Madonna's MDNA Album & Singles Chat- Page 11

[CAX]

Posted: 4/1/12 at 5:51pm

I think it's a testament to this woman's staying power and her relevance that almost 4 decades in this business and people are still talking about her. Boy George couldn't drum up this kind of talk if her PAID for it... Cyndi Lauper? Debbie Harry?

MDNA isn't the most amazing album ever made... so what? It's a pretty damn good album and it's the album of a working entertainer. Not a compilation or retooling of old material. Ciccone is many things to many people, but there's no denying the woman is a force to be reckoned with. Crazy to think she's outlived Michael Jackson, that she's still selling out concert venues, debuting at # 1 in over 40 countries and as of today is the best selling solo artist in the UK, having dethroned Elvis this week ...

Give the woman some credit. Lady Gaga will NEVER see this kind of accomplishment. I don't think there will be another "SUPERSTAR" ala MJ, Madonna with international appeal in our lifetime...
Madonna dethrones The KING

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 4/1/12 at 6:23pm

Careful, they said the same thing about Madonna. I wish you could elaborate more specifically on canned phrases like "she's a force to be reckoned with."

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 4/1/12 at 8:37pm

I Can't stand Gaga but i am not saying this for that reason. She will NEVER have the longevity of Madonna, Jacko etc. Gaga has come out so early on with such an OTT image that got everybody talking. The problem is that everyone has seen her do outrageous now, her way opf getting people talking seems to be posing for pictures without her make up on. Unless she is planning to peel her skin off and reveal that she is a lizard (god i miss V) then nothing she can do will really surprise people and keep talking, and lets be honest, it's the image what is keeping her in the public eye.

Yes she has some pretty good songs and a good voice, but it comes down to image. The problem is the Born This Way album was hardly showered with universally positive reviews. I think she will do well for the next few years but people will stop talking eventually. Just my opinion.

[Reginald Tresilian]

Posted: 4/1/12 at 8:42pm

"Yes she has some pretty good songs and a good voice, but it comes down to image."

Does it?

I'd like to think that talent still plays some part in what people respond to and find important.

Sadly, you may be right. But I really hope not.

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 4/1/12 at 8:44pm

Of course she has the talent, that can not be denied, but thats not what is getting her in all the papers.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 4/1/12 at 9:32pm

So you're saying Gaga is not a force to be reckoned with?

Hey! I heard "Turn Up the Radio" out in public. It wasn't the recording, but it was a skinny upper-40s guy walking around the video booths at a porn shop, singing it absent-mindedly. I wanted to do the "Hello" backward sounds for him but felt inhibited. Then all I could think of was the drugged out "Hello" remix I love. Now THAT'S a song.

[CAX]

Posted: 4/1/12 at 9:39pm

Sanddman... I agree with you.

Namo, forgive my using a "canned" turn of phrase... I will strive to be more inventive in my future posts.

I simply meant as a "brand" she is tried, tested and that the woman's proven countless times that betting against her yields little in way of stopping her from doing what she wants to do. Come on, she released an album with little or no promo in 2012 and went to # 1... at the ripe age of 53. I'm no ageist, but in the attention-deficient, youth obsessed music/media world that alone is a feat worth recognizing.

At the core of my statement she's a 'force' to be reckoned with is my belief that the woman is playing by her own rules and that's impressive, even inspirational. She's playing the game she wants to play, critics be damned, a game I'm not sure has been played (or maybe won) before. She's reached a place in the pantheon of pop (music/culture) that she is practically peerless as far as living cultural icons are concerned. The fact that she has more money than God and is still interested in getting out there to fight is exciting. I would hope that if when I'm her age, if I've amassed a fraction of the success she has I'll still be interested in working on things and COME ON, the woman is a workhorse. She's not afraid to try things, to f*ck up royally and get back in the saddle again.

As for the Gaga prophecy, I will gladly eat my words if proven wrong, but I just don't think it's going to happen and frankly, it has more to do with the world we live in than the artist. The 80's, 90's, 00's were really the end of the "star" era and the start of what I'll coin as the "faME-apocalypse." Self-obsession, market saturation, instant global exposure and the constant need to upgrade, upgrade, upgrade have taken us away from the perfect storm that gave us MJ and Madonna.

