Jump to content

Will Madonna Ever Have A Hit Single Again?


baymad4her
 Share

Recommended Posts

Define 'wot' A Hit is these days ?
I read something asking this very question.
Then it went on & on about Beautiful Stranger NOT being on one of her Proper Albums.
Something like that c o u l d happen again he wrote.
Aah but she never 'looks back' ??

A piece of string is twice the distance from one end to the middle.
 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 613
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Top Posters In This Topic

Popular Posts

madfan13_86

Come to terms with her legacy? In case you haven't noticed, she's putting together her biopic. So she's revisiting her past in her own way, at her own pace and in the way she wants to do it.  Moreover, I think she's actually been flirting with her legacy for a while, just not in a very obvious way (which is her right too). She often likes to reuse her old lyrics (like "Vogue" on "Holy Water", or even "Don't Tell Me" in "Future"), posts old photos on her IG, and I'm pretty sure Madame X is t

Husam Elzien

Honestly, I think her disdain of deeply revisiting her past has now reached a point of backfiring. In the politics of women in music, Madonna managed to maintain relevancy chart wise well past the "expiration" years because she still had killer hits and the appeal to back her up. But there was a shift in her public persona that started during MDNA where some of the things she said or did for shock-value or controversy came across as desperate and/or an attempt to keep up with Katy, Gaga, Beyonce

Mden

https://twitter.com/GodnessMadame marcus @GodnessMadame How to help Madonna’s upcoming 2 new songs to become hits- a thread 10:44 PM · May 31, 2023 · 1. First of all, stream the songs. And I mean as much as you can. Create playlists with both of the songs, but always put 2-3 different tracks in between them so they don’t get filtered out. Play on atleast 25% volume 2. Buy the songs on itunes if you can. Purchase all the versions available. This will boost the song

Posted Images

Sadly, no. There's so many tricks, loops and things to cross to be able to even make a dent without resorting to payola or schemes to hit a good chart position. Unless it's extremely popular that it appeals to those outside of her base and pop fans, you can expect a modest low charting hit but a top 10 is almost non-existent. It's not that the quality of her work or ability to pen a hit isn't in question but more so the trickery behind the system and what constitutes a sale, the radio bans, and the dismissal of her because "her age."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Even a fantastic single like "Ghosttown" (or I Rise) was not a big chart success.

Young people who believe that Ed Sheeran, Drake or Justin Bieber are the greatest musicians on this planet will not be interested in a 61-year-old artist.

And 99% of the tracks in the charts are almost identical stupid : DJ Kane feat Justin Bieber feat MCJ feat Lolly-Girl feat feat feat feat feat feat......

Today's music is just as stupid and monotonous as most movies. Every week a new fucking Marvel shit....

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

19 minutes ago, Daphne Du Maurier said:

Even a fantastic single like "Ghosttown" (or I Rise) was not a big chart success.

Young people who believe that Ed Sheeran, Drake or Justin Bieber are the greatest musicians on this planet will not be interested in a 61-year-old artist.

And 99% of the tracks in the charts are almost identical stupid : DJ Kane feat Justin Bieber feat MCJ feat Lolly-Girl feat feat feat feat feat feat......

Today's music is just as stupid and monotonous as most movies. Every week a new fucking Marvel shit....

 

Not sure I agree with the part about young people being uninterested in a 61 year old. In the UK charts atm Whitney Houston is at number 2 albeit with Kygo but it proves if radio plays it, people will buy it if they like it regardless of age

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Young generations can't be interested anymore in a 61 year old singer because the are told not to.

When I was 15, 25 years ago, tv or radio stations could play singers in theit 40's, 50's or 60's, so I was able to maybe like their music... it's no longer the case...

Even with streaming music, you could listen to ANYTHING out but it seems that people are listening to the same songs... very strange

It's like the News tv channel 24/24,  you think we should be even more informed but they keep on repeating the same headlines over and over with 0 analysis, but I digress...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

When people stop following what they are told to like and dislike she will have a hit. They have to drop their built in notions about her. 

She has of course, especially on this album, become more serious and I think that is what people crave most from Madonna. 

One of the reasons I was drawn to Madonna in the beginning was that I thought she had something more to say than I was used to hearing from Pop stars. There was real depth in her lyrics and she combined that depth with catchy music. 

