Lady Gaga’s ‘Perfect Illusion’ Video Fails To Make Song A Hit

Lady Gaga is having a rough time trying to fit in to today’s current musical landscape. In 2013, her album ARTPOP was considered a huge flop, even though it made some other albums by female artists seem like Thriller. However, after kicking off her recent album campaign for Joanne, Mother Monster has already ran into obstacles as the first single, “Perfect Illusion,” is not doing well.

“Perfect Illusion” has been polarizing, but has received some good reviews. Alice Vincent of the Telegraph thought Gaga’s latest was very pleasing.

“It delights me to write that this is a return to Just Dance-era Gaga: a simple, infectiously catchy slice of floor-filling, stadium-cheering pop.”

The review adds that Gaga is really showing off her voice on the new song. However, widely respected writer Rich Juzwiak of Jezebel thinks Lady Gaga’s latest is very unpleasant.

“They say that hurt people hurt people, and so it follows that Lady Gaga’s tortured new single, ‘Perfect Illusion,’ is torturous. Compressed within an inch of its life a la the brick waveforms of Born This Way, this lead single from her as-yet-untitled fifth album is a wall of shrill sounds.”

“Perfect Illusion” was, perhaps, the most hyped up new single of the year. Despite several campaigns from fans to buy multiple copies of the single and stream the song as much as possible, a debut at No. 15, which would be good for most other artists, has been considered a disappointment. Vulture has the news.

“The results are in and it wasn’t all laaaahve for Gaga’s ‘Perfect Illusion’: The lead single from her next album, Joanne, has debuted at No. 15 on the Billboard Hot 100, missing the top ten,” says columnist Dee Locket, who adds that this type of debut would not be disappointing for other artists.

It was believed that the video for “Perfect Illusion” would help the song. However, the reaction on Twitter has been largely negative.

https://twitter.com/mikeymorfin/status/778489610036838400

this is the first Gaga music video I've not liked since TEOG, that's my opinion and yes the editing was terrible, it's a mess.

— Rob Chromatica (@RobLennonArt) September 21, 2016

The “Perfect Illusion” video helped Lady Gaga’s single rise to No. 24 on iTunes, but as of Friday afternoon, the song has fallen to No. 34 and is colored in dark pink, which means the song is losing sales fast. Even worse, the song is rapidly losing airplay on pop radio stations as listener response has been less than favorable. The song is expected to take a major fall next week on Billboard‘s Hot 100.

However, Lady Gaga doesn’t appear to be too upset this time that a song of hers is underperforming. Perhaps she is in a better place and just doesn’t care. Three years ago, Gaga nearly had a nervous breakdown when “Applause” didn’t instantly top the charts. According to Spin, she even tried to goad fans into buying multiple copies to help its chart position.

“In what appears to be a thinly veiled bid to get ‘Applause’ to the top of the charts, Lady Gaga is dangling a huge prize in front of her rabidly devoted fans: a trip to Europe to meet Mother Monster herself. The controversial goal, no doubt, is to inspire the Little Monsters to purchase multiple copies of the song.”

Screenshot your 'Applause' purchase @ladygaga request to radio, & hashtag #Applause well choose 2 devoted fans to go WITH me to ITunes fest!

— Lady Gaga (@ladygaga) August 13, 2013

The 2 fans w the most purchase/gift screenshots, radio requests, 'Applause' selfies/video, will fly international to meet me+watch the show!

— Lady Gaga (@ladygaga) August 13, 2013

But, as Digital Spy noted, the situation became more desperate as Lady Gaga encouraged her fans to use questionable methods to increase streams of the “Applause” video since Billboard changed their chart methods to include video and song streams.

Monster to do:

1. Go here: http://t.co/7cuIR5pHnP
2. Click on "Play"
3. Retweet this
4. Copy this and pass it on

— Lady Gaga (@ladygaga) August 21, 2013

The site Gaga tweeted allowed the video to be streamed over and over with just a couple of clicks. According to Queerty, Billboard boss Bill Werde spoke out against Lady Gaga’s tweet and an online backlash ensued. However, “Applause” soon became a hit and spent several weeks in the top 10, even if it never topped the charts. Perhaps Lady Gaga realizes that, at times, bad publicity is good publicity. Will we see Gaga promote a similar stunt with “Perfect Illusion”?

[Featured Image by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images]