Why did the UK abandon Madonna all of the sudden in only 3 years?

[dzwiekolubny]

1 hour ago, LikeATattoo said:

As a non-fan who is trying to understand Madonna a bit more and wading through her catalogue, I have to ask:

 

Is MDNA really her worst ever studio album? Where do Hard Candy, Rebel Heart, and Madame X fall in that ranking?

imo RH and MX are way above MDNA

[Lament]

21 minutes ago, Sugar-Rush said:

I personally don't care for Rebel Heart or Madame X much aside from a few songs, but at least those albums had some originality and creativity to them. And Hard Candy had 4 Minutes, Give It 2 Me and a few other bops. However imho MDNA is mostly generic, predictable and uninteresting.

 

Also the deluxe version of MDNA had B-Day Song, which is her worst song ever

Tbh I think Autotune Baby is worse. 

 

She made such dumb decisions in the past decade… Rebel Heart and Madame X could have been truly amazing albums had she decided to cut off 3/4 tracks. They were way too long and disorganized. I still like Madame X though. Rebel Heart… well. 

 

MDNA is definitely trash but in its 2012 context it's not that bad. It just sounds very dated. Girl Gone Wild, with another production, could have become a classic. Delete Superstar and Turn Up The Radio, make something else the lead single, include Beautiful Killer, and it wouldn't be nowhere any bad as it actually was.

[Lament]

Anyway, to answer the question:

 

- GMAYL was doomed by the singles system in the UK back then. I don't remember why but something was off because of the marketing strategy. Also, it was deleted off iTunes at a crucial time to make room for the album pre-order, and at that time, one or two days off iTunes represented thousands of sales.

 

- we all know what happened with Living For Love. I'm sure that it would have gone top 10 with the initial plan: Valentine's Day release, BRITs performance, no leak and no BBC controversy. The fact that they decided to respond to the backlash by saying that the song was bad was so mean and uncalled for. f*ck them!

Edited Sunday at 09:27 AM by Lament

[MonsterJohn]

Because Gaga's ended her so her stans spend their last years obsessing over Gaga hihi

[LesFleur]

Because this bop is an eternal serve

 

 

What else do you need?

 

 

 

[Dante Silva]

On 11/24/2024 at 7:52 AM, LikeATattoo said:

As a non-fan who is trying to understand Madonna a bit more and wading through her catalogue, I have to ask:

 

Is MDNA really her worst ever studio album? Where do Hard Candy, Rebel Heart, and Madame X fall in that ranking?

Perceptions changed with "Hard Candy". Like everywhere else the U.K. had already lived through and vibed to Nelly Furtado's "Loose" album and by the time we were done with it - we were also done with the Danja/ Timberland sound. It made no difference M had The Neptune's on board, Pharrell was always overrated in terms of talent and he brought nothing to the table.

 

When she left the COADF era, Stuart Price had initially been excited to work with her on the follow up but she made it clear to him during the tour she wanted the follow up album to have a more R&B leaning sound, he allegedly advised her he thought it was a mistake but away from Stuart she had been having meetings with a chairman at warners named Rob Dickens and they had a review of where they were at in terms of demographics.

 

From that data it was clear that whilst the U.K. and Europe in general had loved "Confessions", the U.S. had not and she wanted to make a move that would win favor back in the U.S. and what better way to do that than dip back in to R&B as a course correction (as she had once before with "Bedtime Stories").

 

Madonna had watched Nelly Furtado's "Loose" era and decided she wanted some of that, but it was too late. That energy wasn't hers, it had been fresh with Nelly a couple of years earlier but it was now played out.

 

Upon the release of "Hard Candy", by and large fans instantly felt the staleness of the album and detected she had tried to ride on the coat-tails of the popularity of Timberland/ Danja, but for the first time in her career M was too late to the party.

 

She was very aware her work with William Orbit had never been criticized and had always been perceived as a marriage with one foot rooted in pop thrills and the other in sonic experimentation. How could hooking back up with him a decade later fail? 
 

She phoned MDNA in, not literally but she was rushed due to other projects competing for her attention and a majority of the vocals used were scratch/ demo vocals that had not been re-recorded. 
 

The demo of GMAYL had already leaked without Nicki/ MIA and people mostly preferred the alternate sections of music on the demo that preceded the raps.