There is no doubt in my mind that the music industry has done everything it can in the last decade to influence potential fans and older ones to not bother with her anymore. Madonna's strength was always her fans not listening to the many people who tried to influence opinion. Madonna has always had critics...the only difference today is that some of her fans are going along with those critics now. Why? Only they can answer that. 

This is also coupled with Madonna seeming to be dealing with emotional upheaval in the last decade. She seems much happier now and I do agree with a post above about her being more experimental and that is a wonderful thing and makes fans like me very happy if not chart focused ones. 

I definately think Madonna will have another hit because quite simply she never gives up. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

The problem with Madonna's current state sure has a lot to do with her being a woman and her age too, but those are definitely not the only factors. I could totally see someone like Adele getting hits at 50 or 60, but the thing about Madonna is that a lot of what makes her who she is, is dance, sex, controversy, religious tones and shock value beside the constant re-invention. Shock value and controversy, like jokes and scares, can only work a handful of times before they become tired. Also, the time Madonna did what she did was a much more conservative era than today.

Madonna's sexual expression, challenging religion and conservative values was something much much more sensitive from 1982-1999 than it is now. So she's not gonna top any charts by burning crosses or posing naked and even the political side, everyone has a platform these days to speak about politics, make fun of politicians and challenge the status quo on social media, YouTube, Facebook..etc. so releasing an album like American Life today isn't gonna do much like it did in its time, either.

Now when it comes to her image, she needs to start working with better stylists to create something original for her. I can't help but notice that her sense of fashion in the recent years, at events, album photoshoots..etc. hasn't been as impactful as her looks back in the day. She does have some good photo shoots, yes but most of the ideas are recycled or just not very fitting to her as her looks from the 80s, 90s and 00s were. She's the queen of re-invention but there hasn't been much re-invention in her recent years.

As for the music itself, Madonna tends to re-invent and experiment with new stuff and Madame X did that, but it wasn't an album that is catchy to the public. She brought in Maluma but she didn't create a song with him that make people dance nor something that is super catchy like Chantaje for example. She seems to mostly rely on the presence of new artist to boost the single without the actual effort of making the song a good-sounding song, and so many times, she feels like she's hopping on trends way after they're cool and it makes her look like she's way way late to the party, not to mention how she's been doing the rent-a-rapper thing since 2008, and I think it's because she's surrounded by so many yes-people who can't or don't introduce her to any new ideas nor telling her that she needs to fix some things..etc.

Her visuals aren't as inspiring as they used to be either. Sure, Madame X so far has her best music videos since COADF, but she's missing a lot of opportunities. God Control is one of my favorite videos yes but it wasted so much potential of having more narrative to it, of having some better acting. Jonas Ackerlund is known for his outstanding works and story-driven music videos and so is Steven Klein, but the way I see it, her management generally speaking seems to save a lot of money when it comes to the budget of her visuals. The artworks for the singles are minimal effort, the music videos are nice but feel lacking, and the marketing tactics feel either outdated or ineffective.

Instead of launching Madame X in June, it could've launched in February after another Superbowl deal, or right after Eurovision and the show could've had God Control performed instead of Future. They could've done a surprise release like Beyonce with a visual album companion to it or a short film. These tactics make people talk, they are a modern way of creating hype. Hell young stars even get payola deals to launch their singles to top, and she needs to do these stuff. That $5m deal for Billboard performance could've been a deal to promote her better or to create some genuinely great visuals and stage designs, but guess what? it was one performance that was hardly that special and didn't even trend anywhere.

I don't care about charts, personally but they're important or her to maintain a career. She's not an indie artist who's making do with minimal budget and self-funded minimal production. She's known for her larger than life work, she's known for her outstanding stage production, her shows are known for being the best party ever, and now what? she's doing theaters and no phones, meaning no free promo through fans' broadcast and no larger-than-life production.

If she wants to launch another singer to the top 10 or something, she needs better collaborators, not just cute models or rappers or one-hit-wonders. She needs a collaboration and perhaps a big overhaul in her genre and image. I don't wanna say that she should "be like Gaga" but let's face it, Gaga's career would've ended if she had another pop album after ARTPOP and Joanne. Instead, she did a movie, she sang ballads, she did something different and the right combination worked for her. Maybe something similar could work for Madonna, not a movie, but maybe a full on ballads album or a deal to sing the entire soundtrack of an upcoming blockbuster/Oscar-targeted flick or a collaboration with Daft Punk or Nile Rodgers, or if she does a collaboration with Taylor Swift or The Weeknd with some high quality vials like that of Taylor Swift's Bad Blood, somebody whose not only globally popular but globally respected as an artist/musician or at least someone who's known to constantly chart to the top with whatever they release, not one hit wonders like Gangnum Style or Dispacito or It's Friday..etc.

