A few weeks ago, part of Madonna’s new album leaked online. The songs were “stolen” and downloaded by some of the Madonna-loonies, but they really didn’t make a big impact. Like, some people were interested but most of the world just shrugged. Madonna had a hissy fit about it and went WAY overboard complaining about the leaks, comparing it to rape and a “form of terrorism.” I theorized that she was actually upset about the fact that the song leaks barely had any impact anywhere, that most people didn’t even care.
Well, in any case, several days after those tracks leaked, Madonna released six songs of her new album, Rebel Heart. She released them on iTunes and Amazon, and again, the songs barely made an impact. According to the Daily Mail, there was a “nosedive” in sales after the first week. The first week had Madonna in 13th place in sales, but now her big single “Unapologetic Bitch” with Nicki Minaj is down to #188 on iTunes. The single “Living for Love” is #529 on Amazon. So… yeah, it’s pretty bad. Madonna looks about as musically relevant these days as Milli Vanilli. In addition to all of that, one of the songs (“Two Steps Behind”) is allegedly about Lady Gaga. Which looks pretty bad, because even Gaga’s albums are selling better than Madge’s Rebel Heart. So Madge took to Instagram like the kidz to issue a statement:
There are those who want to shut me up but they cannot! We still live in a world that discriminates against women. Their are People that are so hateful. they want to create feuds between strong women that do not exist! I do not wish ill will towards any other female artist and i never have! The World is big enough for all of us! I will fight for my rights as an artist, a human and a woman till the end of my days! Because i am a ❤️#rebelheart and i walk in the footsteps of giants and i will not apologize Or defend my unpublished, unfinished, STOLEN work. If you don’t like who i am or what I have to say then why are you reading this? #unapologeticbitch. P.S. Do not post hateful words about other people on my page either. If you are my fan speak no evil! #livingforlove
… Which isn’t to say Madonna wouldn’t start a girl-on-girl beef if it helped her move some product. But for now, Gaga and Madonna are in similar places, which is to say… struggling with musical relevancy and a changing fanbase. Madonna thought her album release would be like Taylor Swift’s 1989, and it just wasn’t. Sigh… I do feel bad for Madge because she’s such a control freak and she genuinely didn’t want those tracks to leak when they did. That being said, it was probably an inside job because people were concerned about the awfulness of Rebel Heart.
Photos courtesy of Madonna’s Instagram, Interview Magazine.
LOL
She is trying to make her flop a social statement. LOL
Maybe her music is just not what people want to buy these days?
Madge: sit down and shut up.
+1000
……and go talk to Cher, who seems to handle all phases of her career just fine.
Why should she sit down & shut up? This is an iconic woman who has dominated the pop music scene for over 30 years & provided the soundtrack to millions of peoples lives, as well as captivating millions of people who have seen her perform live. In addition, she is one of the main women in the public sphere who have provided the template for female empowerment, not to mention her championing of gay rights & African charitable foundations, long before these were fashionable to be associated with.
As far as this current article is concerned, she has every right to be outraged at the theft & leak of unfinished material before it’s due date. It also seems a bit premature to call a partially finished product a flop. Even at her worst, her product is still a zillion times better & more interesting than any of the current crop of boring “performers”, like Taylor Swift, Arianna Grande, Nicki Minaj, Iggy Azalea et al. If selling around half a billion records over your career makes you irrelevant, then the world we are living in is a truly messed up place. What is even more messed up is for women to be telling another woman of a certain age to shut up!!!! Are we going to end up in a world like Logan’s Run, where you are expected to die once you’re past a certain age?
MADONNA PLEASE NEVER SHUT UP!
The world needs to hear the voices of all genders, ages & races, and considering a person irrelevant because of their age is GROSS!
You make some valid points, but Madge is, if nothing else, a marketing genius, much like Warhol. She knows how to stir the pot for her own purpose.
Love your Logan’s Run reference.
WORD.
Well at least they didn’t use any unflattering pics here.
There is no album yet.
