Madonna

[carrier76]

Oct 12, 2022 12:28:36 GMT -4 Karrit said:

Madonna should go down the ABBA route. She has a great catalog of music, so do a Broadway/West End musical like Mama Mia.

She could follow it up with an CGI/avatar concert in Vegas. She could be young and beautiful forever with that. I went to the ABBA avatar show here in London and it was really cool. I think the concept would work really well for Madonna.

I would pay GOOD MONEY for a Madonna jukebox musical. And it would start on time. 😉

[laurenj]

Oct 12, 2022 10:59:57 GMT -4 carrier76 said:

Oct 12, 2022 10:15:13 GMT -4 Ginger said:

I was never the biggest Madonna fan (except Material Girl when I was 9), but she's got SO MANY hit songs. She wouldn't need to do any stunts, just bring out a selection of hits and let people dance and have fun for 2-1/2 hours.

IIRC from her last tour (2019), people were really excited to come to her shows, but she soured the experience by showing up 2+ hours late all the time and getting shut down by curfews. Then she injured herself doing physical gymnastics a 61-year-old probably shouldn't have been doing every night and had to cancel.

Some aging performers have a reputation for giving the audience their money's worth no matter what. Madonna has the opposite reputation - extremely high ticket prices for a show that's going to start late, won't include many hit songs, but will include a lot of extended political monologues, flashing of body parts, and unpleasant imagery like swastikas. It doesn't sound fun to me at all.

I have a friend who went to a Madonna show in NYC probably 10 years ago, and I think she was 2 hours late for that. I told him I would have been livid about it, and he acted like I was out of touch and her being late was part of the experience and anticipation. No. 20 minutes, maybe. But my time is too valuable for that kind of nonsense. I love(d) Madonna for most of my life but would never aspire to go to her show. You know who gives good concert? McCartney. He plays for hours and gives the fans what they want. I’ve seen him three times and will go again if ever given the opportunity.

My bf has worked backstage medical for Madonna shows and the reason that she goes on late is not necessarily because she isn't there or isn't ready, but she demands that the stage be a certain temperature exactly before she'll go on. And no one is allowed to make eye contact or speak with her unless spoken to or needed for some specific reason.

So I was already a bit sour on the idea of a Madonna show, but also, it sucked on its face. She played about 3 1/2 songs that I knew and liked, did rearrangements on those so they didn't really sound like the songs I liked, and all of the acrobatic shit that was going on down on the stage was only really staged in a way that the front section of the arena could appreciate. From the first level balcony (not exactly nosebleed territory), it looked like a bunch of nothing.

I believe she's gone on record as saying she never wanted to do the kind of shows where you just play the hits, but really, that's what people are there for. Playing music no one has heard of could maybe be edgy and interesting in an intimate setting, but in a huge arena? Play the fucking music that people know.

[carrier76]

Which tour was that?

[ikmccall]

Oct 12, 2022 10:59:57 GMT -4 carrier76 said:

Oct 12, 2022 10:15:13 GMT -4 Ginger said:

I was never the biggest Madonna fan (except Material Girl when I was 9), but she's got SO MANY hit songs. She wouldn't need to do any stunts, just bring out a selection of hits and let people dance and have fun for 2-1/2 hours.

IIRC from her last tour (2019), people were really excited to come to her shows, but she soured the experience by showing up 2+ hours late all the time and getting shut down by curfews. Then she injured herself doing physical gymnastics a 61-year-old probably shouldn't have been doing every night and had to cancel.

Some aging performers have a reputation for giving the audience their money's worth no matter what. Madonna has the opposite reputation - extremely high ticket prices for a show that's going to start late, won't include many hit songs, but will include a lot of extended political monologues, flashing of body parts, and unpleasant imagery like swastikas. It doesn't sound fun to me at all.

I have a friend who went to a Madonna show in NYC probably 10 years ago, and I think she was 2 hours late for that. I told him I would have been livid about it, and he acted like I was out of touch and her being late was part of the experience and anticipation. No. 20 minutes, maybe. But my time is too valuable for that kind of nonsense. I love(d) Madonna for most of my life but would never aspire to go to her show. You know who gives good concert? McCartney. He plays for hours and gives the fans what they want. I’ve seen him three times and will go again if ever given the opportunity.

I totally agree about McCartney. Ringo and his All Star Band, Jimmy Buffett and the Doobie Brothers are the same.