 

I personally still enjoy the demo to this day (and several other songs from that record I do consider gems), that really should have had better vocal takes on them. Left alone, William did what he could using tech to bring the vocals up to scratch but the feels came off as over processed and artificial.

 

On the remaining two Interscope records she really sought to apply herself creatively and give the process all it needed and her plan for "Rebel Heart" was for it to be a double album, but Interscope wouldn't go for the concept and she had to scrap the original Disc 1/ Disc 2 tracklist (Interscope's decision may have had something to do with how best to approach that in the midst of a vinyl revival).

 

Then some rando came along and hacked her laptop and leaked the album before she was ready, she couldn't schedule more time with the producers quick enough to complete the production for what was no longer a double album and she allegedly decided to do it herself with the aid of a studio engineer. 

Add to this the whole Radio 1 aspect of her being perceived as in the wrong age bracket to appeal to a youth demographic and consequentially radio support was gone.

 

On "Madame X" she drifted further towards the left field and that alienated her largely old timey audience who couldn't get on board.

 

However, all is not lost and the first new album under her new contract (and guidance of Warners) is geared up to be way more commercial than any other album she has released in over a decade and with a blend of writing contributions from Max Martin (re-produced by) and with additional writing from Stuart Price, further embellished with his production, the album is shaping up to be more directly melodic and commercial than any of her last few albums.

 

She also has the option of including songs compatible with the sound of her first three records as the plan at one stage was for an OST companion piece to the yet to materialize biopic from when they wanted to weave new material like a sonic tapestry with those early records.

 

A backing track (that M rejected) on account of it sounding too "on the nose" in context of its commonality with "Vogue", was later picked up by Ariana Grande and became "Yes .. And".  With even the castoffs reaching No. 1, just imagine what the final product sounds like.

 

Of course, this being ATRL there's going to be a fair bit of old timey fan ego that disagrees with this but these are my takes and I saw it all too.

 

Edited Monday at 08:25 AM by Dante Silva

[theweekend]

well I abandoned her that era. it was too much for me, then the drought continued in rebel heart era and with madame x she won me back. anyways as I huge madonna fan the 10's was really HARD to get through it.

Edited Sunday at 12:52 PM by theweekend

[OrbitNumber1]

Honestly, GMAYL wouldn't ever work for Madonna.

Even with all the Superbowl hype it only managed to reach #10 in the U.S and it fell like a rock soon after.

MDNA was pretty huge in my country, but that was only thanks to Girl Gone Wild and Turn Up the Radio, GMAYL was quickly ignored.

[HardBambi]

They're still here for her if she serves quality! 

[Popboi.]

5 hours ago, MonsterJohn said:

Because Gaga's ended her so her stans spend their last years obsessing over Gaga hihi

Don't pat yourself on the back thinking you ate that  

[John Slayne]

the UK still loves her, the London dates of her tour sold out instantly and her remix album scanned Gold and spent 58 weeks in the top 100

[TeeJay]

7 hours ago, LikeATattoo said:

As a non-fan who is trying to understand Madonna a bit more and wading through her catalogue, I have to ask:

 

Is MDNA really her worst ever studio album? Where do Hard Candy, Rebel Heart, and Madame X fall in that ranking?

rebel heart is really good imo, it has too many tracks and needs to lose a few but otherwise its good

[Princess Aurora]

They delisted her 

[LikeATattoo]

4 hours ago, Dante Silva said:

Perceptions changed with "Hard Candy". Like everywhere else the U.K. had already lived through and vibed to Nelly Furtado's "Loose" album and by the time we were done with it - we were also done with the Danja/ Timberland sound. It made no difference M had The Neptune's on board, Pharrell was always overrated in terms of talent and he brought nothing to the table.

 

When she left the COADF era, Stuart Price had initially been excited to work with her on the follow up but she made it clear to him during the tour she wanted the follow up album to have a more R&B leaning sound, he allegedly advised her he thought it was a mistake but away from Stuart she had been having meetings with a chairman at warners named Rob Dickens and they had a review of where they were at in terms of demographics.

 

From that data it was clear that whilst the U.K. and Europe in general had loved "Confessions", the U.S. had not and she wanted to make a move that would win favor back in the U.S. and what better way to do that than dip back in to R&B as a course correction (as she had once before with "Bedtime Stories").

