Madonna: Into the Groove of an Icon (Paperback)

[groovyguy 63,869]

Madonna: Into the Groove of an Icon (Paperback)

Ian Phillips (author)

 

* Coming soon

 

£19.99

Paperback

Published: 01/08/2017

 

Pre-order: https://www.waterstones.com/book/madonna/ian-phillips/9781910705797

 

 

Madonna has always provoked strong feelings in the media. While Ian Phillips book focuses largely on her discography, he also highlights the reactions in the media and the public to her work over the years, and takes a closer look at how her work has changed, and how the reactions have changed along with it. An icon, revered or loathed in almost equal measure, she has sold over 300 million singles and albums worldwide, placing her in the Guiness Book of Records as the Most Successful Female Artist of All Time. As time has passed and Madonna has continued to renew herself over and over, the media has often turned on her and ridiculed her based on her age and not her music. As she continues to break boundaries and cause controversy, Ian Phillips has taken a closer look at the influence her music has had over the years, and whether there is a good reason for the bad treatment she has received at the hands of the media as she got older, or whether we are looking at ageism, sexism and bullying,, or all three…….

[groovyguy 63,869]

By the author:

 

Just a few months away now - released 1 August. The book will include an album by album guide, discussing the creative process behind each project with every track reviewed + will include excerpts of reviews from the press to give you a feel of how her work has been judged over the years. In addition to this, I have highlighted the ageism and sexism she has been subject to over more recent years. There will also be never-before-published photos included from her 'Confessions', 'Sticky & Sweet', 'MDNA' and 'Rebel Heart' tours.

 

To pre-order click on this link:https://www.waterstones.com/book/madonna/ian-phillips/9781910705797

 

The book WILL SHIP WORLDWIDE and will be available from other outlets upon publication such as HMV, Amazon, Barnes & Noble etc.

[groovyguy 63,869]

By the author

 

TEASER: EXCERPT OF INTRODUCTION FOR MY UPCOMING BOOK 'MADONNA: INTO THE GROOVE OF AN ICON':

 

"Why do you want to write a book about Madonna? So much has already been written about her", has been a frequent question and response I've received since I announced plans to pen a book about the reigning Queen of Pop. Indeed, so many books have been churned out it would seem the subject of Madonna has been somewhat exhausted. So, taking these things into consideration, what are my motivations? And what do I possibly hope makes my book unique? Well, the answer to the latter would be that although I obviously can not re-write her history, I do hope to offer my own personal opinion on both her discography (often, frustratingly, overlooked by some) and on her recently being subject to ageism, sexism, misogyny, and, (sadly) more often that not, ridicule.

 

As for the answer to the former - Why do I want to write a book about Madonna? Well, I would have thought the answer would have been blatantly self-explanatory being as she's enjoyed such a long, versatile and hugely successful career, and I've been a fan for as long as I can remember. I became alarmed, and equally angry - as I'm sure her millions of fans across the globe equally were - how in more recent years, she has been blocked by certain major commercial radio stations. Was it about the quality of her output? Some would apparently say so, but I would seriously beg to differ. It seems from the time she was about to celebrate her fiftieth birthday and release the R&B-dance project Hard Candy, there have been continual rants and huge backlash in the media about a woman of her age making such "youth-orientated" music, and how she continues to be sexually provocative in her image and stage shows - can you imagine Madonna being any other way? "She should just give it up now", "she's over", "she needs to act her age", seems to be the opinions of many, even more so from women, and this shift in attitude towards her seemingly happened overnight. One minute Madonna was at the top of her game, the next she was being diminished and ridiculed by the media. Don't get me wrong, she's always faced adversity from the moment she began her career, but now it's almost as though some of the media seem to insist that she's no longer "relevant", a word they always seem to apply to women of a certain age. While over-looking the facts that Madonna has continued to keep her finger firmly on the pulse for over three decades, her shrewd instinct for knowing what musical genre is about to become popular, and the way she continues to update her musical style, and her evolving, always carefully-calculated, image, never once becoming complacent or riding on her laurels, many critics suddenly started declaring her as being simply "too old" now to be making pop music. What seems to have been oblivious to those making such one-eyed statements is that Madonna's simply continuing to do what she has been doing (and still doing it better than most) for the past thirty-odd years of her career, and it's something she has proven herself highly astute at. Yet In 2015 following the release of her thirteenth studio album Rebel Heart, Madonna scored some of her hottest reviews in years, many claiming this to be her best album in years.

