Anyone who’s been following pop star Lady Gaga’s career knows she’s an artist’s artist, meaning expressing herself through her music, wardrobe and everyday choices seem to supersede her interest of being a chart-topper or a music industry darling, which is evident from her left-of-center-approach in most things she does.
So it might not be a huge shock that she’s feeling a little pressure from the bigwigs of the music industry to change a little bit, because no matter how big a pop star is, their record label will always want them to play it safe, song-wise, so the artist doesn’t chase away their original fans.
And that type of pressure is really getting to Gaga, she said, and if it continues she’ll find another way to express herself.
“I will retire from the commercial market if I have to be something other than myself,” she said in an interview with famed music journalist John Norris.
That particular statement may come from the so-so success of her last album Artpop, which hasn’t been the big seller like her previous albums, but the platinum blonde singer said the lack of big sales is due to the current state of the music industry, not how good her songs are.
Plus, she said people don’t give her the same type of leniency for not selling a lot of records as other artists, so they’ll expect her to achieve sales numbers like its 30 years ago, when everyone was still buying albums left and right.
“I’m sorry I didn’t sell a million records the first week,” she said. “I have before…..When it comes to me, everyone forgets where the music industry is now. You come see me and it’s like you’re time-warped to the 70s.”
Gaga also said she refuses to sell out. Instead, she chooses to “sell in,” she said, which probably means she’ll continue to be her boundary-pushing-self and do her best to ignore outside expectations.
Image via YouTube
