This is the cover for Lady Gaga’s new album, ARTPOP. She’s been shilling ARTPOP for months now, so I don’t blame you for being shocked by the fact that she’s only now releasing the album cover, nor would I blame you for being shocked that the album still hasn’t dropped. (Sidenote: it’s funny to me that Beyonce’s new album hasn’t dropped too, and from what I keep hearing, it’s such a mess that they can’t even decide which budget tracks to use.) Anyway, I guess most of expected something dumb like this for the ARTPOP cover. It seems almost boring and cartoonish. Like a Barbie posed with a marble.
I’ve always felt that you can tell a lot about a person by what random things they focus on. Just glance at the ARTPOP cover and where does your eye rest? My eyes rest on Gaga’s hands and arms. WTF is going on there? It reminded me of this:
Only Tina Fey is WAY COOLER than Gaga.
What else, what else? Oh, Jeff Koons designed the cover. She tweeted the image, writing: “FULL ARTPOP ALBUM COVER.’One second I’m a Koons, then suddenly the Koons is me!’ #ApplauseJeffKoons.” She also tweeted: “I’m nervous and excited to share something that’s such a piece of my heart. Something I cherish deeply. A real depiction of my mind through his.”
You know what I think is funny? No one is really talking about Gaga that much since Miley Cyrus twerked and licked her way into infamy more than a month ago. No one is talking much about Katy Perry either, although that might be Katy’s design. I feel like many of Miley’s pop music contemporaries are slowly backing away, like… “Let’s see how this catastrophe plays out. HOT MESS.”
Photos courtesy of Gaga’s Twitter.
Bad, just bad. There are no other words.
Agree. She shouldn’t have hyped up the album cover so damn much if THIS is what she was going to give us. I used to be a pretty big fan of Gaga’s but I think it’s safe to say she peaked already.
Well, at least it’s not just another Bowie/Madonna/Ace of Base/Grace Jones/Et al. rip-off.
First original thing she’s done in … ever?
I like it. I like that it doesn’t seem so flat like normal album covers (especially her last cover!). I feel like it has a lot of depth and dimension to it, kind of shooting out of the center.
As much as she can be irritating about “art”…she IS bringing modern day artists like Inez van Lamsweerde, Vinoodh Matadin, Robert Wilson, Marina Abramović and Koons to the masses. She is actually walking the walk in respect to the “art”, so I have to give her props for that.
Oh my god, Jeff Koons—wtf are you DOING, man?
Then again, this is the guy that did “Michael Jackson and Bubbles” so maybe I shouldn’t be entirely surprised.
I think people are a bit confused by this blog post-the center piece in the cover is the sculpture of Gaga created by the famous artists Jeff Koons.
It’s not a digitally-created image or anything and Koons didn’t ‘design’ the cover as far as I understand it-he just created the sculpture.
Thats a sculpture…? Blerg.
The sculpture is okay, and would look nice on a lawn with a flock of plastic flamingos and lawn gnomes. I find kitch amusing.
I actually like the mop head Gaga image better.
On the lawn covered with bird droppings and a dog peeing on the leg 🙂
I didn’t realize it was a sculpture. That makes it a little more impressive.
I’ve never been into Gaga’s shtick. as talented as she is when its just her and that piano. it’s not that I don’t get Art, GaGa, I just am struggling to find your façade convincingly artistic. I remember you on boiling points, girl, that wasn’t long ago and you were just like any other twenty something on your cell phone in a NY pizzeria on a hidden camera show. Stop with the “I eat breathe and shit art ” thing.
Usually when someone ‘does art’ is other people giving them the recognition for it. You don’t claim your own work as ‘art’ because that is just presumptuous and not humble. People don’t like non humble people, especially if the ‘art’ they put out in the world is something that other people have done before and better (Madonna). She is no genius, she has a talent as a singer but she is not the next Andy Wharol or whoever she thinks she is.
This! If she put something out and OTHER people saw something meaningful in it, that would be one thing. But she just claims to be an artistic genius. Well, Kanye said it enough times and people started to believe him, so maybe it’s a strategy that works. Kanye and Gaga and Miley all have this same strategy and it seems to be working. Ugh.
