15 Differences Between The Old And New Lady Gaga

#1 She’s An Actress Now

She's come a long way since the middle 2000's when she was a struggling performance artist in New York's Underground trying to make a name for herself. Today Lady Gaga is acclaimed for more than just her musical ability. As of 2017, Gaga has a few acting achievements under her belt, beginning with the role she had in the 2013 film Machete Kills, which was a total disaster. However, it did pave the way for Gaga to get other roles, including starring on American Horror Story, for which she won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a miniseries. Acting and awards were not something the Lady Gaga of 2008 was reaching for.

#2 She’s More Of A Role Model For Women

She has always, from the very beginning, had a constant control over her loving fans. She was a huge influence to many young hopefuls along the way. Recently, her stance has been less focused on the outside appearance and fame than it has been on the inside and the things that really matter. There was a time when mothers wouldn't let their daughters go to one of her concerts or listen to her music. As she’s grown older, she’s definitely become a more positive role model for women, and young girls in particular. She's less provocative and more positive when speaking, and she seems to be doing a lot of that lately.

#3 She’s A Woman, Not A Girl

One of the major reasons why Lady Gaga is so much different now is because she is older. Unlike a lot of young performers who catch on with the audience at a certain age and keep putting out the same type of music long after they and their audience has outgrown it, she has learned to keep her music and style appropriate to her actual age. This difference in age naturally means that Gaga is now a stronger lady than she used to be, thanks to experience and learning from her mistakes, and has a greater idea of the type of person she is or wants to become.

#4 She’s More Humble

She has always been gracious when it comes to her adoring fans and was always very charitable and conscious of the world and people around her, but her ego doesn't require as much feeding as it once did when she was trying to prove herself to all the naysayers. Gossip columnists reported that at the height of her fame in 2012 she was a Diva off stage. There were a few photos of her being abrupt with reporters, but never with the fans. Today she appears to be much more chilled and in touch with who she really is. 'The Dive Bar Tour' she embarked on in 2016 proved this, as no superstar with a big head would perform in small town bars when they could perform in sold-out arenas!

#5 She’s Herself Now

She told interviewers in 2016 that she had grown tired of all the work that went into transforming into the persona that her fans had fallen in love with, which is why she took a little time off to gather herself and rest. She told how difficult it was to transform from the offstage Gaga to the one seen onstage, and how she got so confused with the manufactured Lady gaga that she began wearing her costumes, makeup, and wigs offstage. That's when she knew it was over.

Now that she’s an established artist rather than an emerging one, Gaga has a lot more say in her own music and she even became emotional in one interview when talking about how she’s free to do whatever she wants to do with this latest record. Even as she appears now frequently with less makeup and wigs we feel like we’re getting more of a glimpse of Stefani Germanotta!

#6 She Has A New Kind Of Confidence

If you've ever seen her perform, either live or on television, you know she never lacked confidence. Anyone without confidence would never be able to give the empowering speech she gave to the crowd during her Born This Way Ball or the way she was okay with hanging from a rope half naked and covered with fake blood in front of all of Hollywood at the Video Music Awards in 2009. But to let the entire world see behind your masks, costumes, glitter, wigs, sequins, and meat dresses is a pretty big deal, especially when you were once a shy young girl who only created that look to hide your real self away. Gaga’s always had confidence, but now she has it in a different way as she’s exposing herself to the world.

#7 She Seems More Human

For years people were guessing whether Lady Gaga was even a real person or not. But these days, the result of a more honest and humble image is that Gaga seems like more of a person than she ever did! Her Instagram today is filled with pictures of her doing regular things, and where today we see snaps of her doing grocery shopping and wearing tracksuits, back in the day we would have seen pictures of her posing in dresses made out of racks of lamb.

#8 She Does Less Publicized Celebrity Team-Ups

We don't see Lady Gaga out promoting herself like she once did, and the collaboration phase seems to be over for her. Gaga was well-known for getting the top celebrities in the game by her side to collaborate on material. Not only did she do a memorable performance with Elton John at the 2011 Grammys, but who could forget the way she teamed up with Beyoncé on two different occasions? Aside from teaming up with her idol, jazz singer Tony Bennet, for which she won a Grammy, she is capable of turning out a song on her own without any help. The days of all the hype seem to be just about over.

#9 She’s Less Obsessed With The Bizarre

When she first appeared on the scene, she was almost scary. Sure, there have been acts who have used costumes and make-up in the past, like KISS, or even Madonna, but Lady Gaga was considered a bit bizarre. Her music, however, made people forget all of that costuming and listen as she churned out hit after hit. Some of her Grammy and awards show performances made us wonder just who the heck this crazy lady was. Today, as we mentioned, Gaga seems much more normal and much less quirky. Anybody can see that she’s endlessly creative, artistic, and talented, but today she does less of the things that leave you in shock. We haven’t seen a meat dress for a while!

