Ten reasons I loved (and love and defend) the MDNA era, 10 years later, despite the criticism.

[beautifulkiller 682]

14 minutes ago, RUADJAI said:

It's really quite amazing how you can seem to read everything I wrote but not understand any of it. 

because you totally ignored all the other female artists who have come after madonna like gags is the only one to have made mini videos or had a string of hits and why is it always madonnas throne at risk and not michael jacksons throne ..does she need to die to keep that title ..anyway people be calling every basic artists queen of pop now so its not really relevant lol

[dylanlioncourt 5,780]

I adored it at the time for the excitement of a new Madonna record given the absence when all the new girls came in during her absence. The ideas on paper sound great but it's the first time I felt Madonna sort of was on autopilot. A lot of songwriter demos she recorded with little to no changes, the lack of studio time and the no promotion strategy Guy went for outside of the Superbowl really didn't do much. The tour was brilliant, brought a lot of the tracks to life and fleshed them out properly and was probably one of her most grueling and energetic tours for her. It was amazing to see it twice live in the triangle and meet Guy when he came into it to talk with fans. Can't believe it's been close to a decade since it came out.

I do love the art direction of the campaign. I always imagined an "I'm Addicted" video with the glass effect composed of footage from the photoshoot sessions. The videos themselves are fun and a step up from the Hard Candy videos though. I just wish more had been done during the era to push the record even if it isn't her strongest. And we had gotten that Tarantino "Gang Bang" video if it had happened.

[dylanlioncourt 5,780]

1 hour ago, MDNA22 said:

Yeah true too - the sound on revolver was dreadful and how they handled her vocals but maybe they did not get a good take like you said and had to make do but if that was the case you would have thought once she heard the finished song she would have said herself it's not good enough and re-record it or change the engineers if that was the problem.  

Apparently, the producers of the track sent a mix they weren't happy with and wanted to correct it but Warner I'm guessing was fine with it. They went on Twitter asking to redo the track but were unsuccessful with it

[dylanlioncourt 5,780]

1 hour ago, MDNA22 said:

Yeah true too - the sound on revolver was dreadful and how they handled her vocals but maybe they did not get a good take like you said and had to make do but if that was the case you would have thought once she heard the finished song she would have said herself it's not good enough and re-record it or change the engineers if that was the problem.  

Apparently, the producers of the track sent a mix they weren't happy with and wanted to correct it but Warner I'm guessing was fine with it. They went on Twitter asking to redo the track but were unsuccessful with it

[beautifulkiller 682]

22 minutes ago, dylanlioncourt said:

Apparently, the producers of the track sent a mix they weren't happy with and wanted to correct it but Warner I'm guessing was fine with it. They went on Twitter asking to redo the track but were unsuccessful with it

i remember and it pissed me off then too ..it was so bad :( a shame because its a good song ..the david guetta remix was good and it kind of fixed it a little bit but still i wanted the actual song to be fixed ..love spent too - brilliant song but badly mastered and that is a shame ....i just dont think she was feeling it around this time prob due to putting all her heart into the movie 

[RUADJAI 14,944]

51 minutes ago, beautifulkiller said:

because you totally ignored all the other female artists who have come after madonna like gags is the only one to have made mini videos or had a string of hits and why is it always madonnas throne at risk and not michael jacksons throne ..does she need to die to keep that title ..anyway people be calling every basic artists queen of pop now so its not really relevant lol

GIRL.... we are discussing 2012... Britney and Christina had already been out for 15 years and their "threat" was gone. Especially considering Madonna's music was better than theirs when they first came on the scene. Gaga came on the scene after Hard Candy... Enough said... but she also seemed like she was taunting Madonna by doing Madonna-esque things. Cone bras, sex and religion, a dominating attitude, gender bending... No other girl really had ever done that other than maybe P!nk, but she was in her own lane. 

 

If you didn't live through this period then it may be hard to understand. 

