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Rebel Heart is in some ways, an indie album.


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Given Madonna's lack of commercial success (by her past standards, of course), I have come to see RH as her "indie album" of sorts. This makes it an underground album, from an artist that is extremely talked about almost everywhere. We are living in the Kim Kardashian age ... celebs who are talked about, are just that, talked about. Madonna is very talked about but nobody cares that she has an album out. Lack of knowledge at their peril, I say!!!

Anyways to wrap up, RH is an inadvertent "indie album" of sorts, much like AL was. Does that make sense? Can anyone perhaps articulate this theory better?

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I don't know when the word "indie" became synomynous with "mainstream artists having a low selling album than previous ones that seems more underground". Madonna has never had an "indie" album. Her albums have always had big producers, songwriters, photo shoots, a major label etc...catering to the mainstream. Madonna has always had a big personality that tends to overshadow a bit of her music. RH has been no exception.

If you want a major artist doing an indie album, that would have been Cher's "not.com.merical".

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Madonna's definitely done music that has the "indie" sound, for lack of a better term. I don't know if I consider Rebel Heart that, but songs like Paradise, Nobody Knows Me, Secret Garden, Has to Be all fit that description for me.

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I don't know when the word "indie" became synomynous with "mainstream artists having a low selling album than previous ones that seems more underground". Madonna has never had an "indie" album. Her albums have always had big producers, songwriters, photo shoots, a major label etc...catering to the mainstream. Madonna has always had a big personality that tends to overshadow a bit of her music. RH has been no exception.

If you want a major artist doing an indie album, that would have been Cher's "not.com.merical".

I guess that depends on how one looks at the definition of an "indie album". What I meant is that Madonna had set out to create a commercially succesful album, and failed, which *inadvertendly* produced an album which is not selling all that much at all... but that is unlike indie albums in general, very talked about (due to her personality).

I don't disagree with you though that her personality does overshadow the album, and also about Cher, yes I agree with that too.

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It's one of her most hitmaker-y albums... Ever checked who had worked with Diplo, Billboard, Kanye West & Toby Gad previously?

Which is still a massive commercial failure.

She made the most famous indie album ever :roadrunner:

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I actually created a playlist called 'M Personal' awhile back that includes:

Swim

Skin

Has To Be

Candy Perfume Girl

Gone

I Deserve It

Paradise

Intervention

X Static Process

Falling Free

Sanctuary

..etc

I guess thats 'indie Madonna'

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Which is still a massive commercial failure.

She made the most famous indie album ever :roadrunner:

It's the 13th best selling album released this year in the US and 18th best selling album worldwide so far.......that's not a MASSIVE commercial failure. Indie albums arent typically among the best selling of the year.

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Don't think RH would be considered indie, but if you listen to Diplo solo music he has released, it's not very commercial and definitely sounds a bit "edgy". Think he brought some of that sound to RH!

If you also want to go there, ROL, AL, and, Music have more of an experimental sound to their albums. Even some songs from BS and Confessions definitely have more experimental and interesting beats.

For me personally, M did some of her most creative and visionary work when she was not fully pandering to the mainstream which continues to reject her more and more. Wish M was a little more ahead of the curve, but RH was a step in a positive direction!

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Which is still a massive commercial failure.

She made the most famous indie album ever :roadrunner:

What is it with the over-exaggerations of commercial failure ? Artists would kill to have an album become the highest selling album of the week on debut like Rebel Heart did. The way people are talking, you would think it sold 5000 copies. Madonna is not an Indie artist - never has been and never will be. Rebel Heart is definitely not an Indie Album either.

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"Indie" isn't a sound.

And Madonna has never been an Indie artist.

An Indie artist is someone who releases albums on an Independent Record Label.

Once these artist become more successful and sign to bigger mainstream Lables they are no longer "Indie".

I laugh at all of these so called "Indie" acts today signed to labels like Warner Bros and Interscope :lmao:

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Omg shut the fuck up! Good G*d I stop visiting the shit site that is Atrl just to find the same nonsense ignorant and inmature bull here. RH the thirteen leaked studio album from a 30+ career polarizing pop singer not selling millions?! oh Noooo!!! You don't fucking say!

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This thread is quite a coincidence. My sister just heard the album for the first time and said it sounded indie. I was like, "What?!" To me, it sounds very urban/hip-hop influenced. I thought that would be her reaction to it as well.

Anyway, she really liked the album, except for Holy Water and Body Shop. She doesn't understand why it's not being played on the radio when it's better than all the shit on radio at the moment. Of course, I agree with that 1 billion percent.

I've always consider American Life to be the closest she has ever come to an indie album. When it comes down to it, it's just a pop album. An experimental pop album, but still a pop album. The melodies and hooks make it pop. The production can be all over the place, but if it's catchy and follows traditional song structure, it's still pop, right? I dunno. Just my opinion. :)

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Not sure about indie....however, I have always thought of Madonna as the most experimental mainstream big artist!

Definitely agree with this. She is certainly not an indie artist but has created music that no other mainstream artist ever would/could. Stuff like secret garden, erotica, drowned world, bedtime story, impressive insant, paradise, shanti, nobody's perfect. I cannot imagine any other mainstream artist making music that left field. Fact

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Technically Madonna has no record label. So she's indie.

Definitely agree with this. She is certainly not an indie artist but has created music that no other mainstream artist ever would/could. Stuff like secret garden, erotica, drowned world, bedtime story, impressive insant, paradise, shanti, nobody's perfect. I cannot imagine any other mainstream artist making music that left field. Fact

Agree with both of you. That said, I think RH is her most classically pop album since LAP.

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