Madonna "Hard Candy"

[nrgbeat]

Does Madonna know how to promote herself? You bet.

To keep herself hip with the kidz of today, she teams up with Justin Timberlake on her new song and she's guaranteed airplay.

It's all about the marketing.

[Videoskooter]

[discokicks]

Originally Posted by nrgbeat

Does Madonna know how to promote herself? You bet.

To keep herself hip with the kidz of today, she teams up with Justin Timberlake on her new song and she's guaranteed airplay.

It's all about the marketing.

And don't forget the Midas touch of Timbaland....oh and Kanye West rapping somewhere in there too.

When you're desperate to sell, you bring out all the big guns. Luckily there's a public that falls for it.

[Graham_Start]

That trick didn't work for Duran Duran though :)

[SandraDee]

She seems to me to be trying to win back her American fans 'cos I heard her last 2 LPs didn't do that well over there.

[Graham_Start]

Originally Posted by SandraDee

She seems to me to be trying to win back her American fans 'cos I heard her last 2 LPs didn't do that well over there.

American Life was basically a flop, but "Confessions" seemed to do well from what I could tell. I heard it *everywhere* for the better part of a year, as is typical with most Madge releases.

Do the sales figures factor in the fact that CD sales overall have fallen by almost half since 2000? The days of multi-million-selling releases are over. Gold is the new platinum.

[buckaroo]

A past it old bag.

[Mr.Ree]

I don't understand why she seems so desperate to stay in the spotlight when she's been there about 20 years already. And in my opinion, the electronic music she keeps experimenting with really isn't the best vehicle for her already limited voice. But she seems to have hot connections in the entertainment industry who agree to keep her in the news. I enjoy the music of female artists who I feel have so much more originality to offer who apparently will never get their due, like Joan Armatrading, Lisa Fischer, Toni Childs, Brenda Russell, Tracy Thorn and others. Truly moving songs: "Walk and Talk Like Angels" from Toni Childs, "Black Boys on Mopeds" by Sinead O'Connor, "All That You Have is your Soul", Tracy Chapman and "Brown Skin" by India Arie. Not one of Mariah Carey or Madonna's biggest hits touches me like those songs do.

[Broomfield1965]

And the record company seem to want to squeeze as much as they can from this, her final release for Warners. We have (or are at least promised - release dates teasingly keep being put back):

Regular CD
CD in a boxed set with two extra remixes
Japanese CD with extra 'unrealesed' tracks
LP - 2 lp on coloured vinyl with bonus black 12" of "4 minutes" remixes + 'bonus' CD of the entire lp

and, as for "4 minutes":

in the UK:

2 CD singles
and scheduled (again, release dates keep bing delayed, probably never to see the actual light of day...)
2X12" single
12" picture disc single

No wonder both she and the record company keep her career going, people buy this stuff by the cartload!

I'm a Madonna fan from way back but I have to say that for me, the 'Madge' bubble has burst and I haven't even bothered to buy this release or even hear it!

[SandraDee]

Originally Posted by Broomfield1965

I'm a Madonna fan from way back but I have to say that for me, the 'Madge' bubble has burst and I haven't even bothered to buy this release or even hear it!

I feel the same way about her; I bought all her LPs up to 'Ray Of Light' & then lost interest. I remember buying her first (& still her best IMO) LP at the end of '83 & the shop had to order it specially as they had never heard of her! (hard to believe now). Although she's not a great singer I've always felt that she has amazing presence & charisma. I feel the same about the late Sylvester - the first moment that I saw either of them they immediately grabbed my attention.

[Broomfield1965]

Originally Posted by SandraDee

I feel the same way about her; I bought all her LPs up to 'Ray Of Light' & then lost interest. I remember buying her first (& still her best IMO) LP at the end of '83 & the shop had to order it specially as they had never heard of her! (hard to believe now). Although she's not a great singer I've always felt that she has amazing presence & charisma. I feel the same about the late Sylvester - the first moment that I saw either of them they immediately grabbed my attention.

I remember hearing "Everybody" in a club somewhere and then seeing the 12" in HMV for £1.60 and casually thinking "Oh, I like that one..." and toying with the idea of buying it and in the end, not buying it! Wish I had now coz you wouldn't get much change from around £150 for it now! However, I did buy every 12" release from Lucky Star (first release) onwards, so have some nice desirables in there...

I saw Sylvester on 'Top of the pops' in 1979 doing "you make me feel". It was the video (he wasn't in the studio). I clearly remember he was sporting a big f*ck off 'do' and waving a fan around one minute, and then wearing a white suit with a short hair style the next! Was this a woman or a man? It sounded like a woman, but looked like a guy when he/she was in the suit with short hair, so what the hell was going on?! I wasn't sure but I knew I loved it, the music and the style! So, after school the following day, I rushed into the record store with my lunch money and bought it. Later, at the bus stop, some kids from my school saw the record bag and wanted to know what I had bought? When I showed them, there was a loud holler - "QUEER"!!! "GAY BOY!!!" etc. I was absolutley mortified and embarrassed as hell. I didn't quite understand why liking this record meant to these kids that you were obviously a 'queer', but secretly, I knew I was on to something but wasn't quite sure what. The next step was getting into Donna Summer and Gloria Gaynor!

Which leads me onto a question:

Is it possible that a kid can get into 'queer culture' before he/she knows that 'queer culture' even exists, or that he/she is gay? I find it quite beyond coincidence that many, many gay guys I know all seemed to 'get into' music that is popularly associated with the gay scene, even before they knew a gay scene existed! Subject for a new thread (being respectfully aware of the possible exclusion of straight subscribers)?

[SandraDee]

Originally Posted by Broomfield1965

Is it possible that a kid can get into 'queer culture' before he/she knows that 'queer culture' even exists, or that he/she is gay?

Oh absolutely. I've talked about this on this site before, how I was buying Donna Summer & Diana Ross records when I was 11 but I was a very unworldly kid 'cos when the other kids at school said Village People were gay I thought 'surely not'! That Sylvester video for 'You Make Me Feel' really changed my life - that guy was unique & way ahead of his time.

[Broomfield1965]

Originally Posted by SandraDee

kids at school said Village People were gay.

Thanks for replying with your experience, it's really interesting to see that I was not the only kid to have had this story to tell. But the burning question still remains: why? how? .....

Anyway, Village People. I can distinctly remember when they were at number one in the UK with "YMCA" and some older guys at school were talking about how they were all gay. I was about 12 and 'things were beginning to stir' if you know what I mean. Up 'til then, I don't recall a single gay 'personality' that was either handsome or didn't prance about like a total queen, so these guys were of supreme interest!

I remember too, being mighty p*ssed off years later when I read that the only truly gay 'Village person' was Filipe Rose and that in fact the rest were all straight! Then I read somewhere else later one that Glen was gay, then somewhere else that Randy is and David is, but Victor isn't etc. etc. etc. So what's the true picture? And 'no', a person's sexuality isn't really relevent but 'yes', I am a gossipy queen who'd just love to know the truth. So, anyone out there with the real truth wanna dish?

[Broomfield1965]

Hi everyone!

Well, FINALLY, the 3 LP edition of Hard Candy is released! I'm a bit confused though. The ones I have seen pictured on ebay (see below) look to be blue and pink, each mixed with a white vinyl to produce a splattered effect:

hard candy.jpg

However, the copy I have are blue (record 1) and pink (record 2), but solid colour with no white streaking at all! Are there variations in the pressings then? I'm sure that a lot of us will have this release, so can I ask you to tell us what form your vinyls take, splattered or solid or even something else?