Loki

Here we go again.
1.Bad Girl: a cinematic, dramatic, erotic mini movie by Mr. Fincher. What else? Louise Oriole is her closest alter ego: high-powered and successful in terms of career, incredibly unlucky in love affairs. A rare example of her most vulnerable and personal side. 
2.Bedtime Story/Frozen: glowing gems in her vaults about synchretism. Bedtime Story summarizes the history of Surrealism in arts, Frozen is a marvelous enigma about religions and eastern cultures. Her artistic manifesto.
3.Dark Ballet: a dystopian and delirious version of Like a Prayer. It takes the original spirit of LAP and reverses it: the attack to the Church is more direct and the most frightning and dramatic aspect of the Roman Catholic Church is showed in all its cruelty. There's no hope, there's not an happy ending. The mirror of the XXI century. A visionary video. Very actual.
Honorable mentions: Drowned World/Substitute for Love, Oh Father: her most personal videos. The mother, the daughter behind the artist. Paradise (Not for Me) video interlude: although it's not a proper video, in my opinion it shows perfectly her ability to channel different concepts in just one art form: this interlude is clearly about death but there are also strong references to Memoirs of a Geisha and Nothing Really Matters. 

That's a really tough question, but it's incredibly interesting! I believe that in this case the title is more than just a name and that it offers further information about the meaning of the lyrics. First of all, it's an homage to her mother's French roots, but it's also a subtle reference to a bunch of poems by Anne Sexton, in particular to The Consecrating Mother, where the ocean is compared several times to a mother, a mother you can't have a relationship with, because she's a beloved ghost presence you wait to on the shore, alone and vainly: The ocean offered them up in the vein of/ its might/ I wanted to share this/ but I stood alone like a pink scarecrow./ The ocean steamed in and out,/ the ocean gasped upon the shore/ but I could not define her,/ I could not name her mood, her locked-/up faces./ Far off she rolled and rolled/ like a woman in labor./[...]I am that clumsy human/ on the shore/ loving you, coming, coming/ going/ and wish to put my thumb on you/ like the Song of Salomon. I didn't quote it, but the first portion of this poem is about death and how the sea is involved in it. It's beautiful, but at the same time full of pain.
That's another reference to a poem by Sexton: The sea is mother-death and she is a mighty female, the one who wins, the one who sucks us all up. Once again the concept of water is strongly linked to a motherly figure and death. 
I don't know if this above is the right answer, but I hope it will be useful. I really wish she'll release more material like this in future.
 

I get the fan point of view of her but in a social context Madonna’s fanbase in termoil about the state of her career and relevancy is as much as a commentary on our own view of the world and our place in it. Madonna is a mirror in which we see ourselves. The old fans anyway. 
I envy new era Madonna fans who came here because they found and respect the legacy and her importance. Older fans who live through it have a different ground point. Neither are correct neither are wrong. It’s just the wrangle of a fan base that’s grown over decades of being around an artist who has appealed to so many people in such a profound way. Literally so few stars have that. The reason for our discourse as fans is a problem only the best of the best artist have. It’s a compliment to her and don’t forget that as annoying as it can be at times. It’s the biggest accolade. 

Kabbalah, here we go again. The linguistic history of the letter X is very nice: both the symbol and the pronunciation come from Greek, in particular the pronunciation descends from the letter χ, but the symbol comes from the letter ξ. This last symbol originates from the Phoenician letter samech. The letter samech is still present in the Hebrew alphabet as the 15th one, ס. According to Kabbalah, the circular shape represents the infinite power of Ein Sof, the infinite light of God. Ein Sof is also the emanator of the ten Sefirot, the energy emanations that form the famous Tree of Life. Back to the topic, the relationship between American Life and Kabbalah is very evident: the original title should have been Ein Sof, the Tree of Life is quoted in 'Nothing Fails' and, as you noticed, the letter X is present in one of the titles. Madame X is a damned challenge: in my opinion in this case the letter X is still related to the Tree of Life, but we have to consider the biblical interpretation of it as the tree of knowledge of good and evil, the tree of duality. If we consider it, it's easy to explain the sense of songs like 'Killer who are partying', especially the line 'do you know who you are? ', but in general the sense of the album: Madame is everyone and at the same time she is none. This is duality, isn't it?

