Now that we've seen that Madonna is still capable of delivering top quality bodies of work I feel like the 2010s was "the lost decade" for her both artistically and in terms of success. So using your best industry senses let's try to redo/replan the last decade for her and imagine what kind of outcomes that could lead to. Let's realistically keep it to 3 projects too.

MDNA was her #1 that decade so let's keep it lol. Maybe mix it better and keep it more cohesive with electronic sound

Rebel Heart - cancel the whole thing. Release Madame X sooner so we get Confessions II sooner (but still this decade)

MDNA and Rebel Heart were messy albums but still gave us some career highlights

And Madame X is the one album I use to prove that something being experimental doesn't necessarily make it good. I can't lose my go-to example like that... actually I just remembered Bjork's discography post-Vespertine exists. Madame X can go

tbh her sins are her savior so id change nothing.

but if anything needed to change that decade, scrap the entire mdna era and have her make an album of songs she authentically enjoyed and not songs she thought people wanted from her.

keep quiet after hard candy and come back 2 decades later as a semi mystical reclusive figure, everyone's interested, no one had to hear madame x

Cut MDNA down to 10 tracks only and release it in 2011 with a Britney collab as the lead single. Also release an EDM remix of Express Yourself featuring Katy Perry.

Collab with Rihanna in between eras.

Start recording Rebel Heart with Avicii as executive producer and release its lead in Fall 2013. The album is lauded as a return to form and a successor to COTD.

Then, take a ten year long hiatus focusing on films, Vegas Residency or beauty products.

The main problem with MDNA is complacency - playing it safe. I think with that album, I'd have her just lean in more. Tracks like I'm Addicted were its strongest cuts, and things like the UMF mix of GGW were actually better than their original counterparts. Basically, if we were going to get a Madonna album that leans into the kind of EDM that was popular in the early 10s, I'd just want her to really lean into it. No GMAYL, certainly not as a single - give its slot in the Super Bowl set list to something much more compelling.

For Rebel Heart, I think it's similar: she needed to trust her gut more. Of course we all know about the demos that leaked that a lot of fans found to be better than the final mixes, and the album as a whole feels a little sprawling and disjointed - I think it could have all been tightened up and probably finished sooner if she just settled into a more singular and cohesive direction with it. I think a little more focus in direction would probably also yield a lead single more likely to be a real hit. Living For Love seems like it was selected just for fitting the generic Madonna mold, but something more bold like ***** I'm Madonna has done way better on streaming and Ghosttown did moderately better on streaming, better at radio, and represents the actual sound of the final album better.

Madame X was really more a problem of marketing than anything else. It has tracks that more neatly fit into expectations of what Madonna represents as an artist and it tries to be a little more thoughtful and experimental, but the messaging this time feels a little underbaked and probably a little intimidating to get into for a casual listener compared to something more straightforward and simple. It still wouldn't be my favorite album of hers, but it's the only one where I can point to a particular change and say "that's it, that's the problem."

None of these would change certain basic facts that contributed to her commercial decline. She'd still have been much older than most pop stars that society is willing to give radio play or certain kinds of attention, still a certain impressive number of years into her career - those can't magically be fixed. But note that Confessions II doesn't have any of these problems, and it worked great. It's a sonically focused album that leans hard in the direction it wanted to go and its main marketing is literally just "we're doing Confessions again." And it works! When she trusts herself creatively, has a label that trusts and supports her vision, leans in, and keeps it straightforward, it all just clicks together in a perfect way.

I would redo MDNA. The timing was right. The title was ok I guess, even though she didn't really need a play on words with a popular drug. She could have taken a different electronic direction, not what everyone was doing at the time. Scrap Gimme All UR Luvin. That song is truly embarrassing. Delete half the songs, remake the other half. Boom: a solid timeless dance record.

Delete Rebel Heart and everything related to it almost entirely. There's no saving grace for it. Perhaps following Adele's influence on the industry, take a stripped down approach for this next album. Pianos, guitars, raw vocals without any effects. Something about growing older and gaining different perspective. Like a child of Ray of Light and the acoustic side of American Life. Madonna has always had great ballads, this would have been a very appropriate time for it.