Well said.
dominated pop music scene for 30 years? what are you smoking?
ohohohohoh!! We need a re-make of Logan’s Run. That is my favorite movie of all times. I show it to all my new bf to see if they “get” how this film defined the future of our hedonistic/materialistic culture. Ugh. Some of those 1970’s gems hit it out of the park- Soleint Green, Logan’s Run, Babette’s Feast…I can’t with modern movies. Those slow old zingers do it for me…sigh…
Well Put! Thank you for taking he time to type your thoughts.
There is no denying Madonna’s dominance of pop music over several decades. Her ability to reinvent herself was marketing genius. But I just do not like the music she has been doing the last few years (although I liked her song with MIA and Nikki Minaj). And while you may think Taylor Swift makes boring music (and you may be right), the article is talking about sales. And Madonna’s newest release is not selling.
Yeah, but let’s be honest: the lion’s share of pop music money is going to go to Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, Charli XCXXX, whatever, and not some woman who looks like the kids’ scary granny. She’s aged out. It happens to everyone. How one deals with it is the litmus test, and Madge isn’t dealing with it well. She can’t force people to buy her music, and apparently that enrages her.
At this point in her career she should just rest on her laurels, but she can’t do that, can she? If she had any sense she’s pattern herself after David Bowie, who has retained everyone’s respect and admiration and then some – but instead she wants to BE Ariana Grande, which is delusional.
Let’s remember the women who were true champions for the cause, such as Elizabeth Taylor and Audrey Hepburn, who did their work to actually help people not to promote their careers or burnish their reputations.
There’s enough actual discrimination against women in this world. To go around inserting it where it does not exist is a deep insult to those who suffer from it.
Thank you!
Well said!
Dear Madge, the fact that you are no longer relevant and your music isn’t very good is what impacted sales. It’s not discrimination, it’s just a changing demographic combined with a stagnant talent.
I’m confused. Flop? Her album hasn’t been released. It won’t be released for months. It’s on pre-order and you get some songs durng pre-order because of the leaks, and those were rushed in production to get them out because of the leaks. You can hear it in some of the songs, rushed, messy production.. Maybe it will be cleaned up by album release.
She’s done zero promo yet for the album coming out and had no plans to until her original single release date in February. Maybe that will change now and do earlier promo. . All of these leaks , 30 or 40 demos, may ultimately hurt the album if it doesn’t come out sooner than March 10, the release date. But now, over the holidays, just put up for pre-order because of leak doesn’t show whether it will flop. Unapologetic Bitch isn’t a single.
She won’t get radio-play. She’s 56, and radio is ageist. She hasn’t gotten radio-play for years. It’s what her album sells when released worldwide will be telling. I do feel for any singer/band having all of their material in demo form, some of which is on the record, being leaked three months before it is supposed to come out. A leak a week or two before is bad enough, but this many months before is devastating for any artist.
So how can it be called a flop months before the release date of March 10? It only went on pre-order recently because of the leaks, and it has had zero promo yet by Madonna for it?
I think the album will do okay when it comes out. I don’t think it will be a massive seller. But she always sells a couple of million because of her worldwide audience.
Very good points.
How in the name of all that is non-denominational did she get Marlene Dietrich’s face?! !! Talk bout stealing!! #istealfacesnotsongs.
More like a case of discriminating taste. As in, I have better taste than that and don’t want to listen to your crappy music.
I think that music is bought by, relatively, young people and young people do not care for Madonna when they could have Rihanna, Ariana, Nicki, Beyoncé, Katy, or Miley.
Agree, my daughter is a teen, and she thinks Madonna is “so old” and doesn’t see why she still records albums. I do tell her that she is not old (just older that those you mentioned) and anyone can create art, music, etc. as long as they’d like. But that is just the initial view of a young person today.
I have to admit that most people in my age group that I know personally are not familiar with any of the artists in iTunes top 10, for example (that is, have bought and downloaded their music). I am personally, but I’m not the norm. I would guess that it is accurate that most people who buy the top 100 on iTunes are in a younger demographic. I have never liked Madonna’s music, Ever. No offense to those who do. This early mess may not indicate a flop, but for her to start ranting about gender discrimination sounds needy.
Bitch, What you are Is Unapologetically OLD, and if you wore it well it’d be No Thing.. as it stands Tho?? You stay thirsty … I can promise your Stretched Raisinette gristly ass that your Madonna Loonies Fans Don’t even know what is Instagram which is where your issuing edicts of late… you’d do better to go to Facebook, sweetness
Lol! I’m dying, you are so hilarious. Definitely have a way with words.
