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Opinion: Ghosttown was wasted potential


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I think the video was very lame, actually. A beauty with grillz parading around in a "ghosttown"? Wow, what a concept. The whole set looked very fake and cheap. And that long and boring break near the end... God, wasn't that pathetic?? :Madonna002:

 

With a video like Take A Bow, Frozen or Ray Of Light things could have been much better.

 

Just my opinion.

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I feel like, musically, A LOT of people just don't care about Madonna anymore even if she's still able to record good pop songs. I think we're just wasting our time over analyzing everything... WHAT IF SHE HAD DONE THIS, WHAT IF SHE HAD DONE THAT, etc. People are only interested in streaming artists like Ariana Grande, Drake, Rihanna, Justin Bieber, Bruno Mars, and Ed Sheeran. The rest is just old news  :bothered2:

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what did kanye butcher? the songs he touched became better in my opinion. *

 

kanye is a minimalist, diplo not so much

 

 

*edit: except for autotune baby   :oi:

 

imho kanye butchers everything, not just M's music. he overloads songs with edits, cuts. it seems minimalist but it's rather bombastic if you listen closely.

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I feel like, musically, A LOT of people just don't care about Madonna anymore even if she's still able to record good pop songs. I think we're just wasting our time over analyzing everything... WHAT IF SHE HAD DONE THIS, WHAT IF SHE HAD DONE THAT, etc. People are only interested in streaming artists like Ariana Grande, Drake, Rihanna, Justin Bieber, Bruno Mars, and Ed Sheeran. The rest is just old news  :bothered2:

 

sad...

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But we shouldn't make excuses for her sometimes messy team and some of her work not being up to her standards. Rebel Heart was a great album but it's not surprising that people didn't assume it would be amazing just because she's Madonna. There was a time when she had that kind of reputation but we can't blame people for not having liked a lot of what she did in the last 10 years. 

 

Honestly I would say the same thing about Britney, Gaga and a lot of other artists whose reputations have gone down.

 

I don't want her to succeed based on name and legacy, I want her to succeed because she and her team put the effort in. 

 

All the artists mentioned have very invested teams and polished products, even if their work is not to our taste, even if some of it is easily digestible and disposable. It works for the intended consumers.

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She totally screwed herself over releasing it along with the remaining singles in the six song bundle back in December 2014. The fact we didn't know of this song's existence (if I recall correctly) and it wasn't leaked, she should have honestly either released it as the first single and then build up to a joint release with Living For Love in time for the Grammy's if possible.

Instead, she allowed that and Bitch I'm Madonna and Living For Love to be available for two months before the album campaign even began. By the time she began doing performances for LFL, everyone that interested had already purchased the song along with Ghosttown and Bitch, I'm Madonna.

It did have extreme wasted potential. 

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What I absolutely dread since a decade is the sense of rushing the art, running behind on trends and the overall lackluster or even desperate approach to M as a product.

and the same goes for ghosttown.

it's a good song but it's certainly not great. and not number one material.

you'll see was. frozen was. take a bow was. ghosttown, sadly, is only a pale imitation of a great ballad. the production ruined this one too.

 

I miss the sovereignty, some carelessness in regards to "what's trendy" or "who's hot". just her. mature. sovereign. not desperate. her real vision, not diluted by a million collaborators as happened with the previous records. but one collaborator as a producer and one or two songwriters to focus on. maybe not too many youngsters just riding on the trends.

 

who's madonna today? for real, what is she about? that's what is interesting to me and should be interesting to the world. an icon. aging. maturing. with a strong personality and strong views. not a product that just convinces instragrammers for having a plump face at her age.

 

i feel we haven't been getting her artistic side for ages. perhaps because the industry people also make her feel insecure, including her management.

 

she should make people see that art can become better with age.

or have i been expecting too much from madonna all this time? was she always just about hiring the "right people"?

why do i feel like her team around her is shit?

 

 

Hey quality of work has gone down the tubes.  Her washed out, over exposed videos, her over-done (not in a good way) face, her outfits (recent jeremy scott met gala disaster), her instagram account - ugh.  I cringe looking at these silly egotistical posts from this woman - random pics of her pouting her lips and showing us her eyes - huh?  I fell in love with this powerful, inspired, motivated and motivational force and now all she does is keeps chasing an audience that just doesnt care about her and reminding everyone she's the queen (she never ever had to tell us she was the queen.)  Thing is she's still around so maybe I should just be greatful for that and focus on the music but i dont love the music either.  Rebel Heart was a big sloppy weird mess.  When has she ever released 20+ songs for an album - Id get it if they were all good but the truth is only half of those deserved to make the final cut.

