The Fame
| The Fame | |||||||||||||
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| Studio album by Lady Gaga | |||||||||||||
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Publication |
August 19, 2008 |
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| Label (s) | Interscope , Cherrytree, Kon Live, Streamline | ||||||||||||
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Format (s) |
CD, download, LP |
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Pop , synthpop , dance , electropop |
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Title (number) |
15th |
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running time |
59:35 min. |
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| occupation | See contributors | ||||||||||||
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Studio (s) |
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The Fame (German: "Der Ruhm" ) is the debut album of the American singer Lady Gaga . It was first released in summer 2008, the international release took place in late 2008 or early 2009. With this album she achieved her worldwide breakthrough. With around 15 million copies sold, the debut album is one of the most successful of the decade. All single releases reached the top ten of the charts in Germany, the United States, Australia, Canada, Austria and other countries. In Germany the album achieved 9 gold status (4 × platinum + 1 × gold). The Fame has received multiple platinum awards in more than 23 countries .
Background information
About the title and concept of her debut album, Lady Gaga said: “ The Fame describes how everyone can feel famous. Pop culture is art ... and you hear that on The Fame . I want to invite people to a party where you can live part of that lifestyle. ”Gaga said in an interview with MTV UK that she worked two and a half years to complete the album.
Lady Gaga went on to say that the most important thing that contemporary pop music lacks is the combination of the music with a visual staging. So she designed theater-like sequences for her live shows.
Musically, the album is inspired by glam rock musicians of the 1970s, such as David Bowie and Queen . Lady Gaga combined the sound of glam rock with catchy pop melodies and created what she herself describes as "theatrical pop". Songs like Poker Face , Just Dance and Love Game are up-tempo songs, with Poker Face being referred to as a song with a darker sound, with clear vocals in the chorus and borrowings from pop. Just Dance is based on synthesizers, while Love Game has a dance -oriented beat. All of these songs combine choppy “marching rhythms” and R&B influences. In comparison to the other, more danceable songs, Eh Eh is a ballad that conveys a 1980s synthpop feeling and incorporates the catchy “Eh Eh” hook from Rihanna's umbrella .
Lyrically, The Fame is about dealing with fame and gaining fame and popularity. I Like It Rough and Poker Face, on the other hand, are about sexuality. In an interview with the Daily Star, Gaga stated that the Poker Face text carried an undertone of confusion about love and sex. Just Dance is about partying. Love Game is about love, fame and sexuality and is linked to the main theme of the album. Paparazzi portrays a stalker who follows his or her great idol. The text also describes the pursuit of fame. Lady Gaga stated:
“That idea of fame runs through the entire album. Basically, even if you are poor and have nothing, you can still feel beautiful and rich. The Fame is about self-discovery and creativity. The music is supposed to encourage people to perceive themselves in a certain way, so that they develop a kind of "inner" fame that they can transfer to their surroundings, and the carefree mood of the album reflects this feeling of inner fame. "
Criticism
| Professional reviews | |
|---|---|
| Averages | |
| source | rating |
| Metacritic | 71% |
| Reviews | |
| source | rating |
| Allmusic |
 
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| According to |
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| CDStarts |
 
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| Pooltrax | (Positive) |
| Now-on |
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| Let Me Entertain You |
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The album was largely received positively by the critics. Many critics have compared Gaga's vocal abilities to Gwen Stefani . Metacritic calculated an average rating of 71% based on 13 reviews.
