Slanderers of the Throne

[Guest SecretGarden]

ever noticed how its always the bitter/negative people who don't seem to like M? the happier/more optimistic people are the ones that love her. it's really getting obvious..

Totally, and a lot of it has to do with jealousy. Madonna is unbelievably talented, hard working and creative. Many in the world lack her ambition, and this leads them to put her down or downplay her impact. Countless times I've heard people say she's overrated, or how it's unfair she's so popular despite her "lack of talent", and how her last great record was ray of light or like a prayer. They're riddled with insecurities.

It's indisputable that many of the people mentioned in this thread have at one time or another tried to have their Madonna moment (Goldfrapp, Gaga, Janet etc); they're the worst kinds of hypocrites, putting somebody down but stealing their ideas; Madonna has always been quite clear on who she admires and who she has gained inspiration from; and despite many thinking she's rude, shes hardly ever critiqued another artist (the only one that sticks out in my mind is Mariah, but she made a great point when she was discussing homogeneity in America in the 90s).

The point is quite clear, the more insecure and jealous a person is, the more likely they'll hate the person who has basically defined popular culture for the last thirty years.

[Guest whatatramp]

Bell Hooks is some next level hater

[Fuzzy Dream]

Bell Hooks is some next level hater

Agreed. This piece below has to be among the harshest and nastiest ever written about Madonna.

From: Black Looks: Race and Representation

bell hooks

Madonna: Plantation Mistress or Soul Sister?

Subversion is contextual, historical, and above all social. No matter how

exciting the "destabitizing" potential of texts, bodily or otherwise, whether

those texts are subversive or recuperative or both or neither cannot be

determined by abstraction from actual social practice.

--Susan Bordo

White women "stars" like Madonna, Sandra Bernhard, and many others publicly name their

interest in, and appropriation of, black culture as yet another sign of their radical chic.

Intimacy with that "nasty" blackness good white girls stay away from is what they seek. To

white and other nonblack consumers, this gives them a special flavor, an added spice. After

all it is a very recent historical phenomenon for any white girl to be able to get some

mileage out of flaunting her fascination and envy of blackness. The thing about envy is that

it is always ready to destroy, erase, take over, and consume the desired object. That's exactly

what Madonna attempts to do when she appropriates and commodifies aspects of black

culture. Needless to say this kind of fascination is a threat. It endangers. Perhaps that is why

so many of the grown black women I spoke with about Madonna had no interest in her as a

cultural icon and said things like, "The bitch can't even sing." It was only among young

black females that I could find die-hard Madonna fans. Though I often admire and, yes at

times, even envy Madonna because she has created a cultural space where she can invent and

reinvent herself and receive public affirmation and material reward, I do not consider myself

a Madonna fan.

Once I read an interview with Madonna where she talked about her envy

of black culture, where she stated that she wanted to be black as a child. It is a sign of white

privilege to be able to "see" blackness and black culture from a standpoint where only the

rich culture of opposition black people have created in resistance marks and defines us. Such

a perspective enables one to ignore white supremacist domination and the hurt it inflicts via

oppression, exploitation, and everyday wounds and pains. White folks who do not see black

pain never really understand the complexity of black pleasure. And it is no wonder then that

when they attempt to imitate the joy in living which they see as the "essence" of soul and

blackness, their cultural productions may have an air of sham and falseness that may titillate

and even move white audiences yet leave many black folks cold. Needless to say, if Madonna

had to depend on masses of black women to maintain her status as cultural icon she would

have been dethroned some time ago. Many of the black women I spoke with expressed intense

disgust and hatred of Madonna. Most did not respond to my cautious attempts to suggest that

underlying those negative feelings might lurk feelings of envy, and dare I say it, desire. No black

woman I talked to declared that she wanted to "be Madonna."

