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Why is she so resistant to playing the hits properly?


Apples388

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Seriously, do we need more oldies on her tours??? Why? Have you enjoyed the shows or not at all?

That's not what this discussion is about. I PERSONALLY can't fault the MDNA tour. I love it. The best since The Girlie Show imo.

Suedehead is questioning Madonna's reluctance to also cater for the CASUAL FAN and concertgoer. The ones who make up the bulk of that $300 million payday. The questions are why is she so reluctant to play more of those hits, why when she does play old hits is it the SAME OLD hits? Will this reluctance lead to complete apathy among those other concertgoers that aren't LOONS LIKE US? Will any loss in revenue result in her scaling back the huge productions we're used to? Will she hike the prices up to cover the deficit in future tours? Should she continue to play huge stadiums in which a large proportion of the audience feel alienated from what is going on onstage?

All very pertinent questions.

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Kim has it nailed I think.

Get the balance right and things will be fine. Don't forget there were a lot of casual goers who bemoaned that'll lack of hits. They still enjoyed it but you need that crowd energy for a lot not just a few songs.

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I know she played a lot of the same hits on MDNA that she did on S&S but overall in the past decade we've gotten.....

Lucky Star

Borderline

Burning Up

Holiday

Material Girl

Like A Virgin

Dress You Up

Crazy For You

Into The Groove

Papa Don't Preach

Open Your Heart

Live To Tell

La Isla Bonita

Like A Prayer

Express Yourself

Vogue

Let's face it.....beyond those songs the casual fans don't really care. Sure they may nod their head and say "I remember this one" when Erotica or ROL comes on.....but really, all the casuals care about is The Immaculate Collection....let's be honest with ourselves here. :) And over the course of the past few tours she's pretty much done that entire album. To please the casuals on every single tour she would pretty much have to do original versions of IC hits for the majority of her shows with some new material sprinkled in. The "theme" of the show would have to be based around the old stuff simply because there would be so much of it vs new stuff. I think in order for Madonna to put on a good show she HAS to "feel it" what she's doing, she can't just do it because "oh this is what they want to see so let me do it this way".....that's not her style, never has been and I hope never will be.

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Confessions seemed like such a good balance because three of its singles were relative hits. The MDNA tour has about the same # of songs from its supporting album but they all feel like album tracks, especially to the casual fan.

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Guest HaveASit

I know she played a lot of the same hits on MDNA that she did on S&S but overall in the past decade we've gotten.....

Lucky Star

Borderline

Burning Up

Holiday

Material Girl

Like A Virgin

Dress You Up

Crazy For You

Into The Groove

Papa Don't Preach

Open Your Heart

Live To Tell

La Isla Bonita

Like A Prayer

Express Yourself

Vogue

Let's face it.....beyond those songs the casual fans don't really care. Sure they may nod their head and say "I remember this one" when Erotica or ROL comes on.....but really, all the casuals care about is The Immaculate Collection....let's be honest with ourselves here. :)/> And over the course of the past few tours she's pretty much done that entire album. To please the casuals on every single tour she would pretty much have to do original versions of IC hits for the majority of her shows with some new material sprinkled in. The "theme" of the show would have to be based around the old stuff simply because there would be so much of it vs new stuff. I think in order for Madonna to put on a good show she HAS to "feel it" what she's doing, she can't just do it because "oh this is what they want to see so let me do it this way".....that's not her style, never has been and I hope never will be.

I would cut off Burning Up and put ROL in its place. That song is definitely one of her signature hits. Hung up and Music could be in that list too.

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I think it's fear.

Fear of being seen as a nostalgia legacy act

Fear of admitting her new music hasn't resonated with the masses

Fear of repeating herself

Fear that once everyone sees that elusive GH Tour, they won't come back

Fear of embracing the past.

Really she just needs to find a better balance between the old and new. She's MADONNA and will obv always sell tickets but those big stadium numbers will dry up very soon unless she goes in a different direction.

Perfectiy stated.

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That's not what this discussion is about. I PERSONALLY can't fault the MDNA tour. I love it. The best since The Girlie Show imo.

Suedehead is questioning Madonna's reluctance to also cater for the CASUAL FAN and concertgoer. The ones who make up the bulk of that $300 million payday. The questions are why is she so reluctant to play more of those hits, why when she does play old hits is it the SAME OLD hits? Will this reluctance lead to complete apathy among those other concertgoers that aren't LOONS LIKE US? Will any loss in revenue result in her scaling back the huge productions we're used to? Will she hike the prices up to cover the deficit in future tours? Should she continue to play huge stadiums in which a large proportion of the audience feel alienated from what is going on onstage?

All very pertinent questions.

Very pertinent questions indeed. The next tour is really going to be the game changer. She has toured far more consistently in the last decade so the demand isn't as high as it once was and hasn't had a solid hit album since COADF in 2005. The casual fan was not greatly impressed with MDNA due to the relative lack of hits, not to mention the late show starts. There will certainly be a loss of repeat customers on the next go round unless she is able to score a hit album or promises more hits.