Artur Schulz from the Laut website describes Lady Gaga's music as “catchy dance numbers with rough edges” and “precise attacks on the dance floor [...] supported by rock elements.” He wrote: “Tempo and catchy hooks are capitalized by The artist keeps away from production that is too slick. Thus there are more rough edges than with colleagues of the same age [...] and more originality. Ballads remain the exception, but with Brown Eyes Lady GaGa also shows an acceptable hand in this area [...] But not only shiny song gold can be found on the album: A title like Poker Face rushes past without any particular recognition value. The number of successful tracks, however, predominates, and a handful of more than just successful numbers lift the album pleasantly above average. "
Matthias Reichel, editor at CDStarts, is also impressed by Lady Gaga: “She produces casual dance pop with modern beats, without luring the pharrells and timbalands of this world into the studio. Take over this part u. a. the Moroccan-Swedish songwriter and producer RedOne [...] There are also a few charmingly trashy Euro pop songs like Eh, Eh (Nothing Else I Can Say) and Poker Face as well as shallow love songs like Brown Eyes [...] Lady Gaga offers [... ] on The Fame fresh food for the dance floor, to which you can dance carefree. The songs oscillate between radio feed suspected of being hit, trashy numbers and modern club sounds, which are guaranteed to be a lot of fun not only in the dance scene. "
Sebastian Fasthuber from the Austrian magazine Now On also gave The Fame a positive rating: “How she stumbles through the club drunk in Just Dance , flirting with the paparazzi and her life as a mixture of Beautiful, Dirty, Rich , Money Honey and Boys Boys Boys describes, The Fame smells more like a perfect staging than like a “natural born” dull cheek. In addition, otherwise an outlier like the sweet love ballad Brown Eyes would not have succeeded in this quality. Lady Gaga wants to be Britney , Madonna and all five Pussycat Dolls at once. And who knows, maybe she already has the master plan for it and for the subsequent world conquest in her head. For now we are thoroughly confused - and feel very well entertained in the trash sense. "
promotion
The Fame Ball Tour
Lady Gaga made several appearances worldwide to promote her album. Her first big tour as headliner, the “The Fame Ball Tour”, took her around the globe. Lady Gaga played a total of four shows in Germany, namely in Munich, Cologne, Berlin and Hamburg. The tour began on March 12, 2009 in San Diego and ended on September 29, 2009 in Washington, DC In total, Lady Gaga played 69 concerts for gross profits of $ 347,862. The concert tour received positive reviews. Her clear voice, her taste in fashion, the presentation and staging of her music met with great approval from the critics. The concerts are divided into four acts, part four is the encore. The White Tie Affair, Chester French, Hyper Crush and the German band Cinema Bizarre performed in the opening act before Lady Gaga .
Set list
| title |
|---|
| The Heart (Video Intro - Contains samples from Love Game and Paper Gangsta .) |
| Paparazzi |
| Love Game (Contains the first line of text from Starstruck .) |
| Beautiful, dirty, rich |
| The Brain (Video Intro - Includes samples from The Fame and Love Game .) |
| The Fame |
| Money Honey |
| Boys boys boys |
| The Face (Video Intro - Contains samples from Just Dance .) |
| Just dance |
| Eh Eh (Nothing Else I Can Say) (Contains samples from Starstruck .) |
| Volume Introduction (Instrumental Intro) |
| Brown eyes |
| Poker Face (piano version) |
| Poker Face |
Others
In addition to the tour promotion, Gaga also had a few television appearances. She appeared in the American television programs So You Think You Can Dance , Jimmy Kimmel Live ! and The Tonight Show With Jay Leno , as well as on Vietnamese television in the 57th Miss Universe election. On January 31, 2009 Lady Gaga had an appearance on Irish television on RTÉ One's Show Tubridy Tonight , and on April 1, 2009 she also appeared on American Idol . Three songs from the album The Fame were also featured in the Gossip Girl series : Paparazzi , Poker Face and Money Honey .
Single releases
| year | title | Chart placements | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DE | AT | CH | UK | US | |||
| 2008 | Just dance | 10 | 8th | 8th | 1 | 1 | |
| Poker Face | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| 2009 | LoveGame | 7th | 6th | 15th | 19th | 5 | |
| Eh, Eh (Nothing Else I Can Say) 1 | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| Paparazzi | 1 | 3 | 4th | 4th | 6th | ||
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1 Released in Australia, New Zealand, Sweden, Denmark, Poland, Canada, Latvia, Czech Republic and France only.