Redo Madame X. I feel like the direction was right. She wasn't chasing trends, she wasn't trying to get a hit. She was deep in her experimental hat and frankly this is the most left-field album by a major pop girl almost ever. The foundation and the scaffolding is all there. She would just need to focus a little harder on making the album more cohesive and slightly more enjoyable in place. Delete some of the more "modern" songs and remove those damn grills. This could have been such a great album and era.

burn madame x with gasoline, release confessions II in its stead

I vaguely remember MDNA had a lot of Ray of Light hype pre-release because of William Orbit's involvement. It's hard to imagine now that we know what MDNA sounds like but it makes sense if you hadn't heard it yet and knew Orbit was on the record.

I think that really killed the album's reception and momentum - it sounds nothing like ROL

In the end it was because Interscope wasnt a match with Madonna in any way or even artist/producers and writers.

Superbowl and MDNA tour should have been a greatest hits tour/celebration. The superbowl suffrers from the lack of classics such as holiday etc and so does the tour

Rebel Heart needed to be a 10 track album Madonna + Abicci with as the lead single Rebel Heart Avicci version. Lean in accoustic because those were the best moments of the tour " True Boyr" Whos that Girl Like A Prayer... Make it a campfire album

Madame X make it more experimental even and take off Crave/ Medellin ***** im loca, Make a world music album with Mirways where madonna rediscovers cultures

Edited July 15Jul 15 by LittleStarmen

MDNA is one of her greatest works so keep everything about that as is.

Make Rebel Heart and Madame X cute 6-8 track EPs.

Confessions II wouldn't be as eventful and impactful if the album before it were as great. It'll just be seen as "another good album" instead of a core career highlight. Not to be shady but MDNA-Madame X magnified Confessions II by a lot.

We'll keep MDNA. Every girl needs to have at least one flop album, and the tour more than made up for it.

We're going to make Girl Gone Wild the first single and I'm Addicted the second single.

The Superbowl setlist: Vogue, Music, Girl Gone Wild, Party Rock Anthem, Express Yourself mixed with Born This Way. Special guests: LMFAO, Lady Gaga

She never performs with Drake, instead agreeing to make a short visual he can play at concerts.

We scrap a lot of the work on Rebel Heart and reserve it for later, only picking at it for Madame X.

Before Madame X can really be worked on, however, we need to address M's health issues, because she was very clearly not healthy at this time. Get the knee looked at, I believe her hip as well, and make sure she is on the right medication and not overdoing it.

Madame X becomes an eclectic mix of songs that span material dating back to Hard Candy: Animal, Lela Pala Tute, Across the Sky, Queen, Best Night, Beautiful Scars, Borrowed Time, etc. Mirwais only handles part of the production, with Stuart Price handling the rest. Also, I would try to convince her to write with Patrick Leonard and Joe Henry again, who, I feel, would have given the lyrically heavier but melodically weaker songs on Madame X more presence and flow. The auto-tune effect is only used sparingly (à la Paradise [Not for Me]). The first single is Crave, second is Medellín, third is Future. Gun Control's video doesn't actually show gun violence, but heavily alludes to it (the best horror is the kind we don't see), and Madonna makes a public donation to anti-gun advocacy groups. The album artwork is solely the image of her with the bandana. There is no deluxe edition; Madame X should feel like an artistic statement more than a pop album.

Madonna only has shared control over what is posted to her Instagram profile, which should be primarily used to promote her work.

We keep most of the theater performance for the Madame X Tour, but we station it around the world so she isn't hurting herself with all this unnecessary extra rehearsal and travel. She performs a set of five shows in New York, Los Angeles, London, and Paris. She has at least a one-week rest period in between each station. Also, the director? Her brother Christopher. And she's on time within a maximum of one hour of the scheduled showtime.

The performance with Maluma doesn't happen, nor does the VMA performance. We're aiming for more high-brow appeal, more avant-garde than MTV. This is fully her Björk era that will be dissected for decades to come.

Edited July 15Jul 15 by The7thStranger

After Celebration, a long ass break.

Make a massive comeback with Confessions II.

This is what I pretend happened anyway.

LEAD SINGLE BDAY SONG

I personally wouldn't delete RH. The demos of most of the songs and if it was trimmed had potential to be a really great album.

She doesn't release any music at all and forms a cosmetics company specializing in anti aging and sells it for 2 billion in 2024. Then makes a comeback to music with Confessions.

Career fixed.

