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

xpost I thought Thriller was the first

fun fact: Lenny Kravitz wrote, produced, and did bg vocals ("hoh oh-ohhhh"/"yeah yeaaahhhh"/etc)

The Human League did it first, apparently.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VHS#VHS_single

On December 3, 1990, ABC's Nightline played the video in its entirety, then interviewed Madonna live about the video's sexual content and censorship. When asked whether she stood to make more money selling the video than airing it on MTV, she appeared impatient and answered, "Yeah, so? Lucky me."[18]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3yvKGQl6A4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUtMgR6tmwg

What an interview! Sadly, we're still having the same arguments 23 years later.

she comes off nervous (way more nervous than she ever was w/ loder) but huge kudos for calling out mtv on their bullshit for showing the 'wild thing' video (even if my 13 yr old self thanked god for it), calling out the networks for refusing to run condom ads, and (never can be done enough) calling out american parents for being lazy. crazy time capsule stuff going on in that interview w/ culture wars, second wave feminism v. third wave feminism

when i was a kid mtv europe seemed to only show durex ads. i miss mtv europe, it always seemed so polymorphously pan-europa, like there was this suggestion that everyone had been cast after sleeping with some executive at a party in jeanpaul gaultiers house, or at least it seems super fabulous like this at the time, and i also miss the clocks for different time zones. when they regionalised that was the moment it got boring for me. SIDENOTE.

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

"ray of light" seemed like a twofer for some rock critics, got to show that see they do like pop music and also see they're not afraid of techno (when there's a SONG you can HUM for a CHANGE amirite). i'm fine w/ it (i like several rol tracks, including all the other singles, a good bit more), suspect it won't place that high? could be some real narcissistic 'everyone shares my take' thought process there but yknow what? four tunnel of love tracks in the top twenty. i'm gonna ride this feeling and see where it takes me.

not so fond of "Ray of Light" myself -- she sounds like she's singing from a wind tunnel in outer space, which I guess is the point.

it's that sound of someone not even aiming for the high notes they used to hit w/o thinking twice, cf bono

tbf during her Oprah appearance she does (and she looks great)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AX55nr-Hxw

look at Oprah dance!

i will say, and this is maybe perverse, but i did find myself liking it more after i heard the curtiss maldoon track it bites pretty shamelessly:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyCURI6PiaI

tbh though that's just 'the older i get, the more i find myself sympathizing w/ hippies', if i think of 'ray of light' as madonna offering a similar vibe for her now middle aged wannabes i can feel that, 'and i feel like i just got home' makes way more sense, is way more perfectly specifically joyous in the soccer mom context than in the celestial child of the universe in the brotherhood of man context.

xpost lol and there's oprah to provide the context

well, she gives them songwriting credit

"Ray Of Light" imo has aged terribly, i'm sure "Frozen" and maybe even some deep cuts/minor hits off that album will do better. would love if it missed the top 50 entirely.

I really should think "Nothing Really Matters" is worse than it is, but you don't even have to look at the credits to hear how it's a Patrick Leonard co-write.

god that sounds awesome, the fuck am i talking about 'ray of light' is awesome

lol otm

the Oprah performance is a good argument -- if someone wants to make it -- for how the opera helped.

I love how in that Oprah link you can tell that the echo is bothering her sometimes

also yeah, she couldn't have done those long-ass phrases near the end without the voice lessons

was tempted to write "the Oprah lessons"

the swoops and bleeps (and lol at that EKG meter graphics) designed to make her audience know that THIS IS DANCE MUSIC Y'ALL were dated even in '98 though.

also:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1G3FI_Wa0E

aww <3

i miss mtv europe

Haha wow, they must have regionalised about a week after we got MTV, I had totally forgotten it ever existed. There were still echoes I suppose, like when the MTV Europe awards would be all US/UK acts, and then Jovanotti shows up like he's a megastar

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