Paperless Tiger
  • Paper[less] Tiger
  • BOOKS
  • COMING SOON
  • Press/Contact
  • Immersion Therapy
  • Curated Projects
  • Paper[less] Tiger
  • BOOKS
  • COMING SOON
  • Press/Contact
  • Immersion Therapy
  • Curated Projects

 paperlesstiger

Fight the Fight. MDNA

23/3/2012

0 Comments

 
Picture
SOME people believe that the music you listen to is in some measure a reflection of who you are as a person.
I'm sure there is something in that, to a certain extent, but what this doesn't really take into account is how music changes over time and how our tastes can both develop and stagnate, and our tendency to associate music with certain times and events in our lives which then renders our preferences non scientific in nature. 
Music afficionados often feel the need to bring down others for their tastes and preferences.  It's a boring snobbery that to me is more reflective of personality than the music someone listens to.  Admit it, you all know someone like  that, that hangs it on you for your choices.  I am surrounded by them.  It's insecurity on these people's part that they feel the need to somehow demonstrate that they are more sophisticated or evolved than you.  Oxymoron(s).
As a pop lover, I am subject to the kind of conversations that teenagers have ad nauseum, because there is an inbuilt judgment being made that I somehow should have evolved beyond my tastes.  Just for the record, my itunes collection is pop heavy, but to dismiss my tastes as being surface dance pop would be inaccurate and limited.  I know more about music than a lot of the people who criticise my tastes do.  But I don't suffer from the same kind of insecurity that makes me feel like I need to defend myself in the face of their stupidity.  The idea that I am merely a Kylie/Madonna boy is the cross I have to wear for other people's narrow minds and assumptions.
Frankly, to the people with this flawed view; I Don't Give A F*ck.
Case in point; I refuse to apologise for my love of Madonna's music. 
I'm a super fan.  People, this is a serious long term relationship that I have been in that has outlasted every non familial relationship I have had.  I'm taking it back to 1984 and it has been immeasurably more rewarding than some of the interactions that I have had in the ensuing years.  Let's face it, music makes life far more tolerable than people do.

Click on READ MORE  to continue the post...

For a mainstream artist, Madonna has had to weather a lot more pressure, criticism and judgement than any of her peers ever did.  And she has done it more consistently than any one else has.
Let's take Blondie for example.  Deborah Harry was the blueprint for early era Madonna, and I am a huge fan of Blondie, but let's get real for a moment.  Blondie as a group made a seminal mix of pop, rock and dance music that was inspired by a punk ethic.  But let's give Blondie the benefit of the doubt and assume that all of their studio albums were masterpieces (not the case).  We are talking about six calendar years between album one and album number six which came out in 1982.  This they did without any of the kind of hyperbole that Madonna has faced in her career. 
Since then, Blondie have occasionally, and unfortunately, reformed for the odd album now and then.  Each time doing so, they have devalued their work and standing as one of the all time greats.  That they were only able to sustain a short period and not evolve beyond the post punk/new wave period suggests that they weren't built for the longterm, even though they are quite rightly recognised for their brilliance.  The point is not so much that they weren't built for the longterm, but that they weren't able to ever match their early brilliance.
Madge on the other hand, has emerged as a long distance runner, who occasionally breaks out into a sprint.  This beyiatch fights her own fight!  Perhaps with the exception of a handful of albums,  Like A Prayer, the Ray of Light -Music era and Confessions on a Dance Floor , which each dominated critical and commercial lists, she has weathered endless criticism, cynicism, sexism and resentment for her ability to reinvent and market herself.  Behind this is an unparalleled ability to make consistently brilliant pop music that more than occasionally transcends the limitations of her personality.  Let's face it, beyiatch would be an international treasure if she wasn't all bravado, all chola, all ambition.  But that's the way the Ciccone is made, cos if she didn't have that personality, she would be seen as being a phenomenal songwriter and pop maker, vocal limitations or not.
Thirty years on she still has the ability to capture the imagination of the world and simply erase negative associations with a good album.  Not many artists, in any genre, can continually re-establish themselves, particularly after a four year hiatus.
Today marks the release of Madonna's twelfth studio album MDNA, that comes on the eve of her thirtieth year in pop.  Rather than thoughtful interpretations of the work such as this, we can probably expect to be flooded with a mixed bag of positive reviews, criticisms about the fact that she is no longer steering the path of pop music and the constant restatement that she harnesses the drawing power of younger collaborators
Frankly, if any act, thirty years into their career was still capable of making high caliber tracks like I'm A Sinner, Love Spent, Addicted and Gang Bang, I will gratefully tip my hat.  But, I'm not a music snob, and music snobs aren't generally capable of objectivity.  Come to think of it, neither are super fans.

UPDATE:  MDNA is shaping up to be one of my preferred M albums...it definitely stands up to repeated listenings.  At the moment, I am completely enthralled by Falling Free.  It's amazing, like a piece of chamber music fused with kooky electronic pop, with a few moments of Yiddish like pronunciation thrown in for good measure.
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Picture











    Picture

    Dave Di Vito


    Writer, teacher and former curator who splits his time between Melbourne and Rome.

    Subscribe to the mailing list for information about upcoming releases and a free excerpt!

    Subscribe!

