BradleyPratt

Madonna - The Immaculate Collection 30th Anniversary
Hey gang - long-time reader/lurker, infrequent poster 
Like everyone else, I'm frustrated at the lack of any anniversary/expanded/box-set/celebratory anythings from Madonna.
For The Immaculate Collection's 30th anniversary this year, I knew we weren't likely to get anything nice, so I designed something myself and put it out in the universe to see what would happen. Tadaaaa.
Click here to check it out

agree
Maybe not in its promotion but musically it succeeded where her previous few albums didn't. I would've liked to see more of the personas that were teased but that's separate from the album itself.
Why does it have to be new? new to whom... she never did songs like Killers Who Are Partying or an experiment like Dark Ballet or Batuka. God Control is eclectic. IDSAF is supposed to be a retro type of track. Future is what Unapologetic Bitch wanted to be. I agree that I Rise is more Rebel Hearty but the production is not overdone so. I wish there had been more songs like Bitch I'm Loca on RH, that album needed more fun songs. 
The way this era has gone there's definitely no honeymoon phase lol. I can see myself listening to Madame X for years to come, especially after the era is over and things calm down. I'm not really in love with her at the moment so I truthfully think it is a great record.  

I think with MDNA she may have gotten a bit cocky but I do think she tried very much with RH, its just that it was too much and too chaotic. i think she succeeded quite well with Madame X though. She made fleshed out, perfectly produced songs and a tracklisting that isn't too long and flows well, like a true Madonna album, with a lot of interesting and varied ideas that somehow fit together despite the different elements. i'm still really happy about this album. 

All of this is complete projection. A place doesn't define a person. Neither does a partner. Madonna is an intuitively intelligent person. We know nothing of her friendships, or anything else for that matter. Anything we see of Madonna is what she decides to project of herself. What we see is probably a very artificial and condensed version of one tiny part of who she is. How the rest of her informs her future is what remains to be seen, and it's what remains exciting about seeing a true maverick navigate uncharted territory. 
 
We have no knowledge that Madonna became less involved in Kabbalah at any point. We only know she stopped talking about it in very controlled promotional press junkets and interviews, and we stopped seeing her heading in and out of the Kabbalah Center. Much of this probably had to do with the fact that Madonna has in recent years consistently lived in homes where the public never sees her enter or leave. 
The false narrative regarding Madonna's lack of input in projects the fanbase dislikes or likes less is another example of pure projection. In my opinion, also projection, William Orbit had a temporary lapse in judgment by going public with his personal frustration that Madonna did not make him the primary producer of MDNA. He wanted to have another immersive experience like Ray of Light, but Madonna was also into Martin S and wanted to pursue other avenues. 
While Madonna herself may be able to look back on her last two albums as periods of lesser inspiration, hindsight is mostly subjective too. Without those experiences, she wouldn't have come to the place of inspiration that led to Madame X. To me, Hard Candy is Madonna's least inspired modern album, but to others it's MDNA. I think MDNA is full of solid music and that it will undoubtedly eventually be reviewed with greater reverence. Her disenfranchisement over the Rebel Heart leak and its relative commercial failure was justifiable and understandably disappointing, but I think Madonna was very proud of her work on that album. Perhaps she is the worst perpetrator of her fans' failings in dismissing things because they weren't "big". Then again, she performed Candy Shop on three tours in seven years. 
And finally, I think it would be foolish to ignore that creativity is aloof and temperamental, and goes through a good deal of reformatting throughout a lifetime. If someone is lucky enough to be able to live from their art, they are going to still have periods when they question the purpose, the relevance and the trajectory of their work. Most people don't look at a Picasso or a Van Gogh and truthfully feel empowered and entitled to state that one period in their creative careers was vastly superior to another. One may appeal more to their sensibility, but the body of work is considered as a whole before it is dissected. Madonna is still alive and still creating. Therefore, I think her legacy is in a permanent state of fluidity. Only when she is no longer here will there be any solid universal reevaluation. She knows that, and that's why she now seemingly does whatever makes her happy. 
 