Yet we have only to look at the number of black women entertainers/stars (Tina Turner,

Aretha Franklin, Donna Summer, Vanessa Williams, Yo-Yo, etc.) who gain greater crossover

recognition when they demonstrate that, like Madonna, they too, have a healthy dose of

"blonde ambition." Clearly their careers have been influenced by Madonna's choices and

strategies. For masses of black women, the political reality that underlies Madonna's and our

recognition that this is a society where "blondes" not only "have more fun" but where they

are more likely to succeed in any endeavor is white supremacy and racism. We cannot see

Madonna's change in hair color as being merely a question of aesthetic choice. I agree with

Julie Burchill in her critical work Girls on Film, when she reminds us: "What does it say

about racial purity that the best blondes have all been brunettes (Harlow, Monroe, Bardot)? I

think it says that we are not as white as we think. I think it says that Pure is a Bore." I also

know that it is the expressed desire of the nonblonde Other for those characteristics that are

seen as the quintessential markers of racial aesthetic superiority that perpetuate and uphold

white supremacy. In this sense Madonna has much in common with the masses of black

women who suffer from internalized racism and are forever terrorized by a standard of

beauty they feel they can never truly embody.

Like many black women who have stood outside the culture's fascination with the blonde

beauty and who have only been able to reach it through imitation and artifice, Madonna

often recalls that she was a working-class white girl who saw herself as ugly, as outside the

mainstream beauty standard. And indeed what some of us like about her is the way she

deconstructs the myth of "natural" white girl beauty by exposing the extent to which it can be

and is usually artificially constructed and maintained. She mocks the conventional racist-defined

beauty ideal even as she rigorously strives to embody it. Given her obsession with exposing the

reality that the ideal female beauty in this society can be attained by artifice and social construction,

it should come as nosurprise that many of her fans are gay men, and that the majority of nonwhite men,

particularly black men, are among that group. Jennie Livingston's film Paris Is Burning

suggests that many black gay men, especially queens/divas, are as equally driven as

Madonna by "blonde ambition." Madonna never lets her audience forget that whatever "look"

she acquires is attained by hard work--"it ain't natural." And as Burchill comments in her

chapter "Homosexual Girls": I have a friend who drives a cab and looks like a Marlboro

Man but at night is the second best Jean Harlow I have ever seen. He summed up the kind

of film star he adores, brutally and brilliantly, when he said, "I like actresses who look as if

they've spent hours putting themselves together--and even then they don't look right."

Certainly no one, not even die-hard Madonna fans, ever insists that her beauty is not attained

by skillful artifice. And indeed, a major point of the documentary film Truth or Dare: In Bed

With Madonna was to demonstrate the amount of work that goes into the construction of her

image. Yet when the chips are down, the image Madonna most exploits is that of the

quintessential "white girl." To maintain that image she must always position herself as an

outsider in relation to black culture. It is that position of outsider that enables her to colonize

and appropriate black experience for her own opportunistic ends even as she attempts to

mask her acts of racist aggression as affirmation. And no other group sees that as clearly as

black females in this society. For we have always known that the socially constructed image

of innocent white womanhood relies on the continued production of the racist/sexist sexual

myth that black women are not innocent and never can be. Since we are coded always as

"fallen" women in the racist cultural iconography we can never, as can Madonna, publicly

"work" the image of ourselves as innocent female daring to be bad. Mainstream culture

always reads the black female body as sign of sexual experience. In part, many black women

who are disgusted by Madonna's flaunting of sexual experience are enraged because the very

image of sexual agency that she is able to project and affirm with material gain has been the

stick this society has used to justify its continued beating and assault on the black female

body. The vast majority of black women in the United States, more concerned with

projecting images of respectability than with the idea of female sexual agency and

transgression, do not often feel we have the "freedom" to act in rebellious ways in regards to

sexuality without being punished. We have only to contrast the life story of Tina Tumer with

that of Madonna to see the different connotations "wild" sexual agency has when it is

asserted by a black female. Being represented publicly as an active sexual being has only

recently enabled Turner to gain control over her life and career. For years the public image

of aggressive sexual agency Turner projected belied the degree to which she was sexually

abused and exploited privately. She was also materially exploited. Madonna's career could

not be all that it is if there were no Tina Turner and yet, unlike her cohort Sandra Bernhard,

Madonna never articulates the cultural debt she owes black females.

