Monday, April 28, 2008

MUSIC: Madonna Playlist

To take a trip down memory lane, download this playlist and watch her innovative videos for optimum Madonna overload:




Madonna
(1983)
_+"Burning Up"
_+"Holiday"






Like a Virgin (1984)
This was about the time where she started to amp up her sex appeal.
_+"Material Girl"
_+"Like a Virgin": If you care to watch the video, you'll see the inexplicable use of a lion. Grrr. Aargh.
_+"Get into the Groove": She co-wrote this one for her second starring role in Desperately Seeking Susan.
_+"Dress You Up": I never noticed that the lyrics don't make any sense. "I'm going to dress you up in my love." Huh? There's still a catchy beat. (The song starts at about 1:45 into the concert performance.)
_+"Shoo-Bee-Doo": She wrote it all by herself. That in itself is impressive.
_+"Pretender": These days we refer to them as "players." A more untimely term for them is "asshole."

True Blue (1986)
This is the last album she works intensely with one of her two best producers/co-writers, Stephen Bray. While producing it, she married Sean Penn and she suddenly became very worldly, intelligent, and controversial.
_+"Pappa Don't Preach": One of her most controversial videos ever, where she portrays a young girl who refuses to get an abortion.
_+"Open your heart"
_+"White Heat": This reminds me of a squeaky Ashlee Simpson, and I recommend it despite the juvenile lyrics.
_+"Live to Tell": This was a song written for the Sean Penn film At Close Range.
_+"La Isla Bonita": This was her first venture into worldly music, before she would invade India, Japan...and later Africa. lol_+"Jimmy Jimmy": This kind of gives me a "Hey Mickey! You're so fine!" vibe.


Like a Prayer (1989)
She filed for divorce while producing this album. That might explain all the lyrics about expressing yourself and full-on descriptions of what girls deserve and should ask from men. She was then rumored to be dating Warren Beatty after filming Dick Tracy with him. There are two horrible tracks--one that happens to be a duet with Prince. For shame. But this was her very last awesome album, which she did with her other best producer Patrick Leonard.
_+"Like a Prayer": This is another super controversial video that she shot, depicting stigmata, attempted rape, and what appears to be an African American Jesus.
_+"Express Yourself"
_+"Promise to Try": It's an ode to her deceased mom.




Erotica
(1992)
She produced this album after dating a porn star and Vanilla Ice. I'm not sure if that's why it sucked, but it is why it was so heavy in sexual content.






Bedtime Stories
(1994)
In this album she seemed to have tweaked her sound a bit by going for a sensual R&B vibe. The whole album is pretty mellow.
_+"Human Nature": I like the whispering in the background.
_+"Take a bow": This was actually one of her best ballads--which is saying a lot since she's not known for them.

Ray of Light (1998)
She produced this two years after starring in the critically acclaimed Evita and giving birth to her daughter Lourdes, and one year after getting divorced from her second husband. It's almost as if she were enlightened by the beauty of motherhood. She also immerses herself into Japanese and Indian culture.
_+"Nothing Really Matters":
_+"Frozen"
_+"The Power of Good-Bye"

Music (2000)
She produced this pro-America album when she started dating British director Guy Ritchie and gave birth to her second child Rocco. It veers off her spiritual quest, coincidentally one year after the Princess of Pop, Britney Spears, burst onto the scene. It's also the first time she gets super buff.
_+"Music"
_+"Don't Tell Me"
_+"What it feels like for a girl": It's like a PSA for why girls should know they're awesome.
_+"American Pie"

American Life (2003)
She released this album one year after she was railroaded for her performance in Swept Away and two years after marrying Ritchie. It seems while under the Brit-influence and film criticism, she grew tired of Hollywood's bullshit and released this anti-American album. Unfortunately, she also raps into two songs ("American Life" and "Mother and Father") and reminds us why she should stay a pop star.
_+"Hollywood": Here she tears the media a new one.
_+"Intervention": This is a sweet love song about enduring love's trials.
_+"X-Static Process": Here's an acoustic rendition of this track, where she expresses how it feels to have an identity crisis.
_+"Die Another Day": This is her contribution to the Bond saga.

Confessions of a Dance Floor (2005)
I’m not sure why I’ve always thought of Madonna as a dance diva, but this is actually her first dance album--however, she’s always been physical in her videos and on the stage. In this album, she shows her appreciation for the 80s b-boy and starts the pop-hip hop phase of her career, while bringing back the unitard and Farrah Fawcett hair.
_+"Hung Up"
_+"Sorry"


Honorable Mention: "Vogue" was on the Dick Tracy soundtrack, but it deserves to be downloaded nonetheless.

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