It’s true though. Yes Madonna is being her usual dramatic self. But several radio stations have openly admitted that they don’t play woman over 40 music. It’s one of the reasons, JLO and Mariah’s latest albums flopped. They refused to play the songs on radio. Women like Madonna make most of her money touring her greatest hits. The new album is just a formality. She’ll be out breaking touring records in no time.
Of the 3 of them, only Mariah can sing. And the 3 of them insist on sticking to the roles they gave themselves years ago. JLo is no longer the sexy hood girl she said she was, Mariah is no longer the delicate butterfly (she’s more Blanche DuBois), and Madonna thinks of herself as the hip club kid. They don’t move forward and others take their place. It’s ageist, but it’s also because they haven’t moved and 2 of them were never really singers.
Agreed. I know it is tough to realize that time waits for no (wo)man but Madonna has enough dough for ten lifetimes & enough for the kids to inherit someday so why not relax and enjoy the profits of (past) success? Granted, I’m Madonna’s age and I wish I had her stamina and energy but still. I also agree with Farah that touring greatest hits from back in the day will certainly put more money in the bank, if that is what she wants. Plus as you stated, Mariah is the true singer here. Mariah could (and did) go batsheet crazy but the dame can belt out a song and in five octaves at that. Years from now (hopefully) they could prop her in front of a microphone and she will make the magic happen.
But it ain’t about money, is it? I’m not an artist so I don’t get the “thing” that burns inside of them. There is that NEED to be loved by the masses or, I guess, they feel they will cease to exist. That must be so tiring.
Actually, radio stations will play what people request. It’s a business like any other. IF they play Madonna and people change stations they lose money. So they play what most people want to hear.
You can’t blame radio completely. I think you have to recognize that song quality is REALLY low for these 3 artists.
JLo has had 3 songs in the Top 20 recently: Dance Again, On the Floor, and Booty. It was getting played even though it was crap. If the 40 age limit really existed, she wouldn’t get 3 songs in the top 20.
Several things here:
“Their are people” who should be proud of their past musical accomplishments and get off the damn Instagram! Interesting how they’ve distorted her face with props for this “album”. Very convenient. And how awesome was Gaga all over late night TV with Tony Bennett? It was SO entertaining!
She really hasn’t changed. Whenever she started to slow down or flop, she’d try to create a big diversion or do something that she’d consider controversial. She has always just been good at creating noise, and she’s not relevant any longer because that kind of thing doesn’t last and she insists on staying in a role that never suited her anyway.
Even Madge is not safe from the villainous misplaced ‘their’.
I don’t know why it really surprised me that she would get “their” wrong?!?
Indeed, it does leap to the eye! Blœdy ridiculous diatribe sounds like a thwarted 13-yr old.
I wasn’t going to bother commenting, but after reading her manifesto, I have to say something. Did she write that herself?! A sixth-grader wouldn’t be passed to seventh grade if they wrote that! It isn’t just “their” although that is embarrassing enough. The entire thing is appalling. I am gobsmacked that someone who writes like that is a multi-millionaire! But I kind of like all the exclamation points!
Whenever I read errors like “their” instead of “there” I feel like I just ran over a speedbump that knocks me off from reading whatever follows.
Yes! My reaction too, only without wheels: I stub my toe on such occasions.
Our Madge has intellectual pretensions: I can’t forget some ‘W&E’ interview in which she used the word ‘reductive’ (pointlessly) and followed it with a sneering “if you don’t know the word, use a dictionary”, as though she’d casually chucked ‘antidisestablishmentarianism’ into the conversation. That killed my last flickering affection for her; so snotty.
OMG, I pretty much lost concentration when I saw “their”. ugh!
Ugh, I know, and she truly thinks she’s brilliant.
Oh Madge…just go and have something lifted and pulled..or just go away..
It’s sad because Madonna hasn’t been relevant for a long time. I grew up on her music. I was five when I heard Lucky Star and was an instant fan. Lol. Madonna’s music should have grown up and changed like her fans have.