In her most recent appropriations of blackness, Madonna almost always imitates phallic

black masculinity. Although I read many articles which talked about her appropriating male

codes, no critic seems to have noticed her emphasis on black male experience. In his Playboy

profile, "Playgirl of the Western World," Michael Kelly describes Madonna's

crotch grabbing as "an eloquent visual put-down of male phallic pride." He points out that

she worked with choreographer Vince Paterson to perfect the gesture. Even though Kelly

tells readers that Madonna was consciously imitating Michael Jackson, he does not contextualize his

interpretation of the gesture to include this act of appropriation from black male culture. And

in that specific context the groin grabbing gesture is an assertion of pride and phallic

domination that usually takes place in an all-male context. Madonna's imitation of this

gesture could just as easily be read as an expression of envy.

Throughout [many] of her autobiographical interviews runs a thread of expressed desire to

possess the power she perceives men have. Madonna may hate the phallus, but she longs

to possess its power. She is always first and foremost in competition with men to see who

has the biggest penis. Shelongs to assert phallic power, and like every other group in this

white supremacist society, she clearly sees black men as embodying a quality of maleness

that eludes white men. Hence they are often the group of men she most seeks to imitate,

taunting white males with her own version of"black masculinity." When it comes to entertainment

rivals, Madonna clearly perceives black male stars like Prince and Michael Jackson to be the

standard against which she must measure herself and that she ultimately hopes to transcend.

Fascinated yet envious of black style, Madonna appropriates black culture in ways that mock and

undermine, making her presentation one that upstages. This is most evident in the video

"Like a Prayer." Though I read numerous articles that discussed public outrage at this video,

none focused on the issue of race. No article called attention to the fact that Madonna flaunts

her sexual agency by suggesting that she is breaking the ties that bind her as a white girl to

white patriarchy, and establishing ties with black men. She, however, and not black men, does

the choosing. The message is directed at white men. It suggests that they only labeled black

men rapists for fear that white girls would choose black partners over them. Cultural critics

commenting on the video did not seem at all interested in exploring the reasons Madonna

chooses a black cultural backdrop for this ~video, i.e., black church and religious experience.

Clearly, it was this backdrop that added to the video's controversy.

In her commentary in the Washington Post, "Madonna: Yuppie Goddess," Brooke Masters writes:

"Most descriptions of the controversial video focus on its Catholic imagery: Madonna kisses a black

saint, and develops Christ-like markings on her hands. However, the video is also a feminist

fairy tale. Sleeping Beauty and Snow White waited for their princes to come along, Madonna

finds her own man and wakes him up." Notice that this writer completely overlooks the issue

of race and gender. That Madonna's chosen prince was a black man is in part what made the

representation potentially shocking and provocative to a white supremacist audience. Yet her

attempt to exploit and transgress traditional racial taboos was rarely commented on. Instead

critics concentrated on whether or not she was violating taboos regarding religion and

representation.

In the United States, Catholicism is most often seen as a religion that has

[few] or no black followers and Madonna's video certainly perpetuates this stereotype with its

juxtaposition of images of black nonCatholic representations with the image of the black

saint. Given the importance of religious experience and liberation theology in black life,

Madonna's use of this imagery seemed particularly offensive. For she made black characters

act in complicity with her as she aggressively flaunted her critique of Catholic manners, her

attack on organized religion. Yet, no black voices that I know of came forward in print

calling attention to the fact that the realm of the sacred that is mocked in this film is black

religious experience, or that this appropriative "use" of that experience was offensive to many

black folk. Looking at the video with a group of students in my class on the politics of

sexuality where we critically analyze the way race and representations of blackness are used

to sell products, we discussed the way in which black people in the video are caricatures

reflecting stereotypes. They appear grotesque. The only role black females have in this video

is to catch (i.e., rescue) the "angelic" Madonna when she is "falling." This is just a

contemporary casting of the black female as Mammy. Made to serve as supportive backdrop

for Madonna's drama, black characters in "Like a Prayer" remind one of those early

Hollywood depictions of singing black slaves in the great plantation movies or those Shirley

Temple films where Bojangles was trotted out to dance with Miss Shirley and spice up her

act. Audiences were not supposed to be enamored of Bojangles, they were supposed to see

just what a special little old white girl Shirley really was. In her own way Madonna is a

modern day Shirley Temple. Certainly her expressed affinity with black culture enhances her

value.