An ecstatic hymn to the sky, a liberating cry, a psychedelic celebration of life. Truly madly deeply in love with Ray of Light and I will always be. Inextricably linked to the '90s atmosphere but at the same time timeless, it's the forbidden fruit of a rebirth, it's the shocking marriage between the most famous woman on Earth and the underground world. It's a damned masterpiece. Love apart, in my opinion the power of this record lies in Madonna herself. I mean, the electronic sound gives a divine aura to her new spirituality, but if she hadn't approached to Kabbalah, if she hadn't found peace in her life (just a little bit), ROL wouldn't have been the masterpiece we all know, it would have been only a good electronic album. That's why we can't separate her life from her albums: they represent her evolution as a human being. But let's start with my usual outlandish post about her albums. 
IMHO, this record is the first chapter of her tetralogy about natural elements (hey, sis, we miss the one about aether), in this case water, but it's also the first part of a diptych which portraits Nietzsche's dichotomy about Apollonian and Dionysian: ROL is obviously the representation of Apollonian. Every aspect of this album is a tribute to rationality and equilibrium, from the sound to the lyrics: every feeling and emotion are calm and measured, there's no excess. Plus the sound evocates the presence of light and sun, the most common symbols of Apollo. Along with these sides, it's surprising the religious syncretism this recond contains: the Frozen video is an astonishing reference to different religions, from the Greek one (the dog, which represents the star Sirius; it's also a reference to the Greek afterword, 'cause dogs populated this realm), the celtic one (the crow, a reference to Morrigan, the goddess of fate and death), to the Hinduist one (Kali). What about the instrumentals? Eargasmic, I could listen to them in eternity (please, take back Orbit). 
Finally, I'd like to thank Anne, Sylvia and William to have inspired her for the lyrics. Love you guys, although you all are dead.

I'm sorry but sometimes I feel like I'm living in a different reality than some of her fans. 
Everywhere I go, every time I watch something, every time I meet someone, Madonna is there. Just yesterday I counted 5 Madonna references in shows I've watched in the past week alone. My non-fan friends send me things they see of her all the time, like a t-shirt at a store or whatever. 
The woman had a #1 album in several countries just 18 months ago, followed by a sold-out tour of very expensive tickets that sold like hot cakes. She was universally appraised after 3 mediocre albums and at the age of 60 (!). 
Why do some fans focus so much on the butt and grillz and elevate those things to the same level of her work? That's like 10% of her. Yes, her Instagram is cringy but you guys know she's a boomer, right? lol what did you expect from a 60-year old woman on the internet... and I've seen way worse, to be honest.
I 100% disagree that younger people don't know her music, or at least that's not what I see in my personal experience. Her hit songs from Like a Virgin to Girl Gone Wild are very well known by the few 18-20-year olds I know and they do like her. Online I also get that feedback. She's seen as an icon, the Queen of Pop, the top of the hierarchy. Her status is unchanged by some grillz or whatever she may feel like wearing... 
I understand disliking the implants/grillz/cirurgies but to say she looks "cheap, basic, unflattering" when she's dressed in amazing outfits with bomb-ass makeup and hair for the gods just screams of sexism, ageism and even classism to me... but that's just my point of view. 

Kabbalah, here we go again. The linguistic history of the letter X is very nice: both the symbol and the pronunciation come from Greek, in particular the pronunciation descends from the letter χ, but the symbol comes from the letter ξ. This last symbol originates from the Phoenician letter samech. The letter samech is still present in the Hebrew alphabet as the 15th one, ס. According to Kabbalah, the circular shape represents the infinite power of Ein Sof, the infinite light of God. Ein Sof is also the emanator of the ten Sefirot, the energy emanations that form the famous Tree of Life. Back to the topic, the relationship between American Life and Kabbalah is very evident: the original title should have been Ein Sof, the Tree of Life is quoted in 'Nothing Fails' and, as you noticed, the letter X is present in one of the titles. Madame X is a damned challenge: in my opinion in this case the letter X is still related to the Tree of Life, but we have to consider the biblical interpretation of it as the tree of knowledge of good and evil, the tree of duality. If we consider it, it's easy to explain the sense of songs like 'Killer who are partying', especially the line 'do you know who you are? ', but in general the sense of the album: Madame is everyone and at the same time she is none. This is duality, isn't it?

