Lady Gaga was my pop-baptism. My ruby-red Dodge Grand Caravan became the stage for pirated mixtapes my mother crafted on our desktop, one of which featured “Poker Face.” It was unlike anything I’d ever heard before, shattering the replay button on my tangerine iPod Nano. Banned from watching the “raunchy” music video, The Fame became my sanctuary. I pleaded with my mother to take me to Walmart to get the CD, and it became the soundtrack for every ride in that van, despite my obliviousness to what a “disco stick” was.
Lady Gaga did more than just soundtrack my adolescence, she rewired it. Her music was a revelation, each note a jolt that rattled the conventions of pop as we knew it prior. With every gag-worthy moment and every boundary pushed, she undoubtedly redefined the very form of pop itself, creating an entirely new lexicon for what the genre could be.
With MAYHEM, her eighth studio album, dropping March 7, RANGE revisits five moments when Lady Gaga redefined what it means to be a pop-star, proving she was always ahead of the curve.
5. Artpop, enough said.
Artpop, Gaga’s audacious 2013 foray into the unknown, is frequently labeled “ahead of its time,” but why, exactly? The album, a blend of chaotic brilliance and a victim of mixed critical reception, was a far cry from the cultural juggernaut that was 2011’s Born This Way, a record that unleashed a torrent of anthems like “The Edge of Glory” and “Marry The Night.” Despite its steady presence in the top 10, “Applause,” the album’s lead single, never ascended to the coveted #1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100, an unusual occurrence for Gaga at this time. With its chant-like chorus and fractured synths, “Applause” was Artpop’s most palatable moment—a commercial anchor in a sea of sonic chaos.
The album itself, a collage of discordant noise and daring controversy, offered a stark contrast. Standouts like “Sexxx Dreams,” “Venus,” and “Fashion!” shimmer with glossy allure and playful dissonance, their unconventional structures echoing the kind of experimentation that often breeds mixed reactions upon release. Yet, in hindsight, Artpop’s bold, genre-defying spirit feels prophetic, anticipating the blurred lines and experimentation that would later dominate pop in the years to come. It was a record that was misunderstood in its moment, but one that now stands as a testament to Gaga’s relentless desire to push cultural limits.
4. THAT “Paparazzi” performance.
Gaga’s performance of “Paparazzi” at the 2009 MTV VMA’s is often regarded as a pivotal moment in her career, and for good reason. Wrestling with fame’s sinister underbelly, she offered a striking juxtaposition between grandeur and gore, a theme that would later permeate her continuation of The Fame, appropriately titled The Fame Monster. Bloodied and bound, she became both victim and villain, symbolizing the perils of stardom. The brutal imagery of her body, suspended and struggling, echoed a deeper commentary on the price of being a celebrity. In that singular moment, she further laid the groundwork for her reinvention as pop’s most conceptual artist.
3. “Born This Way” and her unapologetic activism.
The biggest difference with modern-day celebrities is their over-polished personas, the over-saturation of media training that often strips them of authenticity. A moment that comes to mind is from Taylor Swift’s Miss Americana, where she desperately urges her team to allow her to endorse Hillary Clinton in the 2017 presidential election, a plea that reveals the tension between staying “safe” and aligning with what feels like “the right side of history.” 2011’s “Born This Way,” to this day, pulses as an anthem for the unseen and the unheard, a manifesto that defies the desire for perfection, further revealing Gaga’s unwavering allegiance to conviction over conformity. In yet another striking moment of defiance, she yelled “Arrest me, Russia!” mid-performance, turning her stage into a battlefield against the country’s anti-LGBTQ+ laws, one of the countless times she’s proven that her voice is never bound by the expectations of celebrity gloss.
2. The Superbowl LI Halftime Show.
The Super Bowl halftime show is a rarefied stage, reserved for icons of the highest order, Gaga claiming this honour in 2017. Starting on the stadium’s rooftop with a solemn rendition of “God Bless America,” Gaga momentarily stitched together a thread of unity. But in true Gaga fashion, she then plunged fearlessly from the heavens, landing on the stage to kick-off “Just Dance” with her untouchable charisma. The show became the first entirely solo performance in seven years, and the first entirely female-solo performance since 1996. One of the rare few with a catalog vast enough to command the stage solo, Gaga’s halftime show was a jubilant encapsulation of her legendary career and a testament to her unparalleled stage presence.
1. “Abracadabra’s” Nod to “Bad Romance.”
A surprise release is a rare beast in today’s climate, where every drop is a carefully orchestrated event. In the age of streaming, where anticipation is a currency, maintaining momentum with little to no build-up has become a near-impossible feat. Yet, Gaga embraced this as both a challenge and a gift, seizing the moment to surprise her fans on music’s biggest night—the Grammy Awards. During the 2025 broadcast commercial breaks, in collaboration with Mastercard, Gaga premiered the music video for the “Bad Romance” echoing “Abracadabra,” its gibberish, cult-like chant immediately setting the internet ablaze, and drawing comparisons to the “old Gaga” not only sonically, but visually, in the accompanying visual.
“The category is… dance, or die,” Gaga commands over a fleet of backup dancers in stark white, before plunging into the bass-throbbing fracture of the song’s intro. This sudden return to the relentless, avant-garde energy that defined her early years was more than just a nod to the past; it was a reclamation of her place in the conversation. Where many pop stars are content to coast on their legacies, Gaga continues to redefine who she wants to be as an artist. There’s an unspoken understanding that the “old Gaga” never truly disappeared, she evolved, constantly dismantling and reconstructing herself in the face of an industry that thrives on commodifying nostalgia.
