NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

Ten years ago, Lady Gaga released her most avant-garde record, Artpop , an album that polarized both fans and critics alike. To be fair, the album was a statement of a pop star’s artistic vision. To illustrate that vision, Lady Gaga channels ‘60s pastiche in the way that Andy Warhol blended the popular and the artistic. But with the critical pushback of Artpop, Lady Gaga took note and didn’t make another dance-pop record until Chromatica in 2020, instead venturing into acting, singing standards with Tony Bennett , a folk-rock album Joanne , and the Oscar-winning soundtrack to the film she starred in A Star Is Born . In 2020, the Lady Gaga persona could have done anything, and yet she graced fans with a return trip to the dance floor.  LIFT ME UP, GIVE ME A START. I’ve been thinking a lot about pop music lately. When I was a  hipster high school and college student, I thought of pop music as a kind of opioid. It puts you into a trance, makes you dance, and makes you not think about t

  Maybe you started bobbing your head thirty years ago when Trinidadian-German singer Haddaway released " What Is Love ." The 1993 infectious hit escaped the discotheque and reached number 1 in 13 countries-- though peaking at number 11 in America--and spawned cultural memes before there were memes were on dial-up Internet, most notably appearing in a recurring Saturday Night Live sketch-turned feature film as Will Ferrell , Chris Kattan , and the guest of the week danced at The Roxbury.  WHAT WE DO BEHIND DOORS IS OUR BUSINESS. Fast forward to 2023 and we're in the middle of a '90s revival. Maybe Lady Gaga started the early '90s revival in 2020 with tracks like " Babylon " on Chromatica , but we could hear it also on Tove Lo 's " Grapefruit " last year. Last August  French DJ   David Guetta   released the on-the-nose club hit " I'm Good " (Blue) featuring vocals by Bebe Rexha . The song interpolated what I thought was an