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Martin Solveig on Madonna: she took the lead


elijah

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I do take her seriously, I take her for what she is. A great singer/performer that has a team of people writing generic pop/rnb songs for her many of which are great.

She's not generic nor is she someone missing an element would crumble apart like Janet.
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CUBB mentioned Beyoncé being an "all ages act". I don't resent her going for Michael Jackson massive appeal.

One of my friends said the same thing about her taking the MJ route. He was also very reserve and shy in interviews. I'll have to give her another go see how I feel. I do love b'day tho very organic and has a nice flow

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One of my friends said the same thing about her taking the MJ route. He was also very reserve and shy in interviews. I'll have to give her another go see how I feel. I do love b'day tho very organic and has a nice flow

She recorded that album under the noses of her father and label. She paid for her studio time and had her producers sort of camped out on local to record it in adjacent studios. B'Day's the most intuitive and cohesive album of her career.
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Really? What makes you say that with such conviction?

Because the interest in her as an artist releasing singles/albums is at a low this era. She's a touring act now and nearly 60, that's just the way it goes for people who last this long in the game.

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Run the World (Girls) isn't generic R&B/Pop nor End of Time, Ring the Alarm, or Deja vu. I know you don't like her but your dismissal of her as one of the generic chicks is plain wrong.

Which planet are you on? Ultimate in generic.

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Yes. Give Me All You Luvin' is a great pop track. There. I Said It. And So what....

As time goes by I appreciate that song more and more.

More MS for the new album...they are just getting started.

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^ I think Holiday Guy was the first to offer a reading of the text of GMAYL that suggested Madonna was singing about her place in the pop pantheon... how the younger pop tarts should all vocally show their love for Madonna as the Queen. "Some Girls" and Nicki's rap on "I Don't Give A" would seem to flesh out this theme/thread in the MDNA album, and his interpretation seems to hold yet more water when viewed through the lens of the MDNA tour version, which stands back-to-back with the Express Yourself/Born This Way mash-up. He may not be far off.

But then, it's important to remember that MANY of Madonna's works contain multiple layers of interpretation. That's part of the artistry, part of the beauty, part of the fun -- to tease out the different meanings.

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No one's mentioned the fact that yet another of Madonna's collaborators has pointed out how "hands on" she is in the studio. There's still the perception (even amongst fans) that Madonna has very little to do with the actual composition of her songs, but here's more evidence that this just isn't the case.

I, too, love GMAYL and I still think it would have been huge worldwide if it had been performed by someone else. Ditto for GGW and, to a lesser extent, TUTR (which has criminally been ignored, even in Italy, which has NEVER ignored a Madonna single before). Martin had nothing to do with GMAYL's release - he was surprised that it was chosen as the first single, but said it made sense once he'd heard about the Superbowl performance.

Five or six years ago, all three singles from this era would have been sizeable hits, as well as Masterpiece.

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No one's mentioned the fact that yet another of Madonna's collaborators has pointed out how "hands on" she is in the studio. There's still the perception (even amongst fans) that Madonna has very little to do with the actual composition of her songs, but here's more evidence that this just isn't the case.

I, too, love GMAYL and I still think it would have been huge worldwide if it had been performed by someone else. Ditto for GGW and, to a lesser extent, TUTR (which has criminally been ignored, even in Italy, which has NEVER ignored a Madonna single before). Martin had nothing to do with GMAYL's release - he was surprised that it was chosen as the first single, but said it made sense once he'd heard about the Superbowl performance.

Five or six years ago, all three singles from this era would have been sizeable hits, as well as Masterpiece.

Madonna's as depended on her collaborators as anyone else in pop. That doesn't mean she's a puppet but she isn't a self sufficient recording artist either. Do you believe Madonna has instrumental compositions she composed from scratch lying around? She voices an opinion. She touches the nobs as Martin says. She gives orders and direction. I believe she's very involved but not to the extent of saying she's so separate from everyone else. All the others need their collaborators in extraordinary ways. It varies but it really isn't that different except in our perceptions of the non-Madonna artist.
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Madonna's as depended on her collaborators as anyone else in pop. That doesn't mean she's a puppet but she isn't a self sufficient recording artist either. Do you believe Madonna has instrumental compositions she composed from scratch lying around? She voices an opinion. She touches the nobs as Martin says. She gives orders and direction. I believe she's very involved but not to the extent of saying she's so separate from everyone else. All the others need their collaborators in extraordinary ways. It varies but it really isn't that different except in our perceptions of the non-Madonna artist.

