Lady Gaga Needs Your Forgiveness

When it comes to Lady Gaga, the year in pop culture can project in one of two ways: ARTPOP will either be fully embraced by the public, or it will go down in history as one of those deep-cut, made-for-the-fans kind of albums. The intensely hyped project, with all its singles and the international promotional tour, has failed to deliver the monetary goods originally anticipated. Though some might blame that on the loftiness of the album itself, Gaga shared an open letter explaining the past few months and where she's headed. Let's call it a New Year's goal.

Late Sunday evening, Gaga took to her Little Monsters website to explain the late status of her "Do What U Want" music video. "It is late because, just like with the "Applause" video unfortunately, I was given a week to plan and execute it," she wrote. According to her letter, she's been "betrayed" by "those I called friends and partners." She promises that, despite its November release, the next few months will truly be the beginning of the ARTPOP era. The people "who did not care about ARTPOP's success are now gone, and the dreams I have been planning can now come to fruition."

As to what those dreams are, well, that's anyone's guess. The bigger question is whether or not Gaga can regain her well-manicured grip on the charts. It's one thing to talk about the merging of art and pop, it's another to make an album out of it, but the true test lies in how digestible it is. Gaga's great at candy-coating touchy topics and difficult life experiences into danceable tunes. Let's hope the odds for forgiveness are in her favor. (Little Monsters)