Lady Gaga Is The Best Pop Star Of The 2000s/2010s
Slated for release on October 21, Joanne is the recently announced album from Lady Gaga. A return to more club-ready music is expected from Joanne as compared to Cheek to Cheek, her 2015 Grammy Award winning duet album of jazz standards alongside Tony Bennett. Gaga’s easily one of pop music’s most outstanding artists, statistically the best selling artist in popular music in the past decade, and maybe the best pop star of the past 15 years.
What is it that makes Lady Gaga so successful? Well, it’s simple. As a singer and songwriter, she knows her way around words and phrases and always finds just the right ones to say for any specific moment. Furthermore, her performances are amazing in a manner that oftentimes is directly related to another amazing pop song. As well, producers that she’s worked with in the past do something similar too. Many of Gaga’s biggest hits have strong similarities to other pop hits, but are just different enough where they can stand apart, oftentimes greater than the song that influenced their creation.
In looking at Lady Gaga’s five biggest hits AND the songs that they’re similar to in some way, the reason why Lady Gaga is the best pop star of the 2000s and 2010s.
1. Bad Romance – released in 2010, nearly 30 million overall sales worldwide – PURCHASE HERE
Sounds Like: “Sweet Dreams” by The Eurythmics – PURCHASE HERE
“Bad Romance” is the lead single from The Fame Monster, which was Gaga’s second major label album release in 2010. It was debuted at Alexander McQueen’s show at Paris Fashion Week in 2009 and won two Grammy Awards in 2011. As compared to its sound-alike, “Sweet Dreams” also hit #1 in America. However, whereas “Sweet Dreams” was a top 10 single in 15 countries, “Bad Romance” was impressively a #1 single in 20 countries worldwide.
2. Poker Face – released in 2008, nearly 15 million overall sales worldwide – PURCHASE HERE
Sounds Like: “Rhythm Is A Dancer” by SNAP – PURCHASE HERE
“Poker Face” was the second overall single released of Lady Gaga’s career and is from her debut album The Fame. The song was covered by everyone from Chris Daughtry to the trio of Kanye West, Common and Kid Cudi, and was even performed on an episode of American Idol. As compared to it’s sound-alike, “Rhythm Is A Dancer” was a #1 single in 11 fewer countries than “Poker Face,” amazingly enough America being one of the countries where Gaga hit the top and SNAP did not.
3. Just Dance – released in 2008, nearly 12 million overall sales worldwide – PURCHASE HERE
Inspired By: “Let’s Dance” by David Bowie – PURCHASE HERE
“Just Dance” was Lady Gaga’s first overall mainstream single, and like “Poker Face,” is from her debut album The Fame. Both in the video and the branding for the song, she’s featured wearing lightning bolt makeup over her left eye, in homage to David Bowie. As well, then-breakout R & B superstar Akon was paired with Gaga in order to give hear a broader appeal to the urban demographic. As compared to the song it’s influenced by, Bowie’s 1983 hit was actually a number one in five more countries than Gaga’s debut single and has sold just as many singles, too.
4. Born This Way – released in 2011, nearly nine million overall sales worldwide – PURCHASE HERE
Sounds Like: “Express Yourself” by Madonna – PURCHASE HERE
“Born This Way” was Lady Gaga’s first release from her 2011 released album of the same name. The song is meant to serve as an empowerment anthem for the global LGBTQIA music community, and Gaga herself describes it as a personal “freedom song.” In later years, the song’s title has also doubled as the inspiration for her Born This Way Foundation that supports “the wellness of young people, and empowering them to create a kinder and braver world.” As compared to the song it sounds like, “Express Yourself” only went 1x platinum and was a number one single in five countries worldwide, which means that “Born This Way” is statistically 8x more popular as a seller and 5x the success that “Express Yourself” was as a number-one single.
5. Paparazzi – released in 2009, nearly five million overall sales worldwide – PURCHASE HERE
Sounds Like: “Take My Breath Away” by Berlin – PURCHASE HERE
“Paparazzi” was Lady Gaga’s last official release from The Fame, her debut album. The club-ready take on a pure-pop ballad is highlighted by Gaga’s vocals bearing a strong quality to those of Queen lead singer Freddie Mercury. Interestingly enough, “Paparazzi’s” producer Rob Fusari gave Stefanie Germanotta the name “Lady Gaga” as an ode to Queen’s 1984 song “Radio Ga Ga.” As compared to the song it sounds like, Berlin’s Top Gun soundtrack anthem “Take My Breath Away” was a number one hit in more countries worldwide, but Gaga’s single has been an infinitely greater seller overall.
The Undefeatable Britney Jean Spears
A 17-year old girl who’s an ex-Mickey Mouse Club Mouseketeer is dressed up in a 13-year old’s schoolgirl uniform and cast in an instantaneously iconic music video. This same teen then releases three albums that would go on to sell 70 million copies, go on three world tours and have acting roles in three globally-released films by the time she was 21. If I then told you by the time this teen was 25 that this one-time child superstar of superstars would be shaving her head, living as a divorced single parent and “going crazy,” it could almost be expected. However, as she nears 35, and after nearly two decades of recording music, Britney Spears has evolved past being a girl, is now completely comfortable as a woman, and is impressively on her way to being a superstar yet again.
For as much as we at Decades love to talk about how cool the ‘90s are, it’s this 2000s era pop priestess who likely deserves as much love as we give the ‘90s. To showcase just how cool Britney is, there’s a very real arc between Britney Spears and Elvis Presley that isn’t just tied to performing in Vegas. This linkage showcases just how massive of a star she is. Similar to Spears, Elvis did the following:
- released three iconic albums and had roles in three films before his 21st birthday
- had four consecutive #1 albums
- after eight consecutive years of releases had a stress and pressure-induced recording hiatus
- has an undeniable mystique attached to his career that is tied to a generation of kids and teenagers loving his visuals as much as they loved his music
2016 finds Britney Spears releasing her ninth studio album Glory while also in the midst of her third year of her Las Vegas performance residency at Caesar’s Palace. What’s interesting is that for an artist that so many have believed to be in “decline,” let the record show that Spears has released four albums since 2007, done two limited tours, released perfumes via Elizabeth Arden, been active as a charity contributor and also is raising two children aged 10 and 12, respectively. Though her last Billboard #1 single was 2011’s “Hold It Against Me” and she’s removed from an era of having four consecutive number one albums, the idea that Spears ever “fell off” could be argued to be completely wrong. If anything, Britney’s the 21st century’s ultimate pop music survivor.
Since Britney’s Vegas performances haven’t been publicly aired, her magnificent Elvis ‘68 Comeback Special-similar performance was recently alongside G-Eazy at MTV’s 2016 Video Music Awards. These are the same VMAs where in 2007, her performance of “Gimme More” signaled to the world that her life was in possibly falling apart in front of our eyes. Regarding her performance of “Make Me,” Billboard noted that it was a “subdued victory for Spears” that “checks off another box on her way to a revived career — not just as a pop superstar who once was, but as a pop superstar who still is.”
In 2011, Entertainment Weekly summed up Britney Spears’ career as “an American institution, as deeply sacred and messed up as pro wrestling or the filibuster.” As well, when artists like Nicki Minaj say that Spears’ success drives them because “once you keep at whatever it is you’re doing, people may not like you, people may not love you, but they will have to respect you at the end of the day. And that respect is all that matters,” the need to see Britney Spears excel is not just an expectation, but a necessity.
At Decades, we’re proud of Britney’s ability to endure and excel. We’ll be playing tons of her music in celebration.