Duets with Nicki Minaj? Desperation has officially set in.
She’s spent the past few years trying to associate herself with whoever is popular at the moment. It was Britney for a while, then Justin Timberlake, then Miley Cyrus. She’s desperately trying to connect to the younger pop stars to make herself still seem relevant in that world. I think she’d be better served if she stopped trying to convince us all she’s still 25, and instead embrace her life and experience and write what she wants to, not what she thinks kids will buy. She has more money than she could ever spend, and she can still tour very profitably on her catalog.
Also, holy photoshop, Batman. She hasn’t looked like that since the 80s.
Madonna has always worked with artists that were popular at the time. She worked with Prince and Ricky Martin. I think she did a song with 2Pac ,but it was never released. She also uses music that is popular too. Electronica was popular and she used that sound on the ray of light cd. Madonna really isn’t doing anything she hasn’t always done.
I agree, FingerBinger. Her talent has always been having a pulse on what was new…but when she was young and in NYC, she more convincingly played it off as her own.
She’s always been dependent on borrowing.
She even had Vanilla Ice in her “Sex” book way back when…
LOL… She’s never looked like that! It’s a brand new face. And what in the H-E-double hockey sticks is that thing stuck in her mouth???
We’re the same age, roughly, and aside from her bank account, there is nothing about her life that makes me want to change places with her *at all.*
She’s an amazing dancer, but she seems very needy and kind of sad.
I think the issue is Madonna is trying too hard to be relevant and controversial. Problem is she really isn’t either one of those things. Fans are picky and when they have moved on they have moved on- sad but true. All the silly Instagram posts, crying out loud she does isn’t going to change a thing. Her songs feel forced and fake like she’s just making music in the hopes it will sell and make her cool (and young) again.
I agree. At the age she’s at, she just can’t be relevent in the SAME way as all the 20-somethings out there. She’s not that age anymore and trying to still act like it just seems kind of sad and pathetic imo. Even if she wants to keep doing music…enough with the trying to be edgy/sexy pictures and doing stuff the kids are doing (the metal drill thing). It just screams of trying too hard.
I just want to acknowledge the stellar photoshop here. I mean you still see the texture of her face, without all the wrinkles we know are there. That’s some artistry there. I need to locate that program for myself!
First she was the victim of something she compared to rape a terrorism, but was just a little theft of of a couple songs. Nothing alike. Now that no one wants to listen to her it’s because she’s a female. Wow. Go home Madge
It’s not just a few songs. Her whole album was stolen, all of her demos. The whole album has leaked online. I admit I’ve listened to it. It’s out there for public view. It’s more than the album, as it’s all the demos, so no one is sure which are on or off for the 19-song album. But it’s pretty evident which ones are making it except maybe a few could go either way on which ones are on. But it is far more than a little leak. It is all of her music for the album almost three months before the album drop, which is devastating in this record climate.
I agree with everybody, the use of rape and terrorism is eye-roll worthy. There are much better terms she could have used and is typical of Madonna and her clueless, narcissistic personality.
But having said that, a leak of this magnitude so many months before the album is set to drop is a huge hit for any artist and is a sabotage by the leakers. If she can’t get it out sooner than March 10 the album will be stale by the time it comes out because of people listening on-line for months to the songs.
I was shocked that she has a lot of ballads in the leaked songs. So it’s not all trying to be down for the kids, thank God.
These two leaked songs give me hope for Madonna. Although, I like the acoustic versions better. These aren’t on the six released for pre-order. But they will be on the album.
Rebel Heart and Wash Over Me
http://mustsee.trendolizer.com/2014/11/madonna—wash-over-me-rebel-heart-hq-full-leaked-songs.html
Yes. Theft is theft and rape is rape. To compare the two is repulsive…..for obvious reasons that a woman SHOULD understand.
Nail hit on the head.
I have no problem with her being furious if the tracks were actually stolen (and not leaked by her for publicity). That’s her property, her work, and she should have control over it, so I don’t see it as just a little theft. But she’s way out of line to use words like rape and terrorism in regards to it, unquestionably.
I’m more of an old-school Madonna fan. I listened to these songs, and I didn’t like…didn’t catch me at all.
