A still from Lady Gaga’s The Fame: Part One music video
The Fame, Lady Gaga’s hit debut album, was released on 19 August 2008 — making today its tenth birthday.
Background
The album has received a lot of notoriety since its release. At the 52nd Grammy Awards in 2010, it was nominated for five Grammys, including Album Of The Year. The Fame won the Grammy for Best Electronic/Pop Album and one for Best Dance Recording for the single Poker Face. In 2013, five years after its release, Rolling Stone named The Fame as one of the Greatest Debut Albums of All Time. The video for Bad Romance was also recently named Best Music Video of the 21st Century by Billboard. To this day, The Fame has sold over 15 million copies worldwide.
Additionally, since The Fame, Lady Gaga has become an icon for the LGBTI community. From her identifying as bisexual to launching the Born This Way foundation to prevent bullying, it’s clear why she’s held in such high esteem. Some even consider her a more powerful figure than the Queen of England.
What Gaga means to queer people
‘Ten years ago, I was at my ex girlfriend’s house reloading Myspace groups waiting for someone to post a link of Lady Gaga’s first album The Fame,’ Gaga fan Aye, 28, tells GSN.
‘Up until then, we had only heard maybe 6 or 7 songs – a few of them being old demos from Pure Volume. Even with just those few songs, we were both instantly OBSESSED. We geeked out over her videos and watched them over and over again. We watched every interview, every performance, and read every article we could get our hands on.’
‘At a time my friends and I were obsessing over rock and metal acts like Kittie, Otep, Wednesday 13, Marilyn Manson and of course all of the cringy emo bands,’ Aye recalls.
‘For us to be obsessing over a pop artist was completely out of character,’ they say.
‘We finally had an fresh new artist from our generation talking about issues that affected us, making music we had never thought about loving, and one that openly very queer.’
‘A decade later, it’s weird looking back on the album that I now associate with people that are not toxic parts of my past. Every song reminds me of a drunken night in my hometown, my first big break up, fully coming out, escaping home, and so many other memories. Though those memories feel like they happened ages ago, the songs bring me right back to them – which I’m still unsure is a good or bad thing.’
#TheFameTurns10
Many Lady Gaga fans on Twitter are sharing their appreciation for the album using the hashtag #TheFameTurns10.
The Fame impacted
The Fame revolutionized
The Fame changed the industry
The Fame was the pure popThe Fame did the fame#TheFameTurns10 pic.twitter.com/ocQ8kOQmdO
— josefs (@gagascars) August 19, 2018
Today marks 10 years of the release of one of the best albums in history and the album that started a revolution in pop, I would like to thank Lady Gaga for this incredible work. This album will never die! I love you! #TheFame #TheFameTurns10 pic.twitter.com/oiXzFv1Lf2
— well || lady gaga (@killthefame) August 19, 2018
10 years ago,Lady Gaga released her debut album “The Fame”,a futuristic project that changed and reinvented music & pop culture forever,bringing back to the game EDM sounds and showing the world how it must be done.The album is all about pop culture and how it feels to be famous. pic.twitter.com/B4zBWKTBEn
— 🍒 (@artpopf) August 19, 2018
Thank you for change my life for a new page full of amazing things. #TheFameTurns10 #TheFame
— e n i g m a (@xlibrianjo) August 19, 2018
If you’re a pop music fan and you grew up somewhen in the ‘90s, chances are you’re in the place to guarantee that no event in pop music history was more powerful than the release of The Fame in 2008. This album is the foundation of everything that’s built today. #TheFameTurns10 pic.twitter.com/ZbxjfYwGjE
— Monster Reactions (@LMonsterReacts) August 19, 2018