Fret not @NerdMomma. The reason Kanye is still around is because he really is a lyrical genius. If you have the time, check out Rihanna’s Diamonds Remix w/Kanye. He comes in at the very beginning and murders. it. dead. And this is on somebody else’s song! He just needs to STFU and rap. Miley, I wouldn’t associate with genius but her album’s not bad. Some good songs. People respond to the music at the end of the day. Did you catch Lady Gaga’s iTunes set? It was all kinds of terrible. Her album is going to be terrible. Before Applause came out, her Little Monsters were all over the comment boards saying it was going to change the world, then it came out and they were like “give it time! its a grower!” and now, they can’t even muster the energy to defend her. She’s crashing and burning.
Thank you for mentioning that Boiling Points ep. That shows all this artsy farsty stuff is her management/pr/label’s creation; hell, she didn’t even come up with her stage name, it’s a gloss on a Queen song her marketers/Rob Fusari came up with;
She’s a fake, and has only a few decent pop songs nothing more;
SHe’ll never be revered the way rock fans revere Zeppelin,Hendrix,Queen, Sabbath or revered the way the Legends of Motown are revered. That’s she made this much money is a testament to endless marketing and dubious taste.
She really doesn’t know how to get attention anymore.
I think her fifteen minutes are about done.
*Fingers crossed*
Budget–the design actually reminds me of her Born This Way video–which was a total rip off of Madonna’s Express Yourself (I watched about half of the Born This Way video, then went to Express yourself and could see that Gaga copied her in ten seconds–and I don’t even listen to music that much)–so she’s copying herself. I liked the first images better, when she had that paint all over her face.
Lady Gaga is so try hard, it hurts.
First ‘bangerz’ now this… What is it with album covers they look like they’ve been out together on Microsoft paint…
First year of art school level. (maybe that’s a bit mean to art students, let’s say first “collage” assignment in art class in high school.. )
My roommate is a senior year art student and she would totally agree and then laugh at this cheap looking mess.
I did stuff like this when I first discovered image editing programs in my 20s, and I’m neither an artist nor an art student. It is so bad.
Yeah, I am also neither an artist nor an art student–I just started playing with Photoshop a few weeks ago for the heck of it, and I’m pretty confident I could design something better than this.
I like it. So much better than BTW where she was a motorcycle. When that album cover was dropped, I thought it was a joke.
It seems like Miley is being pushed so hard right now that every move of other popstars becomes boring and will take a turn to Miley. We were supposed to be scandalized by the latest RiRi twerk video but people were having a hangover over Wrecking Ball. Britney’s new song should be called Twerk it to keep up with the times. Ke$ha’s new sexy Ig shots were compared to Miley’s Richardson photoshoot. Now it’s Lady Gaga’s turn to get the Miley treatment.
oh, look, she’s naked again. *yawn*
It looks really cheap. Like something a 9th grader would do for their media arts class.
*deleted*
It’s just so boring. There’s nothing to even get excited about. She doesn’t even know what’s good and what’s not, does she.
Looks like she just gave birth to a bowling ball. Maybe it can set up play dates with North West.
That’s what I thought. She just popped the blue ball out of her vagina.
stick a fork in Lady Gaga, she’s done.
She’s gotta be pissed that her position as the shocking one got taken over by Miley.
I’ve noticed Katy Perry is backing away from all that, claiming to be “too old” for that kind of stuff and dressing more conservatively. Seems like she’s trying to act like she has higher standards, but we all know that’s not true.
*yawn*
she’s getting so predictable with her attention getting stunts. I’ve never been into her but have liked a cpl of her songs. I just cant get into her schtick, its so funny. and this whole thing of calling all these “attention getting stunts” *ART* is an insult to the word *Art*. When did the definition Art change? I just cant with these pop tarts acting sleazier and sleazier and then calling it *art*..srsly.
even from the basic standpoint of color choice do I find this cover not interesting and not skill- or artfull
Oh boy. Not even worth the rant . She knows Jeff koons is the king of kitsch right? There is still some debate whether that is art or not. I’d she’s going for “high art” even in a pop culture setting I think she missed the mark. Come on gagme, this is freshman level art history survey class stuff. Pop kitsch is more like it.
I kind of feel bad for her now.
The background is Botticelli’s painting, “The Birth of Venus”, which depicts Venus emerging from the sea in a clam shell as a fully grown woman. Contemplation of her perfect physical beauty was said to open the mind to greater concepts. There exist many sculptures of the goddess. In this album cover, a statuesque Gaga, probably comparing herself to Venus, gives birth to a giant hipster pearl. I don’t know from where the black & white image originates.
I’m not 100% sure but the BW looks like Michelangelo’s David.
