Madonna

I’ve made this stance before in bars and whatnot, but an incident at a nightclub last night has given me new motivation to reiterate my claims...

Madonna is overrated.

I have never understood the absolute love of Madonna in the U.S. If you actually listen to her voice and her lyrics, they’re usually at best mediocre. She has a couple of songs that aren’t to bad within the pop universe, but as musical productions themselves, they’re never that great.

However, I fully applaud her ability to pull the wool over America’s (and the world’s) eyes. Everytime she has a new song, the first thing you hear is, “Madonna is back with a new look. Here’s her new song!” Excuse me? Since when did how one appeared make for good music? Don’t get me wrong - the visual can increase the aural appreciation of music, but it can’t replace it. I don’t care if she’s back as a brunette/mom/Kabballah-lover/fascist/whatever. It’s the music that matters first, THEN the image. And yet, the world buys it. They barely give her music a second’s worth of attention, focusing on if it’s catchy for the 5 seconds it takes to decide such matters, and then instantly talking about her new look. And make no mistakes - reinventing image where there’s no musical strength is something Madonna excels at. Have you seen any other pop star that has been able to perpetuate a career for so long based almost completely on image?

So, bravo, Madonna - years ago you learned and have masterfully employed an uncanny ability to get people to keep you in their minds without producing anything of real note in the musical world.

Musically?

Madonna is overrated.