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Tag: Madonna

  • Rock ‘N Roll Hall of Fame 2008: Who?!??!?

    Next year’s class of inductees for the Rock ‘N Roll Hall of Fame was announced a couple of days ago, and my overwhelming response to the motley crew of artists inducted this year is: huh?
    Well, not totally. Madonna’s a gimme. While those that argue that “rock ‘n roll” music (as in: white guys playing guitars) has nothing to do with Madonna, most people with sense are fully aware that the term “rock ‘n roll” encompasses just about every form of American popular music post-1955. Hell, would folks consider Bill Haley and Little Richard rock ‘n roll nowadays because they don’t sound like The White Stripes?
    Anyway, Madonna’s a legend. She was a gimme. Next.
    I love John Mellencamp, but he’s always been a poor man’s Bruce Springsteen to me and a whole bunch of other folks.
    Leonard Cohen? From the little bit I know of him, fantastic songwriter. We’ll file Mellencamp and Cougar into the “this could have gone either way” pile.
    Maybe I’m salty about the Dave Clark Five and The Ventures being inducted because they’re not of my era of music. But, seriously, I can list a cross-genre list of at least 50 artists currently not in the HoF that made better music, made interesting music for a longer period of time, and had greater influence on music and popular culture at large than these two bands. We could start with bands that were on the ballot this year and not voted in (The Beastie Boys, Donna Summer and Chic chief among them), and then head off to Yes, Metallica, Genesis, Hall & Oates, Electric Light Orchestra…and that’s just to start…Depeche Mode, New Order/Joy Division, The Go-Gos, Devo, and that list just came from a sideways glance at my CD collection. A lot of folks are teed off at the fact that neither Rush nor Kiss is in the Hall of Fame, and I might even make the case for Luther Vandross and Janet Jackson (both of whom are eligible) before including those two inducted bands.
    Much like the Grammy nominations, you’ve just gotta roll your eyes when it comes to things like these. Congrats to the inductees.

  • Madonna Does Moscow

    Not content to rile the Romans, Madonna is maddening the Muscovites. After the Vatican protested her Rome concert last month, Madonna continued making waves among church leaders.

    Reuters is reporting that the Material Girl is due to play a sold out stadium show in Moscow in just one week, but the Russian Orthodox Church, the largest of the Orthodox churches, doesn’t like the idea of the once-Catholic Madonna using religious imagery such as a crucifixition and a crown of thorns in her show. The news agency says the group is a “fringe” of the main Church body, but the Orthodox church (motto: we haven’t changed in 2000 years) is hardly the place to go avant-garde with the religious motif.

    If nothing else Madonna deserves props for her continuing relevancy in music. Not only did she become embraced (literally!) by her successors, but she may be the shrewdest music promoter outside of Island or Def Jam. And make no mistake — this is all about hype.

    How much hype? Madonna’s latest album, the time when CMC is usually cranking out the 3rd greatest hits melange, is last year’s Confessions of a Dance Floor, a #1 smash around the world. Not bad for a bleached blonde just shy of fifty. Like Elton John learned to do after the 1970s and Billy Joel never learned how to do, Madonna continues to be a part of contemporary music culture.

    CD Spinning Today:
    After seeing today’s story, I was tempted to reach for Mr. Mister’s Kyrie, but opted instead for Justin’s Sexyback. When the Material Girl can go legit (you remember dismissing her in the mid ’80s), Justin’s time could be near.

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