    * indicates required
    Tweets by @DDVinyltiger

    Archives

    April 2020
    July 2019
    March 2019
    August 2018
    March 2018
    August 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    November 2014
    October 2014
    March 2014
    July 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    November 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    June 2010
    May 2010
    April 2010

    Categories

    All
    2016
    80s Music
    Adelita Huang-Bey
    Ahmed Basiony
    Ai Weiwei
    Alec Soth
    Alessia Rollo
    Andris Eglitis
    Angelica Dass
    Ang Lee
    Anne Inhauf
    Art
    Asako Narahashi
    Atif Khan
    Australia
    Bande A Sud
    Banksy
    Belinda Carlisle
    Berlin
    Bernardo Oyarzùn
    Beyonce
    Biennale 2011
    Biennale 2015
    Biennale 2017
    Biennale2019
    Bill Viola
    Bitume
    Blonde Redhead
    Blondie
    Bruce Nauman
    Cabello/Carceller
    Candice Breitz
    Cevdet Erek
    Chiharu Shiota
    China
    Christo
    Cinthia Marcelle
    City
    Claudia Fontes
    Cody Choi
    Contemporary Art
    Corporate Sponsorship
    Crash
    Crowdfunding
    Culture
    Curating
    Damon Kowarsky
    Dan Black
    Dapunta Hyang
    Darren Hayes
    David Bowie
    Design
    Donna Summer
    Dragoljub Raša Todosijevic
    Ekaterina Vasilyeva
    Elaine Sturtevant
    Electronica
    Environmental
    Events
    Exhibitions
    Fabrizio Albertini
    Fertility Day
    Fight The Fight
    Film
    Fiona Hall
    Flaka Haliti
    Francesc Ruiz
    Galleries
    Gal Weinstein
    George Drivas
    George Michael
    Gerald Machona
    Giorgio Andreotta Calò
    Giorgio Di Noto
    GLBT
    Gloria Casto
    Great Tigers
    Gwen Stefani
    Gyula Vàrnai
    Hajnal Nemeth
    Hany Armanious
    Haruki Murakami
    Heri Dono
    Heritage Management
    Hiroshi Sugimoto
    Ibrahim Mahama
    If They Could Speak
    Imranovi
    Italy
    Ivan Grubanov
    Jana Źelibská
    Janet Jackson
    Jan Fabre
    Jan Stradtmann
    Japan
    Jason Moran
    Jeon Joonho
    Jesse Jones
    Joel Peter Witkin
    John Niven
    Jorge Fuembuena
    Jun Nakasuji
    Kaarina Kaikkonen
    Kanye West
    Kate Ceberano
    Katherine Macdaid
    Katrina Neiburga
    Keith Haring
    Kunstpedia
    Kutlug Ataman
    Kylie
    Kyoko Imazu
    Kyoto
    Land Art
    Last Train Home
    Laszlo Biro
    Lecce
    Lee Wan
    Lee Yongbaek
    Legambiente
    Lisa Reihana
    Lorenzo Maccotta
    Lucamaleonte
    Lushsux
    Madonna
    Making My Peace
    Makus Schinwald
    Marcello Maloberti
    Mark Jenkins
    Marzia Migliora
    Matthieu Bernard Raymond
    Maurizio Galimberti
    May You Live In Interesting Times
    Media
    Melbourne
    Meshell N
    M.i.a
    Michelangelo Pistoletto
    Mika Rottenberg
    Mircea Cantor
    Modern Architecture
    Moha Modsiakeng
    Monica Bonvicini
    Moon Kyungwon
    Mounir Fatmi
    MTV
    Murals
    Museo Nazionale D'arte Orientale
    Museums
    Music
    Naples
    Natalie Imbruglia
    New Zealand
    Nicola Samori
    Nidhal Chamekh
    Nina's Drag Queens
    Nirvana
    Nufactory
    Paris
    Pascale Marthine Tayou
    Pepo Salazar
    Pet Shop Boys
    Photography
    Pop
    Pop Culture
    Prince
    Printmakers
    Public Art
    Puglia
    Ralph Rugoff
    Rania Matar
    Reactions
    Religion
    Retailing
    Riace
    Rihanna
    Rinko Kawauchi
    Rip
    Robbie Williams
    Roberto Cuoghi
    Robin Rhode
    Roisin Murphy
    Rome
    Salvador Dali
    Sam Harris
    Self Publishing
    Shanghai
    Social Media
    Space Invader
    Street Art
    Sun Kil Moon
    Super Pop
    Tabaimo
    Takahiro Iwasaki
    Television
    Terry Adkins
    Theatre
    Thomas Hirschhorn
    Tiago Mata Machado
    Tivoli
    Tom Ford
    Tony Oursler
    Tori Amos
    Tracey Moffatt
    Unesco
    Vajiko Chachkhiani
    Valentina Vannicola
    Vatican Museum
    Venice
    Vettor Pisani
    Video
    Vincent J Huang
    Vinyl Tiger
    Whitney Houston
    Willem Popelier
    Writing
    Wu Jian'an
    Wunderkammern
    Xu Bing
    Yao Huiffen
    Zai Kuning

    RSS Feed




Dave Di Vito is a writer, teacher and former curator.He's also the author of the Vinyl Tiger series and Replace The Sky.
For information about upcoming writing projects subscribe to the mailing list.
Dave hates SPAM so he won't trouble you with any of his own. He promises.