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Confessions seemed like such a good balance because three of its singles were relative hits. The MDNA tour has about the same # of songs from its supporting album but they all feel like album tracks, especially to the casual fan.

3 of them were hits on dance chart.

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Part of the problem is MDNA had no hit singles. To the casual fans and general public she was playing a lot of songs that they were not

familiar with. Add in a couple of the hits that were unrecognisable to some of crowd and you start to loose their interest. I loved most of the MDNA setlist but then like most on this board I am hardcore fan. There arent enough of us to fill stadiums so if she wants have a couple of more successful tours she needs to play more hits that are fresh and updated that the audience can recognise. Stuart's disco inferno mix of Music is a good example of a reworked song that went down really well.

Oh and nobody is saying she should play the same hits over and over but she has huge catalogue to choose from so she doesnt

have to repeat herself. How about adding Everybody, Gambler, Who's That Girl, Rain, Take A Bow, Beautiful Stranger, Deeper and Deeper, True Blue or This Used To Be My Playground to the setlist?

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Oh and nobody is saying she should play the same hits over and over but she has huge catalogue to choose from so she doesnt

have to repeat herself. How about adding Everybody, Gambler, Who's That Girl, Rain, Take A Bow, Beautiful Stranger, Deeper and Deeper, True Blue or This Used To Be My Playground to the setlist?

Yes, but a lot of those aren't hits to the casual fan. Maybe Who's that Girl or Take a Bow, but the rest not so much. Those would appeal to hard core fans as much as the new songs. As someone else said, she has done most of the really big hits from the IC although not in the same show over the last few tours.

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Guest Rachelle of London

why hasn't she done Beautiful Stranger, that song was a smash hit wasnt it! Everyone knows it! oh M looool

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I think it's fear.

Fear of being seen as a nostalgia legacy act

Fear of admitting her new music hasn't resonated with the masses

Fear of repeating herself

Fear that once everyone sees that elusive GH Tour, they won't come back

Fear of embracing the past.

Really she just needs to find a better balance between the old and new. She's MADONNA and will obv always sell tickets but those big stadium numbers will dry up very soon unless she goes in a different direction.

That's way harsh Tai.
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Guest Xanthium

While I do love that she focuses on new material and album tracks, I do think she has become stale by playing the same old hits over and over. She has such a vast catalogue of music that a song from the 80s or 90s doesn't even need to be a hit to get a great crowd reaction. I bet you the entire audience would go into a gay coma, including the casual fans, if she played a song like Where's The Party. The next tour will be make or break in terms of song use. If she sticks to the same old songs that she's comfortable with people will accuse her of laziness and uncreativity.

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Guest Not4Pussies

maybe she just does what she fucking wants

she never caters to anyone but herself when it comes to the songs she chooses to perform on tour

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Guest bluejean

I know she played a lot of the same hits on MDNA that she did on S&S but overall in the past decade we've gotten.....

Lucky Star

Borderline

Burning Up

Holiday

Material Girl

Like A Virgin

Dress You Up

Crazy For You

Into The Groove

Papa Don't Preach

Open Your Heart

Live To Tell

La Isla Bonita

Like A Prayer

Express Yourself

Vogue

Let's face it.....beyond those songs the casual fans don't really care. Sure they may nod their head and say "I remember this one" when Erotica or ROL comes on.....but really, all the casuals care about is The Immaculate Collection....let's be honest with ourselves here.

This is really a load of. Casual fans want to hear Ray of Light, Music, Hung Up and various other recent hits as well that are classics. ALOT of current Madonna fans came on board in the more recent eras. I also think the reaction to songs like I'll Remember or Take a Bow (in the US) would be MASSIVE. Even smaller hits like Deeper and Deeper or Rescue Me would get a good response. They may not be #1's but they are well known.

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This is really a load of. Casual fans want to hear Ray of Light, Music, Hung Up and various other recent hits as well that are classics. ALOT of current Madonna fans came on board in the more recent eras. I also think the reaction to songs like I'll Remember or Take a Bow (in the US) would be MASSIVE. Even smaller hits like Deeper and Deeper or Rescue Me would get a good response. They may not be #1's but they are well known.

Because Madonna is so unparalledly (yes, I just made up a new word) universal, I agree that it's VERY hard to categorize who her "casual fans who would pay for a concert" really are and what they want to hear.

Case in point: Latin America. Young guys and girls being as much the bulk of the audience as older people - THEY are happy to hear songs from Ray of Light onwards, peppered with 80s classics. And they are giving her a shit ton of profits lately.

I think America probably suffers from that 80s nostalgia the most, but I also believe that 2012 - with the SuperBowl - could have been the year for her to come out with some nice timeless pop and the U.S. could have (emphasis on COULD HAVE) been more welcoming. Instead, she comes out with some weird electronica and/or derivative Europop and she gets the cold shoulder. I defend her decision to do whatever she wants, but we can't blame radio for saying, No, thanks. [Although we can! Fuck American radio! Hard!] You would THINK that this was the album Guy had in his hands when he thought, "Hey, the SuperBowl could be a cool promo idea!" But no, he had MDNA, one of her most left-of-field albums ever, and they decided to put her in front of the most general, middle-of-the-road stage ever.

