop music which has captured music industry since the late 2000s. The thirty nine year old artist has released 8 albums in her career, all known for their wide variety and versatility. As a highly respected artist she has won 14 Grammys, her most recent for her collaboration with Bruno Mars "Die with a Smile" featured on her most recent album MAYHEM. The final single for this album was "Abracadabra", which became a highly successful single for Gaga, signify her true return to dark electro pop. Many of her fans claimed it to be reminiscent of her previous work like ARTPOP and The Fame, but with a more mature twist. It peaked at number 5 on Billboard Global 200 and became her fastest song to gain 20 million streams. The album was released under Interscope records.

The opening shot is of Lady Gaga with a microphone, she says "The category is: Dance or Die". The catchphrase "Dance or Die" became a huge part of the marketing for the album release, it is currently sold on tour shirts and became a small trend on TikTok. This is very on brand for Lady Gaga's image, dramatic, morbid and cheeky.

The shot then changes to an extreme wide angle shot of dancers in white in a dark room. Again, this ominous and unsettling imagery is very on brand for Gaga. However I would say n this case it is very significant as she hasn't released anything like this since Chromatica in 2020. This opening sequence will confirm to fans who will recognise and be familiar with this imagery, that she is back to her pop roots. Furthermore, the dancers in this video are actual fans of Lady Gaga, also known as Monsters. Lady Gaga has gained a reputation for being loyal and caring to her fans, it makes a lot of sense to feature them in one of her most ambitious music videos yet. The cast is extremely diverse, another tribute to Gaga's reputation, she is a well known advocate for the LGBTQ community and encourages her diverse fan base.

The video is a performance video, very typical for a pop song. We see Gaga lip sync the lyrics of the song whilst the other cast dance. Their moves are very unconventional, unflattering and weird, but again this fits perfectly with her image. When the lyrics start, the choreography is filmed in one continuous shot and follows Gaga as she walks through the crowd of dancers. A very chaotic vibe is created as the shot feels overpopulated and is visually overwhelming. Despite being the main focus of the video, she is wearing white lace outfits as well as the other cast. This creates the feel she sees herself as equal to her fans, insinuating she is humble and down to earth.

There is another character Gaga plays who dresses in a red dramatic outfit. This character stands out completely and feels almost villain-esque.

As a a part of her new album rollout for MAYHEM, she released a redesign of her website.

SEE HERE!

The website theme leans into the dark ominous vibe of the album, with the velvet background. This is amplified by the font which is reminiscent of old style handwriting connoting to witchcraft, linking to the single Abracadabra. Additionally, there is the visual of the tarot cards, leaning into the theme of witchcraft and spirituality.

When you follow through with the tarot visual on the main page it leads you to this,

The website gives you a tarot reading leading to one of her songs. Vanish into you was not released as single for this album, however may inspire people to listen to them. This is a good way to push songs that aren't singles, it also highlights Gaga's lyricism which isn't actually something she's known for. In her pop music you recognise her melodies and often times weird songwriting, her heartfelt lyrics are often ignored. Perhaps they are trying to push a more raw version of her for this album. Also, its interesting to see that the figures on the cards are also Gaga, further pushing her mystical image.