From meat dress to Mayhem — the evolution of Lady Gaga

Lady Gaga is back and once again she’s reinvented herself and her sound (Picture: Getty)

Mayhem, Lady Gaga’s new album is finally out and it marks a distinct move back to that original explosive artist we know and love.

An actress, a beauty mogul, an activist, and, of course, a Grammy winning singer — there’s very little Stefani Germanotta aka Lady Gaga hasn’t done.

The new album brings a dance-pop sound that quite literally echoes her past with samples from hits like Alejandro taking us back to the 2010s.

There has been huge excitement from fans in the lead-up and the Poker Face hitmaker has not disappointed.

Interestingly, Gaga, 38, said this is the album she feels most herself on, having finally married her artist and personal sides together.

While her new fiancé may have something to do with this, we look back at the many versions of Lady Gaga we’ve seen over the past 17 years.

Gaga has been making music for almost two decades (Picture: Noam Galai/NBC via Getty Images) A meat dress and The Fame Monster (2008-2010)

Perhaps the style most associated with Lady Gaga, and certainly one that can be heard throughout Mayhem, is her debut era.

This was loud and experimental and put her on the map as the artist to watch in the pop world.

The Fame and its follow-up remixed album The Fame Monster provided huge hits like Telephone ft Beyonce, Poker Face, and Paparazzi.

At the 2010 Grammys, she was nominated eight times, including video of the year for Bad Romance, becoming one of the most nominated people in history.

Poker Face era is burned in our brains (Picture: Anita Bugge/WireImage)

Already an icon, Gaga was joined on stage by the actual Sir Elton John for her performance, which was a charged mashup taking aim at stardom.

Months later, at the VMAs, she wore that absolutely unforgettable meat dress – raw beef, designed by Franc Fernandez and styled by Nicola Formichetti.

At the time, animal rights protestors blasted the superstar but Gaga was already being an LGBTQ+ activist as she was protesting the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell military policy.

‘If we don’t stand up for our rights soon we’re going to have as much rights as the meat on our bones,’ she said of the dress.

So much of what we know as staples of Gaga’s public image comes from this era, the second that spotlight was on her she was standing up for others and doing so in a creative way rarely seen before her.

It doesn’t get more iconic than the meat dress (Picture: Kevin Winter/Getty Images) Rock and roll was Born This Way (2011-2012)

If The Fame put her on the map, Born This Way solidified that Gaga was a tour de force finally unleashed on the world.

This wasn’t a complete sound switch up but her second album gave a rockier edge to this pop diva.

The Madonna influence was clear to see as she dove into techno, heavy metal, and good old-fashioned rock and roll.

Gaga’s looks mimicked her sound with her geometric shapes and meaty getups of 2010 giving way to leather, bold dark makeup and prosthetic horns.

Born This Way marked a punk shift (Picture: Joe Scarnici/WireImage

Born This Way scored three Grammy nods, including her third album of the year nomination in a row.

Her title track was the fastest-selling single in iTunes history at the time of release and held on to the top spot in the US charts for six weeks.

This is where the claims of satanism really started to kick off, especially with her hit song Judas coming into play. Gaga is often said to be at her best when she puts religious imagery into a dance track.

If that wasn’t enough, 2011 also cemented Gaga as a legend as she had an entire Glee episode dedicated to her (a high honour in the 2010s), with Born This Way forming the climactic episode end.

By this point, everyone knew about Lady Gaga. We couldn’t look away. Her reinvention, her boundary pushing, her fashion statements — and she was only three albums in.

Her looks were still out there though (Picture: WireImage) Artpop gives us a creative finale (2013-2014)

Little did fans know at the time but Artpop signalled a move away from her explosive roots into a calmer Gaga.

This was the finale in a trilogy of colour and creativity, leaning heavily into modern art influences, which were much more subtle in her first few albums.

As with all of the G.U.Y. singer’s projects, this was not merely an album it was a full concept with looks and performances to marry the music.

Applause became the breakout track for the album, which sonically moved away from the dark, punk nature of its predecessor.

This time, Gaga gave us EDM, techno, and dubstep in place of rock or dance, proving her chameleon-like ability to slide through genres.

Artpop was a sleeker but still playful version of Gaga’s creative power (Picture: Kevin Mazur/WireImage for MTV)

She described the album as having an intentional ‘lack of maturity and responsibility’ while exploring topics of sex, self-expression and empowerment.

Her iconic VMAs performance saw her move through iconic looks or vibes from each previous era, shedding them until she became a glittering disco version of Botticelli’s Birth of Venus.