[cubanitafresca]

Oct 12, 2022 16:35:30 GMT -4 ikmccall said:

I totally agree about McCartney. Ringo and his All Star Band, Jimmy Buffett and the Doobie Brothers are the same.

Oh my god Paul McCartney puts on the most AMAZING show. I've seen him 3 times and never ever regreted it. The first time I saw him was the Flowers in the Dirt Tour. I had to buy my ticket from a scalper and paid $600 for it, which was hella lot back then especially since I only made 1K a month. I ate Top Ramen for months and never ever regretted it. Michael Buble is another one who puts on an incredible show.

On Topic: I love so much of Madonna's early music. It was the soundtrack of my early 20's and I love all of it. But to me, she's always been a horrible person. A lot of it probably comes from low self-esteem and that makes me a little bit sorry for her - but at some point, it's on her to do the work.

[Auroranorth]

Oct 12, 2022 8:23:46 GMT -4 ahah said:

Oct 11, 2022 22:40:15 GMT -4 Auroranorth said:

Stevie Nicks is older than Madonna, but she still packs a house when she performs. She would have been a better role model for Madonna than whoever she's got.

Stevie was smart enough to build a career on writing great music and being a great performer. Madonna can certainly be a great performer, but she built her career on doing stunts as a major party of her work, so she doesn't know how to be relevant without them.

Stevie said she wanted to still be famous when she was seventy, and she's done it. She's an icon in the music business. People are wild to work with her. Madonna? Not so much.

[dragonflie]

I haven't followed Madonna for a long while- but every time I've looked at her image in the last 5+ years she looks progressively worse. Whoever said Pete Burns a few pages back was totally right. She looks scary.

And that is a core difference between her and Stevie Nicks or Jamie Lee Curtis. Both of them have aged with grace and dignity, and retained a real sense of power and confidence. Madonna just looks, and acts... well... pathetic.

[MrsOldManBalls]

I wonder if she’ll ever admit to herself that she’s a few things she never wanted to be?

[Ladybug]

May 18, 2021 10:34:59 GMT -4 ahah said:

I have a friend who is a HUGE Madonna fan who told me one time that Madonna needed to be viewed more as a performance artist than a musician. Each time she released a new album she adopted the theme of that album into her life - the way she dressed, the way she acted in public, what she talked about in her life, etc.

Does this friend not understand that all of this was part of marketing for the albums? Madonna has reinvented herself numerous times, but the point is to get people talking about her and sell her music. The first time this dawned on me I was 15 and she suddenly went from Desperately Seeking Susan Madonna to Jean Seberg Papa Don't Preach Madonna. It was all about creating buzz and selling the album. She just has to take it farther and farther each time because the audience has to be shocked into paying attention to her again. I don't consider that performance art, but marketing savvy.

She will always be a pop icon. I loved her 80s and 90s and early 00s stuff. She could've aged gracefully into being the grande dame of pop music, but she chose another route. Every major female pop star has been influenced by Madonna and I wish she would embrace that instead of trying to hang on to her youth.

[ahah]

Oct 13, 2022 9:16:56 GMT -4 Ladybug said:

May 18, 2021 10:34:59 GMT -4 ahah said:

I have a friend who is a HUGE Madonna fan who told me one time that Madonna needed to be viewed more as a performance artist than a musician. Each time she released a new album she adopted the theme of that album into her life - the way she dressed, the way she acted in public, what she talked about in her life, etc.

Does this friend not understand that all of this was part of marketing for the albums? Madonna has reinvented herself numerous times, but the point is to get people talking about her and sell her music. The first time this dawned on me I was 15 and she suddenly went from Desperately Seeking Susan Madonna to Jean Seberg Papa Don't Preach Madonna. It was all about creating buzz and selling the album. She just has to take it farther and farther each time because the audience has to be shocked into paying attention to her again. I don't consider that performance art, but marketing savvy.

She will always be a pop icon. I loved her 80s and 90s and early 00s stuff. She could've aged gracefully into being the grande dame of pop music, but she chose another route. Every major female pop star has been influenced by Madonna and I wish she would embrace that instead of trying to hang on to her youth.

Actually, that was precisely the friend's point. There can be an artistic element to the most effective marketing. Madonna took it steps further than most any other artist to make sure her work was noticed.