Lady Gaga set to unleash new single, album, app
LOS ANGELES – This year’s twin-headed music marketing beast of Kanye West and Jay-Z has just sprouted another head, and her name is Lady Gaga. The singer and songwriter has announced the release dates for her new single and the long gestating album that contains it, “Artpop.”
The name of the new track has yet to be announced – that will no doubt arrive via some earth-shattering presentation at a later date – but it will come out Aug. 19, with the “Artpop” album and accompanying smartphone app preorders starting Sept. 1. The record will be released Nov. 11 as a physical and digital product, as well as through the “Artpop” app containing the release and, if the press release is to be believed, world-changing features.
It’s this app that Gaga and her company TechHAUS are pushing. The downloadable project, according to the press release, isn’t your basic recording of music. It’s “a musical and visual engineering system that combines music, art, fashion, and technology with a new interactive worldwide community.” Gaga has even named her imagined community: “The Auras.”
The desire, according to the press release (which seems written by a very accomplished MFA grad), is to transform humanity: “Altering the human experience through social media, we bring ARTculture into POP in reverse Warholian expedition.” (Non-MFA translation: “We think our app is swag.”)
The press release continues, explaining that “Artpop” “musically mirrors Gaga’s creative process” (translation: She wrote and performed it). This mirror will feature “a ‘rage’ of electronic passion and fury, defining each artistic process from beginning to end.”
To underscore her continued swing toward fine art and conceptualism, Gaga and her Haus of Gaga world will present a show in New York on Nov. 10, the night before “Artpop” comes out. It will feature her and Haus’ recent “projects,” as well as collaborations with some heavy hitters of the art world: Maria Abramovic, Jeff Koons, Robert Wilson and Inez & Vinoodh.