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Forty Times that Madonna Proved that She Was a Genius


Sultrysully
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13 hours ago, androiduser said:

I was making a joke about the fans always crediting the success to Madonna, and blaming someone around her for the fails.

Madonna has always been more involved than most pop artists in her  craft.   Madonna certainly does deserve the lion's share of credit or critique.  She seems to truly "own" the bulk of her catalogue.  To me, the Like a Virgin album feels the most distanced from her actual person.  Everything else feels very Madonna to me.  

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11 hours ago, vadge said:

I don't see Bitch I'm Madonna?

I actually love BIM but the Diplo production mutes "Madonna" a bit for me.  4 minutes is another example.  The Timbaland production takes over but I still love it.  It just feels like a remix of a Madonna song instead of a Madonna song.   I certainly loved all live versions of BIM and Madonna seems to love it too.  

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19 hours ago, Sultrysully said:

Celebrating 40 years...  I am ready!!!!!! 

Below is my playlist of the forty times that I believe that Madonna proved that she was a genius.  Some songs were picked for lyrics, others for instrumentation, some for the whole package.  Both Love Spent [Acoustic] and Ciao Bella were contenders for me for sure.   I also considered the gritty Everybody and Burning Up.   I think that it plays well.  

 

1. Drowned World/Substitute for Love

2. Batuka

3. Rescue Me

4. Secret Garden

5. Paradise (Not for Me)

6. Love Tried to Welcome Me

7. Like a Prayer

8. Isaac

9. Come Alive

10. Swim

11. X-Static Process

12. Promise to Try

13. Like It or Not

14. Sky Fits Heaven

15. Take a Bow

16. Intervention

17. I Deserve It

18. Live to Tell

19. Erotica

20. Don't Tell Me

21. You'll See

22. Falling Free

23. Candy Perfume Girl

24. Sanctuary

25. Bedtime Story

26. Looking for Mercy

27. Something to Remember

28. Oh Father

29. Justify My Love

30. Devil Wouldn't Recognize You

31. Inside Out

32. The Power of Good-Bye

33. Skin

34. Voices

35. Inside of Me

36. Secret

37. Ray of Light

38. Frozen

39. Messiah

40. Easy Ride

 

 

 

I love all but one of those songs. 39 out of 40 ain't bad :)

I'd swap Batuka for Push x

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5 hours ago, proxy said:

what exactly childish in this lyrics

Yep, absolutely...

NOT!

I don't hear anything like that in this song :

- inspired by a minority, from a tiny country, and a genre (batuque), that 99.9% of the people don't know anything about,

- with lyrics about faith, persistence and punishing the patriarchs, or slaver owners, or rapists, or any other disgusting old male jerk.

Chanting about the long road is a grown-up thing.

Besides, Batuka is a canon, in a musical sense, meaning its structure is repetitive, like a lot of traditional folk songs, especially the "call and response" ones, OBVS. 

If you're going that way, many M-penned songs are childish because she likes her melodies veeeeeeeery simple and repetitive.

Which makes them catchy.

I love Batuka because it's such a radical and divise song in her late discography.

*and it was great in Madame X live.

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21 hours ago, Sultrysully said:

Celebrating 40 years...  I am ready!!!!!! 

Below is my playlist of the forty times that I believe that Madonna proved that she was a genius.  Some songs were picked for lyrics, others for instrumentation, some for the whole package.  Both Love Spent [Acoustic] and Ciao Bella were contenders for me for sure.   I also considered the gritty Everybody and Burning Up.   I think that it plays well.  

 

1. Drowned World/Substitute for Love

2. Batuka

3. Rescue Me

4. Secret Garden

5. Paradise (Not for Me)

6. Love Tried to Welcome Me

7. Like a Prayer

8. Isaac

9. Come Alive

10. Swim

11. X-Static Process

12. Promise to Try

13. Like It or Not

14. Sky Fits Heaven

15. Take a Bow

16. Intervention

17. I Deserve It

18. Live to Tell

19. Erotica

20. Don't Tell Me

21. You'll See

22. Falling Free

23. Candy Perfume Girl

24. Sanctuary

25. Bedtime Story

26. Looking for Mercy

27. Something to Remember

28. Oh Father

29. Justify My Love

30. Devil Wouldn't Recognize You

31. Inside Out

32. The Power of Good-Bye

33. Skin

34. Voices

35. Inside of Me

36. Secret

37. Ray of Light

38. Frozen

39. Messiah

40. Easy Ride

 

 

 

I adore the list but Looking for mercy? Naaa

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21 hours ago, Sultrysully said:

Celebrating 40 years...  I am ready!!!!!! 

Below is my playlist of the forty times that I believe that Madonna proved that she was a genius.  Some songs were picked for lyrics, others for instrumentation, some for the whole package.  Both Love Spent [Acoustic] and Ciao Bella were contenders for me for sure.   I also considered the gritty Everybody and Burning Up.   I think that it plays well.  