Gross generalizations they may be but people's attention spans have shortened, their sense of loyalty has been lost by the wayside and cynicism is the rule of the day. I see it on BWAY, too. New bway "stars" aren't being minted the way they used to. Actors, playwrights, composers... where's the new crop of heirs?

The only thing I will say in closing is that I think Madonna's contributions will be clearer after her death. Gaga's promo team clearly mined the M playbook for her meteoric rise to prominence but as I look at the whole slew of tartlets along the pop spectrum, M's role in their being where they are becomes clearer to me.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 4/1/12 at 9:53pm

Nobody thought there would ever be a star as big as Gaga again until she came along, either. So, we'll see.

I also remember feeling the same way about fearless Madonna, the woman who always did what she wanted to do and played by her own rules. She'd stare down whatever obstacles the powers-that-be were putting in her way and kicked them down. A terrible conservative anti-sex backlash? Then the biggest pop star in the world released a book of porn!!! And announced "Whenever they say 'sex is bad, sex is bad, sex is bad,' I have to push back and say, 'no it's not, no it's not, no it's not.'"

Her home country gets overrun with a pack mentality post 9/11? She releases an album critiquing American life, as it were. She makes a video making pointing out that the President is a buffoon. She's about to release it and Bush attacks a country that had nothing to do with 9/11.

And then she blinked. She pulls the video. Nobody sees it. She backs off. And it's been nothing but backing up and compromising and going backward ever since. She always said she had no interest in going backwards, but that's all she's done ever since. ABBA SAMPLES. MADONNA!!! ABBA SAMPLES. And it's been a downward regressive spiral ever since. I totally agree with The Onion review that said Madonna of the early '90s would have laughed at the awful crap on this new album.

So yea, she hits number 1 in the very same world you mention where diminished numbers compared to back when there were superstars amount to something that looks impressive, except comparatively.

I believe Gaga's career will be just as long. It's not all that unsual to have a creative career longer than 20 years. And honestly, Madonna has done nothing of any real consequence since 2003.

[Jay Lerner-Z]

Posted: 4/1/12 at 10:27pm

^ I think I probably agree with all that, but that doesn't mean that the Madonna of today isn't worth my time too. Sub-par she may be, but I'll take it.

And please don't talk about her death...she could go another 50 years! That's at least another ten or twenty albums to look forward to, FindingNamo.

[CAX]

Posted: 4/1/12 at 10:41pm

I hope Gaga is alive in 20 years. She strikes me as a burn em at both ends and the middle kinda chick, but who am I?

I'm fascinated by Madonna's constantly changing stance(s) on things. Obviously, she's human, so basic mortal inconsistency may make up most of the mystery, but I can remember her being interviewed by VH-1 I think right around the time ROL was released, and she seemed almost dismissive of her back catalogue. I distinctly remember her saying something along the lines of not being able to imagine ever singing "Like a Virgin" again. Now, ROL was my point of entry to the world of Ciccone on a personal level. Like most 80's/90's kids, I remember her earlier stuff, but her "spiritual awakening" corresponded with one of my own and the Orbit/Madonna musings really defined the soundtrack of that era of my life.

I enjoyed Music, all the while searching in vain for any connection to the "meat" I'd gotten from ROL, eventually settling for the knobs and thumps of Electronic/House. When AL came out, I LOVED it, even the god awful "Soy Latte" rap. I prided myself on being able to get through that thing on one breath. I know, laaaaame.

Confessions on a Dancefloor was great. I danced, I danced, I danced... I got to relive (not sure it's reliving if I never did it the first time through) the 70's 80's groove thing as an adult. I thought Stuart Price did right by M... It was in that phase of her work that I began to hear the whisperings about her age ( Mid forties lady in a leotard?... oh look at her man arms, etc...) and it was at that time that the sexy Madonna, the woman I think NAMO is referring to probably reared her head in M's inner sanctum and said "WAIT A F*CKING MINUTE... I STILL GOT IT" That's the only thing that explains the "Sorry" video and the crazy return to the R&B drag look/vibe she rocked during the promotion of Hard Candy.

