Swine (Lady Gaga song)

A dubstep and industrial track, "Swine" was inspired by the singer's sexual experiences and the rage she felt from being raped when she was 19 by an unidentified record producer.

[2][3][4] One of the songs on Artpop was "Swine", which the singer explained was personal, and dealt with challenging and troubling sexual experiences she had encountered in her life.

I'm able to laugh now because I've gone through a lot of mental, physical and emotional therapy [...] I wasn't even willing to admit that anything had even happened [...] I saw him one time in a store, and I was paralyzed by fear."

[8][9][10] Based on the "teaser" of Gaga rehearsing for the iTunes Festival, Entertainment Weekly's Nick Catucci described "Swine" as a "real shocker with Nine Inch Nails lyrics and bull-in-a-bong-shop Deep Purple groove.

"[11] Consequence of Sound noted the creation of the Twitter hashtag #swinefest, and called the song a "melancholy piano ballad that eventually erupts into a raging pop-rocker, backed by piercing guitar and synths.

[5] After the song was made available online, Idolator website contributor Carl Williott compared it to her iTunes Festival performance and said, "That rendition was particularly wild, and the studio version is even more schizophrenic and rave-ready."

Furthermore, he wrote of the song, "It's a sonic onslaught of synth washes, a ground-churning bass line, jittery keyboards, hiccuping vocal samples and crescendos leading to drops in all the expected places.

[19] Maura Johnston of Spin magazine listed "Swine" as one of Artpop's highlights, describing Gaga's belting of the lyrics and the sounds from the keyboards being reminiscent of Trent Reznor's songs.

[27] During the performance, Gaga's dancers wore pig-like gasmasks and "white boiler suits", and sprayed paint into the crowd from bungee harnesses.

[30] In March 2014, Gaga introduced "Swine" at the South by Southwest (SXSW) music festival in Austin, Texas as a song about "rape and rage",[31] which was followed by her inviting performance artist Millie Brown to accompany her on stage.

[32][33] They then climbed atop a large mechanical bull with a pig's head and a ball gag inserted in its mouth,[31][34] riding it together and simulating sex acts.

"[33] Andrew Hampp felt that "for an album [and concert] inspired by performance art, it was the one moment where music and shock value merged indelibly and credibly.

[36] In response to the controversy, Brown told MTV News, "I can understand why people would make that association, but my performance is really not a statement about eating disorders themselves.

[40] James Duffield from MTV called the performance "a sensory overload – the confetti cannons are back, strobe lights and dancers with pig masks start spewing fake blood from their mouths".