KalamazooJay Posted August 14, 2015 Share Posted August 14, 2015 She's an incredible pop songwriter. I'm hard pressed to think of someone who's rivaled her. That being said, I've always found it irritating when she's dismissed some of her earlier work as trivial when she writes a song like GMAYL or GGW. I do think she's finally coming around to recognizing that those early hits were paramount to her career and still have resonance today. As much as love how forward thinking she is, I've always found disheartening that she doesn't recognize her past success more. It's refreshing and fascinating to hear her do that during this era. And speaking of this era, it's ON POINT with lyrics and melodies. While this era wasn't a renaissance with the general public, it absolutely was with the fans. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HolidayGuy Posted August 15, 2015 Share Posted August 15, 2015 I had typos in the post two up, so I've fixed em. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roland Barthes Posted August 15, 2015 Share Posted August 15, 2015 A few years ago Courtney Love tried to push a female rock singer/songwriter into the limelight (around 2009) and they had a cross interview and both said that one of the song she wrote and they loved the most had what they called "A Madonna hook". Even people who are hard on her know that when all is said and done, when you remove the superstar persona and the fireworks what lies beneath is the songs. That's why Madonna has such a long career, it's not the scandals and the looks but it's the music, the songs. Live to tell, that iconic bridge "If i ran away...." written by her according to Pat Leonard, same with Like a prayer, "Live out your fantasies here with me...", The song Rebel Heart, no matter which mix you like best, it has the strongest melody and structure she came up with in a long time. Babyface, Rick Nowells, Pat Leonard....they all praise her melodies. Steve Bray and Madonna studied together song structure, i can't remember where i read or saw Bray talk about it but he did say that they really worked on creating a specific song structure. Also she comes from dance , ballet and she basically spent hours listening to Bach (her favourite according to Whitney Setrakian her roommate at UOM) and all the great classical music geniuses, she grew up on Motown,Bowie and Elton John (when he was good), her brothers were listening to Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Simon and Garfunkel ect and her father to Sinatra,Bennett and napolitan music (some say pop music birth from it). You can clearly hear influences of the Carpenters (take a bow, ghosttown) and Abba (fighting spirit, sorry, addicted) in her songs. Then she moved to New York, she learnt how to play guitar listening to Elvis Costello and of course funky (Sly and the family stone) and dance music (She went to Kraftwerk in the early 80's) plus all the latin music and french songs from the 20's and 30's...the spectrum of the music that built her culture is phenomenal, today it's easy to have access to all this but not 40 years ago. I wish one day she would write and produce a whole album for another artist. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nightcutter Posted August 15, 2015 Share Posted August 15, 2015 ABBA just scrape in at 100? Jeez Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LHakaLH Posted August 15, 2015 Share Posted August 15, 2015 Im the best songwriter , my ex husband bought to me so many awards why im not on the list ... Don't forget "I consider myself one of the greatest songwriters in this industry" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roland Barthes Posted August 15, 2015 Share Posted August 15, 2015 Oh and most of all Madonna is a very versatile songwriter, she can write silly dancefloor anthems as well as ballads, mid tempo songs in various styles. Even Kate Bush is not that versatile. Madonna can write Frozen AND Into the groove, she can write Like a prayer and Bitch i'm Madonna. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brasileiro Posted August 15, 2015 Share Posted August 15, 2015 Madonna even being praised, so underrated. Her image certainly overshadowed her greatest secret weapon, her amazing hooks and genious lyrics. Live to Tell Gone Fallin Free Wash all over Etc, etc. Dylan and Mitchell might be great with words but so boring to listen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frzndrwnwrld Posted August 16, 2015 Share Posted August 16, 2015 When Celebration the song came out she said the music is crap, but damn that melody and you can tell she didn't even make an effort...she probably just took a shit in her sleep and it's still great. I'm glad to see some people were able to look past Oakenfold's generic production. lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hasta Posted August 16, 2015 Share Posted August 16, 2015 The likes of abba should be higher Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hasta Posted August 16, 2015 Share Posted August 16, 2015 It would be great if she did an improvised performance - churning out random lyrics N her hooks. That'd be convincing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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