Kabbalah, here we go again. The linguistic history of the letter X is very nice: both the symbol and the pronunciation come from Greek, in particular the pronunciation descends from the letter χ, but the symbol comes from the letter ξ. This last symbol originates from the Phoenician letter samech. The letter samech is still present in the Hebrew alphabet as the 15th one, ס. According to Kabbalah, the circular shape represents the infinite power of Ein Sof, the infinite light of God. Ein Sof is also the emanator of the ten Sefirot, the energy emanations that form the famous Tree of Life. Back to the topic, the relationship between American Life and Kabbalah is very evident: the original title should have been Ein Sof, the Tree of Life is quoted in 'Nothing Fails' and, as you noticed, the letter X is present in one of the titles. Madame X is a damned challenge: in my opinion in this case the letter X is still related to the Tree of Life, but we have to consider the biblical interpretation of it as the tree of knowledge of good and evil, the tree of duality. If we consider it, it's easy to explain the sense of songs like 'Killer who are partying', especially the line 'do you know who you are? ', but in general the sense of the album: Madame is everyone and at the same time she is none. This is duality, isn't it?

Okay so I just realized this all of my favorite albums of Madonna, the experimental ones, all have some huge relationship to the letter X!
Erotica ~ SEX (Which we know she originally wanted to call X and has a huge X symbol on the book)
American Life ~ X- Static Process (Exhibit, Book, and song were pretty prominent during that era)
Madame X ~ Need I say more lol
Does she relate the letter X to her more experimental work? I wonder why that letter. Any thoughts? Am i reaching or being delusional?

Maybe I'm too cynical, but I find so funny that her works with trendy producers are not her best ones; at the same time it's weird to notice her masterpieces are fruits of her collaborations with unknown or not so popular producers from the underground world and in general with people who are far away from the stardom galaxy. It's definitely so hilarious and tragicomic that it worked so well for 25 years. Time to go back to it?

What would Madonna's career have been like without "Ray Of Light"? One thing about her music is that most of it is timeless. To this day, I love "Ray Of Light" as much as the first time I heard it. Same with the video. This song fills me up with the light of the sky in an electric way. What was your first time hearing "Ray Of Light" like? What do you remember? Is this song and video still relevant and will it always be? To Ray Of Light..."a little piece of heaven".
On This Day In Billboard Dance History: Madonna Shined a 'Ray of Light' on Clubland
Incredibly, 50 Madonna songs have reached No. 1 on Billboard's Dance Club Songs chart, giving her the distinction of the artist with the most No. 1s on this survey. But only one of these tracks started in the folk world before entering the club scene.
No. 1 on the chart 22 years ago today (July 1), "Ray of Light" was an adaptation of the 1971 song "Sepheryn" by English folk duo Curtiss Maldoon. The song entered Madonna's field of awareness more than two decades later, when English musician and producer William Orbit sent her a version of the song -- renamed "Ray Of Light" and performed by the niece of one of the members of Curtiss Maldoon -- to consider for inclusion on her upcoming album.
Madonna liked it, and together with Orbit, she revamped the lyrics, updated the instrumentation and sped the BPM way up. By the time the song was released as the title track from Madonna's 1998 LP, the minor folk hit had been transformed into a synth-laden electronica anthem that would become both one of the biggest hits of Madonna's career and reflect who the pop queen had become by the late 90s. The reworked lyrics of the second chorus explored themes related to motherhood and spirituality, as her daughter Lourdes had been born two years prior, and Madonna had begun her exploration of Eastern mysticism and Kabbalah during this same period.
"This album is reflective of where I am in my life right now--in terms of my musical interests and in terms of my personal beliefs," Madonna told Billboard in 1998. "I feel like I've been enlightened, and that it's my personal responsibility to share what I've learned so far with the world."
Effectively, she completed this sharing by making people dance. While her previous LP, 1994's Bedtime Stories, had included slowed-down R&B tracks like "Take a Bow" and "Secret," "Ray of Light" spread its message of love and positivity via its embrace and expansion of the late '90s electronica genre, at that point being explored by scene stars like Moby, Björk, Underworld and more.
"I've been a fan of all kinds of electronic music for many years," Madonna said in the same Billboard interview, "and I wanted to incorporate that sound into my music."
Indeed, while many of Madonna's biggest hits -- "Vogue," "Like a Prayer," "Like a Virgin" -- certainly worked in nightclubs, the song's styles and structures firmly embedded them in the pop world. But with "Ray Of Light," Madonna was not simply making pop music that would work in the clubland, but music aesthetically connected to the roots of the genre, taking particular influence from the acid house that was a staple of the '90s underground rave scene.
Altogether, it got bodies moving around the globe. “Ray Of Light” spent four weeks at No. 1 on Dance Club Songs chart, from the charts dated June 20, 1998, through July 11. This run makes the song one of her longest leaders – “Holiday/Lucky Star” spent five weeks at No. 1 in 1983, “Music” later spent five weeks in this position in 2000, “Like a Virgin” spent four weeks in 1984-85 and “Hung Up” spent four weeks in the top spot in 2005.
"Ray of Light" was the second of three No. 1 Dance Club Songs singles from the Ray of Light album, after “Frozen” (2 weeks, April-May ’98) and before “Nothing Really Matters” (2 weeks, March ’99). Her 20th No. 1 on the chart, the song's lauded video was directed by Jonas Åkerlund, who had directed the infamous clip for The Prodigy's "Smack My Bitch Up." Meanwhile, the song won the 1999 Grammy for best dance recording, while the album won that year's best pop album trophy. Those two awards, along with the other one she won that evening, were the first audio Grammy awards of her career.
The 1999 Grammys ceremony was a long way from the underground club scene, and in fact even further away from the English folk world. Yet all of these musical stepping stones had helped Madonna create a song that remains one of the brightest lights of her enduring career.

