ARTPOP was released on November 6^th, 2013. It followed the massive album Born This Way which went on to spawn five hit singles at the time. Since then, Bloody Mary found a new life after being featured in TickTock videos becoming the sixth hit single off of Born This Way. ARTPOP is known as Lady Gaga’s less successful album. It found success but not in the same way as the previous albums did.

ARTPOP spawned three singles. Applause was the lead single and peaked in the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100. The controversial song Do What You Want was the second single and featured R. Kelly. It peaked in the top 20. Do What You want was the last single to find some success of ARTPOP. It did not rank as high as Applause. Do What You want has been removed from the album due to controversies surrounding R. Kelly that happened a few years after the album was released. There is a version of the song with Christina Aguilera that is available. G.U.Y. was the third official single. It did not have a long life on the chart and did not get much radio airplay if any.

For years ARTPOP has been considered ahead of its time. If it had come out now, would it have been more successful? It’s possible. ARTPOP is predominantly a dance album but its more theatrical and experimental in sound compared to The Fame, The Fame Monster, and Born This Way. ARTPOP came out at an interesting time. It was released the same year as Katy Perry’s album Prism, Britney Spears’ album Britney Jean which came out a month later, and the transition year for Miley Cyrus, Selena Gomez, and Demi Lovato. 2013 was also dominated by Pharell’s song Happy and Daft Punk’s song Get Lucky which also featured Pharell. Music that was dominating the radio was changing. Katy Perry and Britney Spears albums had mixed success level compared to their earlier works as well. By this point Lady Gaga had a dozen hit songs from her previous albums. Applause was still a big hit from ARTPOP. It was her only substantial hit from the album.

ARTPOP as a whole is a solid album. There could have been other songs that could have gone on to do well. ARTPOP showcases many different sides to Lady Gaga. Manicure is more of a pop rock song while Dope is another raw ballad. Both songs could have done well if they were singles. The title track ARTPOP is a good song that really captures what the album is about. Swine is both nasty and experimental when paying attention to the lyrics which include “You’re just a pig inside a human body.” Some of the songs are silly and fun such as Fashion and Donatella. Venus and Sexx Dreams also fit the bill of both silly and fun and weird.

ARTPOP really has a little bit of everything. It is true Lady Gaga. For years there have been talks of an ARTPOP 2. Who knows if that will happen? If it does, I would be very curious to see what it sounds like and how it would do this time around. Also, one of the things that was rumored years ago was plans for a sequel to Telephone with Beyonce. If that ever were to happen or did happen, maybe it would turn up on ARTPOP 2. Regardless, Lady Gaga has had a successful career and ARTPOP is a highly underrated album that deserves more appreciation.