Madonna was really awesome

One of the greatest, innovative, sexiest, awesome vids ever. No entertainer has come close to Madge.

This was her at her peak. Physically, artistically, even emotionally.

Who is that dark handsome guy in OP's pic? Anyone know?

It's about time we had a Madonna thread on DL. We don't talk about her enough.

Prince was awesome. MADonna was merely artifice.

She has a nice hairy yak.

She was quite unique for a short time. She was lucky with great songwriters and producers, but she was also very innovative and creative in her own right. It really is too bad she has derailed so much.

Maybe r5, but Madonna was inescapable for awhile in the 80s. Bitch owned a decade, whatever anybody today thinks about her looks, her singing, her talent, whatever. And of course the artifice was part of the point.

I'm sure this thread will find new and compelling dialogue that was not covered in the previous 983,578,302,261,784 threads about this topic.

Peak Vadge. Also loved Erotica. A view for mainstream audiences that didn’t know existed.

Madonna didn't gaf, she loved to shock people and she did that very well. I became a fan after I watched her in her first movie. For the young teens, she was the epitome of cool. Everyone copied her style. Well, I didn't but only because my mother would have burned the clothes, lol. Just Like a Prayer is one of my favorite songs. I thought the backlash from that song was ridiculous and hypocritical. Madonna said that she was raised in the Catholic church and it was meant to convey her confusion and Catholic guilt about sex. When she cuts herself it is to represent guilt. ( Quoting Madonna) I have always wondered if the man had not been black if anyone would have even noticed that video. Can you imagine anyone of the current artists putting out anything close to this? Pbbbt! I miss music.

R9 Yet here you are

I appreciate you used "was awesome." Some people here (read ancient queens) act like she's still relevant and that her current shitty music is artful.

Lenny Kravitz is a talented producer. I should've worked more behind the scenes as a producer for other artists. He knows how to bring the best out of them.

Fascinating contribution, R13 - quite witty

*He should've

Emphasis on 'WAS' awesome.

I'll give her this. I do think it's awesome, how she just does whatever she wants with her "fuck you" money. I can't say I'm not jealous of this bitch who is wealthy enough to be as annoying and weird as possible. I'd get thrown in an institution for the same behavior.

She's always been a blatant mediocrity. And I started wearing corsets as outerwear two years before she did.

It is odd that hasbeen is supposed to be so devastating. Of course people who were huge at one point cease to be huge decades later. If you do hang on, that is pretty amazing, but it's pretty much impossible, and the fact that you aren't the star you were 40 years is not shocking in any way.

R20 Cool story

She was never shocking. People who claim this either were not alive then, or came straight from a Benedictine nunnery.

That shit was all copying true transgressives that came before, and mainstream people were already watching hustler pr0n on tv.

On the contrary, her antics the past few years have made me realize she was never that great.

You're welcome r21. Learn and be well.

There’s no mystique anymore - and social media revealed how basic she really is despite all the money and fame.

Lol. Seems like a SNL parody, what a silly woman.

She is sadly kind of humorless, but doing an SNL parody of her pompous current self would probably do Madonna a world of good.

The fact she stopped making decent albums around the early 2010s and hadn't made an innovative sounding album since Ray of Light and that was 1998. Proves to me she is dependent on an excellent team that can help actualize her vision. She got old and too weird and all the talented producers and writers stopped giving her a call.

She was the most sexual pop star back then. Now every pop star is over the top sexual. She should go the opposite way and make being wholesome sexy, though I guess she did hang up the sexiness for awhile.

Now she's trying to be like Cardi B or something everyone has seen before in an oversaturated market of sexiness. She's not avante garde anymore but she definitely was in the 80s and 90s.

R28 = GaGa

Once upon a time she did have a sense of humor about herself about herself…

R31 I've never seen that - funny - and she looked really good there

r3 Tony Ward Some great Herb Ritts pics of him out there.

Whoever said this wasn’t shocking when it debuted is totally wrong. It was hugely controversial when it came out. I remember she was on one of the nighttime news shows and came off rather in articulately when asked what she would say about kids seeing this. She was never really likable, I’ll say that.

She lost her sense of humor back when she released Ray of Light. (She appeared on Oprah and pandered to the fraus about how motherhood changed her and how the Madonna from the 80s was a different woman who she is now, blah, blah, blah.) She was so funny when she appeared on Arsenio Hall. I love how she threw shade at Joan Collins and explained what "gave good face" meant from "Vogue."

This is the Madonna I hope people will remember and not the pathetic freak that she's become on social media.

yeah, agree r35. That was fun and at r31, but damn, then she discovered kabbalah and just crawled up her own ass. Kinda sad really.

She was shrewd and it worked.

She definitely was, once upon a time r37.