But I digress...

So, yes - ultimately I agree that if she has CURRENT hits, the perception of a "balanced" tracklist would be restored. No matter what audience.

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Does anyone outside Madonna's core fan base know "Rescue Me"? I know it's on TIC, but I think you'd be hard pressed to find many who would actually recognise it as a Madonna song, let alone get really excited about hearing it live.

Madonna absolutely cannot win. Every time she does ROL, people complain that she's doing it again. It's even worse for LIB, and people were also glad that she gave "Music" a rest this time around. If she brings those three back next time (thus helping to keep the casual fans happy), the hard core fans will whinge again.

In terms of set lists, I think S & S had the perfect balance between new music and hits, although the rock versions of HU and "Borderline" were slightly misguided. Unfortunately, it's highly unlikely that we'll get "Vogue", LAP and LAV on the next tour, which means that three of her biggest hits will be left off. If the tour makes it to Australia, people will complain very loudly about that (while others will rejoice at their absence). Mariah Carey performed just 11 songs at the concert I went to last week, only 3.25 of which reached the Australian Top 10 (she song the opening few lines of "All I Want For Christmas Is You" before turning it into "Auld Lang Syne". As for MDNA, I really liked the new versions of songs like HU, OYH and LAV. I know I'm among the minority, though (which I usually am around here :)).

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Guest bluejean

I don't know Carta, I remember hearing Rescue Me ALOT of the radio in the late 90's/early 00's. Maybe that is a bad example but my point was simply that casual fans are not just interested in The Immaculate Collection. Madonna was very popular in the 90's and into the 00's. Including in Australia where she had many many top 10 hits.

As for her skipping Vogue, LAP and LAV I am not so sure about that. I think at least one of those will get repeated, they are probably her 3 biggest.

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Yes, but a lot of those aren't hits to the casual fan. Maybe Who's that Girl or Take a Bow, but the rest not so much. Those would appeal to hard core fans as much as the new songs. As someone else said, she has done most of the really big hits from the IC although not in the same show over the last few tours.

True Blue, BS , TUTBMP, all went top 10 in major markets where she touts regularly so I dont buy that they would only appeal

to hardcore fans. The other songs I listed were medium sized hits so some will be familiar with them. The point is she could definitely

shake up her setlist and add a few more older songs that wouldnt alienate the audience.

Another overlooked gem is Causing A Commotion which was top 10 in at least 10 markets that she tours regularly..

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Guest bluejean

I think anything that went top 5 in the country she's performing in would get a good response. Of course some hits are more remembered than others but at the end of the day people prefer familiarity over a new album track they have simply never heard at all.

On the next tour I'd love to see:

Lucky Star (original version)

Physical Attraction (reinvented)

Like a Virgin (original version)

Into The Groove (original version)

Open Your Heart (original version)

Like a Prayer (reinvented)

Cherish (reinvented)

Vogue (reinvented)

I'll Remember (reinvented)

Ray of Light (Sasha's Ultra Violet Remix NO guitar)

Nothing Really Matters (reinvented)

Music (original version)

Hung Up (original version)

Give It 2 Me (reinvented)

+ 7 from the new album

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Bluejean, that would work, although "Physical Attraction" really isn't known by the general public. The "Top 5" theory would work in general, although again, I can't see many Australians getting really excited about "Bedtime Story", which spent several weeks at #5 here in 1995(outpeaking classics like "Live To Tell", "Who's That Girl" and "Causing A Commotion"!).

I think someone mentioned this earlier, but Madonna herself said during this tour that she doesn't even want to perform any of her old material live, but Guy makes her (or words to that effect), and the reinventions are to keep it interesting for her.

As I type this, there is a Madonna question on "Millionaire Hot Seat"....! "Which magazine shares its name with one of Madonna's biggest hits?" :)

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Guest bluejean

Physical Attraction is not known at all but I think it's good to throw in afew surprises for hardcore fans (like Nothing Really Matters as well which would be basically forgotten.)

She may not want to play her old songs but 1) I think she's exaggerating and that is an example of the points Kim made and 2) She will have to sooner or later start playing more hits. She just doesn't have the choice unless she wants to play smaller venues and make alot less money.

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I'd rather see dwindling ticket sales in order for her to make more statements as an artist like the MDNA Tour than embarking on another uninspired tour like RIT just to play the hits. I mean, I get that crowd pleasing and artistic can overlap, but she's the one that gets to chose how she expresses her artistry and if people aren't interested in the product, they don't have to buy. Madonna is no fool. We know that she knows what she needs to do in order to be successful. She doesn't have a thirty year career for no reason. If there's any reluctancy to her playing more/other hits, it's because she doesn't want to. Personally, I don't see a problem that needs fixing. I am always happy for her success, but the art and the messages of the MDNA album and the MDNA Tour impacted my life more than the sales figures ever could.

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It's a great feeling standing in an arena watching Madonna's peerless artistic vision unfold on stage. It's also a great feeling standing with 50,000 people in a stadium as suddenly the reason we're ALL there is apparent and that magical connection is made...... THOSE SONGS. Combine the two and magic is made.

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