 

To a degree that's true, especially during this album cycle, I think Madame X is a great album with a great concept but since it didn't do well commercially some people judged it harshly. However I do think that many people lost interest in her for a reason, and it's not just age. 
As a person, I know that she's a bit narcissistic, but I do miss the kabbalah days of a bit more kindness and introspection, and a message that came more from the heart rather than ego. To me her ego has exploded again in recent years, and while I'm not trying to tell a woman what to do or how to be, as a human being i do think that narcissism is the problem not the solution. I hope that I will still see a kinder, more open version of herself in the future, and more joyful too. 

With the exception of a few posts throughout these four pages, there is a fundamental lack of attention given to the primary issue here. It has less to do with Madonna changing, and more to do with the concept of fame changing post-digital revolution. Madonna's type of fame was truly exceptional for the longest time, but she aged out of the Zeitgeist when corporate interests no longer saw her preeminence as commercially useful. There was more money to be made from youth-oriented culture. Doing business with an artist of Madonna's stature would have meant profit margins for the corporate entities were diminished because she could take a larger stake herself. As the industry changed and panic kicked in regarding dwindling sales and illegal downloading, replacing artists like Madonna with green-eyed younger and more malleable acts would have been a natural shift. As it turned out, Madonna and Oseary were prescient and understood that they needed to strike while the commercial iron of touring receipts was hot, thus her 360 deal with Live Nation. Sidenote: Recording music hasn't been a valid source of income for Madonna for well over a decade; she herself decided to use her records as showcases for her live performances. She approached her creative flow as a Broadway director does. The music is the soundtrack to the show. No one seems to get this. Look at how this has become a more cynical template for less successful legacy acts who all have some type of dreadful Broadway adaptation of their back catalogs in the works.
As much as it upsets many of Madonna's fans to face this truth, most of them have long stopped being a core capitalist demographic. In fact, whenever I consider Madonna's modern legacy I am more fascinated by how limited many of her fans' perspective on her evolution is. I read endless posts about how she should be promoting her music as she did Ray of Light...That she would be better off returning to Warner Bros, as if nostalgia holds some sort of commercial magic wand in an era when almost no one sells music anymore! It shows a fundamental lack of comprehension that the world itself has drastically changed over the course of Madonna's career, and the fact that her phenomenal stamina managed to give her a somewhat imperialistic hold on global pop culture for two and a half decades is unprecedented. That's enough within itself to make everything she has done since that imperial phase ended worthy of admiration and a much kinder assessment, but there is so much more to explore here. 
There is no doubt that the public essentially wrote her off after she returned to her raunchier persona post-divorce.  One cannot deny the dismal showing of Celebration was more than a commercial embarrassment; it was a global smack in the face to the woman; age seemed to offer the world the chance to finally kick her where it hurt. 
I am more shocked by people's surprise at Madonna's healthy appetite for self-preservation through plastic surgery than by the results of the surgery. In an era of digital film and photography, no one can afford to show signs of obvious aging, and as one of the world's most photographed women whose career was built in great part on the promise of video as art form, it seems entirely logical that she would succumb to the pressures of the industry. Surely people aren't shocked to learn that Madonna is vain and a narcissist? 
Madonna explained herself most effectively during her promotion for her film W.E. I don't think many actually caught on at the time when she made parallels between herself and Wallis Simpson by describing the limiting views of the masses that prevent a public person from having more than one or two characteristics. It had long become painfully obvious that Madonna could not simultaneously and successfully be a provocative showwoman, a film director, a recording artist, an actress, a business owner, a good mother, and a human being with an evolving intellect...She therefore seemed to step back until she eventually found the best way to enable her own version of that narrative to thrive by inventing the Madame X character; an empty vessel capable of being anything she wants to be at any given fork in the road. Tears of a Clown was her first foray into meta-identity-fucking, and she knew all along that the only way forward was to leave the past and its intransigent inhabitants behind. I believe Madonna is a deconstructionist at this point in her life, fully in charge and fully self-aware. Whatever anyone else thinks of her is merely a projection of something deep within themselves. The need to denigrate her choices and their results is most probably more indicative of the audience's inability to move beyond preconceived notions and prejudice. After all, in a world of bullies, everyone is somehow still a victim. Madonna's greatest achievement is that she is a living work of art, full of contradictions and the ability to elicit the fullest emotional spectrum no matter the brush stroke. 