Eager to see the documentary Truth ar Dare because it promised to focus on

Madonna's transgressive sexual persona, which I find interesting, I was angered by her visual

representations of her domination over not white men (certainly not over Warren Beatty or

Alek Keshishian), but people of color and white working-class women. I was too angered by

this to appreciate other aspects of the film I might have enjoyed. In Truth or Dare Madonna

clearly revealed that she can only think of exerting power along very traditional, white

supremacist, capitalistic, patriarchal lines. That she made people who were dependent on her

for their immediate livelihood submit to her will was neither charming nor seductive to me

or the other black folks that I spoke with who saw the film. We thought it tragically ironic

that Madonna would choose as her dance partner a black male with dyed blonde hair.

Perhaps had he appeared less like a white-identified black male consumed by "blonde

ambition" he might have upstaged her. Instead he was positioned as a mirror, into which

Madonna and her audience could look and see only a reflection of herself and the worship of

"whiteness" she embodies-- that white supremacist culture wants everyone to embody.

Madonna used her power to ensure that he and the other nonwhite women and men who

worked for her, as well as some of the white subordinates, would all serve as the backdrop to

her white-girl-makes-good-drama. Joking about the film with other black folks, we

commented that Madonna must have searched long and hard to find a black female that was

not a good dancer, one who would not deflect attention away from her. And it is telling that

when the film directly reflects something other than a positive image of Madonna, the

camera highlights the rage this black female dancer was suppressing. It surfaces when the

"subordinates" have time off and are "relaxing."

As with most Madonna videos, when critics talk about this film they tend to ignore race. Yet

no viewer can look at this film and not think about race and representation without engaging

in forms of denial. After choosing a cast of characters from marginalized groups--nonwhite folks,

heterosexual and gay, and gay white folks--Madonna publicly describes them as "emotional cripples."

And of course in the context of the film this description seems borne out by the way they allow her

to dominate, exploit, and humiliate them. Those Madonna fans who are determined to see her as

politically progressive might ask themselves why it is she completely endorses those

racist/sexist/classist stereotypes that almost always attempt to portray marginalized groups as

"defective" Let's face it, by doing this, Madonna is not breaking with any white supremacist,

patriarchal status quo; she is endorsing and perpetuating it.

Some of us do not find it hip or cute for Madonna to brag that she has a "fascistic side," a

side well documented in the film. Well, we did not see any of her cute little fascism in action

when it was Warren Beatty calling her out in the film. No, there the image of Madonna was the

little woman who grins and bears it. No, her "somebody's got to be in charge side," as she names

it, was most expressed in her interaction with those representatives from marginalized groups who are

most often victimized by the powerful. Why is it there is little or no discussion of Madonna

as racist or sexist in her relation to other women? Would audiences be charmed by some rich

white male entertainer telling us he must "play father" and oversee the actions of the less

powerful, especially women and men of color? So why did so many people find it cute when

Madonna asserted that she dominates the interracial casts of gay and heterosexual folks in

her film because they are crippled and she "like to play mother" No, this was not a display

of feminist power, this was the same old phallic nonsense with white pussy at the center. And

many of us watching were not simply unmoved--we were outraged.

