Born This Way Album Cover By Lady Gaga

Lady Gaga Does Not Go Gaga Over Album Wording

This is another instalment of Behind The Cover where we look at the story behind the music and cover art of an iconic album from the past few decades. This feature is brought to you by Pure Music Manufacturing.

The second studio album released on May 2011 by American singer Lady Gaga was titled, “Born This Way.” The album, which featured a continuation of the synth-pop and dance-pop music of her debut album, became a huge success. It debuted in the top five of every single major music chart around the world including the US Billboard 200. It went on to sell over one-million copies in its first week which broke a five-year record as the highest first-week album sales. Additionally, an estimated 440,000 copies were sold at 99 cents each in the first two days of release via Amazon. The album has since sold six-million copies and was identified as the third global best-selling album of 2011 by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry.

The Born This Way Album Cover is a whole different story. The artwork features Gaga fused into a motorcycle. The only wording on the cover is the album title written in chrome lettering across the top. Critics and fans panned the album cover. In fact, The Guardian’s Sean Michaels referred to it as looking “more like a cheap Photoshop job than the most anticipated album of the year.” Andrew Martin of Prefix called it “a reject from the last Terminator film.”

A special edition cover was also released which featured just Gaga’s head from a standard edition cover with the artist’s name and the album title appearing in the top left corner of the cover. Gone is the chrome lettering and the impact font was used instead with the album title being highlighted in white with black letters.

Interestingly enough, the words ‘special’ or ‘deluxe’ do not appear anywhere on the cover. That is because Gaga herself disliked either of them. However, she was rather fond of the cover that had her fused to a motorcycle. One critic pointed out that the design erased all of Gaga’s unique visuals such as her futuristic sunglasses, asymmetrical haircuts and her newly touted “magic horns” and reduced her to parts of a chopper.

Regardless, the numbers don’t lie and although the album art for this release was not well received, the music was and in some cases that is just how it goes. There is no telling whether or not a slick album cover will increase sales provided that the content contained within is of good quality. However, in the case of Lady Gaga’s “Born The Way” it is fortunate that the disc was not judged by its cover.

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