Life happened ?‍♂️
I think her post 2007 self is very similar to the early 90s with lots of acting out and driving people away. It's just that back then she "cleaned up her act" and made good choices, had good breaks and was able to have a comeback. That hasn't happened in the last 10+ years. I guess W.E./MDNA were supposed to be a strategic move but it didn't work out as both had mixed reception, after that it's been an album with a lot of wait and without any build up every 3/4 years while the internet-era press eviscerates her for being human. 
I guess my point is that not being able to have a lucky break in so long hasn't been fun for her, at least she still puts out great music, great videos and great shows, which is more than enough for me. 

Madonna - The Immaculate Collection 30th Anniversary
Hey gang - long-time reader/lurker, infrequent poster 
Like everyone else, I'm frustrated at the lack of any anniversary/expanded/box-set/celebratory anythings from Madonna.
For The Immaculate Collection's 30th anniversary this year, I knew we weren't likely to get anything nice, so I designed something myself and put it out in the universe to see what would happen. Tadaaaa.
Click here to check it out

OMG her post on IG was so sweet  

Although we probably all agree that nothing can beat the BAT iconic looks - both ponytail and curly hair - I love the one night only hairdo fro Birmingham RHT:

No, but then again I doubt she could do my job for a 13 hour night shifts in a busy hospital either... and I'm always on time. 
And no, that staging excuse is bullshit. It's a basic cheap stage compared to other major tours. 
 
Everyone else gets on stage on time. 
Gaga (ew), Celine, Kylie, Selena, J-Lo, Ariana, Janet (urgh), Mariah... 
All on time for their show.
 
Its simply her attitude towards the audience. She isn't doing anything extra, isn't performing to a better standard than the others. She's doing exactly the same, three hours late.

Are we really comparing Hung Up to GMAYL? 
can we stop pretending the sample is what makes the song good? everything about the song is good and fits together.
 
I think people would've eaten up more Confessions-esque music after that album but she came in with Hard Candy while dance pop music was on the rise, her popularity stumbled a bit and the Gagas and Katys came into the game, then after 4 years she returned with an album that didn't meet the super high expectations, 3 years later Rebel Heart was released riddled with drama however good it was, and now we're in the 3 years for another album. It's not difficult to see what had happened.
 
Anyways, I prefer Madonna being underrated than overrated. Do we really want her to be able to release any cr*p and get 5x platinum certified and a billion views like some artists out there? I wouldn't enjoy that. Madonna's hit singles were successful because they were musically good and different, and will remain classics because of that, they weren't successful because of who featured or because they were trendy designer hits... except maybe a song like 4 Minutes. Designer hits are here today and forgotten tomorrow. Madonna's legacy endures. 

Ageism is a very big reason but why are we pretending that Madonna in the 2010s is the same as Madonna in the 2000s or before? She was super focused on her music career back then, doing all the right moves over an extended period of time. Her success wasn't solely based on releasing great music or having the public or media favour (as if she ever had too much of that).
 
By 2007 we had gotten 3 albums, 2 that were highly successful/critically acclaimed and 1 that was a fan fave for some (American Life), and were well on our way to the 4th album. She had released 13 music videos, and done a lot of promotional stuff that worked for the medium that music was at the time. By 2017, we got 2 albums that were not really universally acclaimed, 6 videos, a few photoshoots, and promo/roll outs that were not the best or most up to date to what the medium is now.
 
The RH singles definitely deserved Top 100 placements, but the music doesn't magically sell itself. Success doesn't just happen based on the quality of the music.
 
We all know radio is ageist. It sucks and Im glad people like her speak up about it. It's not the only way to approach commercial success with music tho.
 
Hung Up was kind of a viral hit at the time when the term wasn't even coined, and a lot of radios in the US were forced to play it. People talked about the video, the performances, the visual elements became iconic. It was all so well put together. And a very important thing: the roll out / lead up to that album was amazing with Live 8, IGTTYAS, everything just created more interest. A perfect lesson for any artist on how to have a "comeback". Sadly the lead up to Rebel Heart was the anti-comeback. 
 