Perhaps it is a sign of a collective feeling of powerlessness that many black, nonwhite, and

white viewers of this film who were disturbed by the display of racism, sexism, and heterosexism

(yes, it's possible to hire gay people, support AIDS projects, and still be biased in the direction of

phallic patriarchal heterosexuality) in Truth or Dare have said so little. Sometimes it is

difficult to find words to make a critique when we find ourselves attracted by some aspect of

a performer's act and disturbed by others, or when a performer shows more interest in

promoting progressive social causes than is customary. We may see that performer as above

critique. Or we may feel our critique will in no way intervene on the worship of them as a

cultural icon. To say nothing, however, is to be complicit with the very forces of

domination that make "blonde ambition" necessary to Madonna's success. Tragically, all that

is transgressive and potentially empowering to feminist women and men about Madonna's

work may be undermined by all that it contains that is reactionary and in no way

unconventional or new. It is often the conservative elements in her work converging with the

status quo that have the most powerful impact. For example: Given the rampant homophobia

in this society and the concomitant heterosexist voyeuristic obsession with gay life-styles, to

what extent does Madonna progressively seek to challenge this if she insists on primarily

representing gays as in some way emotionally handicapped or defective? Or when Madonna

responds to the critique that she exploits gay men by cavalierly stating: "What does

exploitation mean? . . . In a revolution, some people have to get hurt. To get people to

change, you have to turn the table over. Some dishes get broken." I can only say this

doesn't sound like liberation to me. Perhaps when Madonna explores those memories of her

white working-class childhood in a troubled family in a way that enables her to understand

intimately the politics of exploitation, domination, and submission, she will have a deeper

connection with oppositional black culture. If and when this radical critical self-interrogation

takes place, she will have the power to create new and different cultural productions, work

that will be truly transgressive--acts of resistance that transform rather than simply seduce.

[Skin]

Was Andrea Peyser mentioned yet? Doesn't she look like a lovely lady?

THE baby monster must be stopped! Stuck in a midlife crisis, Madonna is hoping to soothe the pain of being 50, manless and well past her freshness-expiration date by taking home a Third World daughter to match the last baby she bought like a human trinket.

Recently divorced for the second time, and accompanied by three children who should be in school — and not advancing Madonna’s pathetic cry for help — she has traveled to the African nation of Malawi.

There, she’s desperately seeking new ways to find attention and affection not seen since the time she simulated intercourse onstage and publicly tongue-kissed a young Britney Spears — in front of her daughter, Lourdes. Which just goes to show that when you’re rich and famous, you have nothing to fear from the child-welfare apparatus.

Madonna has her sights set on scooping up innocent, precious Mercy James, a 4-year-old girl who has no living mother, but a devoted granny and a breathing father. One must assume that Madonna, who ensured that her last Malawian tot, David Banda, was perfectly healthy in a nation decimated by AIDS, has her hopes set on a good one.

Poor little Mercy. She doesn’t stand a chance.

In choosing poor Mercy, Madonna not only plans to, once again, circumvent Malawian law, which prohibits foreigners from adopting, but she ignores a significant and needy orphan population right here in the United States. Mixed-race children cry at night, waiting for parents.

But for Madonna, Americans are not good enough. Saving the planet is her fixation. And Malawi’s curse.

The pop slut’s first foray into baby-snatching was so easy it’s become an addiction. Madonna and her entourage whirled into Malawi, dazzling locals and confusing David’s father, who did not seem to understand that he was signing away his flesh and blood forever to a woman with the morals of an alley cat and the depravity of a vulture. Nothing against cats and vultures.

The dad, Yohane Banda, could not even read the document he signed.

Madonna proceeded to patronize Yohane, whom she rolled over like a tractor, telling Oprah Winfrey he was a “simple” man.

This time, it is as if the entire African continent is ready to revolt against the singer, who believes she has the authority to purchase human beings like so much matched furniture.

“We feel Madonna is behaving like a bully,” said Undule Mwakusungula, chairman of the Human Rights Consultative Committee. “She has the money and the status to use her profile to manipulate, to fast-track the process.”

Little Mercy’s grandmother, meanwhile, said taking the girl was “stealing.”

Once again, Madonna has chosen a child who is not an orphan.

Mercy is being groomed to join a brood that, Madonna has boasted, is denied the pleasures of eating ice cream, because of Madonna’s aversion to dairy products.

