Lady Gaga's Mayhem Album: Unpacking EVERY Musical Reference

MsMojo

From self-references to legendary artists, Lady Gaga's "Mayhem" is a masterclass in musical homage. Join us as we dissect each track on her seventh studio album, revealing the inspirations behind the madness! We'll explore how Gaga channels everyone from Nine Inch Nails to Madonna, David Bowie to Michael Jackson, while still reheating her own iconic sounds from the past.

Transcript

00:00From samples to interpolations, music, like most art forms, feeds on references to the past.

00:13And in 2025, no one exemplified that quite as masterfully as Lady Gaga.

00:18Welcome to Ms. Mojo, and today we're plunging headfirst into the chaotic world of Lady Gaga's

00:23seventh studio album, Mayhem, uncovering the countless tributes and nods woven throughout

00:28the long-awaited masterpiece.

00:36Disease.

00:37More than just paying homage to other artists, Mayhem sees Lady Gaga pulling off the ultimate

00:42musical flex, referencing herself.

00:45Or as the kids might put it, reheating her very own nachos.

00:53The self-referential tribute is glaring on the album opener, which, as the lead single,

00:57also served as everyone's introduction to Gaga's latest sonic universe.

01:01Disease resurrects the pulsating techno and house-infused dance pop of bad romance, while

01:06spinning a tale of love as both an affliction and a cure.

01:16The track also swerves into heavy gothic and industrial rock territory, borrowing unapologetically

01:22from the playbook of Nine Inch Nails.

01:23And if that squelching synth line in the intro sounds familiar, you might have heard something

01:28similar in George Michael's 2002 single, Freak.

01:31The dark electronic sounds of Disease bleed seamlessly into Abracadabra, the album's second track.

01:50The most blatant tribute here comes in the form of a direct interpolation of Suzy and the

01:54Banshee's 1981 classic, Spellbound.

02:03But listen closely and you'll catch a few more subtle winks.

02:07Gaga has shown she's not afraid to draw inspiration from those who have been inspired by her,

02:11as the synthesized bass line here evokes that of Charlie XCX's Von Dutch.

02:15Then there's that operatic midsection, which throws listeners right back to the 80s with

02:27undeniable traces of ABBA.

02:29Yet the true magic of Abracadabra lies in the hypnotic gibberish of its chorus and the music

02:33video's entrancing choreography, both of which carry a whiff of bad romance.

02:38Garden of Eden

02:47While the first two tracks on the album cleverly nod to her excellent discography,

02:51Garden of Eden is where Gaga really cranks up the heat on her old nachos.

02:55I'll take you to the Garden of Eden

02:58I'll take you to the Garden of Eden

03:02The song is an amalgamation of the unmistakable sound Gaga carved out at the start of her career,

03:07alongside producers like Red One.

03:12To the casual listener, Garden of Eden is a playful wink to her past work,

03:18but diehard fans know that it is basically a polished rewrite of Private Audition,

03:22an unreleased demo Gaga recorded with renowned producer Rodney Darkchild-Jerkins sometime in the late 2000s.

03:28It's just another reminder that Gaga's music has always been ahead of its time.

03:41Perfect celebrity.

03:42Fame has been a recurring theme throughout Lady Gaga's career,

03:45and she never runs out of creative ways to explore it.

03:48She tackled the media's obsession with celebrities in paparazzi

03:57and confessed her relentless need for fan adoration in applause.

04:00With perfect celebrity, Gaga found yet another innovative angle.

04:04At its conception, this song was inspired by the band The Cure,

04:08particularly their song Never Enough.

04:10But listening to the fully realized song, you can't help but pick up on other influences.

04:20The electro grunge sounds and wall of guitars practically worship at the altar of Nine Inch Nails,

04:25a band that Gaga has admitted to being a super fan of.

04:28Do you believe, will you fight the hand that frees?

04:35Then there's her vocal delivery here,

04:37which many have likened to one artist who probably shaped her career the most,

04:41Madonna.

04:41Every little thing that you say I do,

04:45I'll have enough on you.

04:49Vanish Into You.

04:50I saw your face and mine in a picture of mine.

04:57On Vanish Into You, Lady Gaga sings about wanting to merge completely into another person.

05:03In real life, that's her fiancé Michael Polanski.

05:05But musically, the only person Gaga vanishes into on this track is David Bowie.

05:10With its groovy bassline and glam rock flair,

05:12Vanish Into You once again transports listeners straight back to the 80s,

05:16channeling the spirit of Bowie's 1983 hit single Let's Dance.

05:19If you should walk into my arms, tremble like a throne.

05:27On paper, it might seem like this song and Bad Romance have nothing in common,

05:31but with the way the chorus stretches out its vowels,

05:34it'll almost have you humming caught in a Bad Romance.

05:37I've vanished Into You.

05:41Finally, as the last instrumental break swells,

05:45you might also pick up hints of ABBA's The Winner Takes It All.

05:48The winner takes it all.

05:52The loser has to fall.

05:54Killa, featuring Gasolstein.

05:57Gonna make the captain scream, believe it.

