So what's going on with Lady Gaga's more toned-down look lately?

It's no secret that the typically eccentric Gaga has made her fashion sense a little more average over the past year. It seems that the days of meat dresses and Kermit the Frog dresses are gone (at least for now), with Gaga giving off a more stripped down, rocker look. Now coming out with her new album, Joanne, the singer spoke with The London Times' Culture magazine to explain her look for this album cycle.

"To be frank, I would prefer to go through this album cycle and talk about my music," she told the magazine. "If I wear black pants and a black T-shirt everyday, people might focus on what I write. All the outfits, fashion and art pieces over the years made sense to me [but] they didn't make sense to other people."

The new style began in the studio, working with industry greats like Mark Ronson, Bloodpop and Kevin Parker.

"This time, my style just stayed naturally at how I've been in the studio," Gaga noted. "I started vehemently saying, 'Get these clothes out! I'm not wearing this! I'm not wearing heels!' And some of that, too, is because I've been in the studio with boys. You can't make music with a bunch of boys who are staring at a lobster on your head. They are going to get distracted."

Similarly, the music on Joanne that's been heard so far has been a little more analog, with less use of EDM beats like her previous solo record, ARTPOP. Her lead single, "Perfect Illusion", certainly featured the type of driving beat Gaga is known for, but her raw vocals certainly indicated that things were different with this era. The release of her country-tinged ballad "Million Reasons" reinforced this.

It remains to be seen if Gaga will keep this more natural sensibility for future records, but the rock-oriented vibe with folk roots should play pretty well at next year's Super Bowl halftime show.