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Just dance
Poker Face
LoveGame
Eh, Eh (Nothing Else I Can Say)
Paparazzi
Track list
| # | title | Songwriting | production | length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. |
Just Dance (feat. Colby O'Donis ) |
Stefani Germanotta, Nadir Khayat, Aliaune Thiam | RedOne | 4:04 |
| 2. | LoveGame | Stefani Germanotta, Nadir Khayat | RedOne | 3:35 |
| 3. | Paparazzi | Stefani Germanotta, Rob Fusari | Rob Fusari | 3:28 |
| 4th | Poker Face | Stefani Germanotta, Nadir Khayat | RedOne | 3:59 |
| 5. | Eh, Eh (Nothing Else I Can Say) | Stefani Germanotta, Martin Kierszenbaum | Martin Kierszenbaum | 2:56 |
| 6th | Beautiful, dirty, rich | Stefani Germanotta, Rob Fusari | Rob Fusari | 2:54 |
| 7th | The Fame | Stefani Germanotta, Martin Kierszenbaum | Martin Kierszenbaum | 3:44 |
| 8th. | Money Honey | Stefani Germanotta, Nadir Khayat, Bilal Hajji | RedOne | 3:26 |
| 9. | Starstruck (feat. Space Cowboy & Flo Rida ) |
Stefani Germanotta, Martin Kierszenbaum, Nick Dresti, Tramar Dillard | Martin Kierszenbaum, space cowboy | 3:37 |
| 10. | Boys boys boys | Stefani Germanotta, Nadir Khayat | RedOne | 3:22 |
| 11. | Paper gangsta | Stefani Germanotta, Nadir Khayat | RedOne | 4:23 |
| 12. | Brown eyes | Stefani Germanotta, Rob Fusari | Rob Fusari | 4:03 |
| 13. | I like it rough | Stefani Germanotta, Martin Kierszenbaum | Martin Kierszenbaum | 3:22 |
| 14th | Summer boy | Stefani Germanotta, Brian Kierulf, Josh Schwartz | Brian & Josh | 3:41 |
| 15th | Disco Heaven | Stefani Germanotta, Rob Fusari, Tom Kafafian | Rob Fusari | 3:41 |
| 16. | Retro dance freak | Stefani Germanotta, Rob Fusari | Rob Fusari | 3:26 |
| Source: | ||||
Remarks:
- The original version contains the song Again Again , but Disco Heaven and Paper Gangsta are missing . This is the only edition of the album with red lettering.
- The international publication includes the title list above. In addition, there were slight changes to the cover: The red “Lady Gaga” lettering was replaced by a blue version.
- The British version contains a remix of the song Love Game , the Japanese the bonus song Retro Dance Freak . Both come with a DVD with the music videos belonging to the singles.
Charts
Placements
| Charts | Highest position |
|---|---|
| Germany | 1 |
| Austria | 1 |
| Switzerland | 1 |
| Great Britain | 1 |
| United States | 2 |
Awards
| Country / Region | Award | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| Awards for music sales (country / region, Award, Sales) |
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 Australia (ARIA)
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 4 × platinum
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280,000 |
 Belgium (BEA)
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2 × platinum
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60,000 |
 Brazil (PMB)
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 gold
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30,000 |
 Denmark (IFPI)
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2 × platinum
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60,000 |
 Germany (BVMI)
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9 × gold
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900,000 |
 Europe (IFPI)
|
2 × platinum
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(2,000,000) |
 Finland (IFPI)
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platinum
|
25,358 |
 France (SNEP)
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 diamond
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500,000 |
 Golf Cooperation Council (IFPI)
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platinum
|
6,000 |
 Greece (IFPI)
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platinum
|
6,000 |
 Ireland (IRMA)
|
9 × platinum
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135,000 |
 Italy (FIMI)
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4 × platinum
|
280,000 |
 Japan (RIAJ)
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diamond
|
1,000,000 |
 Canada (MC)
|
7 × platinum
|
560,000 |
 Lebanon (IFPI)
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gold
|
3,000 |
 Mexico (AMPROFON)
|
3 × gold
|
90,000 |
 New Zealand (RMNZ)
|
2 × platinum
|
30,000 |
 Netherlands (NVPI)
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gold
|
25,000 |
 Norway (IFPI)
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17 × platinum
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510,000 |
 Austria (IFPI)
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7 × platinum
|
140,000 |
 Philippines (PARI)
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9 × platinum
|
135,000 |
 Poland (ZPAV)
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3 × platinum
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60,000 |
 Portugal (AFP)
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platinum
|
20,000 |
 Sweden (IFPI)
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platinum
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40,000 |
 Switzerland (IFPI)
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4 × platinum
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120,000 |
 Spain (Promusicae)
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platinum
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80,000 |
 Hungary (MAHASZ)
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2 × platinum
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12,000 |
 United States (RIAA)
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6 × platinum
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4,700,000 |
 United Kingdom (BPI)
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9 × platinum
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2,990,000 |
| All in all |
15 × gold, 100 × platinum, 2 × diamond |
12,489,358 |
Contributors
The following people helped create The Fame .