No Madonna no Pop music, period. She’s the Mother who gave birth to the pop music

She was, I agree. When she seemed to be a master of sensing what the public wanted and needed, and at aptly reinventing herself creatively and visually at each turn. But then she kind of finally hit that wall where she got stuck in her current rut as...2022's version of a Mae West Crazy Lady Social Media Whore. It's like she's currently going through her vision of Diana Ross's early 2000s crazy-lady stage, before she sort of had a "comeback" and reinvented herself with massive good publicity, appearances everywhere and an album of basically standards, and the support of a seemingly pretty well-adjusted large family surrounding her. Maybe Madonna will transition to that phase in her career and personal life, still yet to come...dunno if the rag-tag family around her is seemingly equally functional and supportive, but, who knows.

[quote]No Madonna no Pop music, period. She’s the Mother who gave birth to the pop music

MARY!

Pop music originated in the 1950s, decades before she came on the scene. It will continue after she's dead.

Madonna was impressive for about a decade and a bit through the 1990s - never an outstanding singer or dancer, but a great performer and public figure. Very cool and "downtown NYC" when she came onto the scene. Then she tried to pass herself off as a straightforward sexy pop star type, which she has never been convincing as.

The sex book was the beginning of the end. That and Body of Evidence, one of the funniest horrible movies of all time that I recently threw on for a laugh. It's impressive that the careers of Willem Dafoe and Julianne Moore (seriously) weren't super damaged by it. They should get veterans medals.

I’ve never liked her except for Justify My Love video because of those hot men. I was a young teenager and just wanted to make out with those guys.

She was, totally, and what a back catalogue. She lost her way around the time of her divorce and now her plastic surgery, dreadful, narcissistic personality and her cringeworthy use of social media, has really been tainting her legacy. It depresses me. I wish she’d delete her social media and go away for a while and work on self-awareness.

It is awesome that someone who could not sing, dance, nor act has had this career.

WAS. Yes. Was.

How do you OWN a decade when you didn’t hit until 1985 and were all washed up by 1992?

Even though she's before me time as a 29 year old gayling. I appreciate her more that I went through her discography and videography. I own one of her vinyls too. Madonna is disgusting now and absolutely repulsive. When I was a young I thought she was embarrassing with the whole kissing Britney and collaborating with Justin Timberlake, Drake and Nicki. But Wikipedia and DL educated me about her significance and I now appreciate her. Honestly, she's more authentic than Taylor Swift, Beyonce and Katy Perry. The only recent stars I can think of like her (don't kill me) are the internet ones like Cardi B, Doja Cat, Billie Eilish, etc who lack a filter and for popular for their personalities.

That said I still prioritize actual musicianship like songwriting and playing instruments but I appreciate well produced pop like a sugary treat.

R3 That is Tony Ward. He's a model who dated Madonna.

It's depressing what a sad old cow she's turned into.

Madonna really has almost completely ruined her appeal. I say "almost" because Material Girl is currently blowing up on Spotify (~500,00 streams per day) and that was done with NO promotion from Madonna herself. It shows me that Madonna needs to let her back catalogue--the best in pop music history--speak for itself. The more involved she gets, the worse things will turn out.

One of the greatest entertainers of all time, with one of the most repellent personalities of all time…

Gaga is selling out her upcoming stadium tour and has a successful acting career, while Madge has been reduced to flashing her tits on Instagram.

Looks like Gaga won in the end.

We won't be able to know who won until Gaga is in her 60s, R53.

[quote] Looks like Gaga won in the end.

Umm, Gaga is like 35 years younger than Madonna. Let's wee where Gaga is 10 years from now. She didn't even have stable popularity from 2008 through 2015.

[quote]We won't be able to know who won until Gaga is in her 60s, [R53].

Nah, the writing is already on the wall. Gaga will flourish in coming years because she has more talent as a singer and actress. She has more options available to her as she ages, like movies and Broadway. Gaga also has built up considerable goodwill amongst the public and her peers, which is something that Madonna never did. That universal goodwill will pay dividends down the road. I can see Gaga becoming a national treasure like Dolly Parton. Madonna is mostly disliked by the public, which is why she will never be able to have a career resurgence.

[quote] Madonna is mostly disliked by the public, which is why she will never be able to have a career resurgence.

She's in her fucking 60s, what kind of "career resurgence" is she supposed to have?

There are some eldergay Madonna fans who think her biopic will give her a career resurgence.

The biopic will be stuck in development hell.

Who would play Madonna? There's not much drama other than they said she couldn't be sexy, well she did and shocked them all. The End.

R3 - That's Tony Ward.

Tony Ward was really hot.

He just was.

What was on her ipod?

Madonna honestly never had a beautiful-looking face to me. But her body was great. She scored a lot of hot dick.