 

Madonna had watched Nelly Furtado's "Loose" era and decided she wanted some of that, but it was too late. That energy wasn't hers, it had been fresh with Nelly a couple of years earlier but it was now played out.

 

Upon the release of "Hard Candy", by and large fans instantly felt the staleness of the album and detected she had tried to ride on the coat-tails of the popularity of Timberland/ Danja, but for the first time in her career M was too late to the party.

 

She was very aware her work with William Orbit had never been criticized and had always been perceived as a marriage with one foot rooted in pop thrills and the other in sonic experimentation. How could hooking back up with him a decade later fail? 
 

She phoned MDMA in, not literally but she was rushed due to other projects competing for her attention and a majority of the vocals used were scratch/ demo vocals that had not been re-recorded. 
 

The demo of GMAYL had already leaked without Nicki/ MIA and people mostly preferred the alternate sections of music on the demo that preceded the raps.

 

I personally still enjoy the demo to this day (and several other songs from that record I do consider gems), that really should have have had better vocal takes on them. Left alone, William did what he could using tech to bring the vocals up to scratch but the feels came off as over processed and artificial.

 

On the remaining two Interscope records she really sought to apply herself creatively and give the process all it needed and her plan for "Rebel Heart" was for it to be a double album, but Interscope wouldn't go for the concept and she had to scrap the original Disc 1/ Disc 2 tracklist (Interscope's decision may have had something to do with how best to approach that in the midst of a vinyl revival).

 

Then some rando came along and hacked her laptop and leaked the album before she was ready, she couldn't schedule time with the producers quick enough to complete the production for what was no longer a double album and she allegedly decided to do it herself with the aid of a studio engineer. 

Add to this the whole Radio 1 aspect of her being perceived as in the wrong age bracket to appeal to a youth demographic and consequentially radio support was gone.

 

On "Madame X" she drifted further towards the left field and that alienated her largely old timey audience who couldn't get on board.

 

However, all is not lost and the first new album under her new contract (and guidance of Warners) is geared up to be way more commercial than any other album she has released in over a decade and with a blend of writing contributions from Max Martin (re-produced by) and with additional writing from Stuart Price, further embellished with his production, the album is shaping up to be more directly melodic and commercial than any of her last few album.

 

She also has the option of including songs compatible with the sound of her first three records as the plan at one stage was for an OST companion piece to the yet to materialize biopic from when they wanted to weave new material like a sonic tapestry with those early records.

 

A backing track (that M rejected) on account of it sounding too "on the nose" in context of its commonality with "Vogue", was later picked up by Ariana Grande and became "Yes .. And".  With even the castoffs reaching No. 1, just imagine what the final product sounds like.

 

Of course, this being ATRL there's going to be a fair bit of old timey fan ego that disagrees with this but these are my takes and I saw it all too.

 

This is such an in-depth analysis, thank you!

 

What ranking would you give HC/MDNA/RH/MX from best to worst?

[Dante Silva]

16 hours ago, LikeATattoo said:

This is such an in-depth analysis, thank you!

 

What ranking would you give HC/MDNA/RH/MX from best to worst?

I can only be honest in terms of the level of musical enjoyment I got from repeated listens of each one (and not politics):

 

1. MDNA

2. Rebel Heart

3. Hard Candy

4. Madame X

 

I will say that it's unfortunate MDNA opens with "Girl Gone Wild" as (in my view) it's the most uninspired and basic track Madonna ever released (and didn't deserve to be an album track, let alone a single).

 

I believe when the song "Celebration" was remixed (from the Greatest Hits of the same name which wrapped up her Warners contract), that M was justifiably impressed with the single remix of that track by Benni Benassi and went back to him, suspecting there would be more good energy there but all he had was "Girl Gone Wild" and it speaks to how jaded she was at that point in time that she thought GGW had single potential.