music
- Vocals, background vocals: Stefani Germanotta, Akon, Colby O'Donis, Space Cowboy, Flo Rida, RedOne
- Recordings: RedOne
- Guitar: Tom Kafafian
- Bass: Calvin Gaines, Victor Bailey
- Drums: Dave Murga
- Piano, synthesizer, keys: Stefani Germanotta
- Programming, instruments: RedOne
- Arrangements: Joshua M. Schwartz
- Mixing: Robert Orton
- Sound engineering: Dave Russel, Tony Uvgal
- Mastering: Gene Grimaldi
production
- Executive Producer: Vincent Herbert
- Production: Rob Fusari, Bilal Hajji, Martin Kierszenbaum, RedOne, Space Cowboy, Brian Kierulf, Josh Schwartz
- Production coordination: Lisa Einhorn-Gilder
- A&R : Vincent Herbert, Martin Kierszenbaum
- A&R coordination: Vicki Boyd, Andrea Ruffalo
- A&R Administration: Jennifer Paola
- Management: Troy Carter, Leah London
- Photographs: Pieter Henket, Candice Lawler, Warwick Saint
- Design: Liam Ward
Web links
- Official website (English)
- Official website (German)
- Lady Gaga - The Fame
- The Fame at Simfy.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ Lady Gaga: Biography
- ↑ MTV Great Britain: Interview
- ↑ a b MTV: Lady GaGa Brings Her Artistic Vision Of Pop Music To New Album
- ^ Daily Mail : Why The World Is Going Gaga For Electro-Pop Diva Stefani
- ↑ About: Poker Face - single review
- ↑ The Guardian: The Fame - album review
- ↑ Pop Matters: The Fame - album review
- ↑ Washington Post: Fame Isn't Worth Getting Gaga Over
- ↑ Daily Star: Lady Gaga's Hot Secret
- ↑ Dailymail: Love Game - Music Video Presentation
- ↑ About: The Fame - album review
- ^ Metacritic: The Fame
- ↑ Rating: Allmusic
- ↑ Rating: Loud
- ↑ Rating: CDStarts
- ↑ Rating: Pooltrax ( Memento from January 3, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Rating: Now-On ( page can no longer be accessed , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Rating: Let Me Entertain You
- ↑ Sarah Rodman: Boston Globe - criticism
- ↑ Popwatch: Lady Gaga Live In LA
- ↑ Chart placements Singles: DE ( Memento of the original from February 1, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Chart placements singles: AT
- ↑ Chart placements singles: CH
- ↑ Chart positions singles: US
- ↑ a b Lady Gaga : The Fame Booklet, p. 9, Interscope .
- ↑ Discogs: The Fame (original version)
- ↑ Discogs: The Fame (British Version)
- ↑ Discogs: The Fame (Japanese Version)
- ↑ Chart positions albums: DE ( Memento of the original from July 26, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , AT ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , CH , UK , US
- ^ Gary Trust: Ask Billboard: Lady Gaga's Sales & What's the Longest Streak for Americans Atop the Hot 100? In: Billboard . April 17, 2016, accessed April 17, 2016 .
- ^ Rob Copsey: The UK's biggest studio albums of all time. officialcharts.com, October 13, 2018, accessed November 9, 2018 .
