MikeyK

I’ve noticed this too, her presence on 90s related stuff is minimal. And if she is there it’s either Vogue or Frozen/Ray of Light. Nothing in between.

GJWHF is pushed on way more than just 80s playlists though. They have it on just about every editorial playlist they can get it on. On Apple Music too. Virtually no other similar 80s hits (barring Michael and Whitney) have numbers remotely comparable. Culture Club’s numbers are way lower than M’s. And fwiw most general 80s playlists just go with Like A Virgin or Material Girl for Madonna. This makes sense. It’s great though that M’s numbers are growing (and organically). Wild how it takes concerted, curated pushing (or a fluke situation like Kate Bush) to get an older artist’s classic songs big numbers like that. On the one hand it’s cool that M’s legacy is so extensive that there isn’t as obvious a focal point as some people. On the other hand there is a part of me that wishes Warner would whittle down the focus to like Material Girl and Like A Prayer just for the sake of numbers. We’ll see if LAP ends up getting a big boost from that upcoming movie. (And I can’t help but wonder why Cyndi Lauper got so much of a push in comparison to others 🙃)

Two Cyndi Lauper songs get bizarrely high numbers. Girls Just Wanna Have Fun in particular has over a billion streams and does about a million a day. I’ve been saying for a while there is NO WAY those numbers are organic. She’s on Sony, which has a history of being, um, “strategic” in terms of getting maximum exposure for their artists when they want. Someone mentioned playlisting and that definitely helps. Labels pay for optimal placement on major playlists for both new and old songs. I’m sure her two big on spotify songs are playlisted to all hell. There is a HUGE drop off in her numbers after the two big ones. M’s numbers are def better than they were, and really nothing to scoff at. It’s interesting how some artists, like Janet Jackson for example, that were quite huge for a while, get pitiful numbers, while other peers do much better. Prince’s numbers are a bit lower than M’s. Playlisting and other label-backed tricks definitely help older artists stay in the consciousness of younger demographics.

This. Didn’t realize how many people weren’t aware that all the old HBO broadcasts looked vastly different from the cuts that were commercially released.

I’m fine w/her releasing one of the arena shows as the dvd/blu ray + live album but I’d also love it if she’d give the Rio show some kind of digital release on a streaming svc or something.

What a night! What a great final show of the tour! Idk what their plan is for a release of the tour but I’d love it if she and Jonas quickly edited it (LIGHTLY- just for picking the best shots and maybe fixing the sound so you can hear her live vocal a bit more) and got it up on streaming as soon as they can. Make it available in the nearish future to capitalize on the momentum. She can release additional show(s) or a tour doc or whatever separately.

This is what we get for complaining about her wearing grills during some shows.

I def agree w/tailoring the recommendation to the person. If it’s a young person I’d start w/Confessions (and Immaculate). If it was an older person I was trying to win over who presumably had some casual awareness of her it’d be Like A Prayer or Ray of Light or maybe Erotica, depending on their taste.

Bad Girl and Erotica.

Apologies if this has already been acknowledged in this epic length thread but have people noticed how Ticketmaster shows a listing for a cancelled date on July 8, 2025? In Tulsa, Oklahoma. It’s really weird. The cancelled Tulsa date that was part of the initial itinerary was on July 17, 2023, so it’s unlikely it’s just that date w/the wrong year. Peculiar.

It’s interesting how some songs’ numbers sort of ebb & flow. For a little while Like A Prayer’s numbers were up in the mid 200’s daily, higher than its usual <200k daily. While at the same time La Isla’s numbers weren’t quite as high as usual. Now LIB is way back up again and LAP is back down to its usual range.

In terms of iconique status I would replace Express w/Like A Prayer. I think that’s the one that will end up representing her video legacy long term (though La Isla Bonita’s bafflingly high view count makes me question that). EY is stunning but idk how wide its reach is these days. Anyway, my *personal* top 3 are Bad Girl American Life dc Oh Father I think. It changes pretty regularly lol.

Angel has always been my favorite song from LAV proper (barring ITG) but after revisiting it more these few days I def think it’s the best song of the four singles released. Dress You Up is great too but Angel’s stronger imo. Such a lovely little 80s bop. Nile’s production is heavenly. Shame it’s been largely forgotten outside of her fans. Even Stranger Things couldn’t give it a boost.

And so as far as Into The Groove- the jazzed up version that’s remastered on Celebration was also on the yellow mid 90s cd single? And this one we just got is the original 1985 single release and international Like A Virgin reissue album track? You’ll have to forgive me, ITG in its non-remixed form was pretty elusive here in the states for many years. I had that cd single as an import at one point and remember thinking the Celebration version didn’t sound that different. I had an old Back-2-Back cassingle of ITG & DYU at one point in the early 90s too, god knows what was on that. I have the Angel 12” that I bought used around the same time but only played it a couple times.

As far as what YCD or left out tracks belonged on FEL, they could have put one or two only on the 16 track version to offer some kind of exclusivity. I like how it opens w/Everybody, being that it was her first single and first hit on the dance chart. It wasn’t a #1, but that version technically didn’t have a #1-referencing subtitle like the full version. So for example have EB open the short version, and have PA be the track representing YCD’s place on the full version (along w/ITG edit, which is actually there representing A/ITG’s place). Then they could’ve included CAC on the full version as well. That way each of the 50 #1s had a track representing it, and the 16 track version had an exclusive track. Hell, include Angel on the short one too so it had two.