5 minutes ago, Mewtroyshka said:

I personally wouldn't delete RH. The demos of most of the songs and if it was trimmed had potential to be a really great album.

Rebel Heart (Aviici Demo) is a future smasher. One day when she's gone it would be perfect to promote a movie about her life.

MDNA: Only N*cki on Give Me All Your Luvin', no M.I.A. in sight which means also no Birthday Song, no LMFAO s#it, and no Martin Solveig on the production, on the other side more Benny Benassi with I'm Addicted being a single

Rebel Heart: After the leak, she would just shelve the album as a whole and we'd live only by listening to the demos on YouTube

Madame X: Focus on italo disco and experimental songs like Dark Ballet and God Control, throw the latin and trap parts to the trash

Hmmm, I'm not sure how to "re-do" these eras as the over-arching endgoal was always abundantly clear (as least to me). It had less to do with music and more to do with money.

I've always felt the materialization and promotion of those albums, especially MDNA and Rebel Heart, panned out the way they did because Live Nation was desperate to get Madonna back out on tour as part of that 10 year deal that she signed back in 2007. She also signed to Interscope records as a part of that deal (she was basically in a 360 contract). That is why they had her operating like a pop star of this generation with the writing camps and phoned in productions/collaborations and such. That's not to say those albums didn't have good, even great, songs scattered throughout but she definitely was at the behest of Interscope records for the overall direction of those records. Honestly, I never thought she "lost" anything. I strongly believe she only acquiesced because those tours that resulted from Hard Candy, MDNA and Rebel Heart albums were great opportunities to recoup all that money she had to pay Guy Ritchie in 2008 as part of their divorce. Once she had recouped some liquid assets from those massive tours and the Live Nation/Interscope deal was nearing its end, she moved to Portugal and started work on Madame X. With certian financial burdens out of the way, she was able to try to focus again. Madame X sounds the way it does does because she was rusty but at least she was heavily invested in her work again. Madame X serving as a palate cleanser and the personal setbacks she's had in her 60s is what makes C2 such an emotional and artistic triumph.

Edited July 16Jul 16 by Soda Pop Queen

MDNA: scrap GMAYL completely (horrible song, I still have no idea what she was thinking) and release GGW instead, with a Nicki verse if Madonna insists and scrap M.I.A too (which means no B-Day Song lol). I would also replace the deluxe tracks (Beautiful Killer, I Fůcked Up, Best Friend) with some of the standard tracks (Gang Bang, Superstar, GMAYL) since they fit the theme of the album better.

Rebel Heart: this rollout was ruined by the leaks. If she had been able to execute her original vision it would've been her best 2010's album. Release Rebel Heart Avicii's version as the lead single.

Madame X: nothing is saving this massive turd so delete it fat I guess. Either release Confessions II in its place or begin re-releasing her albums with outtakes, demos, etc.

7 hours ago, KMO said:

I vaguely remember MDNA had a lot of Ray of Light hype pre-release because of William Orbit's involvement. It's hard to imagine now that we know what MDNA sounds like but it makes sense if you hadn't heard it yet and knew Orbit was on the record.

I think that really killed the album's reception and momentum - it sounds nothing like ROL

was concepted to be ROL II with Orbit's involvement and is this why they fell out?

4 minutes ago, BraveNewSeth said:

MDNA: scrap GMAYL completely (horrible song, I still have no idea what she was thinking) and release GGW instead, with a Nicki verse if Madonna insists and scrap M.I.A too (which means no B-Day Song lol). I would also replace the deluxe tracks (Beautiful Killer, I Fůcked Up, Best Friend) with some of the standard tracks (Gang Bang, Superstar, GMAYL) since they fit the theme of the album better.

Rebel Heart: this rollout was ruined by the leaks. If she had been able to execute her original vision it would've been her best 2010's album. Release Rebel Heart Avicii's version as the lead single.

Madame X: nothing is saving this massive turd so delete it fat I guess. Either release Confessions II in its place or begin re-releasing her albums with outtakes, demos, etc.

doesn't GMAYL solely exist for the Superbowl performance? it's an awful song

55 minutes ago, Ghostface91 said:

was concepted to be ROL II with Orbit's involvement and is this why they fell out?

I think he was just upset about minimal involvement on the record and recently criticised Stuart Price - I think he's just bitter