#10 Her Level Of Fame Has Changed

With all the other changes Gaga has gone through, she has come to a transformation in the kind of fame she has as well. She’s gone through a few different phases of being in the public eye throughout her career, including being the newest artist on the scene with the world’s curiosity, the headline-making star the world’s obsessed with, and the unstoppable superstar who needs police escorts to get her from A to B. Gaga never lost her fame once she had it, but around 2013, things had died down. Her fans remained loyal but we didn't see her making headlines every day. That's when she surprised everyone at the Oscars with a tribute to Julie Andrews and blew the roof off the Kodak Theatre and began her transformation. With all they hype and intensity of keeping up appearances gone, she can finally just be the icon that she has come to be known as.

#11 She’s More Respected

She's proven herself over and over, and the world knows that she has talent and is no 'one hit wonder'. There will probably always be criticism for Gaga and her celeb peers, but generally, the public’s response to her has definitely changed. In the beginning, it sure seemed like a lot of people didn’t understand what she was really about and believed that there was no substance beneath all the costumes and outrageous antics. Some might have even called her gimmicky! But through her tours and appearances, Gaga has proven that she has undeniable talent. She’s proven that she’s persistent and hardworking. In her other endeavors outside of music, like speaking on behalf of certain groups of people, she’s proven that she cares about others and is a genuine person.

#12 She’s A Single Gal

This one doesn’t really make a difference to the type of artist she is, or even her as a person, but it’s still a big change. Gaga’s engagement to actor Taylor Kinney ended in 2016, which makes her a single woman. This could mean that she’s got more time to spend on her music and on her awesome upcoming performances, which is a total bonus for fans. When she discusses the breakup in interviews, Gaga does sound kind of sad about it, and like she didn’t come out totally unscathed. So her being single could also mean that the content of the songs she writes from now on will come from a new perspective.

#13 Her Music Has Changed

She will always be, for the most part, a 'pop artist' and that's okay. While her fans seemed to enjoy her jazz break and Sound Of Music Tribute, they want the music they grew to love from Gaga. Her new album, Joanne is deeper than anything she's done before, and there are less of the hip-hop dance beats like 'Poker Face' and 'Paparazzi'. Her latest music has a whole bunch of influences, and the album features tastes of everything from country and folk to rock to jazz to funk. It’s really a whole new sound for her. She says the songs are much more retrospective than before and that she tried to use some of her musical influences from her idols like Aretha Franklin, Carly Simon, James Taylor, Elton John, Loretta Lynn, and Tina Turner.

#14 Her Performances Are Different

There was a time when Lady gaga ad the biggest tour in the world. The Born This Way Ball was more like some kind of circus than a concert; it was filled with advanced special effects, a huge horse puppet, and a set design that was truly amazing. She performed nightly to sold-out stadiums all over the world and was racking in the dough. That's a huge difference from her last tour, The Dive Bar Tour, where she toned everything down about 99% and played little dive bars to crowds of 100-250 people. Her actual stage shows are different as well. Where Gaga once performed with fake blood and headdresses, she now opts for a much simpler vibe. The 2016 American Music Awards saw her barefooted with a guitar and a stool. Much simpler indeed!

#15 Her Changing Style

Besides her music and performances, Lady Gaga has changed as a person as well. Her total style has changed. Encompassing all the transformations she’s gone through with her confidence, her alter-ego, her sound, and her personal life, her overall style is now something that we would never have guessed she’d sport back in 2008. On stage, she no longer dresses up in costumes made of metal, meat, or wire. Instead, she dresses for comfort and even has a country feel to her appearance. Her red carpet looks are elegant now as well, and for the most part, she’s swapped the pony wedges for sophisticated gowns. It seems that Gaga is no longer trying to adhere to the teenagers, and wears what she feels like.

Sometimes her attire is provocative, sometimes it’s not. At times it’s kind of out-there, and at other times, it looks like she threw on the first thing she saw in the closet, which we 'd love to take a peek into sometime just for laughs. She definitely seems like she’s been relieved of some of the pressure now, and her recent half-time performance at the 2017 Superbowl was amazing though she had been prepping for it for some time, as she was on a short list of performers since 2013. She gave us a little bit of the old Gaga, with special effects and the whole nine yards, but she says that she has no plans on keeping up with costumes and makeup in the future and is relieved that she played the Super Bowl and can move forward.