Artpop might not have had the breakout singles — Applause being the exception — but it will always be remembered as the pinpoint shift in Gaga’s career.

Meet Joanne (2014 – 2018)

After Artpop, we saw a dramatic shift in Gaga’s look and goals as she released Joanne, a stripped-back soft rock meets country album.

During this era, she worked with Tony Bennett to release Cheek to Cheek, an album of jazz duets in a huge departure from her previous music.

In 2013, Gaga had first dipped her toe into acting, and by 2015, she had become a series regular as The Countess on American Horror Story.

Joanne was a complete overhaul of her sound and look (Picture: Jeffrey Mayer/WireImage)

Gone were the high-fashion looks and synth-pop sounds of her career to date, instead, we got a 70s-inspired denim and cowboy-hat-wearing iteration of the singer.

One of her most personal albums, this was influenced by the death of her aunt Joanne, for whom the 2016 album is named and walks listeners ‘through all of [life]’s emotions’.

Speaking to E! at the time, she said she wanted to go ‘out into the world … bringing with me its deepest stories that I have of my life and turning them into songs that I hope will touch people in a deep and meaningful way about their own lives and their own stories.’

Gaga’s edge wasn’t completely lost though as a bedazzled SuperBowl halftime show in 2017 proved our Born This Way punk was still in there.

Who could forget when she jumped from the roof after a patriotic opening number, blasting through Poker Face and Bad Romance as well as a slower piano moment for Million Reasons.

Her 2017 SuperBowl halftime show was a slight era departure (Picture: Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)

There are hints of Chromatica here too for those paying attention, her set design is very cyberpunk in certain moments although her looks firmly bring 2012 Gaga.

In 2018, Gaga starred in A Star is Born, mimicking her style for Joanne, fans once again saw her as a t-shirt and jeans wearing singer-songwriter.

However, just when you thought the superstar had retired her false lashes for good — she appeared in hot pink on the Met Gala red carpet with not one but four separate looks.

A return to form with Chromatica (2020-2024)

Those who had loved her early work rejoiced when Gaga released the album Chromatica, inspired by house music and dance.

However, never one to repeat an outfit concept, this was a full-blown cyberpunk fever dream fit for a rave in space.

Failed romances, mental health, and healing feature heavily with guest vocals from Sir Elton, Ariana Grande and BlackPink (who were yet to break the global scene).

Visually, we were treated to bold gothic looks with the high drama of her early years mixing with the sleek sophisticated Joanne era.

The Chromatica era brought back gothic looks and drama (Photo by David Jon/Getty Images for HBO)

Rain on Me with the Wicked actress stole the show for this record and won best duo at the Grammys.

Covid struck and delayed touring but in 2022, Gaga took The Chromatica Ball on the road with punk, blending Born This Way’s imagery with a cyber edge.

As with all of the Stupid Love hitmaker’s previous albums, she received vast critical acclaim for Chromatica, although it is the one record many fans failed to connect with.

Mayhem and Michael Polansky (2025)

Somewhat ignoring Chromatica, reviews have called Mayhem a return to form and a resurgence of the Gaga we all adore.

Funnily enough, it was the Chromatica tour that gave us this new album as her fiancé, Michael Polansky. told Vogue: ‘On the Chromatica tour, I saw a fire in her’.

Gaga revealed she is engaged to Michael Polansky last year (Picture: Taylor Hill/FilmMagic)

He added: ‘I wanted to help her keep that alive all the time and just start making music that made her happy.’

This is a loved-up era like we’ve never seen before with songs dedicated to Michael and he’s even credited as a co-writer on Disease.

Blade of Grass is an ‘eerie and tense’ tribute to this romance, with Gaga writing it after he proposed.

She told Rolling Stone: ‘The song was about a memory that I had of us standing in the backyard and he said, “When I propose to you,” he said, “what am I supposed to do?”

‘And I said, “You can just wrap a blade of grass around my finger in the backyard.” And I said, “I’ll say yes.” But in that backyard, in our home, so many things have happened.’

No matter what phase she’s in, Gaga is always killing it (Picture: Kevin Winter/Getty Images for The Recording Academy)

Musically, Gaga stretches back across her decades in the spotlight, sampling old songs (Alejandro) and pulling themes from those eras.

While we’ve only just begun to see this new version of Gaga, she shared with Rolling Stone it is ‘nothing like anything that I’ve ever made before.’

‘I wanted to traverse old ground while breaking new ground, which I think is hard to do,’ she told Rolling Stone UK.

‘I feel more comfortable in my own skin. I’ve fully integrated, I’m both Lady Gaga and Stefani at the same time.’

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