Part of agenda for this 4th of July weekend has been co-authoring a comprehensive guide to the music of Babyface for my folks at Popdose. With that written and shipped off to Grand Poobah Jeff Giles (and ‘Face sporting a songwriting credit on “Best Thing I Never Had”, one of the best things on Beyonce’s new album , I still have ‘Face on the brain (OK, that sounded weird reading it back. But I’m gonna leave it in). This week’s Award Show Sunday, […]
Posts tagged "Madonna"
Reconsidering Janet Jackson
One of the bigger surprises this winter has been the success of Janet Jackson’s “Number Ones” tour. After the relative failure of the singer/actress’s “Rock With U” tour a couple of years back, many thought that the youngest Jackson sibling was washed up and done for. However, Janet scaled back from arenas to theaters and has enjoyed a fairly successful run through the country. At a time when many legendary artists are struggling to fill venues (it’s called lowering ticket […]
Award Show Sundays: Hot Mess Moments at the VMAs
The MTV Video Music Awards is tonight. The show, which has been broadcast since 1984 (although MTV probably doesn’t want you to know that as it would make them seem very old to their target audience) is usually a pretty entertaining watch, although lately it’s been more for the train-wreck factor than for…you know, good music. I will be sitting this year’s broadcast out! Normally, I’d be up in front of the TV with some beer and popcorn live-blogging my […]
All You Need to Know About the Music of…Madonna! (Part Three)
Madonna came into the Nineties like a lion, and exited the decade like a lamb. Her final effort of the decade, “Ray of Light”, found Madge in a contemplative, serene mood completely unlike her public persona for the previous decade and a half. By the turn of the decade, she was a mother once, about to become a mother for the second time, and had even finally gotten some love from the establishment, winning a handful of Grammy Awards to […]
Another Crazy VH-1 List: The 100 Greatest Artists of All Time
My first thought upon hearing that VH-1 was compiling a list of the 100 Greatest Artists of all time was: how does one even begin to compile such a list? It’s not easy to quantify exactly what makes a great artist. Is it raw talent? Is it an eye for reinvention? Is it work that revolutionizes the artist’s milieu? The thought of taking the time to compile one of these lists myself makes my head explode. Nevertheless, on 9/6, the […]
All You Need to Know About the Music of Madonna (Part 2)
Madonna started her second decade as a performer as a provocateur and ended it as an Earth Mother. The controversy over the “Like a Prayer” video kicked off the era of the gasp-worthy MTV clip, and over the next couple of years, Madonna’s publicity grabs got more and more shameless. Perhaps because she was spending too much time thinking of what over the top thing to do next, her music got worse. Although some would disagree, most of Madonna’s Nineties […]
All You Need to Know About the Music of…Madonna
Doing a series on Popdose dedicated to the music of Michael Jackson got me to thinking. How many other artists (or bands) are out there whose entire discography I’m familiar with? Of course, there are always means by which you can familiarize yourself with an artist’s entire oeuvre, but there’s a handful of acts that I can pretty much go in on without having to do a shit-ton of research (or listening to bad albums), which is why the Popdose guides to […]
Dear Ladies: Time to Make an Adjustment on the Slutometer
When did it become the norm for women in music to be trampy 24/7? Believe me, there is nothing wrong with owning one’s sexuality. But is the concept of being in charge of your sexuality synonymous with acting like a stripper in heat? Over the past decade or so, the role of the woman in pop music has gone from being occasionally titillating to basically playing the role of a ho. Misogynist? Not at all. Work with me here. Name […]
8 Minutes of Audio Greatness…& Video WTF??: Lady GaGa’s “Alejandro”
OK, I give in! For the past 18 months or so, I’ve been trying to resist Lady GaGa, but my defenses have slowly been worn down, and it has less to do with her outrageous imagery and overt sexuality than it has to do with the songs, man! There hasn’t been a pop artist in a long time who’s created so many earworms, one right after the other. While I still think some of her public shenanigans are tasteless and […]
Chartstalker 4/30/10: Positively "Glee"-Ful
WordPress tells me that my top search term of the day is “Chelsea Lately Sex Tape”. This is weird, because I don’t think I’ve ever written about Chelsea Lately or a sex tape. Anyway, I’m gonna use that as a tag just to see how many more hits I get. However, this column isn’t about search results, either! It’s about the Billboard charts and the fact that the “Glee: Power of Madonna” album enters the Album chart at #1, selling […]
ChartStalker 4/25/10:Special Sunday Edition
Still getting back into the swing of things after being away for most of the week. Here’s what’s going on in the world of the Billboard album charts. Last week marked the second week in 2010 when no album managed to reach the 100,000 mark in sales. Justin Bieber’s “My World 2.0” notches a third non-consecutive week at the #1 position, selling another 92,000 copies. Things go into freefall from there, as the #2 album, MGMT’s sophomore effort “Congratulations” only […]
The Disco 100-#20-#11: You Can Dance…For Inspiration
Now it’s getting really hot. This is the point in the countdown where you’re flailing wildly on the dance floor, completely oblivious to the fact that the rest of the crowd has stopped dancing and they’re staring at you, marvelling at your flopping around like a dead fish. You may have taken off your shirt at this point. Or your pants. In case you missed them, here’s the last ten entries in the countdown . Now, let’s move forward. Anyone care to venture a guess as […]