Do we have any update about the comeback to Warner? Sorry if it sounds out of context, but imho it could shed light on the following chapter of her career and help us to understand what to expect in future.

Do we have any update about the comeback to Warner? Sorry if it sounds out of context, but imho it could shed light on the following chapter of her career and help us to understand what to expect in future.

Maybe I'm too cynical, but I find so funny that her works with trendy producers are not her best ones; at the same time it's weird to notice her masterpieces are fruits of her collaborations with unknown or not so popular producers from the underground world and in general with people who are far away from the stardom galaxy. It's definitely so hilarious and tragicomic that it worked so well for 25 years. Time to go back to it?

Maybe I'm too cynical, but I find so funny that her works with trendy producers are not her best ones; at the same time it's weird to notice her masterpieces are fruits of her collaborations with unknown or not so popular producers from the underground world and in general with people who are far away from the stardom galaxy. It's definitely so hilarious and tragicomic that it worked so well for 25 years. Time to go back to it?

I wasn't born in 1992 yet, so, sorry, no memories about it...But my mom was 20 at that time and she remember vividly all the controversies this book generated, especially in Europe. I tried to convince her to speak about it few times but she said only that in her opinion that book was a slight for the female universe, an insult to the beauty of the female body, that she could have expressed her intentions about sexuality with more respect, not debasing herself that way. I highly doubt she's ever seen those photographs or listened to the album and I have good reasons for thinking that my mother was led to have this opinion by press and the amount of awful criticisms the entire Erotica era received. As someone said, this project almost killed her career because lots of casual listeners, like my mother, were disgusted and scared by it and a good portion of them decided to stop listening her music and buying her songs: my mother has refused to buy anything else by her since 1992. The fracture was partially reset by Ray of Light, but her love hasn't been the same anymore. I have to admit that when I saw few frames of this book for the first time I was 20 and I was shocked and disgusted, I couldn't believe someone had the courage to speak about sex with so much liberty, exposing every side of it, every aspect, even the most violent ones, and being raised as catholic didn't help me at all, especially since I live in a small, conservative village, where nothing exists but the priest; even after almost 30 years this ironic book did its job marvelously and shocked another puritan member of the society: I was one of them before I met it and her. In some way, it changed my mind about this topic, showing me that there's nothing demonic in sex or sexuality, that love has no color, no label, no secrets, no limits, and, I know it can sound strange, pain and plasure are different faces of the same aspect, a modern and obscure version of the romantic Greek statement Eros and Thanatos, love and death.
In the end, what impressed me the most is that all the bad press this book received crafted a distorted projection of Madonna and her career: when I was a baby, journalists still continued to focus only on her sexual controversies, with no interest on her real messages: everything was reduced to her appeal and body, the inner sense of her performances was buried under tons of comments about her age (I remember she was almost 50 when I started to hear about her), her toned body, her family and so on.That's why I was skeptic about her at the beginning: foolishly I was led to believe she was the mother of all those trivial popstars I saw reluctantly on MTV, who were only a dancing body with zero meaningful ideas. They did a great job, yes. I really hope the following years will do justice to this part of her career, which is worth of every single second a person could spend to understand it.