I think someone, or rather sometwo, has lost it.
This is not ironic to me but megalomaniac.
The blue pearl made me think of a plastic Nivea beach ball.
giant hipster pearl
I should not have been drinking tea while reading this.
I just finished listening to the awesome audio version of Bossypants, read by the one and only Tina Fey. Best audiobook ever. She is a genius. As for Gaga, I started off years ago as a hater, then became a fan when I realized how talented she actually is, but now I just feel “meh”. She’s just been too aggressive in her pursuit to make it known she is an artist of the first degree. That is something you should wait for others to say about you.
That’s what bothers me so much about her–she IS really talented. These kinds of antics are for people with no actual talent, to distract from the fact that they’re completely talentless. She doesn’t need to resort to this!
I kind of like the cover, but maybe that’s because I’m comparing it to the Born This Way cover shitastrophe.
Boring, ugly, cheap looking, and it looks a hundred percent fake. Seriously, look at her face…she looks like a spray painted mannequin
It’s a sculpture, that isn’t her on the cover.
Well, that makes sense! I was thinking her hair looking like carved wood or something
THE BOSWORTH OF MUSIC HAS A NEW ALBUM OUT !!!
this should’ve been the headline!!
i’m surprised budget husband and budget boyfriend aren’t double-dating w/ the 2 bosworths of movie and music and do some music video starring the BOZ, GAGA, TAYLER, directed by budget arthouse director hubby..greasy stick
EPIC TWEETING AND INSTAGRAM 4REALS IF THESE 2 GOT TOGETHER…LOL…
My eyes focus on the shiny ball. Shiny.
I expected to dislike it because I dislike everything Gaga does. But I wasn’t expecting it to be this terrible. It looks like it was whipped up in half an hour by someone learning Photoshop. WTF.
In the peroxide dreadlocks shot, she reminds me a lot of the female rapper from Die Antwoord, which is a band that rather hilariously refused to tour with Gaga when she personally invited them to open for her, and who then made a video mocking her. (Fatty Boom Boom)
Mind you, refusing to tour with her was probably wise. I doubt there’s much overlap between the people who like Lady Gaga’s slick English pop music and the people who like Die Antwoord’s itchy German rap.
Yuck, what is it with singers who have a constant need to be naked? And calling it art. “I’m sooo talented. Wanna see my tits??”
They’re kind of like lap dancers who give you a free dance you didn’t ask for, then expect you to buy more
Can’t say I’ve had that experience, but that is lolworthy XD
This is a bit OT, but why do albums “drop”? This is a legitimate question, English is not my mother tongue. Every time I read that an album has “dropped” I think of animal droppings haha. I guess it is apt in this case 😉
Droppings *is* apt in this case!! LOL
Very good question, I first heard ‘drop’ used this way (for an album) in the hip-hop community. The word ‘drop’ can sometimes be used like the words ‘come’ or ‘happen’. You could tell your friend “I’m going to drop by your house” rather than “I’m going to come over.” Or you can “drop in” a place (usually means short-term visit) or “drop something off”, like dropping laundry off at the cleaners or dropping your kids off at a friend’s house.
I read it refers to ‘drop shipments’ of CDs by the shipping industry. And maybe since we envision an album as coming down a complex pipeline of production/editing/marketing that all happens behind the scenes, it truly does seem to ‘drop’ from the heavens in completed form when it’s finally released!
That first pic of Gaga looks like a mall mannequin, but maybe that’s what she was going for but still, it’s not her best by far. She’s lost her steam in the music media I believe.
I don’t think it is a photo of her…it is a Koonz sculpture on her album cover.
BW looks like Michelangelo’s David
The background is Botticelli’s painting, The Birth of Venus.
Both are now in Florence, Italy.
And Gaga is Italian.
It makes sense. Kind of 😉
Gaga is over peeps.
Totally reminds me of the milk bar in Clockwork Orange.
The white mannequins that shoot milk out their nipples.
I like it.
Yes, you have t!ts. Who gives a ….? Seriously, so tired of all these celebrities who resort to taking their clothes off. Are you really that desperate? If you had actual talent you wouldn’t need to strip. That’s just my opinion. I’m usually not shocked by Lady Gaga it just seems like every time you look left, right, up, or down another celebrity is taking their clothes off in the name of art. Yipee! Yay for you! What do they want to hear? Nice rack? Nice curves? Really? Someone explain this to me!?!?!