R56 I agree, Gaga is an industry lifer. I don't care for her new music much but I don't dislike her and can't discount she has talent. I also consider Pink, Christina Aguilera, Usher, Beyonce and Timberlake in that category due to still having performance talent.

Madonna is 26 years older than Gaga, so I never got the comparison, Madge was never her competition because she aged out of the pop music sphere by the time of Gaga's debut. I would say Madonna did have a very good run of about 30 years of success. Gaga borrowed from a lot of 70s and 80s acts and not just Madonna. But I think crazy Madge stans are deluded into thinking Gaga's existence is to spite Madonna.

I think Gaga fans are the delusional ones on this thread saying things like "Gaga won" when she's only been around for 14 years. And she wasn't even A-list all those 14 years.

I don't see Gaga having more hit albums with the youth like Ariana Grande, Rihanna or Taylor Swift who are still young enough for a few more eras and appeal to kids. There's also Dua Lipa, Billie Eilish, Doja Cat, Cardi B and other competition. Gaga matured her image and most of her fans are 25 and up and grew up with her music. Gaga is better sticking to singer-songwriter, adult contemporary or mature dance pop music a la Kylie Minogue. Madonna's long success and domination in pop culture is hard to replicate honestly just like with Michael Jackson because the media and climate is just so radically different. Artists have to be more niche and pander to fans to sell and keep up streams.

This. Is. Not. A. Gaga. Thread.

The comparison will always come up though R67 because Gaga copied so much of Madonna's career. I'd be interested to see if Gaga is able to parlay the hype around the Gucci movie into something long term. I don't know a single person who is a fan of Gaga as an actor, on the contrary I've heard a lot of cruel remarks about her looks...

Madonna had dreams of movie stardom because she was genuinely beautiful especially when dressed up in glamourous clothes and makeup. Gaga is kind of homely and looks best in weird clothes. I just can't see a niche for her in acting. But I'm frequently wrong about who will become extremely popular or have long standing success and who won't so who knows.

Madonna's acting was well received in Desperately Seeking Susan, unfortunately she just got worse from then on.

Madonna got the best reviews when she played characters similar to herself: Desperately Seeking Susan, A League of Their Own and Evita.

Madonna herself said she wasn’t the best singer and she was average looking. She did however do two things really well. She was a brilliant marketer and she surrounded herself with really smart people. And she was smart enough to listen to those smart people. That would seemed to have changed. She could have redefined what it meant to be 60 and sexy ala Tina Turner. Instead she looks like a Macys Thanksgiving parade float. And the problem is anything she does and if it’s good her absurd features will get in the way of that. It’s been said a million times. I think it’s too late but she needs some of those smart people back around her.

Madonna could still sell albums if she made music like Tina Turner was making in the 1980s. Tina was 45 when Private Dancer came out.

[quote]I can see Gaga becoming a national treasure like Dolly Parton.

You seriously type that shit with a straight face?

Is Tony Ward bi?

R74, yes.

[quote] Madonna could still sell albums if she made music like Tina Turner was making in the 1980s. Tina was 45 when Private Dancer came out

Umm Madonna is almost 20 years past 45. She was making Ray of Light at roughly the same age.

Excuse me, she was making Confessions on a Dancefloor. My point still stands, she has aged out of pop music.

She IS the Queen/Goddess of Pop for a reason

What's the name of the bio pic? "All The Guys I Fucked and People I Used To Get Higher On The Greasy Pole of Showbiz"?

Is it a porno?

All the guys she fucked in her life wouldn't even come close to the amount of guys you fuck in a two hour period at a gloryhole, whore R79

I hope she won't pass away soon.

Operative word , WAS

What a great singing voice! Another Patsy Cline.

We were still alive!

I watched this the other day and was very impressed:

I’ll give credit where credit is due and acknowledge Madonna was the epitome of cool in the early-to-mid 90’s. Everything she did, from her music to her styling, was perfect and few people were capable of keeping up with her.

Unfortunately, the Kabbalah bullshit tarnished her brand and American Life put her career on life support.

Confessions on a Dance Floor gave people the false impression she had learned from her mistakes, and would go back to being amazing again. However, menopause spooked her and she began the pitiful Norma Desmond routine she’s tortured us with for the past 15+ years.

[quote] How do you OWN a decade when you didn’t hit until 1985 and were all washed up by 1992?

Are you out of your mind R47 ? I used to go to an 18 & up club in West Hollywood called Odyssey and first heard Madonna in 1981-2. She had a few singles out long before her debut album released in ‘83. Like A Virgin made her a superstar in ‘84. She was already making movies by 1985, hardly a year when she just “hit”.

Early 90s Madonna come back

[quote] I’ll give credit where credit is due and acknowledge Madonna was the epitome of cool in the early-to-mid 90’s. Everything she did, from her music to her styling, was perfect

You mean like the photo in the Sex book where she squats over the metal bowl?