I wasn't born in 1992 yet, so, sorry, no memories about it...But my mom was 20 at that time and she remember vividly all the controversies this book generated, especially in Europe. I tried to convince her to speak about it few times but she said only that in her opinion that book was a slight for the female universe, an insult to the beauty of the female body, that she could have expressed her intentions about sexuality with more respect, not debasing herself that way. I highly doubt she's ever seen those photographs or listened to the album and I have good reasons for thinking that my mother was led to have this opinion by press and the amount of awful criticisms the entire Erotica era received. As someone said, this project almost killed her career because lots of casual listeners, like my mother, were disgusted and scared by it and a good portion of them decided to stop listening her music and buying her songs: my mother has refused to buy anything else by her since 1992. The fracture was partially reset by Ray of Light, but her love hasn't been the same anymore. I have to admit that when I saw few frames of this book for the first time I was 20 and I was shocked and disgusted, I couldn't believe someone had the courage to speak about sex with so much liberty, exposing every side of it, every aspect, even the most violent ones, and being raised as catholic didn't help me at all, especially since I live in a small, conservative village, where nothing exists but the priest; even after almost 30 years this ironic book did its job marvelously and shocked another puritan member of the society: I was one of them before I met it and her. In some way, it changed my mind about this topic, showing me that there's nothing demonic in sex or sexuality, that love has no color, no label, no secrets, no limits, and, I know it can sound strange, pain and plasure are different faces of the same aspect, a modern and obscure version of the romantic Greek statement Eros and Thanatos, love and death.
In the end, what impressed me the most is that all the bad press this book received crafted a distorted projection of Madonna and her career: when I was a baby, journalists still continued to focus only on her sexual controversies, with no interest on her real messages: everything was reduced to her appeal and body, the inner sense of her performances was buried under tons of comments about her age (I remember she was almost 50 when I started to hear about her), her toned body, her family and so on.That's why I was skeptic about her at the beginning: foolishly I was led to believe she was the mother of all those trivial popstars I saw reluctantly on MTV, who were only a dancing body with zero meaningful ideas. They did a great job, yes. I really hope the following years will do justice to this part of her career, which is worth of every single second a person could spend to understand it.

I wasn't born in 1992 yet, so, sorry, no memories about it...But my mom was 20 at that time and she remember vividly all the controversies this book generated, especially in Europe. I tried to convince her to speak about it few times but she said only that in her opinion that book was a slight for the female universe, an insult to the beauty of the female body, that she could have expressed her intentions about sexuality with more respect, not debasing herself that way. I highly doubt she's ever seen those photographs or listened to the album and I have good reasons for thinking that my mother was led to have this opinion by press and the amount of awful criticisms the entire Erotica era received. As someone said, this project almost killed her career because lots of casual listeners, like my mother, were disgusted and scared by it and a good portion of them decided to stop listening her music and buying her songs: my mother has refused to buy anything else by her since 1992. The fracture was partially reset by Ray of Light, but her love hasn't been the same anymore. I have to admit that when I saw few frames of this book for the first time I was 20 and I was shocked and disgusted, I couldn't believe someone had the courage to speak about sex with so much liberty, exposing every side of it, every aspect, even the most violent ones, and being raised as catholic didn't help me at all, especially since I live in a small, conservative village, where nothing exists but the priest; even after almost 30 years this ironic book did its job marvelously and shocked another puritan member of the society: I was one of them before I met it and her. In some way, it changed my mind about this topic, showing me that there's nothing demonic in sex or sexuality, that love has no color, no label, no secrets, no limits, and, I know it can sound strange, pain and plasure are different faces of the same aspect, a modern and obscure version of the romantic Greek statement Eros and Thanatos, love and death.
In the end, what impressed me the most is that all the bad press this book received crafted a distorted projection of Madonna and her career: when I was a baby, journalists still continued to focus only on her sexual controversies, with no interest on her real messages: everything was reduced to her appeal and body, the inner sense of her performances was buried under tons of comments about her age (I remember she was almost 50 when I started to hear about her), her toned body, her family and so on.That's why I was skeptic about her at the beginning: foolishly I was led to believe she was the mother of all those trivial popstars I saw reluctantly on MTV, who were only a dancing body with zero meaningful ideas. They did a great job, yes. I really hope the following years will do justice to this part of her career, which is worth of every single second a person could spend to understand it.