Getting off topic, but I really am curious about her evolution (or as some of you might argue, her "DEvolution") as some of your who've watched her from the beginning of her career might see it.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 4/1/12 at 11:01pm

I would have followed her to the ends of the earth if she had stuck by what you describe in the second paragraph, CAX.

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 4/2/12 at 5:59am

Come on, she released an album with little or no promo in 2012..

LMAO...I stopped reading your rant CAX after that line. That is SOOOO not true. There was promotion everywhere for the CD. I saw billboards...posters and internet ads AD NAUSEUM for the damned thing. Not to mention a little thing called THE SUPER BOWL HALF TIME SHOW.

/my case

[CAX]

Posted: 4/2/12 at 5:27pm

The promo I referred to was the big late night circuit and crazy tv ads. Now, I haven't seen any commercials, but maybe they have been out.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 4/2/12 at 5:44pm

Seriously? The "big late night circuit and crazy tv ads"? Not doing those constitutes "no promo in 2012"?

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 4/2/12 at 7:53pm

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 4/2/12 at 8:19pm

Lol. I was just about to post that.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 4/3/12 at 10:43am

Lady Gaga will NEVER see this kind of accomplishment.

I always wonder how so many people have this amazing gift for predicting the future, yet never win the lottery. Truth is, Madonna's accomplishment was not determined by her second album, either. And when she released Like a Virgin, it was wildly popular, but Madonna was also considered very much a fad. It took around 10 years to determine that she had true staying power.

I don't think there will be another "SUPERSTAR" ala MJ, Madonna with international appeal in our lifetime...

And yet, there will always be superstars. Always.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 4/3/12 at 1:02pm

Here's what this thread has been missing: a clear-eyed in-depth look at the evolution of Madonna's relationship to the charts.
100 & Single: Madonna's Chart Transformation Into A Classic-Rock Act

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 4/3/12 at 2:26pm

"Whatever you think of the "rock" status of her music—which has only gone deeper into electronic dance tropes since Ray of Light 14 years ago—a careful study of the Queen of Pop's Billboard performance confirms that she doesn't really chart like a pop star anymore."

The liberal media strikes again!

Updated On: 4/3/12 at 02:26 PM

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 4/3/12 at 2:28pm

She's like an Etch-a-Sketch!!!!!!

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 4/3/12 at 2:35pm

I think it's a pretty useful perspective without all the congratulatory hype.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 4/3/12 at 3:19pm

I agree with lots of that post, and it's an interesting read, but... Isn't it what most of us (people who like MDNA and don't) have been saying already? I know she has some crazy fans, but I and others on here have said that she very much is the equivalent of a classic rock act now--ie her live shows always sell well, her singles usually DON'T do well in the mainstream, etc (although I think she still usually sells more copies of her albums than some other big acts like the Stones and their new releases, but that's probably arguable). I just don't see that it was an argument that had been missing in this thread at all...

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 4/3/12 at 3:27pm

Well, for one thing, the article maintains that "Give Me All Your Luvin" was, in fact, a single. Something Madonna's camp and others here have dialed back from. It also maintains that doing to Super Bowl was an enormous promotional effort, which runs counter to the prevailing "it's doing pretty well for something she has done NO promotion for" line that we've seen. Also, I think it gives context to boosterism like "Madonna displaces the king!" headlines.

Those are just a few of the reasons I put it on today's suggested reading list.

[ljay889]

Posted: 4/3/12 at 6:04pm

The Material Girl scores some material gains this week, as Interscope dance-floor diva Madonna’s 12th studio album, MDNA, debuts at #1 with 357k in sales.

http://www.hitsdailydouble.com/news/newsPage.cgi?news08922

Posted: 4/3/12 at 8:15pm

Billboard. #1 woohoooo

http://www.billboard.com/#/news/madonna-debuts-at-no-1-on-billboard-200-1006660752.story

impressive numbers- 100,000 more than Hard Candy. considering there was hardly any promotion. let's see how it goes