There are not very many people in the music industry who remain ridiculously popular while continuously creating new music. Bruce Springsteen, maybe? But everyone else is basically a touring greatest hits album. And that’s just the way it goes. I don’t think it has anything to do with Madonna being a woman. Do radio stations play Prince’s new stuff? Probably not.
As I get older (I’m 31), I notice that I don’t have very many “new” songs that I listen to. And that has been a, more or less, gradual change. When I was 16, I knew the words to EVERYTHING on the radio. Now, not so much. And Madonna’s core group of fans has got to be my age or older, and if they’re at that same stage where your iPod is full and you only make room on your playlist for something truly awesome and catchy, then her new stuff is bound to fall on deaf ears. We’d just rather listen to “Cherish.”
It’s not just women. Men at a certain age, no matter how good the music, aren’t getting radio-play. American radio is ageist after artists hit their mid forties basically. That’s why digital radio is where they can get some play.
Although, two songs off of U2’s new album has been getting some radio-play on rock stations, which actually shocked me. Every Breaking Way is a fantastic song by them, so I’m glad to see it.
Depeche Mode had a catchy song I thought would get some alternative music radio play when it came out. Barely and gone.
Well, Frank Sinatra and Babs Streisand spanned decades of popularity… Of course, both were/are genuinely TALENTED.
Babs had to do a duets album to sell a new album. It didn’t get great reviews, but had good sales. Tony Bennett is the same way. He keeps doing duets albums with younger artists to sell his music. Neither are singing new music. They are singing music already out there. So with the duets and with singing songs that have been out forever, they can push some albums.
They both have enormous talent. I agree.
I just know that the tumblr blog Paws Down Little Monsters will spin this somehow into a good thing and turn her in to a martyr.
Madonna’s new songs are out on YouTube. I just listened to three of them. Couldn’t get through them. Not good at all. Sounds like some crap that could have come out in the 90s or 2000s on the ‘B-Side’ aka boring, half-assed songs. Also she sounds angry in them. Not appealing to hear a middle-aged, older woman’s angry voice singing angry songs.
Not every singer can sing every genre. She needs to stick to what got her famous.
I used to be a big Madonna fan, from her first album. Back when there was actual albums lol. I loved her energy, daring sense of self, and musical vibes. That has since changed and her last four our five musical efforts have been crap and uninspiring. The road she has taken musically has resulted in me becoming a former fan. Never thought she would age into such a desperate woman. There is always discrimination in the music business, but realistically fame is fleeting and the music business has changed with younger competitors in place. Everyone on top will eventually be replaced by someone else. I would take satisfaction in having achieved icon status and make aging as cool as she has managed to make a number of aspects of her life throughout her career. But first she needs to halt mass production on the facial procedures lol. One love.
I fail to believe she could have her entire album leak without having anything to do with it. I just feel like this is a PR stunt. She’s Madonna. If Beyonce can do, she definitely can.
You have to be kidding. Having your entire album leak in demo form and some more finished with production months before release and demos that might not make it hurts her, doesn’t help her. It will be stale by the time it’s out, and those songs that needed more work productionwise or that are crap and aren’t on could hurt the album as people could think it sounds bad, or for all the people listening for free and downloading it off of everywhere won’t bother to buy it months later, maybe just some songs
In this climate, there is nothing good about all of your songs leaking so far ahead of release. And she put in more than a year working on this album.
Madonna has had problems with leaks before and so have others, but never to this magnitude so far ahead. She had not even released the name of the album yet. Guy Oseary needs to get on the ball.
Madge was so good at re-inventing herself when she was younger, but she can’t seem to move on and re-invent herself now. She’s stuck as the edge pop princess she was and it’s just not playing the same in her mid-50’s as it did in her 20’s, 30’s and 40’s. I think it’s time she gave up the music and albums and concentrated on producing and nurturing new talent. I think she’d be brilliant at that. She had started a record company but doesn’t seem to be very involved with it much anymore. She doesn’t need money, I’m sure, so I think she should look beyond what she used to do and find new ways to express herself and her talent. There comes a point where doing what you did at 30, when you’re almost 60, just makes everyone cringe. Even if the songs are good I think it’s just time to move on to other forms of success. (Speaking as a woman in her 50’s myself).
