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You don't have to walk on eggshells, you just have to not be a racist. People being hurt by something doesn't mean that they're weak and have no backbone, it means they're human non-sociopathic beings.

According to the people who first talked about this, the pictures seemed to be more straight up blackface than the black Madonna but I don't know if that's true, and I'm not sure an album such as Hard Candy has any meaningful connection to that kind of religious imagery. It would've come across like "Madonna does black music with black producers and is portraying herself as a black person doing something that is historically racist". It would've come across like an edgelord idea, her career would've been over then and there.

So? His production sounds awfully cheap and meh on this album. His music nowadays is way better. He was trying SO BAD to make another Hello with M that it ended up sounding tired and dated from day one.

Madonna is a true artist....and works out her feelings in her music in ways other artists can not imagine or more accurately would ever dare. She sees the big picture while others nit pick over details. Things aren't always pretty, but they are necessary for growth. Madonna doesn't turn to harmful ways of dealing with her feelings. I have always heard the substance in Madonna's voice...I am not a fool and it angers me when people step right over everything that she is feeling and saying to write her off as being nothing more than the acts that I can see through. They have been doing it for years and years. Madonna doesn't fight their opinions either...she fights for her right to exist. She doesn't have to prove anything and gives everyone the freedom to make up their own mind but the business of whether she has a right to be loved or not...she fights for that. For that I will forever love her. She might annoy me sometimes but I will love her forever for being my voice. When she sings "I tried to be a good girl, I tried to be your wife" "Diminished myself, and I swallowed my light" I remember what I felt hearing her in interviews when she first got involved with Guy Ritchie. I was worried for her. I hoped for the best for her but on some level I knew she was in danger of being tremendously hurt. That whole verse is just everything to me and it doesn't matter what it's wrapped in. I hear it. I am not even satisfied with the "I don't give a" at the end. It's bitter and I feel her pain and I know her pain. She confronts her pain though. She doesn't run. She gets ridiculed and she doesn't care. The lady of promotion hardly promoted this album. Maybe all the things that I could always see do not appeal to most of her fanbase? That's why for years I thought of Madonna the way I thought of obscure artists that I only knew about and enjoyed. She wasn't mainstream to me. In a way she is not because so many do not see what I and some others see. I tend to focus more on feelings when it comes to music. I am not impressed with wrapping paper. I care more about what is going on inside. Pleasant or unpleasant. I think MDNA was an album she needed to do. Whether people are in tune to that in the future I am not sure.

Definitely not lol. It was the first time music wasn't her priority and the first time she decided to use producer rejects to record. The lack of input from her is apparent and the production on most of the songs is just atrocious. The album doesn't feel like an album but rather a demo mixtape.

Some songs were so tacky and badly done like Masterpiece which is so boring and demo-esque. TUTR, Superstar, I Fucked Up... They sounded like Katy Perry songs, yet even she wouldn't touch those. The album has some good, even great songs, but there are so many bad songs in between. I refuse to think she was satisfied with this work.

Call me corny, but i LOVE Superstar <3 Also I'm Addicted, Some Girls, GGW, Falling Free or I'm A Sinner are great tunes IMO.

I really don't get all the hatred this album gets from fans

Maybe? But not by me

To play Devil's Advocate, if its on Wikipedia its got to be true right? I think if the curls had been in place for this tour more than the (iconic) ponytail folks would associate Breathless with Blond Ambition. After all it is probably ver hard to do an MC Hammer dance in a tight dress. Even titling the album "I'm Breathless" is a double entendre. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blond_Ambition_World_Tour The third segment was a cabaret inspired by the 1990 motion picture Dick Tracy, in which Madonna starred as "Breathless Mahoney". During this segment, Madonna was wearing a green and white striped showgirl outfit. It included performances of "Sooner or Later", sung atop a grand piano, "Hanky Panky" and "Now I'm Following You", in which she danced and lip-synched with the dancer Salim Gauwloos, who was dressed like Dick Tracy.

AL was “out there”, experimental and really ahead of its time. MDNA has nothing of that sort and already sounds dated. Shit, most of it sounded dated when it was released. ;)

MDNA is a bad summary of who Madonna is made by someone who doesn't really know her. GGW is what GP think all her music sounds like, I'm a Sinner is the Walmart version of a song from ROL with terrible lyrics, she sounds like a robot running on a pirated version of Android on Love Spent, etc. I really don't like this album and it's okay if you guys do but it feels so rushed and not personal. Besides from the fact that the mixing and mastering is terrible and that most vocals sound terrible (I'm talking to you "screaming but not actually screaming on Gang Bang"). Some of the songs are bops but they don't feel like Madonna songs. LOVED the tour tho.

The reason AL and HC got re-evaluated is they're (I hate the word) cohesive pieces of work. MDNA doesn't know what it wants to be, it'll remain a polarizing album because of that even though I'll always love it. Madonna was in the middle of a million other projects during the recording sessions and the album reflects that. Every M album from Madonna to Rebel Heart has a definite sound or a main theme, except MDNA that lacks both. However this doesn't take away the fact it features some of her most personal lyrics and some of the best songs she's done this decade. It sounds more like a collection of songs rather than an album but there's absolutely nothing wrong with that, it's a rollercoaster, and a really fun one. All hail MDNA.