The feminists shunned her for apparently portraying herself as a sex object for men, which Madonna was definitely playing with. In fact, she stepped out of the position of being objectified and instead, made herself the active subject of sexual attraction, turning the tables, objectifying the audience who paid her the attention that a supposed exhibitionist asks for (who is the master who is the slave?). 
A lot of people do/did not understand that. 

in Italy the situation was very heavy, at the time I was 16yo and it was a massacre: Journalists were waiting for nothing else, after years of wanting to stone her the time finally came to do it with SEX. It was very difficult at that time to be a Madonna fan, I did not understand her choice to publish a book of that kind, she was certainly brave for doing it and obviously her musical career was certainly not at an advantage with this book.

That's a really tough question, but it's incredibly interesting! I believe that in this case the title is more than just a name and that it offers further information about the meaning of the lyrics. First of all, it's an homage to her mother's French roots, but it's also a subtle reference to a bunch of poems by Anne Sexton, in particular to The Consecrating Mother, where the ocean is compared several times to a mother, a mother you can't have a relationship with, because she's a beloved ghost presence you wait to on the shore, alone and vainly: The ocean offered them up in the vein of/ its might/ I wanted to share this/ but I stood alone like a pink scarecrow./ The ocean steamed in and out,/ the ocean gasped upon the shore/ but I could not define her,/ I could not name her mood, her locked-/up faces./ Far off she rolled and rolled/ like a woman in labor./[...]I am that clumsy human/ on the shore/ loving you, coming, coming/ going/ and wish to put my thumb on you/ like the Song of Salomon. I didn't quote it, but the first portion of this poem is about death and how the sea is involved in it. It's beautiful, but at the same time full of pain.
That's another reference to a poem by Sexton: The sea is mother-death and she is a mighty female, the one who wins, the one who sucks us all up. Once again the concept of water is strongly linked to a motherly figure and death. 
I don't know if this above is the right answer, but I hope it will be useful. I really wish she'll release more material like this in future.
 

That's a really tough question, but it's incredibly interesting! I believe that in this case the title is more than just a name and that it offers further information about the meaning of the lyrics. First of all, it's an homage to her mother's French roots, but it's also a subtle reference to a bunch of poems by Anne Sexton, in particular to The Consecrating Mother, where the ocean is compared several times to a mother, a mother you can't have a relationship with, because she's a beloved ghost presence you wait to on the shore, alone and vainly: The ocean offered them up in the vein of/ its might/ I wanted to share this/ but I stood alone like a pink scarecrow./ The ocean steamed in and out,/ the ocean gasped upon the shore/ but I could not define her,/ I could not name her mood, her locked-/up faces./ Far off she rolled and rolled/ like a woman in labor./[...]I am that clumsy human/ on the shore/ loving you, coming, coming/ going/ and wish to put my thumb on you/ like the Song of Salomon. I didn't quote it, but the first portion of this poem is about death and how the sea is involved in it. It's beautiful, but at the same time full of pain.
That's another reference to a poem by Sexton: The sea is mother-death and she is a mighty female, the one who wins, the one who sucks us all up. Once again the concept of water is strongly linked to a motherly figure and death. 
I don't know if this above is the right answer, but I hope it will be useful. I really wish she'll release more material like this in future.
 

