I’ll be honest with you: there was a time when I literally used to really love whatever Madonna did. It was the time when she would dare defying the average audience releasing the “Erotica” album or shooting videos in black latex and kissing a black Jesus. Now, my question is, where the hell has she gone? Is that old bear acting like a teenager showing her photos on Instagram really who she says she is? Is that Madonna, the same who gave us “Vogue” and “Human Nature”? Really? Please, help me out with this, because I don’t think I can cope with it.
Here we have a 55 year old woman painfully trying to fight the rise of the New Queen of Pop, Lady Gaga, trying to look, act and sound like she’s 25. I’m not referring to make-up or botox – everyone uses make-up and botox in Hollywood – and certainly there is nothing wrong in feeling younger, we queens all do, but class is millions of years far away from everything that Madonna has been doing in the last 15 years, not only musically. There comes a time when you have to realise you can still express yourself and innovate – especially if you have 30 years of experience – without having to look like a ridiculous wannabe. Do we really need to witness such a dreary decline? Maddy lost her magic touch, her predictability makes everything she does look flat. It’s a shame to see someone who has contributed so much to pop music not being able to quench her urge for approval from the latest generations.She’s never been a true innovator, by her own admission whatever she did she took her inspiration from David Bowie; on the other hand, she’s managed for years to prove she knew how to provoke the masses.
As mentioned above she was urged towards even more commercial shores until at one point she stopped caring about provoking and started indulging the mainstream market instead of trying to lead it. The result being a series of albums (Hard Candy and MDNA on top) that sound like the worst mix you can get from Justin Bieber, Rihanna and Nicky Minaj all together.To me, Madonna looks lost today. While Lady Gaga has the media and the public at her feet and knows exactly what to do and when to do it to make a ruckus, whatever Miss Ciccone does – be it the umpteenth boring dance album or the latest cheeky video – sounds mercilessly predictable. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t like Lady Gaga’s way to provoke the masses either: she does it without class and with easy targets – don’t even get me started on her awful, disrespectful choice of a meat dress… On the other hand, musically speaking, I think Lady Gaga has a wider range of rich vocals than Madonna, she’s definitely a better singer and her albums sound more innovative and less tedious than all of Miss Ciccone’s post-“Ray Of Light” productions. Of course, Madonna has paved the way to the likes of Lady Gaga, this is unquestionable. Madonna was brave enough to fight the prejudices and win her own – huge – spot in an industry – like many others – where women have to work twice to achieve half (kudos to her constant support to the Gay cause). In fact, that is the Madonna I miss, the Madonna I’m sure the world would love to see again. Until then, there might be an easy solution:
She once said that Bowie helped her going from “dysfunctional girl” to the pop star she is today, so in this respect my proposal is, how about she disappeared for 10 years like Bowie did?