Madonna hasn’t re-invented herself for years. She’s become reductive of herself. But if she can put out some good dance songs for my running on the treadmill playlist and some good ballads, I will buy those.
Madonna does act immature, I agree, and her constant tweeting of herself all sexy is a bore and some of her music now is a bore because she tries to act too young. But there’s a way to put out dance music, from her and I am all for that, just not Bitch, I’m Madonna. Gag me. It’s embarrassing.
But on stage as a pop act and icon, I disagree. Madonna pulls it off every time whatever she wears. As far as acting her age on stage, Cher at 67 put out dance music last year and she did a tour in costumes reminescent of her old iconic costumes, even her bum showing, and I have to say looked amazing and that audience filled with 30 somethings, 40 somethings and a lot of 50 somethings and 60 somethings, and some 20 somethings, all loved it and her. Cher pulled it off and nobody wanted her up there looking any different. If she had looked old, it would have been different, but she was Cher and amazing. And all the older conservatives in the audience loved her and weren’t saying express yourself differently. The audience went crazy in my audience when she came out in Turn Back Time..
If I Could Turn Back Time live 2014 – You go, Cher.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OBn_nKR2No
Nicki Minaj? Shudder. Madonnas attempts to remain relevant by performing with the “it” people has been going on for awhile and I haven’t given two $hits about it…Maybe because I dont give two $hits about her (ever since she randomly had a British accent seemingly overnight I’ve just laughed and laughed) but this Nicki “it” has genuinely creeped me out since she did that performance on whatever that music awards show (can’t remember which one because I don’t give two $hits about those either) where she showed up all devil styles and levitated off a coffin or something. I’m as far from a pearl clutcher as anyone can POSSIBLY be (no lie) but I went super eeeeewie watching that crap.
Now, on a different note, I’m clapping myself on the back for the truly magnificent run on sentence I just created using horrific grammar because I don’t give two $hits about that either…
She’s starting to sound like those people who post long diatribes on facebook, when nobody is really fighting with them. They just want everyone to think their life has OMG SO MUCH DRAMZZ.
What? Her partial album tracks are bombing, and she thinks it’s because some undefined
entity is trying to “shut her up”? Who? The voices in her head?
She’s such a drama queen. It couldn’t possibly be because her new music is not interesting and nobody cares about it. Everything with her is about how SHE is being silenced, and she ‘s still such a rebel. And the album title sounds like Falcor Rhimes named it.
Hahahahahahahahaha! Falcor Rhimes so named her album! Maybe they’re secret BFF’s who share that doofus Eddie person in the bedroom and work out together because Falcor wants to be super grisly like Madonna. Doesn’t that doofus Eddie person like them supah skinny? Yup. That’s my story and I’m stickin to it.
Her album’s failure has absolutely nothing to do with discrimination against women, PERIOD. It is because she is OLD and irrelevant by today’s standards, sad but TRUE! Even when the “King of Pop”, Michael Jackson was alive he also no longer sold as many albums as he did when he was much younger. If anything, she is a “victim” of ageism, IMHO.
Her album isn’t out so can’t be a failure if it’s not out. It is set for release March 10th.
Her rant was specifically in response to what happened yesterday, one song that just leaked.
Her rant was about women being pitted against each other as feuding in the media because a demo that isn’t part of what is going to be on the album was leaked that many said was about Gaga being a copycat. She is saying she won’t defend her work product that is stolen and non-published.
But that was what her rant was about, the uproar over a leaked demo yesterday and trying to make it in the media like she is feuding with Gaga. She doesn’t address Gaga by name, just saying she wishes no musical artist ill will and there is room for everybody.
Her album isn’t out yet. It’ s not out for 3 more months.
I don’t think she minds a feud with another woman so long as it helps her.
The picture of her bound face looks like Mae West!
All you youngsters, Google her!
Why is weaponize feminism against everything? It’s getting so disrespectful.
I loved Madonna growing up. Dress you up, Borderline, Like a Virgin. But she doesn’t change or grow. She seems to have no insight and it has to be exhausting to need that much constant attention. It’s like she would cease to exist if no one talked about her. Her album isn’t selling because everyone is just tired of her….Please go away Madonna and appreciative your life, your kids, the empire you built. But she can’t. She will scratch and claw for relevancy and attention to the last of her days.