Other questionable practices include unhealthy doses of Madge’s pet belief system, kabbalah. In order to buy David, she set up a school in Malawi, where kabbalah is preached. (I am sure if her "pet belief" was Christianity she would have NO problem.)

Why can’t Madonna just write a check and go home? Madonna ought to find a new hobby. Or a young man. Or an old one.

The children of the world are not safe, as long as her midlife crisis rages unchecked.

[VogueMusic]

UGGGGGHHHHH..... Bell Hooks. Isn't she the one the 'social justice warriors' worship?

[XXL]

Was Andrea Peyser mentioned yet?

"Madonna must be stopped!"

Poor thing, no wonder she feels that way

[mlcr]

These people are children of a lesser god. The last two slanderers need to see somebody about that level of hate. Seriously.

[Jazzy Jan]

These people are children of a lesser god. The last two slanderers need to see somebody about that level of hate. Seriously.

Was thinking the exact same thing. How can people be so hateful, bitter, jealous, nasty and revolting. Not only that but have so many facts wrong as well.

[loomer]

Author Martin Amis

"Not greatly gifted, not deeply beautiful, Madonna tells America that fame comes from wanting it badly enough. And everyone is terribly good at badly wanting things. An emphasis of will over talent."

[loomer]

Roger Waters, Pink Floyd

"Madonna is an awful, ugly, dull person who by being completely shameless, blatant, and cheap has become successful. If she got a gun and blew her own head off I doubt if anyone would notice".

[jacket]

Roger Waters, Pink Floyd

"Madonna is an awful, ugly, dull person who being completely shameless, blatant, and cheap has become successful. If she got a gun and blew her own head off I doubt if anyone would notice".

Sounds like a little mongster.

[loomer]

"Her image is very whorish."

[Mmmmm]

What a god awful thread. Full of ugly bitter cunts.

[XXL]

Author Martin Amis

"Not greatly gifted, not deeply beautiful, Madonna tells America that fame comes from wanting it badly enough. And everyone is terribly good at badly wanting things. An emphasis of will over talent."

Truly pathetic, he's just another fat ego bitter cunt

The drive argument as her only ticket to superstar status always comes from the mentally underdeveloped or the hypocrits. You CANNOT do the great things she has done in terms of production output alone merely by being driven. I am not surprised that someone that writes the books that he does has expressed similar views on someone like Madonna

His take and portrayal of female characters is rather transparent. The real problem for him is that Madonna is a woman and has been vastly more prolific and successful than he has despite being older than she is. It just doesn't even get to considerations of gift vs ambition

If you look at all these people, Morrissey, Sade, Piers Morgan, Larry King, Martin Amis etc etc they all have the same implausible argument against her in common, the reality is that they resent her being a bigger star than they are, size isn't everything really without real talent, particularly when you last over 30 years at the very top

[XXL]

"Her image is very whorish."

Who's that whore?

[Nikki]

hope that aint annie lennox. i love her and always thought she liked madonna.

[Guest whatatramp]

hope that aint annie lennox. i love her and always thought she liked madonna.

I think they get along since M was on her song sing, I do like annie/eurythmics

[loomer]

12:30

[Larkspur]

Roger Waters, Pink Floyd

"Madonna is an awful, ugly, dull person who by being completely shameless, blatant, and cheap has become successful. If she got a gun and blew her own head off I doubt if anyone would notice".

Roger Waters said that??? "completely shameless, blatant, and cheap has become successful." Add hypocritical, overrated, and egotistical and he just described a lot of classic rock artists. How ironic to say the first part and then make a statement like this.

Some of the other things I have read would take an essay to respond to. Just too many things so wrong.

[XXL]

Roger Waters said that??? "completely shameless, blatant, and cheap has become successful." Add hypocritical, overrated, and egotistical and he just described a lot of classic rock artists. How ironic to say the first part and then make a statement like this. Some of the other things I have read would take an essay to respond to. Just too many things so wrong.

