This one really should have been on the main list as a defining album of the time. I don't want to say "Just" good pop as it's intelligent, retro and also futuristic, with synth sounds and catchy beats, pushing boundaries in the mainstream as good pop should. The first 4 songs are all instant impactful classics, the last half of the album sags and drags a little with an awful lot of autotune, but it was the 2000's. This is an album you can genuinely say helped push social change, even if it is to the mainstream, that's not a bad thing. normalising different mindsets as opposed to a standard blonde teenage which was the late 90s and has come back with Swift/ Carpenter. That first half of the album and the impact of the album at the time pushes it to a 5
The Fame
Lady Gaga
2008
Album Summary
This album has been submitted by a user and is not included in any edition of the book.
The Fame is the debut studio album by American singer-songwriter Lady Gaga. It was released on August 19, 2008, by Interscope Records. After joining KonLive Distribution and Cherrytree Records in 2008, Gaga began working on the album with different producers, primarily RedOne, Martin Kierszenbaum, and Rob Fusari. Musically, The Fame is an electropop, synth-pop, and dance-pop record that displays influences from 1980s music. Lyrically, it visualizes Gaga's love of fame in general, while also dealing with subjects such as love, sex, money, drugs, and sexual identity. The album was primarily promoted through The Fame Ball Tour and multiple television appearances, and was reissued as a deluxe edition with The Fame Monster on November 18, 2009. The album received generally favorable reviews from critics, who commended its lyrical content, Gaga's musicianship and vocal ability. It charted at number one in Austria, Canada, Germany, Ireland, Poland, Scotland, South Africa, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. In the United States, The Fame topped the Dance/Electronic Albums chart for 193 non-consecutive weeks, the most time on top in history. It has been certified diamond in France and multi-platinum in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, the Philippines, Poland, Singapore, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The Fame became the fifth best-selling album of 2009, and has sold over 4.9 million copies in the United States as of January 2019. Combined with The Fame Monster, the album had sold over 18 million copies worldwide as of August 2019, making it one of the best selling albums of the 21st century. The first two singles off the album, "Just Dance" and "Poker Face" gained international success, topping the charts in several countries worldwide including the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. The subsequent singles "LoveGame" and "Paparazzi" were commercial successes as well, charting within the top-ten of over ten countries worldwide. "Eh, Eh (Nothing Else I Can Say)" had a limited single release, while "Beautiful, Dirty, Rich" served as a promotional single. The Fame has won multiple awards since its release. The album was nominated for a total of five Grammy Awards at the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year. It won Best Electronic/Dance Album and Best Dance Recording for its single "Poker Face", and also won Best International Album at the 2010 Brit Awards. In 2013 and 2022, Rolling Stone named The Fame as one of the "100 Greatest Debut Albums of All-Time". As of 2023, it is the 12th biggest album of all time on the US Billboard 200.
Reviews
Like a review? Give it a thumb up to help us display relevant reviews!Quite a debut! A few songs that I didn’t need to hear again but the highs are high enough to more than make up for those.
Innovative and retro at the same time, this was a big, marvelous breakthrough album.
Not many 21 year olds jump out of the gate this strong for a debut, especially since she was principal songwriter for every song. Always had a soft spot for "Paparazzi" and "Poker Face". It's not my preferred genre, but I recognize talent. She'll be famous for a very long time, thanks primarily to the quick start she got with this album.
Never listened to that much of this artist other than whatever megahit was dominating some channel of pop media I happened to intersect with. Now that she's made the full transition to cultural icon up to and including real deal movie star it's interesting to reflect how much I'd forgotten this early version, more visibly hungry and a little lower rent. I like it, though it still feels very manufactured for the star-maker machine.
Rating: 9/10 Best songs: Just dance, LoveGame, Paparazzi, Poker face, The fame, Money honey, Starstruck, Disco heaven
Though it was easy to dunk on her at the time, there's no denying Gaga was visionary and highly influential – she essentially set the stage for pop to come, wrapping her music and public persona in attention-grabbing showmanship that is part and parcel of today's releases. 15+ years on and the songs here still hold up, infectiously catchy and just a tad goofy but still genuine. The LP leans more heavily into four-on-the-floor dance rhythms than I recall, but that explains how it dovetailed so nicely with the EDM boom that was right around the corner. The lyricism can get relatively deep by pop standards (nonsense aside), and Germanotta has the vocals to back up even the silliest of choruses and make them feel dead serious. This is definitely getting a nostalgia boost as it was everywhere during my teens, but even though it's not in my wheelhouse, this album isn't a bad listen at all. Love her or hate her, Gaga knows what she's doing and she does it well.
Electropop, synth-pop, dance-pop. Pop comercial. Ni fu ni fa.
Not the biggest fan. Won't follow her until I love her