Jump to content

MadFan

Elitists
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    3,281

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Posts posted by MadFan

    Why was Madonna not in "We are the world"?

    in ARCHIVE - Madonna

    Posted

    She's the only part of the song that stood out. Everyone else is being so serious and downbeat and depressing and then she comes in. Cyndi is the ONLY reason to ipod the song IMO. The rest of it is an embarrassing collision of 80's egos. Or do you hate her because she was Madge's only true "rival" at the time like you hate Prince for being Michael's rival at the time? LOL

    Do They Know It's Christmas shits on We Are The World, but Cyndi alone makes WATW listenable, at least for those ten seconds.

    People are probably sounding serious because it's a SERIOUS SONG. Not "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun." :lol: God. The cartoony preteen voice works sometimes. Others, no. No.

    Well, considering I don't hate Prince whatsoever (:confused:?), I guess I do feel the same way about Cyndi. 'Cause I like her too.

    Sticky & Sweet O2 July 4th & 5th

    in ARCHIVE - Madonna

    Posted

    Not sure if this was posted yet, but this person got some great footage of Frozen. There are some other videos on their page as well. :thumbsup:

    <object width="560" height="340"><param name="movie" value="

    name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="
    type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></embed></object>

    :lmao: @ her falling at 0:34 - 0:35. That's my Madge. :inlove:

    Madonna being referenced heavily in news coverage of Jackson's death

    in ARCHIVE - Madonna

    Posted

    Holy paragraphs! Fabulous. :wow:

    I think I can boil this down quite simply, to be perfectly honest. If we're talking about both Michael and Madonna's works as a whole, both have released incredibly iconic videos. No denying it; what Madonna did with her image, sexuality, and reinvention, Michael did with his outfits, dance moves, and trademarks. If we're talking about their videos strictly from the '80s, Michael has the edge simply because the most iconic of Madonna's work was not yet released until the '90s ("Vogue", for example) and as discussed, Michael changed the medium for music videos themselves while Madonna did not. If we're talking about the '90s, Madonna has the edge because Michael toned down his "epic" music video events, with the exceptions of "Scream" and possibly "Earth Song" while she kept them coming and coming (i.e. "Justify My Love", "Bedtime Stories" and "Ray of Light").

    Madonna being referenced heavily in news coverage of Jackson's death

    in ARCHIVE - Madonna

    Posted

    I don't mean to beat a dead horse -- but I think, objectively, you have to give both MJ and Madonna credit. He doesn't easily blow her out of the water by any stretch of the imagination.

    I did give Madonna credit, absolutely. She gave us some wonderful music videos in the '80s - corny as many may be - they were still quintessential parts of my child, teenager, and adulthood. But as far as the medium itself goes, I'm sorry, but Michael's '80s run stands far more iconic than hers. This isn't a measure of quality, but legacy. Some of Madonna's most iconic work was still to come, in the '90s, but this entire discussion has been based solely on the decade beforehand.

    Thriller was a huge event, yes. And obviously MJ went for EPIC with EVERY video. And I think the problem there is, not everything he was doing was worthy of being EPIC. By that I mean "overblown." Madonna's always been a good editor, I think ... And many directors have said as much. She has an eye. MJ never knew what to sacrifice. He had to have the elaborate set-up intro -- hello, Macauley Culkin in "Black or White" -- AND the storyline narrative AND the breakdown dance section. In full. I mean, Madonna could use all those devices (and did), but did it without bloating the video to an overly long running time. (Don't get me wrong -- I think that works sometimes. But maybe not all the time with every video. I like the idea of a mini-film: Thriller, obviously. Gwen's What You Waiting For? has a nice uncut version. And even Lady Gaga's Paparazzi is interesting in its full length version. But not every video needs that.)

    Overblown worked for Thriller. I think he could have tightened up many of the others and they would have been stronger for it. I re-watched "Remember the Time" last night (love Iman, dahling!) -- but it seemed ... I don't know, overly done. And the effects haven't aged well in many of the videos, it seems. (But even a classic like "Like a Prayer" has an unfortunately limited effects moment -- the "falling through the sky" and being caught by the Gospel singer to be released up again like a balloon... The only moment that doesn't seem quite so perfectly executed... but I digress.)

    I understand, but it worked enormously to his success. Whether you or I believe he should've done otherwise is irrelevant, because his videos were events, even if pretentious or downright cocky at times. The public bought in to it and loved it. Video after video was an event on MTV, and stands the test of time much more than Madonna's work, as a whole, during that decade. The videos were so iconic that today's generation, even, has seen and embraced them. Everyone knows "Thriller." Everyone. The dance, the red jacket, is still imitated at dances, on YouTube, etc. The same cannot be said about anything from Madonna's "Like a Prayer", which is undoubtedly her most known video from the '80s. Many know the infamous kiss and the burning crosses, yes, but it never reached "Thriller"'s status. Other than that, I'd argue that she never had any '80s videos that matched "Billie Jean" (the lighting floor which people know), "Beat It," "Bad" or "Smooth Criminal" (the infamous lean) in terms of the same. His idiosyncrasies became trademarked worldwide - the outfits (sequined glove, black loafers, white socks, red jacket), the dance moves (the moonwalk, the lean, the spin)...what of '80s Madonna can be attested for the same? It didn't happen that way, because as I said, her best was yet to come. And again, this isn't a measure of quality, but how their '80s videos stand up in terms of being iconic. This is where I say, yes, Michael cornered the market during that period of time. Madonna was the subordinate.

    During the '90s, of course, the entire thing reversed, despite "Thriller" remaining more famous than any of either's video output.

    I don't mean to be overly disagreeable... because I think you make some valid points ... but I think there are a lot of people in the general public who would say her IMAGE (i.e., in music videos) was her selling point. Mostly for being sexual. And then they'd say the music was secondary or not as high quality or of artistic merit as others. (I do NOT espouse that belief at all -- I would vehemently argue against it. But that's what I hear people say about her. They are dismissive of her music and think it was her sex that sold everything. SO wrong, but...) So my point here is that some would give her the worst back-handed compliment, but it would still affirm how important her videos were.

    That's okay, of course I'd add that to the list. We agree here. On top of her legacy for "reinventing" herself, she also had her sexual image, of course. This is evident in "Like a Prayer," which as I said is easily Madonna's most iconic '80s video.

    Madonna being referenced heavily in news coverage of Jackson's death

    in ARCHIVE - Madonna

    Posted

    Michael didn’t continually revolutionize music videos after 1984, but he didn’t need to after having already done it. Following his raising the bar, however, he tended to be more consistent in making videos that maintained a certain level of majesty. While Madonna tends to average two especially spectacular music videos per album, in amongst them she also has a higher number of clips that are tedious and ordinary. Michael, by and large, hasn’t had (m)any as mundane or unremarkable as “Who’s That Girl,” “Fever,” “Love Perfusion,” “Jump,” or “Give It 2 Me.”

    Madonna’s made a plethora of music videos that have either caused controversy, had stunning cinematography, or both…and she’s certainly made a large number that have been outstanding/significant/iconic—so many, in fact, that it ultimately makes her a pioneer of the form. True. However, at no point has she ever revolutionized, or raised the bar, of the medium itself. Instead she’s co-opted multiple elements of what had already been innovated, added her personality to it, and from there charismatically ascended to the front of the line. The ‘quality’ of her product is generally top notch, but she’s never forever changed the way they were made or viewed the way Michael did with “Thriller.”

    :clap: :clap: :clap:

×
×
  • Create New...