 

My favourite tracks from MDMA are (in no particular order):

 

Some Girls (rumoured to be about Kim Kardashian)

Love Spent

I'm A Sinner

Falling Free

Turn Up The Radio

Masterpiece

Gang Bang

 

.. And the demo of "Give Me All Your Luvin" (without the features), I got something from the parts that were substituted in the final mix by the raps. I have fond memories of playing the demo on a loop one Saturday morning when someone unexpectedly gave me free reign with a credit card for three hours and I rushed from store to store making purchases in what felt like in time to the beat of the music. I have always experienced it as a melodic pop song, NGL.

 

 

Edited Monday at 08:39 AM by Dante Silva

[LikeATattoo]

20 minutes ago, Dante Silva said:

I can only be honest in terms of the level of musical enjoyment I got from repeated listens of each one (and not politics):

 

1. MDNA

2. Rebel Heart

3. Hard Candy

4. Madame X

 

I will say that that it's unfortunate MDMA opens with "Girl Gone Wild" as (in my view) it's the most uninspired and basic track Madonna ever released (and didn't deserve to be an album track, let alone a single).

 

I believe when the song "Celebration" was remixed (from the Greatest Hits of the same name that wrapped up her Warners contract), that M was justifiably impressed with the single remix of that track by Benni Benassi and went back to him, suspecting there would be more good energy there but all he had was "Girl Gone Wild" and it speaks to how jaded she she was at that point in time that she thought GOW had single potential.

 

My favourite tracks from MDMA are (in no particular order):

 

Some Girls (rumoured to be about Kim Kardashian)

Love Spent

I'm A Sinner

Falling Free

Turn Up The Radio

Masterpiece

Gang Bang

 

.. And the demo of "Give Me All Your Luvin" (without the features), I got something from the parts that were substituted in the final mix by the raps. 

 

 

This is interesting because I always see people rank MDNA as the worst of her post-2005 works. Contrarily I always see Madame X referred to as a "step in the right direction" (albeit not as good as Rebel Heart). I might have to listen to MDNA in its entirety.

[LOTF]

9 hours ago, MonsterJohn said:

Because Gaga's ended her so her stans spend their last years obsessing over Gaga hihi

Thank God Gaga did not last and Madonna's legacy remains untouched lmaooooo

[A Million Lights]

Hard Candy underperformed in the UK (for Madonna standards), but MDNA was the ultimate downfall

[Popboi.]

17 minutes ago, A Million Lights said:

Hard Candy underperformed in the UK (for Madonna standards), but MDNA was the ultimate downfall

Releasing in April and no promo really destroyed Hard Candy  almost all the female albums above it in the year end were either Q4 releases benefiting from Christmas sales (P!nk and Girls Aloud), or were monster smash albums (Duffy, Leona, Rihanna, Amy Winehouse)

[John Slayne]

3 hours ago, Dante Silva said:

I can only be honest in terms of the level of musical enjoyment I got from repeated listens of each one (and not politics):

 

1. MDNA

2. Rebel Heart

3. Hard Candy

4. Madame X

 

I will say that that it's unfortunate MDMA opens with "Girl Gone Wild" as (in my view) it's the most uninspired and basic track Madonna ever released (and didn't deserve to be an album track, let alone a single).

 

I believe when the song "Celebration" was remixed (from the Greatest Hits of the same name that wrapped up her Warners contract), that M was justifiably impressed with the single remix of that track by Benni Benassi and went back to him, suspecting there would be more good energy there but all he had was "Girl Gone Wild" and it speaks to how jaded she she was at that point in time that she thought GOW had single potential.

 

My favourite tracks from MDMA are (in no particular order):

 

Some Girls (rumoured to be about Kim Kardashian)

Love Spent

I'm A Sinner

Falling Free

Turn Up The Radio

Masterpiece

Gang Bang

 

.. And the demo of "Give Me All Your Luvin" (without the features), I got something from the parts that were substituted in the final mix by the raps. 

 

 

i wanna agree with you but trashing GGW only to then praise TUTR is so unserious 

[Dante Silva]

1 hour ago, John Slayne said:

i wanna agree with you but trashing GGW only to then praise TUTR is so unserious 

Objectively "Turn Up The Radio" is fine IMO. 

[ArtForFreedom]

She turned into a woman in her 50s 

[naval23]

Once 2010 hit, they tossed all the 80s stars to the side I fear

[Zaynsus]

She should've released Girl Gone Wild as the lead, it would've smashed 

[Lover]

and suddenly you wake up ------------------------------------>