Disclaimer: I'll make a very controversial statement: I don't care about new hits. 
Obviously I'd be super happy if she could regain love from general public, but what price will she have to pay to have a new hit? It's evident she should release exactly what press and casual listeners want from her. So, what? A cute dance song, an energetic disco banger, a heart-melting ballad and so on, no damned controversies, no silly collaborations, no trendy genres...the list would be so long and the final result could be a modern version of This Used to be My Playground. Could it work? Maybe just for a week at the #1 spot and lot of love from press. It would be fine. Would it be a classic? I don't know, for me of course, I'm mad for her ballads. But at the end of the day, the most important question is: is she really interested in having a new hit releasing exactly what people want from her? I think so, but at her own terms. Look at the adored in aeternum Confessions on a Dancefloor: after American Life general public asked from her something suitable for dancing. And she became the Dancing Queen, but it didn't seem forced or unnatural: her will to release something fun and joyous after an obscure album matched perfectly general expectations and desires and we got monster hits. General public has short memory. Maybe in some years she'll decide to release something that fits like a glove what people expect from her: with these crazy chart rules a new #1 wouldn't be a weird idea. But for the moment, she seems to be more interested in exploring new genres and I'm totally with her. I'm deeply glad she doesn't feel the pressure to be the No.1 anymore at all costs. That's why I'm crazy for her last project (not counting the mad amount of easter eggs about literature, philosophy, music she hid in it). For me, that's the most important move she made to revaluate her catalog: not remaining stuck on your beautiful past but doing a wild leap in the dark.The following statement could be controversial but I truly appreciate her way to celebrate her past, with discretion, with no nostalgic feelings, but with unconditional love, both for her old hits and new ones. This approach, in my opinion, underlines that she firmly believes that her new albums don't have less worth than her older ones, that her songs are worth to be listened no matter if they are hits or not, if they're loved by casual listeners or not, if they're old or not. She couldn't have given a better gift to her catalog. I'm sure she knows that there will always be smart people who are interested in discovering the history of music and that her name is among the first ones. That's her legacy and it doesn't matter if nowadays silly teenagers don't know anyone of her songs. Look at what they listen to today...It's better if these people stay away from her songs, it's evident that not everything is for everyone. If they enjoy listening to Drake (??) or someone like him, let them do it. History will be the final judge. 
Speaking about legacies, I truly can't understand why lots of people appreciate what Mariah Carey (nothing against her) did for her 30 years of career: it's clearly an admission of defeat, the admission she loves more her past than her present and future, that she maybe feels her glory days are over and that she doesn't want to do anything to change it. It's sad.
I'm going to finish this my rambling post quoting a marvelous song from Dido, I will go down this this ship/and I won't put my hands up and surrender/ there will be no white flag above my door. She's not surrending, that's the good news.
Let's enjoy this new chapter of her career, appreciating her new projects and trying not to play the silly game of sales, No.1 and so on. That's for babies. Will she have a new hit, restart to sell tons of album just like old days and be loved like in the ROL era ? Of course it would be marvelous, but the influence and importance of an artistic project can't be measured only by quantity, but most of the times by quality, and I think she still has lot of it. Will public understand it? I have my doubts about it, but I believe in miracles. And after all, people took 15 years to learn to love American Life. Miracles really exist.

Disclaimer: I'll make a very controversial statement: I don't care about new hits. 
Obviously I'd be super happy if she could regain love from general public, but what price will she have to pay to have a new hit? It's evident she should release exactly what press and casual listeners want from her. So, what? A cute dance song, an energetic disco banger, a heart-melting ballad and so on, no damned controversies, no silly collaborations, no trendy genres...the list would be so long and the final result could be a modern version of This Used to be My Playground. Could it work? Maybe just for a week at the #1 spot and lot of love from press. It would be fine. Would it be a classic? I don't know, for me of course, I'm mad for her ballads. But at the end of the day, the most important question is: is she really interested in having a new hit releasing exactly what people want from her? I think so, but at her own terms. Look at the adored in aeternum Confessions on a Dancefloor: after American Life general public asked from her something suitable for dancing. And she became the Dancing Queen, but it didn't seem forced or unnatural: her will to release something fun and joyous after an obscure album matched perfectly general expectations and desires and we got monster hits. General public has short memory. Maybe in some years she'll decide to release something that fits like a glove what people expect from her: with these crazy chart rules a new #1 wouldn't be a weird idea. But for the moment, she seems to be more interested in exploring new genres and I'm totally with her. I'm deeply glad she doesn't feel the pressure to be the No.1 anymore at all costs. That's why I'm crazy for her last project (not counting the mad amount of easter eggs about literature, philosophy, music she hid in it). For me, that's the most important move she made to revaluate her catalog: not remaining stuck on your beautiful past but doing a wild leap in the dark.The following statement could be controversial but I truly appreciate her way to celebrate her past, with discretion, with no nostalgic feelings, but with unconditional love, both for her old hits and new ones. This approach, in my opinion, underlines that she firmly believes that her new albums don't have less worth than her older ones, that her songs are worth to be listened no matter if they are hits or not, if they're loved by casual listeners or not, if they're old or not. She couldn't have given a better gift to her catalog. I'm sure she knows that there will always be smart people who are interested in discovering the history of music and that her name is among the first ones. That's her legacy and it doesn't matter if nowadays silly teenagers don't know anyone of her songs. Look at what they listen to today...It's better if these people stay away from her songs, it's evident that not everything is for everyone. If they enjoy listening to Drake (??) or someone like him, let them do it. History will be the final judge. 
Speaking about legacies, I truly can't understand why lots of people appreciate what Mariah Carey (nothing against her) did for her 30 years of career: it's clearly an admission of defeat, the admission she loves more her past than her present and future, that she maybe feels her glory days are over and that she doesn't want to do anything to change it. It's sad.
I'm going to finish this my rambling post quoting a marvelous song from Dido, I will go down this this ship/and I won't put my hands up and surrender/ there will be no white flag above my door. She's not surrending, that's the good news.
Let's enjoy this new chapter of her career, appreciating her new projects and trying not to play the silly game of sales, No.1 and so on. That's for babies. Will she have a new hit, restart to sell tons of album just like old days and be loved like in the ROL era ? Of course it would be marvelous, but the influence and importance of an artistic project can't be measured only by quantity, but most of the times by quality, and I think she still has lot of it. Will public understand it? I have my doubts about it, but I believe in miracles. And after all, people took 15 years to learn to love American Life. Miracles really exist.