‘Their’ are people…..should be ‘There are people…….Maybe should have got a computer with spell check on it for Christmas.
I have to say I’m surprised at the typos, grammatical errors, oddly capitalized words in mid-sentence and just plain illiteracy apparent in her little rant. Her publicists are probably banging their heads against the wall. Madge, step away from the keyboard!
Seriously, if she wanted to reinvent herself in a way that I would respect, she would accept herself as she is (instead of “Desperately Seeking Youth”) and devote the rest of her life to helping young, disadvantaged artists realize their dreams.
Madonna is irrelevant because she there is no place for her irreverence and her rebellion. Seriously, rebellion against what? She was always about fighting.
But the ‘war’ has been won.
Madonna was about saying the unsayable, doing the risky and the unthinkable. She changed the pop culture world. But she is having trouble living in this new world she’s helped to create.
When she came out in the 80s ‘gay’ was a bad word, a secret. Now there is gay marriage. In church. We have a Black president, had a female secretary of state. The mayor of NY is married to a black woman. No taboos here.
The ‘war’ against conservatisim and sexual oppression/repression (in the media) has been ‘won’. Pole dancing is featured on the MTV music awards.
There are no taboos this liberal Queen can bust.
The dam broke, we’re swimming in its water. The only new thing she could do would be to cover up, be conservative and campaign for Rand Paul. Not gonna happen 😉
She needs to find a new M.O. A new reason for being, for creating. Again. Madonna. Rebellion against WHAT?
Interesting observation, and well said! With the advent of the internet and social media, everyone can have a platform, and the message can be positive. Millennials feel empowered by social media. They want you to BE the change. They want to know what you’re FOR rather than against. Nobody wants to read angry, depressing, negative rants.
Can she do it? Can Madonna finally evolve beyond her repressed, traumatized adolescence and look around her? There’s more to be done to fix this world, but it needs to be done with positive intent, looking forward with a new vision rather than backward trying to destroy an old one.
Your comment is really interesting and insightful, and I suspect it speaks to why she doesn’t vibe with younger listeners, too. Young people don’t look to the older generation as a symbol of rebellion – in very broad terms, the older generation IS the fight, they’re part of the system young people won’t to throw off or change. She’s not a rebellious twenty something anymore, and much of what she sold in that regard was superficial. There’s still plenty of fighting left to do, but she doesn’t provide young people with anything meaningful or relevant to their own struggles. How can you take someone seriously who compares an album leak to an act of “terrorism” in the same year an Americsn city center had to file a PFA against their own police for excessive force? Her problems are so far removed from real issues that she just comes across as vapid and disinterested. She’s like the “hip” mom who wears miniskirts at forty and tries to hang out with her daughter’s friends.
Madonna may be all about the fight, but her battles aren’t relevant to the lives of young people anymore. We saw her grow up and become part of the industry that helps perpetuate so many problematic ideas in the first place. We grew up, too, and we weren’t impressed.
She could be rebelling against all kinds of things. She could be supporting Free Palestine and criticising the U.S. government for its painful support of Israel’s genocide. She could put her Like a Prayer video in context with racism (i.e. in terms of what has happened in Ferguson), she could be drawing attention to the horrible crimes committed against women in towns like Steubenville and she could be asking to pay more taxes and join the fight against individualism and libertarianism. I could go on and on and on..
Madonna is still trying to be the pop music queen but young kids don’t find dancing to a 50 something year old singer cool. She could still do good music but needs to change her approach to it. Country singers have it easier since many continue to do well as they get older.
Madonna cannot compete with the Taylor Swifts and Beyonce and shouldn’t try. Tina Turner finished her last tour when she turned 70 but never lost her class or the great respect she earned as an artist. She made her albums in her 60s and never ranted about some secret plot to slow down her career. There is a great difference between artists like Tina, Cher, and Celine who don’t complain as much as Madonna.