[beautifulkiller 682]

13 minutes ago, RUADJAI said:

GIRL.... we are discussing 2012... Britney and Christina had already been out for 15 years and their "threat" was gone. Especially considering Madonna's music was better than theirs when they first came on the scene. Gaga came on the scene after Hard Candy... Enough said... but she also seemed like she was taunting Madonna by doing Madonna-esque things. Cone bras, sex and religion, a dominating attitude, gender bending... No other girl really had ever done that other than maybe P!nk, but she was in her own lane. 

 

If you didn't live through this period then it may be hard to understand. 

what threat ? a threat to who and what ? in the 40 years madonna has worked there has been countless female artists ..all artists hit the peak .gags i believe hit hers with the fame monster ...then somebody else comes along and so on and so on ..i dont feel it was a threat to madonnas throne - why is it always female artists that get this shit ..you dont hear of ..justin timberlake coming for michael jacksons throne etc etc .its pathetic 

[RUADJAI 14,944]

20 minutes ago, beautifulkiller said:

what threat ? a threat to who and what ? in the 40 years madonna has worked there has been countless female artists ..all artists hit the peak .gags i believe hit hers with the fame monster ...then somebody else comes along and so on and so on ..i dont feel it was a threat to madonnas throne - why is it always female artists that get this shit ..you dont hear of ..justin timberlake coming for michael jacksons throne etc etc .its pathetic 

Yeah I get it... you don't like it. But it doesn't change that it was a thing at this time.  I don't think it will ever be a thing again so it's kind of useless to pick it apart. 

 

[beautifulkiller 682]

7 minutes ago, RUADJAI said:

Yeah I get it... you don't like it. But it doesn't change that it was a thing at this time.  I don't think it will ever be a thing again so it's kind of useless to pick it apart. 

 

yeah i see it was a thing but i dont think it was the first time ..people been saying it about other artists too ..janet , mariah ,kylie , xtina , britney , cathy dennis , debbie gibson , sonia , yoko ono ..it goes on and on ..the good thing is they are always put up against madonna and this speaks for itself but i dont think you can steal somebodies throne ..unless you can only steal a womans throne because michael jacksons seems cemented in history depsite what he did - perhaps you can only steal a womans throne and is madonna even pop royalty anyway because lizzo seemed to totally ignore madonna when listing pop royalty and purposefully ..

[RUADJAI 14,944]

2 minutes ago, beautifulkiller said:

yeah i see it was a thing but i dont think it was the first time ..people been saying it about other artists too ..janet , mariah ,kylie , xtina , britney , cathy dennis , debbie gibson , sonia , yoko ono ..it goes on and on ..the good thing is they are always put up against madonna and this speaks for itself but i dont think you can steal somebodies throne ..unless you can only steal a womans throne because michael jacksons seems cemented in history depsite what he did - perhaps you can only steal a womans throne 

Michael was otherworldly from what I've heard. I never got it, but people used to be carried out of his concert on stretchers from fainting. People just crying through the whole thing. Not really my idea of a good time, but he had some kind of power that no one has had since. 

[beautifulkiller 682]

1 minute ago, RUADJAI said:

Michael was otherworldly from what I've heard. I never got it, but people used to be carried out of his concert on stretchers from fainting. People just crying through the whole thing. Not really my idea of a good time, but he had some kind of power that no one has had since. 

he was also very fond of little boys which if anything should remove his king of pop status right or drake should be knighted king of pop due to his amazing streaming figures but no you never hear of that talk ..its always women vs woman 

[PlayPause 2,683]

8 hours ago, Drownedboy said:

2)The Superbowl perfomance: awesome, iconic, loved by everybody and a total success.

3)The cover of the album: one of her most beautiful ever.

Yeah OK.

but 10 reasons is really too much for MDNA!

[Roland Barthes 5,839]

4 hours ago, Enrico said:

Do I have a split personality if I happen to agree both with many  @Drownedboypoints AND @Roland Barthescriticism? Am I the only one?