Disclaimer: I'll make a very controversial statement: I don't care about new hits. 
Obviously I'd be super happy if she could regain love from general public, but what price will she have to pay to have a new hit? It's evident she should release exactly what press and casual listeners want from her. So, what? A cute dance song, an energetic disco banger, a heart-melting ballad and so on, no damned controversies, no silly collaborations, no trendy genres...the list would be so long and the final result could be a modern version of This Used to be My Playground. Could it work? Maybe just for a week at the #1 spot and lot of love from press. It would be fine. Would it be a classic? I don't know, for me of course, I'm mad for her ballads. But at the end of the day, the most important question is: is she really interested in having a new hit releasing exactly what people want from her? I think so, but at her own terms. Look at the adored in aeternum Confessions on a Dancefloor: after American Life general public asked from her something suitable for dancing. And she became the Dancing Queen, but it didn't seem forced or unnatural: her will to release something fun and joyous after an obscure album matched perfectly general expectations and desires and we got monster hits. General public has short memory. Maybe in some years she'll decide to release something that fits like a glove what people expect from her: with these crazy chart rules a new #1 wouldn't be a weird idea. But for the moment, she seems to be more interested in exploring new genres and I'm totally with her. I'm deeply glad she doesn't feel the pressure to be the No.1 anymore at all costs. That's why I'm crazy for her last project (not counting the mad amount of easter eggs about literature, philosophy, music she hid in it). For me, that's the most important move she made to revaluate her catalog: not remaining stuck on your beautiful past but doing a wild leap in the dark.The following statement could be controversial but I truly appreciate her way to celebrate her past, with discretion, with no nostalgic feelings, but with unconditional love, both for her old hits and new ones. This approach, in my opinion, underlines that she firmly believes that her new albums don't have less worth than her older ones, that her songs are worth to be listened no matter if they are hits or not, if they're loved by casual listeners or not, if they're old or not. She couldn't have given a better gift to her catalog. I'm sure she knows that there will always be smart people who are interested in discovering the history of music and that her name is among the first ones. That's her legacy and it doesn't matter if nowadays silly teenagers don't know anyone of her songs. Look at what they listen to today...It's better if these people stay away from her songs, it's evident that not everything is for everyone. If they enjoy listening to Drake (??) or someone like him, let them do it. History will be the final judge. 
Speaking about legacies, I truly can't understand why lots of people appreciate what Mariah Carey (nothing against her) did for her 30 years of career: it's clearly an admission of defeat, the admission she loves more her past than her present and future, that she maybe feels her glory days are over and that she doesn't want to do anything to change it. It's sad.
I'm going to finish this my rambling post quoting a marvelous song from Dido, I will go down this this ship/and I won't put my hands up and surrender/ there will be no white flag above my door. She's not surrending, that's the good news.
Let's enjoy this new chapter of her career, appreciating her new projects and trying not to play the silly game of sales, No.1 and so on. That's for babies. Will she have a new hit, restart to sell tons of album just like old days and be loved like in the ROL era ? Of course it would be marvelous, but the influence and importance of an artistic project can't be measured only by quantity, but most of the times by quality, and I think she still has lot of it. Will public understand it? I have my doubts about it, but I believe in miracles. And after all, people took 15 years to learn to love American Life. Miracles really exist.