 

I just feel like the old Madonna was passionate and had something to say and that balanced the ego.  The Madonna today is just ego and worried about maintaining her crown and just cant get herself impassioned/motivated/excited enough to put out something that would get people excited for her.  The other side of the coin is, she's not the same Madonna we fell in love with.  That Madonna was hungry and new and middle class and just trying to reaching for the top.  The Madonna today already made it to the top. Whats left for her?  Constantly fending off and bad mouthing young artists, and putting out music that get her no attention no matter how hard she tries.  Im sure its deflating and affects the decisions she makes with who to work with etc....

 

Ok im rambling now.....

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I think part of the issue with all the singles from RH is that they were all from the initial 6 song pre-release. The demo leaks and the pre-order pushed the actual album into the public eye. Living For Love, Ghosttown, and Bitch I'm Madonna had been out for quite awhile before the singles were being too heavily promoted, so I think a lot of people who might have otherwise snagged the single had already heard or pre-ordered all of those songs.

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Well getting a music video ready immediately would've been rushed. The leaks were not expected, and having a single ready wasn't either. Living for Love and BIM were meant to be singles, and Ghosttown just screamed Madonna. Ghosttown should have been the first single, right when the leaks occurred or maybe a month or two afterwards. I would not have released the six songs like she did and instead fought to keep the demos off the net. It's nearly impossible but atleast off any major platforms like YouTube. Then, as planned, Living for Love on Valentine's, and BIM later in March. Ghosttown was great, but I'm not savvy in production so it sounds fine to me. Better than the bass devoid Joann by Lady Gaga.

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@@pourhomme80 thats harsh  :stare: like yes she's not the same as like the first 25 years of her career, but her changing doesn't mean I like her less. She's not the perfect untouchable robot that was above it all. We all change and she's fun and very creative to me like she's always been. She has the right to enjoy doing what everyone else does like posting silly selfies on her instagram account for fun. Why the hell not? it's not that serious.

 

I think truly my problem is not with her creativity or how she portrays herself* but her choice in collaborators in the last 10 years. Especially on MDNA, the music those DJs made could've been made by ANYBODY in a very short period of time. Nothing new or highly creative about it, however I think her ideas are always interesting and fun, so she needs to find collaborators who have the time, the passion, the technical skill and the creativity to help her realise her vision. Mirwais had it, Patrick had it, William had it, Stuart had it, etc. 

 

And also with visual collaborators, etc. Sometimes it feels like the people she works with are doing it as another job, and not trying to truly do something amazing for the sake of art and because they are getting their looiiff working with the queen. Maybe a reason for this is that she's picking people who have already made it and sometimes have already peaked or are peaking. She seriously needs to grab someone before they're all over the Top 40. Unique production is very hard to find though so it's mostly about time and drive.

 

*She had a messy time portraying herself a few years back but honestly I think it stemmed from personal things and she's now way better. So good for her. We all fall down in life.

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Guest ArthurBadin

I think the video was very lame, actually. A beauty with grillz parading around in a "ghosttown"? Wow, what a concept. The whole set looked very fake and cheap. And that long and boring break near the end... God, wasn't that pathetic?? :Madonna002:

 

With a video like Take A Bow, Frozen or Ray Of Light things could have been much better.

 

Just my opinion.

That would give the single a better visibility on TV channels and YouTube, but anyway it was condemned to high failure since the very first beginning when released months in advance despite of none of its demos had been leaked (and haven't been so far, that's quite impressive - but I believe any demo from Ghosttown was included on that notorious 85-file folder).

The actual video gave it just the face it has: a mediocre one. When an introduction consisted of several sentences in several languages resumed so well the quality of entire video and song? #Alert #Warning #Emergencia

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I still hear some dudes nasal voice singing over the chorus of Ghosttown, maybe I'm crazy idk but it's distracting as all hell and often makes me skip the song. It was a decent tune but the production was a little overhyped. If she had released the slower version of Joan of Arc without the cheesy beat I bet it would have conquered adult radio but we know we aren't concerned with adults anymore despite their jobs and disposable income. LFL and GT are both breakup songs really and idk if the kids were feeling that.

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