MDNA had outstanding songs like Masterpiece, Girl Gone Wild, Love Spent, I'm Addicted and Falling Free that could've been great singles. It doesn't always have to be a dance lead single and if it's a dance track, it doesn't have to be the one with the most collaborations, it could be a nice catchy solo track.Rebel Heart could've launched big with Ghosttown as the lead and premiering at Super Bowl at the time or Eurovision..etc. and some good deal. Cher managed to get a global hit with Believe not because she "acted her age", but the combination of sound, image and everything just worked in its time frankly it made autotune sound so cool. So yeah, it's definitely possible for Madonna to get a hit, sure it's not guaranteed, but it's possible if the right things are put in place at the right time with the right people and push.

Edited by RinoTheBouncer (see edit history)
Link to comment
Share on other sites

39 minutes ago, RinoTheBouncer said:

The problem with Madonna's current state sure has a lot to do with her being a woman and her age too, but those are definitely not the only factors. I could totally see someone like Adele getting hits at 50 or 60, but the thing about Madonna is that a lot of what makes her who she is, is dance, sex, controversy, religious tones and shock value beside the constant re-invention. Shock value and controversy, like jokes and scares, can only work a handful of times before they become tired. Also, the time Madonna did what she did was a much more conservative era than today.

Madonna's sexual expression, challenging religion and conservative values was something much much more sensitive from 1982-1999 than it is now. So she's not gonna top any charts by burning crosses or posing naked and even the political side, everyone has a platform these days to speak about politics, make fun of politicians and challenge the status quo on social media, YouTube, Facebook..etc. so releasing an album like American Life today isn't gonna do much like it did in its time, either.

Now when it comes to her image, she needs to start working with better stylists to create something original for her. I can't help but notice that her sense of fashion in the recent years, at events, album photoshoots..etc. hasn't been as impactful as her looks back in the day. She does have some good photo shoots, yes but most of the ideas are recycled or just not very fitting to her as her looks from the 80s, 90s and 00s were. She's the queen of re-invention but there hasn't been much re-invention in her recent years.

As for the music itself, Madonna tends to re-invent and experiment with new stuff and Madame X did that, but it wasn't an album that is catchy to the public. She brought in Maluma but she didn't create a song with him that make people dance nor something that is super catchy like Chantaje for example. She seems to mostly rely on the presence of new artist to boost the single without the actual effort of making the song a good-sounding song, and so many times, she feels like she's hopping on trends way after they're cool and it makes her look like she's way way late to the party, not to mention how she's been doing the rent-a-rapper thing since 2008, and I think it's because she's surrounded by so many yes-people who can't or don't introduce her to any new ideas nor telling her that she needs to fix some things..etc.

Her visuals aren't as inspiring as they used to be either. Sure, Madame X so far has her best music videos since COADF, but she's missing a lot of opportunities. God Control is one of my favorite videos yes but it wasted so much potential of having more narrative to it, of having some better acting. Jonas Ackerlund is known for his outstanding works and story-driven music videos and so is Steven Klein, but the way I see it, her management generally speaking seems to save a lot of money when it comes to the budget of her visuals. The artworks for the singles are minimal effort, the music videos are nice but feel lacking, and the marketing tactics feel either outdated or ineffective.

Instead of launching Madame X in June, it could've launched in February after another Superbowl deal, or right after Eurovision and the show could've had God Control performed instead of Future. They could've done a surprise release like Beyonce with a visual album companion to it or a short film. These tactics make people talk, they are a modern way of creating hype. Hell young stars even get payola deals to launch their singles to top, and she needs to do these stuff. That $5m deal for Billboard performance could've been a deal to promote her better or to create some genuinely great visuals and stage designs, but guess what? it was one performance that was hardly that special and didn't even trend anywhere.