My personal feeling toward Madonna is that she didn’t evolve with her audience. There should have been a point where she was okay with not having pop culture relevance. I mean, this woman is 56 years old and still producing lyrics about doing ecstasy and getting stoned, and it’s just like…time to grow up, Madge. If you can’t compete with the younger generation if singers, use that economic power to do something else. Start a label, build a company, get a clothing line, SOMETHING. Anything else but this crap. But I don’t think she can or even knows how, because if she was okay with the inevitability of aging, she wouldn’t be sporting that LA Face and showing naked and heavily airbrushed in magazine shoots.
As for Lady Gaga…she’s a interesting case because while “Artpop” was a let down compared to her previous work, the new album with Bennett is really good. Underneath all the BS is some real musical talent, so if she’s ever able to mature to the point where she can give up the fame addiction, she could find plenty of career longevity down other avenues.
I really don’t understand what happened to Madonna and why she can’t record good music anymore. She has so much money, fame, she can by herself any hit. And yet she releases such crap few years in a row now.
You know what I did after I listened to those new songs? I went to listen to Masterpiece again. Because it’s like the last Madonna song that I really liked. I love that song. I was wating for Madonna to deliver new hits. And she didn’t.
She seems deluded. It’s not discrimination, but non interest. People can only handle so much musical rubbish.
It doesn’t matter who you are or how successful you have been, there comes a point for every musician where the sales aren’t what they used to be. This has nothing to do with discrimination against women. She had a longer span of huge success than a lot of artists, but that’s it. Like someone posted above even Michael Jackson couln’t keep up the record sales (would have been hard to do so). No one stays relevant forever.
It was always important to Madonna to break the rules, taboos and to be controversial. Back in the day she had the single spot on that stage. Nowadays she has to fight real hard to be even seen on that stage – because the schtick she created or at least helped to become popular is the ground rule to become famous: “be as controversial as you can”. Madonna is still trying though and takes it to Twitter and Instagram. Also, is it just me or is she only standing up for herself these days? I don’t follow her on Twitter or Instagram so I don’t know if she has been so outspoken about Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Palestine… as she has been about her own “struggles”.
Madonna really has sunk to a new low of self-obsession and delusion if she equates having a few mediocre songs being leaked to discrimination against women. Her music is drivel, she’s desperately trying to squeeze herself into a position of relevance that is already filled by the likes of much younger and more innovative musicians. She hasn’t evolved much in years, and on her so-called war with Gaga, this is all I can say:
“Madonna, Gaga has a great voice, you not so much. You’d sound pathetic if you ever tried to record standard jazz tunes with the likes of Mr. Tony Bennett. Stop trying to blame everyone else for your shortcomings, reach for a dictionary before you blast off indignant Instagram missives, then sit down and shut up.”
Madonna has been making too much crap music for the last nine years or so, but Madonna put out a soundtrack album with jazz and swing songs for Dick Tracy and she performed the jazz song by Stephen Sondheim, Sooner or Later, live at the Oscars back in ’90 that was off of her album. The album has another song by Stephen Sondheim written for the movie and performed by Madonna with Mandy Pantikin.
She put out a soundtrack album for her movie Evita and performed Broadway musical numbers from Evita like Don’t Cry for Me Argentina and the original by Andrew Lloyd Weber You Must Love Me, and she performed You Must Love Me live at the Oscars in 1997.
I’m not saying she has a voice as powerful as Gaga’s. She doesn’t. But Madonna has already performed standards, jazz, etc,, long before Gaga, in albums, and performed twice live at the Oscars such songs.
Madonna live in 1997 at the Oscars You Must Love Me
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGgQJf4GrhY
Sooner or Later – live Oscars 1990
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzVV6rrY0Ow
Lady gaga great voice? she’s a screamer with flat nasal voice, Madonna at least doesn’t oversing and has a versatile graceful voice and she can actually sing very well. Listen to the songs mentioned by Jayna and Ray of Light (live) to hear how high her voice pitches, even higher than gaga.
Second, Madonna is an artist and not a manufactured puppet created by the label like lady gaga, whom, by ammission of her former producer and manager, was entirely created after Madonna’s model. Nothing is original nor authentic about lady gaga, her character could have be given to anyone, infact initially lady gaga should have been a certain Lina Morgana. So how can a fake character, who is interchangeable to other people, be an artist?
Learn what music and art is before saying bulls*it