You guys, I despair. I despair at what Madonna has done to her face:
Madonna at the 2014 Grammys
This is not a knock on Madonna in general. Even though she’s not my favorite artist of all time, there’s much to admire about this lady. She was an absolute trendsetter and a ground breaker at the the start of her career. Madonna paved the way for many a female pop star, from Britney to Lady Gaga to Katy Perry. And let’s face it, she is (or, was) better than all of them. Her moves were great, her look was fantastic, and her attitude was fucking awesome. I’m talking way early on – the ‘struggling artist in early ’80s New York’ era, the ‘Like a Virgin’ era…back when Madonna was young, and confident, and snarky, and superior, and all of that was okay because had the goods to back it up. That Madonna excelled at pushing boundaries and being way ahead of the curve, armed only with a cheeky, unapologetic, in-your-face demeanor.
Nowadays, the most in-your-face thing about her is what’s going on with her face. And that’s the thing – this Madonna, who seems so desperate to hold onto her youth (for why else would she be doing this?), does not seem unapologetic at all. It seems like she’s forgotten who she is – a woman who rose to the upper echelons of the music industry on the basis of stringent hard work and an incredible amount of chutzpah (I mean let’s face, it, she doesn’t have the greatest voice of all time). She had that ineffable quality — that ‘It’ factor — to a degree that makes other female artists who have come after her pale in comparison.
My favorite Madonna tracks continue to be the ones from her early career, and particularly from 1986’s True Blue. This record contained not only gems such as ‘Papa Don’t Preach’, ‘Live to Tell’, and ‘La Isla Bonita’, but also what is surely one of pop music’s poppiest songs of all time, ‘True Blue’. This track is the ultimate in bubblegum brilliance, deceptive in its simplicity (much like the Archies 1969 hit ‘Sugar Sugar’). And I absolutely adore the video – pure, campy fun (and featuring Debi Mazar!) Enjoy:
Let Them Eat Vinyl 
January 27th, 2014 at 1:43 pm
I’ve always appreciated what Madonna has done for dance music. She is the earliest and most recognizable club kid ever. But I have to agree with you, her most-recent attempts to connect to today’s youth have been sad. Erotica, Bedtime Stories, Ray of Light are amazing! Confessions on a Dance Floor is the perfect fusion or underground and mainstream electronic music, but MDNA is an epic fail in my opinion. Going from William Orbit to the Benassi brothers for production is just something I will never understand. Hopefully she bounces back because she’s definitely fallen behind Daft Punk as the most legit dance music figure in the commercial world.
January 28th, 2014 at 11:03 am
Yeah, Madonna was the original club kid wasn’t she? That’s the Madonna I love. I did enjoy Ray of Light, and Confessions on a Dance Floor as well.
She definitely needs to step up her game. The robots are light years ahead of her right now!