I obviously want an amazing album but I don't want her to flop either, who wants to see their fave flop

I think he's saying that what matters here is that she maintains her commercial viability so that her label doesn't give up on her as a recording artist. Sure, she's slaying as a touring artist, but that's part of the package. As a pop star, and I think stans also forget that she IS a pop star, she's expected to be topping charts right and left and not get blown away by her competition.

I don't think they would go so far as to drop her, because she still brings them more money than anyone else. But if they see that they can get more assets by pushing artists like Maroon 5 ahead of her in marketing priority, then that's what'll happen.

Taylor had next to no pop airplay except for her first single and she didn't have that many hits off of Speak Now on country radio even. She went nearly two years without pop airplay meanwhile gaga has only gone a little over a year without pop airplay. Gaga also released a live holiday ep, did a collab with tony bennet and has released songs like princess die, Cake and stache to help satisfy her fans and tide them over until release which is on par to what Taylor has done.

Very agree with this. I don't understand why releasing album frequently will make public tired of a singer if his/ her albums are great and they like them.

Example: a casual listener, name "A"
Singer X - released 3 albums and "A" feels all the musics are ok, but never becomes a fan.
Singer Y - released 6 albums, 5 albums "A" doesn't like, 1 album(or songs) "A" like it very much and becoming a fan.

This explains how "A" initially more prefer singer X than singer Y but eventually Y got him.

Back To December had pop airplay, didn't it? Also, so did Eyes Open. Anyway, she also had country hits AND two number ones which, oddly enough, happened toward the end of her era. It's not as though she was completely flopping on radio.

Also, Cake and Stache aren't really the same, since they weren't made available for public consumption.

I forgot about back to December. Eyes open definitely did not get any significant pop play.

She wasn't completely flopping on radio but compared to Fearless she definitely was doing much worse but then she came back with Red and it looks like she could have a bigger era than fearless. Also it's not as if gaga is sitting on her ass doing nothing she's been on a huge and much longer tour than Taylor has which is also keeping the fanbase interested. As well as the big launch for FAME with the art film. Gaga also did try to give us other morsels to tide us over like partynaseous and she did at least release her version of don't kill my vibe.

You cant compare Madonna's longer breaks to Gaga's, that's ridiculous.

She was a superstar in a totally different time where music wasn't moving faster than day, because digitalization had not happened yet.

Lady Gaga is at risk of being forgotten by the general public and becoming more of a cult act than an actual pop star. Everything she's done during her "break" has been for the fans, and the public has frankly not cared about any of it.

Taylor Swift also had sizable radio play even when she was "gone." Gaga ended with a flop track and currently has no songs in the iTunes Top 1000. The first time since she broke out in 2008.
If fans like to think that's a "good" thing, then my god, delusion is reaching a new high.

The fan base is interested? Really? We can't speak for over 31,000,000 people, you know. There are bound to be some people out here that are bored with Gaga even though they're still fans. Not to mention, I have seen a lot of disgust in regards to "Cake Like Lady Gaga," so it's not as if they're satisfied by the menial output she's brought out.

Bryan's right though, at this point. Six months ago, I'd have said it was too soon to worry, but the public has moved on from her. You only have to look as far as iTunes to see that she's not even moving copies of "Poker Face" anymore. Whereas "I Gotta Feeling" is still selling at a healthy rate. Not to mention, "Poker Face" will be outsold by "Call Me Maybe" by this time next year, so she won't have the highest selling track by a female artist signed to Interscope record anymore. A trend with her that seems to be happening all too often these days.

With all that in mind, it's kinda hard not to be a Pessimistic Patty. All we can do is have faith, but realistically, the situation isn't looking very bright at all.

I hope so.

It's not necessarily a "bad" thing though, either. It just is what it is.

I personally think her break will have gone on too long by the time she kicks things off again, but at the same time...it's not the end of the world and we won't know until she returns whether it actually has had an adverse effect. I'm inclined to think it won't matter and the break did a whole lot of good.

All that truly matters is that she delivers. You can't come back with an "alright" song. It needs to be brilliant.

She got into this delusional idea that the public would "miss" her by taking a long break.. Instead they just moved onto other acts, lol.

Sure, Ke$ha took a long break, but lets look at how that's working out for her globally. Countries where she was once making gains in with Cannibal have rendered her irrelevant again, it's like resetting yourself back an album cycle of progress.

Hopefully Gaga's tour helps balance out the lost interest, but who knows. Her tour sales in the US aren't even overwhelmingly amazing, and this is where she had 3 hits from the BTW era.

Two, really. You and I was kind of a fluke, to be honest.

She was forced to take a break because her last album cycle became a hot mess worldwide, I don't see how that can be seen as anything but a bad thing.

It was either her voluntarily disappearing (and now shes taking that way too far) or being shoved out of the picture with flopping singles anyway.

I'd disagree with that. You & I went double platinum and was another HAC hit for her. TEOG/Y&I combined made her a top played HAC/AC act for the first time in her career.

BUT thats why things are looking grim. Even with those gains in an area that should make for a boon tour tickets wise, it seems to have paid little dividends.

Not to mention, the style of music she mainly does is kinda fading. We haven't had a true dance hit on the top of the Hot 100 since "Stronger (WDKY)". And the kind of dance she wants to do... hasn't topped since WFL.

"Call Me Maybe" really doesn't count as dance-pop. It's... more in line with "Sugar" by the Archies, if anything.

Would all that have happened without playing the VMAs with Brian May though? I feel like it would have peaked at 11 if she hadn't. Which Judas could have easily done as well.

It was already jumping up iTunes thanks to its video and blowing up on HAC.

You & I was a surprisingly strong hit for her, and as much as I rant about the BTW era, it was a single choice/era for me that ended up working in her favor. She might end up losing all of that HAC progress though with less friendly music.

That's my real concern as well, which hasn't been talked about by her fans.

If anything, BTW wouldve been better in 2012 than in 2011. It would've fit in more with this indie trend that music is seeing.

She's moving in the wrong direction though, in terms of that. Heavy EDM and "rap" are all but dead in the mainstream picture right now. Even Ke$ha and Rihanna are avoiding their "dubstep" heavy tracks and choosing more "pure pop" tracks as singles for that very reason.

That's what we call truths are ugly.