I know right?

Rather transparent

[XXL]

12:30

I adore this interview

[XXL]

Annie's is once again an example of a predictable statement made about Madonna coming from a transparent place

There's always this sort of bitterness and resentment at Madonna's success in a male dominated industry. She doesn't come from a factory and yet has reached both artistic validation and commercial success, she didn't need a rich husband or a Tommy Mottola or was born into money and she's garnered an empire. Hence the projections and the characteristic pettiness in the lecturing tone of most of these people

[Jazzy Jan]

hope that aint annie lennox. i love her and always thought she liked madonna.

Nikki, Annie completely changed her tune later and said that Madonna was wonderful and caring towards her. I read an interview with Annie and she was very impressed with Madonna when she had some dealings with her about performing on her song Sing. Shame that she said that earlier, as Annie was a true talent and voice both in the Eurythmics and as a solo singer. At least she admitted to being wrong.

12:30

Such a wonderful interview. Love it, thanks for posting it Loomer

Roger Waters said that??? "completely shameless, blatant, and cheap has become successful." Add hypocritical, overrated, and egotistical and he just described a lot of classic rock artists. How ironic to say the first part and then make a statement like this.

Some of the other things I have read would take an essay to respond to. Just too many things so wrong.

Exactly. So awful to read comments from some of these people. Why so over-the-top vicious ? No need for it at all.

Annie's is once again an example of a predictable statement made about Madonna coming from a transparent place

There's always this sort of bitterness and resentment at Madonna's success in a male dominated industry. She doesn't come from a factory and yet has reached both artistic validation and commercial success, she didn't need a rich husband or a Tommy Mottola or was born into money and she's garnered an empire. Hence the projections and the characteristic pettiness in the lecturing tone of most of these people

So true.

[madonnasuperfan01]

Roger Waters said that??? "completely shameless, blatant, and cheap has become successful." Add hypocritical, overrated, and egotistical and he just described a lot of classic rock artists. How ironic to say the first part and then make a statement like this.

Some of the other things I have read would take an essay to respond to. Just too many things so wrong.

And to think that this pathetic asshole beated her for most successful tour by a solo artist. I was quite bitter about it then and i'm even more now (yes, i REALLY wanted Madonna to keep that record). What a total asshole

[Larkspur]

And to think that this pathetic asshole beated her for most successful tour by a solo artist. I was quite bitter about it then and i'm even more now (yes, i REALLY wanted Madonna to keep that record). What a total asshole

Didn't it take like years for him to do that? I swear after reading that statement I believe he probaly kept going until he did .

[Fuzzy Dream]

Didn't it take like years for him to do that? I swear after reading that statement I believe he probaly kept going until he did .

It took Roger Waters 219 dates and three years in order to gross $458.6 million, becoming the highest grossing tour by a solo artist of all time.

Madonna, the previous record holder, grossed $408 million over only 85 dates split between two years.

[Nikki]

i havent heard about him beating her record anywhere.. by comparison the madonna one is quite known by most people.

[Fuzzy Dream]

i havent heard about him beating her record anywhere.. by comparison the madonna one is quite known by most people.

It got a quite a lot of attention when he broke her record: http://www.billboard.com/biz/articles/news/5748070/roger-waters-passes-madonna-for-solo-boxscore-record-with-459m-wall-live

[XXL]

It took Roger Waters 219 dates and three years in order to gross $458.6 million, becoming the highest grossing tour by a solo artist of all time. Madonna, the previous record holder, grossed $408 million over only 85 dates split between two years

Actually 36 months have elapsed between the start of his tour and its wrapping up

For Madonna it was 12 months, not 2 years

To think that he was on the road for an extra 24 months and only raked in $50m more

[DanM]

It took Roger Waters 219 dates and three years in order to gross $458.6 million, becoming the highest grossing tour by a solo artist of all time.

Madonna, the previous record holder, grossed $408 million over only 85 dates split between two years.

Well, if she visits Australia and Asia this time I can see him holding this record for an embarrassingly short time