I'm burning up, burning up for your VOTES! — ILM Artist Poll #31 is Madonna

i would recant the greta garbo bit in my room til i had it down, every word

it was like a prayer

i love the whole weird canon of giant classic soundtrack songs that were attached to an otherwise unremarkable film (xp)

Gets its own Wikipedia entry: Madonna Wannabe.

(Seem to remember Madonna making a disparaging remark about Paula Abdul's weight in the late '80s...couldn't find anything online. She didn't need to be, but I think she did, occasionally, feel threatened by this procession of competitors.)

years after Ciccone Youth, Mike Watt gigged often with a tribute band called The Madonnabes. and then, of course, there was that glorious moment when he and the Stooges got to play her songs at the RNR Hall of Fame induction (there's an amazing photo i can't find of Watt bowing to her with his bass when she passes by the Stooges backstage).

Prince's hitmaking days ended in 1994.

I guess it makes more sense to regard 1984-1991 as a continuous phase with a treading water period (Who's That Girl) and a lull in 1988 before a peak in 1990-early '91

She almost matches up perfectly with Cal Ripken's first imperial phase. I don't know what that means.

lol

that's why he's known around Baltimore as Caldonna

She was obviously just biding her time with A-Rod, as was Mariah Carey with Jeter; Cal was the shortstop they all really wanted.

talking to a gay dad i know last night - he's the one who told me that mark kamins had passed away a couple of weeks ago and i confess i hadn't thought of mark kamins in 20+ years - and we had a nice madonna chat and i was gushing about live to tell and the oh father video and he totally outgayed me when i asked him what his fave madonna song was and he said "what it feels like for a girl". he loves every madonna album. he's of the can do no wrong variety of fan. though i did get him to admit that the bedtime story remix 12 inch was a snooze when i put it on.

Wow, don't think I've heard "Angel" in close to 30 years.

"deeper and deeper" is great. Recall the live version of "Bye Bye Baby" being a lot better than the studio.

you f***ed it up

I haven't quite decided about Deeper And Deeper, but what really grabs me is the synthetic string melody that runs from 0:16 to 0:32. It's quite unlike anything else I can think of in pop - what is it, a klezmer scale or something?

I was in college 87-91, and what I remember about Madonna then is that -- unlike 84-86 -- people stopped making fun of her, or at least her music. Even rock guys were all, "I really like some of her songs." (I assume "Like a Prayer" remains the rockist Madonna fave.)

Harmonic minor scale? It pops up all over. "Father Figure" by George Michael, for example.

xpost

Byzantine scale?

artists "from Johnny Marr to Eric Clapton" all loved LAP, according to the Lucy O'Brien bio.

It's as simple as that? I meant there's a eastern european feel to the way that melody unfolds, but I don't really have the lingo to explain properly.

Phrygian scale?

Phrygian scale is "Have Nagila," "Miserlou" and also a bunch of flamenco. Think Byzantine scale is "Father Figure." Both are variations on harmonic minor scales, I think.

artists "from Johnny Marr to Eric Clapton" all loved LAP, according to the Lucy O'Brien bio.

And John Wesley Harding did the requisite acoustic version.

I'm plonking it out on my piano while consulting this xp, and it's coming out Phrygian, yes

The O'Brien bio, the best researched of the many (trashy) ones, boasts good quotes from bassist Guy Pratt on the recording of LAP -- says he was impressed by Maddie's musical knowledge. During a run-through of "Oh Father," she ordered the drummer to hit the hi-hat on the second chorus and someone else to start the tambourine after 16 bars.

xp I'm pleased to see that the most modern phrygian thing that those links cite is by Charles Mingus, plus something off Lord Of The Rings

Maybe the Madonna ridicule '84-86 from rock people got transferred over to Milli Vanilli/New Kids/Tiffany? (Cf. John Huston in Chinatown on politicians and old buildings.) I don't know--as I said earlier, I stepped on with True Blue. Christgau and Marcus started to write about her more, and more positively, around the time of Like a Prayer, and I'm sure that had a effect too.

xpost Don't Fear the Reaper!

Madonna ridicule peaked with the conical bras. But even then, no one was making fun of the music, just the person.

Like, even now, if someone was going to make fun of Madonna, conical bras is the quickest shortcut.

http://www.analyzemath.com/Geometry_calculators/cone_1.gif

Formula for success.

Let us not forget the Madonna single that wasn't...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEOrfKfyYCc

isn't that quite a common time lapse between a new pop star emerging who gets derided as a plastic/inauthentic/wannabe and then once it's obvious they'll have longevity etc they get the grudging respect of the rockists

cf beyoncé now, even happened to kylie

Yep. The J.D. Considine review of LAP in Rolling Stone is a prime example of the form:

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/like-a-prayer-19890406

Ever since Madonna's bellybutton first undulated its way into mass consciousness, her fame has been more a matter of image than artistry. ... With Like a Prayer, Madonna doesn't just ask to be taken seriously, she insists on it. Daring in its lyrics, ambitious in its sonics, this is far and away the most self-consciously serious album she's made.

And the real tell is the "St. Pepperisms" of "Dear Jessie": In 1989, if Rolling Stone broke out the Pepper, it was like the Jann Wenner Seal of Approval.

isn't that quite a common time lapse between a new pop star emerging who gets derided as a plastic/inauthentic/wannabe and then once it's obvious they'll have longevity etc they get the grudging respect of the rockists

and T-Swift.

"self-consciously serious" i.e. "Whew! Now we can pay attention."

I'm having a hard time thinking of anyone from the '60s or '70s where this change was as clear and pronounced as it was with Madonna. You can't say the Beatles, because there essentially weren't any rock critics in 1966. I must be missing someone obvious.

lots of teen poppers "grew up" in the late 60's and early 70's and were taken more seriously by critics. usually whenever they put out an album that had their first, middle, and last name as a title.

Monkees?

lol yer rilly bobby vee

http://991.com/newGallery/Robert-Thomas-Velline-Nothin-Like-A-Sun-382216.jpg

Did Abba manage it, except in retrospect?

Another Madonnabe single:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KW2LOaCHhOg

I suppose not teenpop as such

i love alisha's "too turned on" as much as any madonna single of the 80's. and madonna could have done it circa first album. but it was alisha's fate to be a freestyle icon instead of a household name.

I think ABBA fits, but it took many years with them--don't think they were treated favorably by rock critics until long after they'd disbanded. (In North America, anyway--maybe different in Britain?) The Monkees...that one's tricky. Anyway, a separate thread. But I do think Madonna might be the blueprint for a phenomenon that happens with some regularity now.

(Cf. John Huston in /Chinatown/ on politicians and old buildings.)

True...I'm kind of a prude!

You've got to just let your body move to the politicians.

Wow, Music does not really hold up all that well. Some good tracks, of course (mainly the singles, plus I still dig "Impressive Instant") but the acoustic tracks are really quite dull.

I always forget how fantastic the lp version of "What It Feels Like..." is, because the video remix is the version I always think of first. Damn, though! It's REALLY strong in its original form.