All Applause has done is kill her hype (not that she had that much to begin with). Look at the international positions and look at where the album is on the pre-order chart. It's not getting a great response, if anything its getting a good dose of payola.
Do you even know how pre-orders work? A lot of pre-order albums tend to fluctuate and drop very low at times. Gaga sold like 47k or something as of a week or two ago which is great... compared to Justin who had I think 140k when it was all said and done and opened with almost a million.
Why would Gaga need payola? I never get these accusations about her or about Katy/Rihanna/etc. We're dealing with the most popular artists of our time; people actively want to hear their songs. Is that so hard to believe?
I still can't believe nothing in Lazy Bitch is actually sang except for that struggle ass riing the alarm line.
She spoke her way through a song. My goodness, what falls under vocal and choreo for her these days I wouldn't be surprised if what Eve said about vocal imposters singing Britney's songs is true.