I don't care about charts, personally but they're important or her to maintain a career. She's not an indie artist who's making do with minimal budget and self-funded minimal production. She's known for her larger than life work, she's known for her outstanding stage production, her shows are known for being the best party ever, and now what? she's doing theaters and no phones, meaning no free promo through fans' broadcast and no larger-than-life production.

If she wants to launch another singer to the top 10 or something, she needs better collaborators, not just cute models or rappers or one-hit-wonders. She needs a collaboration and perhaps a big overhaul in her genre and image. I don't wanna say that she should "be like Gaga" but let's face it, Gaga's career would've ended if she had another pop album after ARTPOP and Joanne. Instead, she did a movie, she sang ballads, she did something different and the right combination worked for her. Maybe something similar could work for Madonna, not a movie, but maybe a full on ballads album or a deal to sing the entire soundtrack of an upcoming blockbuster/Oscar-targeted flick or a collaboration with Daft Punk or Nile Rodgers, or if she does a collaboration with Taylor Swift or The Weeknd with some high quality vials like that of Taylor Swift's Bad Blood, somebody whose not only globally popular but globally respected as an artist/musician or at least someone who's known to constantly chart to the top with whatever they release, not one hit wonders like Gangnum Style or Dispacito or It's Friday..etc.

MDNA had outstanding songs like Masterpiece, Girl Gone Wild, Love Spent, I'm Addicted and Falling Free that could've been great singles. It doesn't always have to be a dance lead single and if it's a dance track, it doesn't have to be the one with the most collaborations, it could be a nice catchy solo track.Rebel Heart could've launched big with Ghosttown as the lead and premiering at Super Bowl at the time or Eurovision..etc. and some good deal. Cher managed to get a global hit with Believe not because she "acted her age", but the combination of sound, image and everything just worked in its time frankly it made autotune sound so cool. So yeah, it's definitely possible for Madonna to get a hit, sure it's not guaranteed, but it's possible if the right things are put in place at the right time with the right people and push.

Great write up, you gave it a lot of thought. Not sure I agree with Adele getting hits in her 50s and 60s though, as she won't get airplay either. Maybe on Radio 2, hopefully by then Radio 1 will be obsolete. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 minutes ago, baymad4her said:

Great write up, you gave it a lot of thought. Not sure I agree with Adele getting hits in her 50s and 60s though, as she won't get airplay either. Maybe on Radio 2, hopefully by then Radio 1 will be obsolete. 

Thank you! Glad you like it :D

I referred to Adele because Adele's popular due to her voice and her very relatable timeless love songs and ballads. Her music resonates with everyone and is devoid of any political affiliation or religious or non-religious tones or any "message" (that I know of) beside the disappointment in love and break up or the joy of being with someone and the pain of them being away..etc. Something that everyone can relate to, something that isn't related to her looks, body and fashion, something that won't alienate those who disagree with  her, because let's face it, many people would stop listening to/watching singers and actors whose thoughts don't align with them these days, especially.

Madonna on the other hand, is the exact opposite. Her music is very much focused on her, her thoughts, what she believes in, what she seeks to challenge and dismantle and her visuals and presence is all about her being the center of everything, the controversy, the shock, so it's hard to separate her music from all that, at least to the general public.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

22 hours ago, RinoTheBouncer said:

Thank you! Glad you like it :D

I referred to Adele because Adele's popular due to her voice and her very relatable timeless love songs and ballads. Her music resonates with everyone and is devoid of any political affiliation or religious or non-religious tones or any "message" (that I know of) beside the disappointment in love and break up or the joy of being with someone and the pain of them being away..etc. Something that everyone can relate to, something that isn't related to her looks, body and fashion, something that won't alienate those who disagree with  her, because let's face it, many people would stop listening to/watching singers and actors whose thoughts don't align with them these days, especially.

Madonna on the other hand, is the exact opposite. Her music is very much focused on her, her thoughts, what she believes in, what she seeks to challenge and dismantle and her visuals and presence is all about her being the center of everything, the controversy, the shock, so it's hard to separate her music from all that, at least to the general public.

Interesting.
Adele sells 'coz she's bland.
No.
She's seen as a throwback to Dusty 'n' all them White Soul female singers too.
Plus, it made the UK News that she sells so much on vinyl LP !
Therefore it can't be just people sticking the record only on a wall ?
Also there's something Karen Carpenter too about her voice.
And 'no' I'm not A Fan.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Write here...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share


×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Terms of Use