Gaga's hits post-2010 have surprised me. Born This Way was huge, I know the hype coming off TF and TFM garnered most of the song's success but I was still surprised (mostly because I think it's one of her weakest singles) but especially for a song being about LGBT equality for radios and the GP to support it. Other "equality, love yourself" smash songs are so very general, safe and pop-ish. BTW was a lot more riskier, and gay marriage support has come a long way since start of 2011. And people wouldn't have bought it if they didn't like it.
Then we had TEOG which was a nice change for Gaga, it's slow build, saxophone beat (which is everywhere now may I add) alongside it's 80s throwback gave us a complete surprise when the GP latched onto it as a promo single and paid the typical Gaga sounding RedOne produced Judas dust, which I, like many, thought it was a sure-fire smash when it dropped.
I remember when You & I was announced everyone proclaimed it would flop, yet managed a top 10 peak going 2x platinum and is a Gaga favourite for talent show covers. And of course, we all thought MTN would be a hit but we know how that turned out.
Then with Applause, everyone wrote it off the first week because it was a weak lead, the verse lyrics were too weird and off putting for the GP, yet it secured 14 weeks inside top 10 and is nearing 3x platinum. Yet, G.U.Y., something many deemed as the safest track on ARTPOP, flopped to the high heavens.
This is a super long post y'all probably won't read I know, but I just think it's extremely hard to judge what the GP what from Gaga when her four biggest hits post-2010 have been surprising and risky in some sense or another and her weakest performance singles are all tracks we thought were safe and sure fire smashes before they were officially released.