 

Yet what then occurred would have ten years earlier seemed absolutely unthinkable - the premiere single from Rebel Heart was released, entitled 'Living For Love', and was swiftly banned from Britain's leading commercial radio station, Radio 1, leading to an outcry from fans and celebrities alike, all standing up in unison for their support to Madonna and their outrage at Radio 1. Despite a rather thinly-veiled attempt by Radio 1 insisting that age was not a factor, it was too transparent that ageism and sexism did run rife in this case, something that many male artists of Madonna's age (or even older) have not had to endure. Radio 1's head of music George Ergatoudis said in a statement that the station has "moved on" from her music and went on to further say: "The BBC Trust have asked us to go after a young audience. We've got to concentrate on [people aged] 15-30. We have to bring our average age down. That's something we're very conscious of. The vast majority of people who like Madonna, who like her music now, are over 30 and frankly, we've moved on from Madonna."

 

Really? Seems a shame one man can make such declarations - let alone decisions - and despite the large public outcry (all of whom were in support of Madonna) the radio station still failed to alter its rigid, unfair policy, leading to the string of singles plucked from Rebel Heart to perform only marginally well on the main international charts. What is most infuriating is the quality of music wasn't even taken into consideration, and there's no doubt that her most recent batch of singles would have been huge hits had they been released just ten years before and had she been a younger artist. The music wasn't the problem; it was this sudden obsession with Madonna's age. Yet despite all of this, when each and every one of her albums is released it still never fails to be marked as an event, always guaranteed to get the media - the WORLD - talking, be it good or bad. Thankfully, the public had the last say and Rebel Heart went on to top the i-Tunes chart in no less than forty-two countries, and contrary to some popular misconceptions, her work continues to be predominately acclaimed. At the end of 2016 Madonna was declared, yet again, the year's Highest-Grossing Touring Artist and she firmly retains the title of the Highest-Grossing Touring Artist of all-time. But, according to some journalists propaganda, you'd be led to believe her career's dead and buried. What? When?

 

We place a lot of expectations on our favourite artists and with somebody like Madonna, she's always somehow seemed invincible, like nobody could touch her or take the crown she's long since worn as the Queen of Pop. It's almost like we expected her to never grow older and as soon as she hit her 50s, this is when some of this incessant (and tedious) criticism started. While her younger pretenders come and go, Madonna has more than proven herself ahead of the game and it's common knowledge how she has always so skilfully adapted many underground music styles and intertwined them with a commercial sound for the mainstream. Some may argue her work is no longer as innovative as it once was, yet she is still proving herself more than adept at keeping up with the latest trends and continues to throw herself into the game, always embracing new techniques and always presenting something different with each and every release. At the same time, Madonna's done it all and lived it all and has nothing left to prove, though thankfully her intense passion for the arts makes her reluctant to leave the industry. And why should she!

 

So, these are some of the things that essentially motivated me to write this book, aside the fact that I - like the majority of the world - have simply found Madonna to be one of the most enduringly fascinating artists of all-time. And let's give her props here: NOBODY has played the game better than her and remained as consistently successful over such a long period of time. Her combined sales of singles and albums are now in excess of well over 300 million worldwide, and not to mention the several other records she holds, one of which was acknowledged in the Guinness Book of Records as being the Most Successful Female Artist Of All Time - and it's a record which looks highly unlikely to be surpassed any time soon.

 

I wanted to write a book that mainly focused on Madonna's discography, which is often revered and underrated in almost equal measure, and to also highlight the critical reaction to her work over the years. Remember, where pop music's concerned, it's an extremely fickle business, and a youth-orientated one at that. The older she gets (how dare she grow older!) the more some of the particularly bitter, sad critics try to disregard her outstanding achievements, revelling in putting her down and making her the butt of several jokes regarding her age. Many said she wouldn't last five minutes when she first began. How she most certainly had the last laugh on that count!

 

Overall, my intention is for this book to be a fair, objective, entertaining and celebratory book as I trace back to the young, aspiring Madonna, through to where she stands in today's culture, and highlighting the continual barrage of criticism of her detractors who (admirably) Madonna has laughed in the face of. Her influence is everywhere in the music industry which totally belittles false claims from the likes of Radio 1 that only those over 30 are still listening to, and liking, Madonna's music.

 

MADONNA: INTO THE GROOVE OF AN ICON - RELEASED 1 AUGUST 2017

[MadMark 118]

I´m so exited, I already pre-ordered. The author is a great guy also so I just expect good stuff.