06:01The first collaboration on the album,

06:04Killa pairs the signature electro-industrial sound of French producer Gasolstein

06:08with Gaga's campy theatrical edge.

06:10The result is a bold fusion of their distinct styles,

06:13as well as that of music legends past.

06:21Killa opens with a funky electronic groove that's unexpected from Gaga,

06:25but feels strangely familiar.

06:27That's probably because it channels the sounds of names we've already heard.

06:31David Bowie, Nine Inch Nails.

06:33And one we haven't yet, Prince.

06:35The aggressive combination of synthesizers, bass, and electronic rhythms

06:39harkens back to Nine Inch Nails closer,

06:41and Gaga's vocal delivery is pretty much similar to that of Prince in Sign of the Times.

06:52It's a modern-day, high-voltage remix of their greatest hits.

06:56Like if St. Vincent went pop, Zombie Boy.

07:01You'd be hard-pressed to find a line more quintessentially Gaga on this album

07:09than put your paws all over me, you zombie boy.

07:12That lyric alone makes Zombie Boy the perfect choice to close the first half of Mayhem.

07:16A tribute to model Rick Janest, who appeared in the Born This Way video and tragically passed away in 2018,

07:29Zombie Boy is a dazzling disco delight with chunky guitar riffs

07:33that instantly call to mind Sheik's endlessly sampled good times.

07:36Leave your chairs behind

07:38While the main chorus is riddled with shimmering synths that are damn near impossible to not dance to,

07:48it quickly devolves into a double-Dutch-style chant of a post-chorus,

07:52the likes of which we haven't heard since Gwen Stefani's Hollaback Girl.

07:55A few times I've been around that track

07:57Don't stop, it's gonna happen

07:59Not dance, but there ain't no Hollaback Girl

08:01How bad do you want me?

08:03I know you wish that she was me

08:07How bad, bad do you want me?

08:10Lady Gaga has collaborated with some of pop's biggest names,

08:13including Beyoncé, Ariana Grande, and Bruno Mars.

08:16Fans hoping to see Taylor Swift join that list may not have gotten their wish on this album,

08:20but they got the next best thing,

08:22How Bad Do You Want Me?

08:23Bound to cross the scene

08:26How bad, bad do you want me?

08:28Since its release, this song has drawn such strong comparisons to Swift's work

08:33that some listeners are convinced she secretly recorded backing vocals for it.

08:36The track also seems to borrow heavily from Yazoo's 1982 hit Only You,

08:41with a synth line so distinctive it might have been directly sampled or interpolated.

08:45All I needed was the love you gave

08:49All I needed for another day

08:53Still, its strongest resemblance is to Swift's Blank Space and Gorgeous,

08:57both of which feature the same yearning in their vocals, lyrics, and melodies.

09:01I gotta blink space, baby

09:04And I'll write your name

09:06Don't Call Tonight

09:07After a whirlwind tour through music history over the prior few songs,

09:18Gaga takes one last glance in the mirror for the disco and Europop-influenced Don't Call Tonight.

09:22Right from the first few notes, the track echoes her 2010 hit single Alejandro.

09:27That influence is front and center, but perhaps less obvious is the vocoder-enhanced bridge,

09:38which cleverly nods to Electric Light Orchestra's Mr. Blue Sky and just about any song in Daft Punk's discography.

09:45Even more, if you keep the chorus of Don't Call Tonight on repeat, which you probably will given how infectious it is,

10:00you might just catch a melodic resemblance to Tina Turner's 1984 comeback single,

10:04What's Love Got To Do With It?

10:12Before we continue, be sure to subscribe to our channel and ring the bell to get notified about our latest videos.

10:18You have the option to be notified for occasional videos, or all of them.

10:22If you're on your phone, make sure you go into your settings and switch on notifications.

10:28Shadow of a Man

10:34If you're wondering what inspired Shadow of a Man,

10:39look no further than the closing segment of the 2024 HBO special Gaga Chromatica Ball.

10:44As Gaga wraps up and heads backstage, a snippet of the song plays,

10:48and she strikes a pose reminiscent of Michael Jackson.

10:55On the track, Gaga fully embodies the king of pop as she sings about breaking free from the shadows

11:00as a female artist to carve out her own legacy.

11:02From the undeniable swagger of her cadence to the irresistible disco and electro-pop synths,

11:07this song bleeds with the manic energy of the tracks on Michael Jackson's Thriller,

11:11while retaining Gaga's signature theatricality.

11:22It's a masterclass in duality. Gaga seamlessly embodies another icon,

11:26but remains unmistakably herself.

11:28Not that anyone could ever cast a shadow big enough to eclipse her anyway.

11:31I'm about to be there, I'm about to be there, I'm about to be there.

11:34Watch me, I swear, I'll stand to the shadow of a day.

11:38So, are you a fan of reheated nachos?

11:41Or do you prefer original ones created from scratch?

11:43But I would say that my nachos are mine,

11:48and I invented them, and I'm proud of them.

11:52Mm-hmm.

11:52What's your final verdict on Lady Gaga's mayhem?

11:55Let us know in the comments below.

11:56And that's how she said, death for what she died!

12:02We'll see you next time.

Category

Transcript

Recommended