It's because in the end we love Madonna and we tend to link her work toperiods of our lives. At the time i would have never said what i say now about MDNA but time has not been nice to it and very quickly but it still Madonna so tracks like Love Spent (acoustic), I'm Addicted, Falling Free or Masterpiecare still essentials and couldn't do without them in her discog. It's just that the whole thing seemed forced. I even like Hard Candy better because at least it's nicely made ( produced,recorded, mixed, mastered) but both projects she was more passionate about making movies. On HC she's credited as executive producer and for the first time in a long time not as a co-producer (on Timbaland tracks). On MDNA all the tracks prexisted, she just bought them. Working with tracks from writing sessions from writing pools was the norm in pop then. Orbit said a few weeks ago he regretted joining the one he joined in Vegas with Jean-Baptiste and others. That's where the MDNA tacks came from. Her voice is thin as ice on MDNA, the production is very cheap. When you listen to it on cd on a very good stereo it sounds like a copy and paste job saved by big mastering. I really don't like Gaga ( like really, really) but that previous on Born This Way she released the best (and only good ones) tracks of her career with Scheibe, Government hooker, Electric Chapel, Bad Kids (and two others i can't remember their titles) and they are a better testimony of that nadir in the music industry than MDNA. It's the real misstep in her recording career because the whole project sounds phoned in. We all have good memories from that time but it has nothing to do with the album, it just happened to be there at the time. MDNA would have been a better name for a compilation, the 4/5 good tracks new tracks on it and that's it. The awful gyms, the cheap perfume, the whole thing was the antithesis of her most creative and successful eras. This album could have been released by another female popstar like Katy Perry and be her best album but not for Madonna. It's not a bad album per say, it's just not a good Madonna album.

[beautifulkiller 682]

11 minutes ago, Roland Barthes said:

It's because in the end we love Madonna and we tend to link her work toperiods of our lives. At the time i would have never said what i say now about MDNA but time has not been nice to it and very quickly but it still Madonna so tracks like Love Spent (acoustic), I'm Addicted, Falling Free or Masterpiecare still essentials and couldn't do without them in her discog. It's just that the whole thing seemed forced. I even like Hard Candy better because at least it's nicely made ( produced,recorded, mixed, mastered) but both projects she was more passionate about making movies. On HC she's credited as executive producer and for the first time in a long time not as a co-producer (on Timbaland tracks). On MDNA all the tracks prexisted, she just bought them. Working with tracks from writing sessions from writing pools was the norm in pop then. Orbit said a few weeks ago he regretted joining the one he joined in Vegas with Jean-Baptiste and others. That's where the MDNA tacks came from. Her voice is thin as ice on MDNA, the production is very cheap. When you listen to it on cd on a very good stereo it sounds like a copy and paste job saved by big mastering. I really don't like Gaga ( like really, really) but that previous on Born This Way she released the best (and only good ones) tracks of her career with Scheibe, Government hooker, Electric Chapel, Bad Kids (and two others i can't remember their titles) and they are a better testimony of that nadir in the music industry than MDNA. It's the real misstep in her recording career because the whole project sounds phoned in. We all have good memories from that time but it has nothing to do with the album, it just happened to be there at the time. MDNA would have been a better name for a compilation, the 4/5 good tracks new tracks on it and that's it. The awful gyms, the cheap perfume, the whole thing was the antithesis of her most creative and successful eras. This album could have been released by another female popstar like Katy Perry and be her best album but not for Madonna. It's not a bad album per say, it's just not a good Madonna album.

generally speaking though a lot of newer artists first albums are better than the later ones ,,its just the way it goes but i agree that it did feel like a album that she did not really put a lot of passion into when recording it - it seems like a product created for a massive tour and that is where it worked - it worked great live so i forgive her lol

 

You say her voice was thin on the album but i think she sounds gorgeous on masterpiece and falling free 

[lucasciccone 4,221]

Pretty much I would let MDNA know that she is a bad album and, um the songs that she gave me were not something that I would particularly play for myself. They were old maiden type of songs, and she said that those songs were meant to be modern and #1 hits. So if that is the case she should have put them on the trash and she should never even recorded them because she was UNQUALIFIED to sing those bad songs if that's the case. And, um I think that MDNA is just a disgrace. She's a disgrace to Madonna's legacy which are actually beautiful and classy and, um she just doesn't have the vernacular she thinks she possesses. Somebody lied to her several times and told her that she was fly, hot and sexy and beautiful and she's nothing like that. She's nothing of the sort.

