Lady Gaga - Disease

Conventional wisdom often tells female pop stars over the age 35 to pack it up and focus on touring on their back catalog, preferably a lucrative Las Vegas residency. Lady Gaga has done that already but is not ready to enter her legacy act era yet. Riding high on her massive duet “Die With A Smile” with fellow millennial pop veteran Bruno Mars, Gaga has proven time and time again that she has incredible staying power in an industry where long careers are rare.

“Disease”, the lead single from her upcoming album “LG7” is a return to her dark pop glory days from her classic late 2000s and early 2010s albums “The Fame Monster” and “Born This Way”. I immediately thought of her songs “Love Game”, “Bad Romance”, and “Judas” when I first listened to the track. With a bombastic chorus, dark arena pop production and clocking in at nearly four minutes long, it’s a middle finger to the current pop landscape of two minute songs that you can play in the background.

Lady Gaga has been compared to Madonna since her debut. The latter created the blueprint 20 years ago on how middle-aged female singers can still be successful while making interesting music well into their 40s. It’s a blueprint that you can see Beyonce adopting and Taylor Swift will likely follow as well. At 38 and over 15 years in the game, it will be intriguing to see how Lady Gaga works this latest album cycle as an artist who is still very popular but doesn’t score pop hits like in her prime.

Her 2020 album “Chromatica” saw her chasing trends instead of creating them. Collaborating with younger singers is not an issue, but it was interesting that her second and third singles were with much younger pop stars, after the fairly tepid response to its lead single “Stupid Love”. Here’s hoping “LG7” finds a freer Gaga who will achieve another career peak while eschewing conventional wisdom about how a mature pop star should navigate the current music landscape.