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

from the Bruce thread:

Madonna has so many singles that some of them qualify as deep cuts ("Angel," "Causing a Commotion," "Hanky Panky," "Nothing Lasts Forever").

As long as "Angel," "Sky Fits Heaven," and "Til Death Do Us Part" get mentioned, I'm ok.

― the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, February 18, 2013 8:08 PM

Madonna released at least one single every year between 1982 and 2003; in that time period, only one of them did not make the top ten of a chart somewhere (and, as far as I can tell, it's the only single of her career that didn't hit the top 10 somewhere)

That means 75 out of 76 singles hit the top ten on the pop and/or dance charts

She sounds so alive on "Open Your Heart." It's one of those songs that makes me feel invincible.

djp you just blew my mind

Predict a massive span of singles, album cuts and other stuff spread out over her entire career. So much stuff from virtually every album/era that I outright love, up to and including "Confessions..." I'd say. After that she started trying to hard and therefore failing harder. I'm sure "Hard Candy" and "MDNA" have their defenders, though.

"Secret Garden"!!!

After an album of heartbreak, pain, disease and death Madge tries to reconstruct her existence over early drum and bass yearning for the one thing she feels she can unconditionally love and be loved back in return - a child.

Always wondered why that song felt like a bonus track, but now it makes sense. It's the baby song on an album in which she assumes the role of a gay man.

I can't think of a better line to sum up Madonna in an existential crisis in 1992 than her sighing "I just wish I knew the color of my own hair".

OTM.

I almost think her ballads deserve their own mini-poll.

The countdown thread is going to, what, 50? 75?

I was originally just going to do a top 40, but may stretch it out to 50 depending on the results of the voting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKjm-zdcPHM

this needs love.

The normal version of "Open Your Heart" is so perfect I'm not sure I could vote for the extended remix.

The Big Orange SPIN Book dismissed Bedtime Stories as Madonna jumping on board the R&B train but working with Dallas Austin, Babyface, and Dave Hall showed how shrewdly she figured out that R&B would dominate the decade. She even looks ahead to the cavernous electronic chill of her next studio album.

True Blue probably counts as a key album for me as a listener. Just circumstances--that was the one that was out when I started working at a record store in 1986. Rediscovered Top 40 pop music after a long time away from it. "Open Your Heart" in particular was key (as was Janet's "When I Think of You").

Madonna way ahead of the curve on the sampling Aaliyah trend -- the same year "Back & Forth" dropped, it was sampled on "Inside Of Me" from Bedtime Stories

HOW did i never know this before?!

1986 was a fantastic year in pop music

"Gambler," people!

YOU'RE JUST JEALOUS CUZ YOU CAN'T BE ME

After that she started trying to hard and therefore failing harder. I'm sure "Hard Candy" and "MDNA" have their defenders, though.

not trying hard enough imo

"Gang Bang" is a terrible song but weirdly compelling, I feel like campaigning for it just to be perverse

The tour finally sold me on a couple of MDNA's tracks, but Hard Candy was ... um, not a tough act to follow.

xp "Gang Bang" was one of the ones I came around to!

I didn't particularly love Erotica at the time (and still don't) and, for some reason, my mind has never identified Bedtime Stories as a proper Madonna album since it seemed to come so quickly after Erotica (though now I see it was a full two-year gap). She was just so omnipresent during those years that it all seems like a blur. In hindsight, I appreciate her attempts at spreading her wings into unfamiliar styles, but neither of those records means a lot to me.

"Hung Up" and maaaaaybe "Sorry" will make my ballot. More than half of Confessions is amazing and has aged well.

Strange overlapping of tastemakers: MBV samples the "Security of the First World" beat two years pre-Madonna/Leny Kravitz:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZueurvWak0

I still maintain that "4 Minutes" is unfairly maligned

"Give It To Me" is not maligned nearly enough, though (and yes, I know that everyone hates it)

also looking at how her singles charted on the Wikipedia list is kind of lol

like for example, the US was completely OTM re: "American Pie"

Really think the results are going to have to be larger than 40 to allow some of the non-greatest hits fodder to sneak in.