 

[madgefan 10,149]

I agree the studio album has serious flaws here and there BUT I think we should give Madonna proper credit for elevating each one of those weak songs to AMAZING 'live' performances.

 

[itzjak 136]

I love MDNA, it was the firts time I bought a digital download. To me, Falling Free is a great song. Gang Bang was a missed oportunity to create a short movie instead we have secretptoject with no music. Another missed oportunity was Some Girls, Masterpiece (she could win an oscar I'll never forgive that), I'm a Sinner... and that rumor about a musical video for Superstar. Her last titanic world tour, an amazing photoshoot, a funy firts single, an amazing comeback thanks to the super bowl. Anyway Great memories

[artlover 3,962]

I just wish MDNA sounded similar to The Fame Monster. 

That album showed how you chew and regurgitate european pop to make it more palatable. 

[artlover 3,962]

11 hours ago, beautifulkiller said:

he was also very fond of little boys which if anything should remove his king of pop status right or drake should be knighted king of pop due to his amazing streaming figures but no you never hear of that talk ..its always women vs woman 

You are always mentioning the Michael issue here, why are you SO obsessed with this? This is so problematic.

[Blue Jean 15,224]

14 hours ago, beautifulkiller said:

madonna was making mini movies videos before gags was even born so lets not start thinking that was groundbreaking - britiney was also making mini movie videos , mariah too ....

Exactly. Gaga is given too much credit. All she did was bring certain things back into the mainstream eg, over the top costumes/theatrics and big budget music videos. All of those things were done a million times before and with much greater artistry. Gaga's team/label were smart to fill a gap in the market at the time and that was all it really was.

I find Gaga's videos to be very lacking any real cinematic beauty or artistry. They look like big budget TV commercials rather than short films. It makes sense she would do product placement for LG in them or have cameos from the Real Housewives because that is what she's all about. Cheap and tacky.

[migsou 1,060]

i absolutely adore the mdna era:

the golden globe;

the superbowl (and the fact the after her the shows were a lot more elevated and the pop girls decided to pay attention to it) and how cohesive it was with the cheerleader theme on the first single;

amazing upbeat songs and ballads on the album;

THE TOUR!!!!!!!! (her best one when it comes to theatrics, narrative arc and technology);

"gang bang" is one of the best songs on her catalog (angry madonna is great madonna), really wish the tarantino music video had happened

and it was the last time a performance or music video made me like a song or like it even more. for me this is madonna's magic, the visuals made me fall in love with her music.

[Alfalfa_HampusFL 1,138]

After Madame X it is my least fave Madonna album... it still has quite a lot of great songs though... just a bit to long and a bad choice of singles.

[Starchild 3,076]

i absolutely adore the mdna era:
the golden globe;

That Weinstein paid for. Let’s face the truth.

[Drownedboy 1,676]

I must add I adore her segment of Human nature (her best one for me on a tour) and the the virgin love spent segment: wow, that´s art. She was really putting all her heart in that number, very theatrical and from her soul, explaining to us in a few  minutes how she felt about the Guy Ritchie divorce, without saying a word (and looking amazing, by the way). From this to light with LAP and Celebration: A Masterpiece and the climax of the whole era, that was about her struggling with her divorce and the changes she was going through in her new life. 15 minutes of pure stage art that shows what a visceral live performer and how deep she can be into it if she is inspired, even not having with the best voice or not dancing like her dancers.

[beautifulkiller 682]

3 hours ago, artlover said:

You are always mentioning the Michael issue here, why are you SO obsessed with this? This is so problematic.

shut up to me it is problematic ..it was and is still very problematic - if you dont like it block me .i dont care