“Stupid Love”: Lady Gaga’s Return to an Earlier Pop Form

In her newest single “Stupid Love,” Lady Gaga revived the crazy, creative and alien-like aesthetics from her previous musical days of “Born this Way” and “The Fame Monster.”

I’m not an avid Lady Gaga fan, so I had no idea when her newest song was surfacing the music world until my Spotify app notified me as I pulled out of East’s senior lot. When I pressed play — unbeknownst to my car speakers — I immediately cranked the stereo up to my Ford Explore’s 30-level maximum. The song blasted rhythmic pace and killer vocals that  hit me with a mood of positivity and down right fun, taking me back to a time of “Telephone” and “Bad Romance.”

The message of the song — I’m guessing about the next venture in her love life — isn’t complex or serious. And I’m more than fine with that, because it doesn’t need to be. “Stupid Love” may not have a bold, underlying message, but rather embraces a style Gaga has put on the back burner instead of settling for the artistry of a song you’d hear on 93.9.

The song encapsulates a triumphant energy, with the lyrics “Now it’s time to free me from the chain,” that seems to automatically shift your mood from groggy to ready to break out of your chair and dance to its aggressive beats. 

The new track balances out the heaviness of her previous album “Joanne.” Gaga replaced her synth melodies with guitar strums presented through different songs of her pain, sorrow or happiness in a touching and stripped down package of ballads.

While it was off color for a bizarre once-wearing-raw-meat-as-a-real-outfit pop artist like Gaga to pull a reverse Taylor Swift (the opposite of country to pop), it solidified her smash-hit vocals and showed her audience the more relatable and down to earth side of Gaga — because I’m sure wearing 12 inch heels can be tiring.

Now that she has taken some time to let her most personal album finish up its life on the iTunes top #100 albums list, Gaga didn’t hesitate to bring a solid, slick and virally upbeat song to the charts. I can already imagine her accepting a Grammy for best song — likely in a getup that could have only come from a fever dream.