I'm sorry, but I disagree (and various interviews with her collaborators support my stance). She's capable of (and does) writing melodies (top lines) and lyrics, and has done for the bulk of her recorded output over the past 30 years. Let's look at a recent example. Girl Gone Wild is a song that, by all reports, Madonna had limited involvement with in terms of the composition of the song. The Benassis wrote the backing track (which is what they do), then Jenson Vaughan wrote the lyrics and melody. Madonna made alterations to the original composition, enough to warrant a co-writer's credit. Compare this to "Best Friend" and "I'm Addicted". The Benassis probably wrote the backing tracks and presented these to Madonna, but it's a given that Madonna wrote all of the lyrics for both tracks herself, and highly likely that she wrote the melody/top line (since this seems to be the way the Benassis work - where they have a melody in their work, it tends to have been written by a collaborator). Another example is "Celebration". One of the co-writers specifically stated that he and Paul Oakenfold wrote the backing track, then they gave it to Madonna and she wrote the "lyrics and melody". There are countless other comments like these ones from collaborators from right throughout her career. In a nutshell, Madonna is responsible for the bulk of the melodies and lyrics that she sings, and she is very active in creating the rest of the song. Obviously there are exceptions (e.g. GGW), but why the reports of her typical working style are so hard to believe I don't know...

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I'm sorry, but I disagree (and various interviews with her collaborators support my stance). She's capable of (and does) writing melodies (top lines) and lyrics, and has done for the bulk of her recorded output over the past 30 years. Let's look at a recent example. Girl Gone Wild is a song that, by all reports, Madonna had limited involvement with in terms of the composition of the song. The Benassis wrote the backing track (which is what they do), then Jenson Vaughan wrote the lyrics and melody. Madonna made alterations to the original composition, enough to warrant a co-writer's credit. Compare this to "Best Friend" and "I'm Addicted". The Benassis probably wrote the backing tracks and presented these to Madonna, but it's a given that Madonna wrote all of the lyrics for both tracks herself, and highly likely that she wrote the melody/top line (since this seems to be the way the Benassis work - where they have a melody in their work, it tends to have been written by a collaborator). Another example is "Celebration". One of the co-writers specifically stated that he and Paul Oakenfold wrote the backing track, then they gave it to Madonna and she wrote the "lyrics and melody". There are countless other comments like these ones from collaborators from right throughout her career. In a nutshell, Madonna is responsible for the bulk of the melodies and lyrics that she sings, and she is very active in creating the rest of the song. Obviously there are exceptions (e.g. GGW), but why the reports of her typical working style are so hard to believe I don't know...

She writes songs on her own on guitar. :dazed:

:thumbsup:

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No one's mentioned the fact that yet another of Madonna's collaborators has pointed out how "hands on" she is in the studio. There's still the perception (even amongst fans) that Madonna has very little to do with the actual composition of her songs, but here's more evidence that this just isn't the case.

I've never bought that philosophy either.

Although I DO think Hard Candy was the exception to that and she just basically let all the knob turning happen while she was away.

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Some people act like they're two only two options when it comes to songwriting. They think either an artist writes the song completely by themselves with no input from others or they do nothing, and just sing the song someone else wrote and then take credit for it. I think most of the time Madonna's contribution is somewhere in the middle. She doesn't write the song all by herself, but is very involved in the melodies and the lyrics, but gets help from other musicians and producers too.

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I've never bought that philosophy either.

Although I DO think Hard Candy was the exception to that and she just basically let all the knob turning happen while she was away.

She was listed as the Executive Producer for the Timbaland/Timberlake/Danja collaborations, but a co-producer for the Pharrell ones, so I think she worked with them differently (working more closely with Pharrell than the others). Justin has talked about her involvement in the actual studio when it came to composing "4 Minutes", although we've heard little about their other collaborations (aside from Justin talking about her journal of lyrics/ideas etc.). I think you're completely right about the knob-turning in this case.

Some people act like they're two only two options when it comes to songwriting. They think either an artist writes the song completely by themselves with no input from others or they do nothing, and just sing the song someone else wrote and then take credit for it. I think most of the time Madonna's contribution is somewhere in the middle. She doesn't write the song all by herself, but is very involved in the melodies and the lyrics, but gets help from other musicians and producers too.

Agreed! The last song that she released that she wrote completely by herself was "Gambler" (which was probably written around the same time as most of her solo writes from "Madonna", and I'd say "Shoo-Bee-Doo" was from around the same time, too). She was given sole credit for "I Love New York" in its original form, but Stuart Price was added once it appeared on COADF. She's very much a collaborator, but her input shouldn't be underestimated. It's not always a 50/50 split, but where it isn't, historically, she has claimed a smaller proportion of the credit.

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I, too, love GMAYL and I still think it would have been huge worldwide if it had been performed by someone else. Ditto for GGW and, to a lesser extent, TUTR (which has criminally been ignored, even in Italy, which has NEVER ignored a Madonna single before).

What makes you think that? I don't think it would've. It just doesn't bring anything new to the table. Besides, Europe has almost always been very open to new Madonna material and this time, they clearly were not.

I do agree somewhat that "Girl Gone Wild" could've been a bigger hit (even for Madonna or anyone else) had it been the lead single, but GMAYL kinda poisoned the pop well. I still think these two tracks are not very strong Madonna singles and that is why they failed so resoundingly.

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