 
Nothing is guaranteed for anyone. If Ghosttown was her best single "in a decade" then that's kind of a problem in itself? That would explain why interest has dwindled over time, so how can we expect for her to be number 1 out of the blue?
 
Saying it's all because of ageism, leaks or whatever else is not the full picture. Times have changed and she has changed. I'm very glad she has focused on other worthwhile things that make her happy aside from her music, like her charities, film career and family. If that meant her grip on the music world dwindled because of that then it's ok. I'm not faulting her for not putting out an album every 2 years with massive promo like she used to, but i will say however that her focus or actions during album roll outs and promotions have not been the most fruitful or proactive, and that partly explains why things have not been as good as they used to, even with the ageism and sexism she constantly suffers.
 
Sorry for the TL;DR. and I'm gonna say I'm quite happy with her as an artist, especially from Ghosttown onwards which was when the RH era got much better, she has done a lot of good things and good moves since. Even tho it may have been too late for that era to be saved from being labelled "a flop", overtime good moves and good things build you good favor and renewed interest, it doesn't happen overnight.
 
And to end even if she doesn't get a charting single again, I'll still be happy if the music is great cos no one can do what she does, even on a bad day.

Hello everyone!
So I was bored and doing something randomly in Photoshop and this was the result! An Erotica cover, 2017 version! What do you think?
 

@@Liam finally got today my DVD/CD!!

So today I picked up my order from Madonna’s store and now I can finally share my story.
 

 
When the bundles first showed up on her store I added them my basket to see how much shipping would be to Canada and due to some odd glitch for any of the bundles no matter what I added the price would always be $0.00 and they didn’t ask for a credit card. So I picked up some bundles for the different shirts and formats (Blu-Ray and DVD) and processed the order thinking ‘Oh they’ll cancel it because I didn’t add in a credit card.
 
So a few days pass and I get an e-mail from Live Nation asking me to confirm my shirt sizes. So I reply then I think they’ll ask me for a credit card. Nope, I get my confirmation e-mail that it’s shipped. And here we are and I have my video releases in my hand now waiting for all the shirts to arrive.
 
I’m literally in disbelief that I actually didn’t pay for any of this.

Ok let's get this straight: There is nothing inherently negative about critiquing. If people wanna say they dislike something for this or that reason that's their opinion and it's neither negative nor positive, it is what it is.
 
Sometimes people post really annoying shit or things I don't agree with but I don't subsequently hold it against them because that's not participating on a discussion in good faith. Holding people's post histories against them is ad-hominem by definition. For instance i'm disagreeing with you right now, but as you can tell by your notifications I actually like many of your posts despite any momentary disagreement. 
 
A forum is about discussing things that other people couldn't give less of a shit about, including tracklist order, sound quality, whatever it is. We are the ones who care enough about her and her art and her products to actually go through everything, no one else cares as much as we do. That is very much a part of appreciating and celebrating an artist;
 
if your idea of positivity and appreciation is different, you're entitled to it, but you can't expect people to be positive by your personal standards on every critical post. No one who doesn't love Madonna is going to come to a forum of hers to talk about an editing mistake or whatever other detail, or they're going to feel upset over such things.
 
Madonna doesn't need defending if people wanna say a performance is poor or a tour was her worst or an album was weak. She really doesn't. Defend her from sexism, ageism, actual bullying, etc. Those are things worth defending her for.
 
There are a lot of people who don't post often on ANY Madonna forum because they fear they'll have to defend their personal opinion or they even fear their posts will be deleted and their accounts banned, and places like these are for fans first, fan opinions, fan feelings, fan messiness even. It is what it is. No one should be judging who belongs and who doesn't.

no, it's because people don't feel the need to have all her releases, and they feel good with having only one edition. so, they priorize the video.

I know I've been critical of this pre-release but @@Fighter was right (as usual) and there is a long list of things that I love about this release and I'd like to share them here to point out all of the amazing things we did get here!
 