Already, I'm mulling arbitrarily limiting selection of #1s to no more than 5 on my ballot, but that's dumb.

the beat for "4 minutes" remains so banging

erotica and bedtime stories were the albums that made me fall in love with madonna - i discovered her '80s stuff in retrospect

the U.S. not otm re "Bedtime Stories."

erotica & bedtime stories def her artistic & creative pinnacle

That may be true, but I've got little use for either of them.

I do like "Rain". And "Bad Girl". And the track "Bedtime Stories". Dunno if I'll vote for any of them with only 20 votes to spend, though.

I think the singles from Bedtime Stories are amazing but the album itself doesn't support them.

Erotica is just okay really, but I do love "Rain".

Madonna released at least one single every year between 1982 and 2003; in that time period, only one of them did not make the top ten of a chart somewhere (and, as far as I can tell, it's the only single of her career that didn't hit the top 10 somewhere)

That means 75 out of 76 singles hit the top ten on the pop and/or dance charts

― Ima R.A.E.D. (DJP), Tuesday, 19 February 2013 15:45 (27 minutes ago) Bookmark

what was the fuck up?

JF, I'm not gonna hurt you. Just close your eyes.

http://www.magia2000.com/images/madonnadolls/erotica/madonna-erotica-fever.jpg

xp: "Love Don't Live Here Anymore"

I much prefer "I'll Remember" to all of Ray of Light.

Open Your Heart definitely one of my all time favorites.

In Grade 6, I put together my own choreographed dance to it. Oddly I don't remember performing it though? I can't exactly remember what I happened but I definitely remember many many nights in front of my bedroom mirror working out my steps :D (Also I recall a lot of time writing out the lyrics.) I remember when I told my teacher that I had chosen Open Your Heart to dance to, he said jokingly, "A song about open heart surgery! Wonderful! Very uplifting."

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8bl6e_wayne-s-world-sketch-1990-featuring_fun

also I am the world's biggest stan for 'True Blue' (single) -- another grade-school dance in front of the mirror favorite, to the point where I recorded the music video off the tv and my friends and I learned the dance she did in the video. I'm right back at 10 years old every time I hear it.

This is a pretty good remix, imo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ma3pqYDxO4

Madonna way ahead of the curve on the sampling Aaliyah trend -- the same year "Back & Forth" dropped, it was sampled on "Inside Of Me" from Bedtime Stories

― some dude, Tuesday, 19 February 2013 14:35 (1 hour ago) Bookmark

haha this is a most un-shipsy fanciful stretch re "the curve"

isnt the sample just of kells on the intro, and isnt dave jam hall continuing the jackin 4 beats bad boy steez he invented of no great surprise anyway

soz for the pedantry but yunno

maybe there should be a little thread of difficult albums that inspired popular artists

joi 'pendulum vibe' for madonna, aaliyah loving lewis taylor, that sort of thing

"Vogue" was the life-changer for me. It'll be hard not to give it the #1 slot.

I like "True Blue," too. Sort of whitewashed from her greatest hits.

Agree this has to be a high number vote, because otherwise it will not only just be her hits, but several hits will get the shaft, too.

All of Freaky Trigger's Madonna blurbs are worth reading and boast good comments: http://freakytrigger.co.uk/search/?cx=001133180466749097833%3A3chbiorvjmy&cof=FORID%3A10&ie=UTF-8&q=madonna

Raise your hand if you're old enough to remember Madonna's pre-"Virgin" breakthrough (raises hand). Have such love for the first album, oddly ambivalent about "Like a Virgin" (the album). "True Blue" is closest to my heart, love that it was preceded by "Into the Groove" and "Crazy For You," both of which are all-time and would have fit on the album.

Best use of Madonna might be the diffusion of "Live to Tell" throughout "At Close Range." Patrick Leonard ftw.

ah Johnny has sent me down the rabbit hole of demos and unreleased tracks, because "Take Me (I Want You)" was an AWESOME find. pleasantly surprised at how long and detailed this list is, good job Madonna stans: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unreleased_Madonna_songs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmFe83QiEaI

"Ain't No Big Deal" was apparently at one point supposed to be her first single before "Everybody," and was demoed and recorded several times before finally ending up a True Blue era b-side. one of the demos was produced by Mark Kamins, the boyfriend who produced "Everybody" and got Madonna signed who passed away last week, not sure if this 1981 one is his but it's pretty fun to hear.