This

My top 5: Love Spent Beautiful Killer Falling Free I'm Addicted Masterpiece/Gang Bang An album full of gems, my only complaint is I prefer the demo version of GMAYL but the album version is alright too, MIA's verse is particularly fire

YES! I really LOVE/prefer the Madonna-only demo too. I love hearing her sing the cheers without the backup MIA/Minaj. I wish this solo demo would have been the original album version and then have the guest rappers on the radio single or remix. Overall I find this song very Beach Boys, California surf rock type of jam.

White people aren't evil, but people like you who align themselves with toxic alt-right ideologies are ... something..., wether you have that much self awareness or not.

The intent of what you say is not all that matters, the impact of what you say is also important. If someone is hurt by something I say, then I should apologize even if it wasn't my intention. If people are asking others not to say a hurtful word then why should people say it?. Respect costs nothing.

I don't know her

Am I the only living person who loves Shoo-Bee-Doo? Seriously? I personally think M's worst song ever is Spanish Lesson, you know it is.

YOU DID NOT JUST SAY THAT

Erotica, Bedtime Stories, American Life and Hard Candy have gone through the struggle where they weren’t appreciated and acknowledged at first. Usually 5+ years later is when they are given another chance and are loved amongst the fans. We can all agree with this statement perosnally I loved and enjoyed all of Madonna’s albums after the first few listens. When I first heard MDNA I couldn’t connect with it but a few months later I started to love it. Why don’t we just start appreciating more now and give it the love it deserves like every other Madonna album what are your favourite songs and aspects of the album and what do you appreciate the most about it?

Yes, the song and video is soo cute and it makes me happy. MDNA is such a good album.

It's a terrific album to me, personally, and works in the storyline of the breakdown of her marriage, from Hard Candy to MDNA and then Rebel Heart. Superstar is the only track that is kinda poor, but the rest are all pretty killer. Gang Bang remains the ultimate breakup song, whilst the sadness that tinges Turn Up the Radio is nothing to be ignored. Great album, far from being one of her worst, and I do hope it gets the appreciation it deserves soon.

Well, you could say she was Hatsumomo from "Memoirs of a Geisha" in "Nothing really matters", right? then she used that for the backdrops for "Paradise not for me" and "Mer girl"

Beautiful killer, Love Spent and Falling free are the best songs on the album! I also love Girl Gone Wild, Masterpiece and I don't give a...

My Top 5: 1) Girl gone wild 2) Masterpiece 3) I don't give a (I adore the bridge: and if I was a failure, I don't give a...) 4) Turn up the radio (loved it since the beginning, I don't know what to say) 5) I'm addicted I think, but also Gang Bang, Love spent, I'm a sinner, I fucked up. I am not really a Falling free fan, and probably the track I love less is, apart from Bday, Some girls. But I still listen to this album with great pleasure, probably more than, say... Like a virgin album.

MDNA may not be my favorite due to its rushed and weak production but it has some bangers like Girl Gone Wild, Superstar, I Don't Give A, Some Girls, I Fucked Up, Best Friend, B - Day Song (plz don't kill me for it), Masterpiece and Love Spent. I can foresee that it will appreciated more in the future. :D

What a beautiful post.

Sad. I always loved her features in Interview magazine. Home to some of her best photo shoots over the years.

To me it’s her album that could’ve been great but just didn’t deliver. Sure couple of songs are great but for the most part it’s just not a good album. And no, it won’t be considered a great piece of work once time dies it’s part. - just my opinion.

I'll say it again, MDNA is LIFE

Except during the actual promotion of Hard Candy, when she looked more like a soccor mum at certain points or a Real Housewife. She was half M-Dolla and half in "I Am Because We Are" promo mode. I would say that persona took over more after IABWA was done. But yeah I agree that she took it past the Hard Candy era.

“Duo” Madonna’s first “Billboard” mention from November 1982 called her single “Everybody” relaxing

Wished she went through with that idea. I would have been a really cool concept and album cover. But she was right, only 25% the people would get the reference (nowadays probably alot less) and the other would be up arms for no real reason.

According to the people who first talked about this, the pictures existed. The picture you're talking about is something that did the rounds but it's just photoshopped as you say. You may wanna read about what blackface is before saying it's not racist. Mocking entire races is racist, who would deny that?

You can use any word, is the intent behind that word that matters. And yes Negro is Black in Spanish.

Having a reference doesn't mean you can ignore all other meanings of something. The n-word comes from Latin, where it had one g and simply meant the color black. That doesn't mean you can use it, just because you're thinking of the Latin meaning.

Okay if we agree that Dita is the only true persona, than you have a point. But if we expand this a little and talk about M-dolla, Veronica Electronica and others, then Breathless is in that bunch for sure! And we wouldn't have the Vogue vibe if it weren't for Miss Mahoney.

Yeah but the entire I'm Breathless is from the perspective of Breathless Mahoney. Very conceptual, in the style of the 30's, so technically that's an era.. I guess

It's cute

I think she definitely embodied M-Dolla for wayyyyy too long M-Dolla ran thru MDNA into RH

I don’t know where you hear poor production and why you think it’s dated but that’s your opinion. But just so you know the album was meant to have a raw, demo, unfinished sound to it and it’s a very daring album

Beautiful Game

American Life. Simply the worst song of her career in my opinion...also the video with the flags didn't make things any better (LOVE the original one though). I don't know what people at Warner were thinking when they chose it as the lead single when they had Hollywood ready to set the charts on fire.

YOU DID NOT JUST SAY THAT