Rebel Heart Tour Main Show
-The intro is presented in a very dynamic and exciting way. We get to see a lot of glory shots of the stage and the power of the screen.
-The way Iconic is edited really makes the first moments of the show exciting. The camera work is a little jarring, but it really makes your heart pump, especially the shots we get of the crowd going insane for her!
-Holy Water was captured in the best way that I think it could have been. You really got to see the cool moments and the effects worked to really add something cool to this song. 
-Body Shop looks great to me. The editing is calm and we get to see her choreography, especially when she's dancing against the screen. And she looks absolutely radiant throughout this song.
-True Blue is beautiful. Plain and simple.
-I know that everyone is pissy about LDLHA being axed, BUT it's removed so smoothly. You really wouldn't know anything was between the end of HBC and the start of LAV if you'd never seen the show before. It was trimmed seamlessly.
-Like a Virgin has one of the best audio mixes of any LAV performance she's released to DVD/Blu-Ray
-La Isla Bonita is a lot of fun to watch and she looks like she's having the time of her life.
-Rebel Heart is just as beautiful to see as it was in the trailers. Though it was taken from different performances, the energy is so consistently through the roof that it really doesn't matter.
-Candy Shop looks good and we get some of that iconic "Madonna Fierce Face" that we all know and love.
-She picked a fucking hilarious MG wedding monologue.
-La Vie en Rose looks absolutely stunning and we get some amazing shots of M and the huge crowd.
-I love the UB montage. It just makes me smile. 
 
Bonus
-LAP is simply the most amazing live performance she's put out in my opinion. The energy is incredible, the crowd is electric, she looks so happy, and it's very emotional and lovely.
-The jokes we get in TOAC are really cute and enjoyable.
-Borderline is so genuine and she looks happy to be performing it.
 
The Case and Art
-We got a high quality digi-pack. It's not flimsy cardboard, it's really tough and durable.
-The booklet, while edited in an odd way, gives a good overall view of the show.
-This is probably the best live cover she's ever had. 
 
 
 
 
 

How do you put a show like this together? Where do you get the ideas?
Everything's based around my song choice. So first, I go through my catalogue of songs with my band and I start working on things that excite me and inspire me in the moment. Some songs I'm sick of doing and I don't want to do them. Other songs I say, "No, I did that on the last tour, I don't want to do it again."
 

 
So I try to rotate things and I also try to reflect my current mood and what I've been feeling, and what's been inspiring me artistically or filmically, politically, philosophically. I try to put songs together in groups that have thematic connection, and then I try to tell a story. And then I do the visuals. It's quite a process.
 
What are the songs you don't want to do again?
Well, I tend to not want to do the songs I did on the tour before. That's what I mean. So if I did Material Girl on the tour before, or Express Yourself on the tour before, then I'll say, "OK, I did that for 88 shows. I can't do it again."
 

 
Madonna the troll ladies and gentlemen 😂😂
 

Not to gripe about the product but imagine if she would have done something like this.

Iconic (Intro)
Iconic
Bitch I'm Madonna
Burning Up
Holy Water/Vogue 
Devil Pray
Messiah (Interlude)
Body Shop
True Blue
Deeper and Deeper
HeartBreakCity/Love Don't Live Here Anymore
Like a Virgin
SEX (Interlude)
Living For Love
La Isla Bonita
Dress You Up (Medley w/ Lucky Star)
Who's That Girl
Rebel Heart
Illuminati (Interlude
Music (Get Stupid) 
Candy Shop
Material Girl
La Vie En Rose 
Unapologetic Bitch
Holiday

Special Features
- Rebel Heart Rehearsals/Workshops (As seen on YouTube)
- Ghosttown (Bonus Performance)
- Rebel Rebel (Tribute to David Bowie)
- Take a Bow (First Live Performance on Tour)
- Like a Prayer (Speech + Performance)
- Tears of a Clown (Live from Melbourne)
- If I Had A Hammer (Cover by Madonna) + included on live album.

I may be the only one thinking that, and please donthate me for that, but the only thing I look forward is the TOAC excerpt. I saw a bit of the Italian (Canale5) broadcast and I fell asleep with so many ads and having seen it already. I've been listening to the Showtime audio rip a lot in the past months so I am not that interested in this release, I will listen to it of course but for instance I didn't feel the need to buy it in advance or to download the leaked version. I would rather have some more mic feeds where the voice is live for real, which is the only thing that matters to me... I loved the RH album and the tour soo much, but now I feel it's all in the past. I wish I had your same excitement.

Yes?