 

1. Drowned World/Substitute for Love

2. Batuka

3. Rescue Me

4. Secret Garden

5. Paradise (Not for Me)

6. Love Tried to Welcome Me

7. Like a Prayer

8. Isaac

9. Come Alive

10. Swim

11. X-Static Process

12. Promise to Try

13. Like It or Not

14. Sky Fits Heaven

15. Take a Bow

16. Intervention

17. I Deserve It

18. Live to Tell

19. Erotica

20. Don't Tell Me

21. You'll See

22. Falling Free

23. Candy Perfume Girl

24. Sanctuary

25. Bedtime Story

26. Looking for Mercy

27. Something to Remember

28. Oh Father

29. Justify My Love

30. Devil Wouldn't Recognize You

31. Inside Out

32. The Power of Good-Bye

33. Skin

34. Voices

35. Inside of Me

36. Secret

37. Ray of Light

38. Frozen

39. Messiah

40. Easy Ride

 

 

 

Melancholic, minor key, rousing Madonna songs 🤤

Love all of them except... 30, 32, 34

Missing for me: 

- Hollywood

- I Know It

- Sooner or Later

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8 hours ago, androiduser said:

No denying that Madonna is involved and writes a huge part of her music. Not sure about the comparisons, though, it depends on who you are comparing her to. Janet? Sure.... Prince? No.

Love Prince... but comparing M to Prince as a writer is unfair.  LOL  Although... her stuff carries a more dynamic range of styles.  He was a one trick pony in some regard.  Every Prince song sounds like every Prince song.   Prince was never about reinvention.  Still love him though and M did too.  

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3 hours ago, PlayPause said:

Melancholic, minor key, rousing Madonna songs 🤤

Love all of them except... 30, 32, 34

Missing for me: 

- Hollywood

- I Know It

- Sooner or Later

Sooner or Later was a tough omission for me.  I Know It is gritty and brilliant in that sense.  Hollywood is pure pop magic.  It is among the best of all Preach-Donna's songs because it stays so fun.  :)  

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10 hours ago, Sultrysully said:

What are you talking about?  I believe that she holds writing credits on most of her catalogue tbh.  

Off the top of my head she didn't write bedtime story, swim, don't tell me, falling free...

Also Ray of light, Drowned world and Sky fits heaven are derivative of other people's works.

I'm not saying Madonna isn't a genius, just pointing out what she does and doesn't deserve credit for 

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6 hours ago, Sultrysully said:

Love Prince... but comparing M to Prince as a writer is unfair.  LOL  Although... her stuff carries a more dynamic range of styles.  He was a one trick pony in some regard.  Every Prince song sounds like every Prince song.   Prince was never about reinvention.  Still love him though and M did too.  

why is it unfair? they were contemporaries and they were part of the Madonna/Michael/Prince trinity of the 80's and 90's.

Could it be that his music is similar because he did it all himself?

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4 hours ago, Fabiolous said:

 

Also Ray of light,

 

Also, the William Orbit version of ROL was already recorded with Christine Leach in 1996, before Madonna even started working on the album.... Madonna didn't really do much, anything really, with the song, she just recorded a shortened version of the already reworked cover. Her writing/production credit is really a stretch.

 

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7 minutes ago, androiduser said:

Also, the William Orbit version of ROL was already recorded with Christine Leach in 1996, before Madonna even started working on the album.... Madonna didn't really do much, anything really, with the song, she just recorded a shortened version of the already reworked cover. Her writing/production credit is really a stretch.

 

 

I don't know exactly what input Madonna gave on this song but I will say the final version is vastly superior than this in terms of production. The lyrics on the second verse are also better and the vocal delivery from Madonna WAY better than this woman. Madonna's version is filled with so much more life and passion.

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ALSO why is a thread celebrating 40 years of Madonna filled with people nit picking at her input levels. We already know Madonna collaborates with others. Remember this woman oversaw every aspect of her creative career, from music, to visuals, performance, choreography, costumes.... No pop or rock artist comes up with everything themselves. In the end no matter who did what it is all an expression of who she is as the centrepiece.

Stop trying to diminish her accomplishments!

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1 minute ago, valinecode said:

But if the songwriters are genius why does nobody know and nobody cares? :laughing:

Because they're not. There are thousands of great songwriters, many of them unknown. There is only 1 Madonna. She had the sense to hear this half baked song which resonated with her and develop it into her own.

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2 hours ago, Blue Jean said:

ALSO why is a thread celebrating 40 years of Madonna filled with people nit picking at her input levels. We already know Madonna collaborates with others. Remember this woman oversaw every aspect of her creative career, from music, to visuals, performance, choreography, costumes.... No pop or rock artist comes up with everything themselves. In the end no matter who did what it is all an expression of who she is as the centrepiece.

Stop trying to diminish her accomplishments!

Because you said she's a genius for her production or lyrics, and I was just pointing out those songs on the list that she pretty much did nothing for. It's called correcting a mistake 🤷🏻‍♂️ she's a genius for the Blond Ambition tour, for the whole Erotica era etc, not for the lyrics written by other people or production where she had a small input.

No one is saying she should do everything by herself, I was just disagreeing with the song selection on the list

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