I think the singles from Bedtime Stories are amazing but the album itself doesn't support them.

nah the suite from "forbidden love" to the end is so immaculate, and seriously sad as fuck - love how it slowly builds from she singing about rejection ("forbidden love") to absolute loneliness ("love tried to welcome me") to desiring death ("sanctuary") to oblivion itself ("bedtime stories") to then bringing the curtain down completely on "take a bow". and i love how she pillows all the tragedy under such luscious sonics to hide it away.

Patrick Leonard definitely helped her refine her melodic gifts.

haha rtc thanks for illuminating -- i was just following wikipedia's lead, only did a pretty half-assed comparison between the 2 tracks to confirm there was a sample, but obviously i was kinda joking about THE CURVE, still interesting imo

Ray Of Light is awesome

mtv uk started after britpop basically as the uk and rest of europe certainly was quite different. but the 1st few years of mtv when cable hit here (94) was mtv europe and it really was hugely different. Stuff like Whale was on constantly, dEUS, and tricky.

'and i feel like i just got home' makes way more sense, is way more perfectly specifically joyous in the soccer mom context

why i voted for it (low)

"do you want me to promote one of my up-and-coming button-pushing products"

ha i'd never heard that line in the hippie new age sense, it's always been a bizarre flash of the mundane (and the ecstatic therein) on the album. play it when you get home from work, return to the sanctuary

quite curious to see where these singles place: "Papa Don't Preach," "True Blue," and "Ray of Light" i.e. seemed iconic at the time

the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn) wrote this at 2013-03-07 03:12:14.201

I never liked any of these very much, compared to their contemporaries. When reviewing songs for this poll though, I rated Papa Don't.Preach very highly. Hope it's reflected in the poll results.

The other two I still don'tcare for.

Don't go for second best, baby. Put your ILM ARTIST POLL #31: MADONNA to the test.

so Madonna is officially pop music's first billionaire

nah she ain't - http://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/2013/03/28/why-madonna-isnt-on-the-forbes-billionaires-list/

makes sense but would not have predicted roger waters was the second highest earning musician last year (dre first obv).

haha oh nm

In advance I want to apologize for the fellow gays who will comment on that article and rip the asshole to shreds for "hating on" Madonna.

i thought it would be mccartney is why i googled it. take that were #5 top earner last year fwiw.

i'm almost certain sure she's a billionaire - that forbes estimate fails to account for her private investments, assets, royalties and her art collection that's worth hundreds of millions alone.

not that they're "hating" per se but i think there's been bad blood in the past with madonna refusing to release her private financial details to them (you can imagine what she's like) + other sources going out and calling her a billionaire first when forbes like to consider themselves the sole authority on this sort of thing mustn't have sat well with them.

we probably won't find out everything till she dies

i def think if she hadn't have managed to become a singer she would have ended up being a ceo of a huge corporation

she'd have been a dancer

nothing pains me more than bono being the world's richest musician, just cause he bought up shares of facebook ten years ago

he also did the 1st and 5th highest grossing tours of all time, so not JUST because of that obviously

Nah, Bono's earned it. According to Flanagan's book U2 tours were barely profitable until the mid-90s - they sunk so much money into the visuals, or whatever the hell they did pre-Achtung Baby, that they had to sell every ticket to pretty much break even.

On a related note, was it Madonna who raised the bar on ticket prices? I dimly recall top-act prices virtually trebling overnight at some point, and have a feeling she was the first to realise the Market could take it.

It was the fucking Eagles who were first with $100 tickets.

Actually looked into seeing Waters last year, but tickets were $400. Interestingly, according to Mojo, Pink Floyd barely broke even on their 1994 tours because they didn't want to charge more than $40/ticket, but they had insane expenses.

sorry, just bumping so I can relive the magic :)

I can keep up with you