^Not true at all. Like A Virgin has the Motown rip off sound and the melodies are much weaker in my opinion. The last 3 songs on LAV are pure shit while the first album has real gems like "Borderline" or "Burning Up".

Madonna herself stated that the second album was meant to be more live instruments and she especially wanted Nile Rodgers' sound "because he's a genius". I believe she had no control on the production of the debut album for the most part, just that in the end she took the whole thing to Jellybean and remixed some of it.

The only similarity in the first 2 albums is Madonna's helium voice.

LiveToTell86 said:

It's funny that you don't like the last 3 songs, they're the ones that most fit on the first album. All I know is when these two albums are playing on shuffle I just view it as one long album as I forget which ones come from which album. Your opinion just confuses me even more. What exactly are the differences?

To be honest, I never really consider Donna a "disco" artist. I considered her a pop artist who just happens to have dance material and has a good rocker or two. She's very diverse compare to someone like Gloria Gaynor. She and Madonna are both pop artists who just happen to have dance material.

Timmy84 said:

Timmy84 said:

One thing that always bothered me about Donna...

The so-called "disco backlash" of 1980 must have really scared her,because she spent most of the 80s trying to distance herself from that style of music.I remember an early-80s interview where she said "People can't dance forever..it's time to move on" She tried to position herself as a rock singer (remember her 1980 single "Cold Love"?),but rock audiences weren't interested.Not surprisingly,one of her biggest albums of the 80s was 1989's 'Another Place And Time',which is sorta a return to her 70s synth-disco roots.

SoulAlive said:

That was quite odd...

Timmy84 said:

Indeed it was.It was like she was turning her back on the music that made her a superstar,paving the way for artists like Madonna to carry the torch.

SoulAlive said:

I feel had she did like Diana Ross did, there's a chance her career would've survived without her trying to be too rock & roll for the mainstream press. I guess her born-again conversion also had an effect on her. I feel the real Donna Summer was somewhere inside that body in the seventies. And she's just slowly realizing that.

Timmy84 said:

Diana Ross was alot wiser than Donna was in the 80s.She picked fun,catchy songs to record ("Upside Down","I'm Coming Out","Mirror Mirror","Swept Away","Why Do Fools Fall In Love").Her 80s output is alot stronger than the stuff that Donna was doing in that period.She wasn't trying to be a rock singer,or appeal to an audience that had no use for her.In 1980,while Donna was running away from disco,Diana made the smartest move of her career.She worked with producers Niles Rodgers and Bernard Edwards and had the most successful album of her career.Compare the brilliant "Upside Down" to the New Wav-ish "The Wanderer" (an odd song which baffled many listeners).

SoulAlive said:

So true.

Donna's 80s albums are a mixed bag.I like the 1982 Quincy Jones-produced album the best because at least he's got her doing a dance/R&B sound.'She Works Hard For The Money' is a good album,but the two that followed ('Cats Without Claws' (1984) and 'All Systems Go'(1987) are disappointing.A few good songs on each album,and some embarassing filler.

SoulAlive said:

Donna tried too hard, I think...

Arnotts said:

I don't like the last 3 songs because they are very weak and lack any memorable hook. Yes, they would fit in with "I Know It" or "Think Of Me" because those are among her worst songs as well.

I think there are lot of differences: the first album has several songs that are like long dance mixes, while on LAV everything is so radio friendly, not club-oriented. LAV has a lot more instruments and the drums are very promiment while the debut is more focused on the synths, like the bleeps of "Physical Attraction" or the famous intro of "Lucky Star". The songs on debut have more "sections", songs like "Dress You Up" are just the chorus repeated forever (what is my main criticism for COADF). And lastly, LAV has 2 ballads while even "Borderline", the slowest song on the debut is closer to a dance song than a ballad...

I think you find them similar because Madonna sings with the same voice and because of that all the songs seem to be "throwaway pop fluff". The subject matters are very void as well (with the exception of "Burning Up"). Of course I admit that the difference between these 2 albums are less than LAV-TB, TB-LAP, Erotica-BS, AL-COADF etc, but I think treating them as interchangeable is quite a stretch.

SoulAlive said:

I thought Donna had a hit in 1989 because many were using the SAW producers and her song was just another one in their factory.

She really tried to distance herself from disco, but I think it was label pressure, they wouldn't have kept releasing Donna albums of 80s if she stayed in the disco era or kept releasing same kinda dance songs, especially with Madonna herself appearing as competition. I remember last year she admitted that "disco will always be her baby" so it's not impossible that Donna spent the 80s trying to be someone she wasn't...

LiveToTell86 said:

Well yeah....the SAW sound was "hot" in the late 80s and Donna certainly benefitted from working with a hot production team.But I think the album was so well-received because it's exactly the type of musical setting that her fans preferred."This Time I Know It's For Real" is the most "disco-y" thing Donna had done since the 'Bad Girls' album a decade earlier.SAW specialized in a synth-pop/disco-type sound that was similiar to the Moroder/Bellotte sound of the 70s.Out of all of her 80s albums,this is the one that sounds the most like her classic 70s albums.



Actually,her label wanted more dance music from her.In the summer of 1981,Donna recorded a 2-record set titled 'I'm A Rainbow' which was scheduled to be released in the fall of that year.David Geffen rejected it.It was too rock/New Wave-sounding and he wanted another 'Bad Girls'.The two of them spent the rest of the decade fighting over the direction her music should take.Meanwhile,her career suffered tremendously.

Timmy84 said:

She didn't seem to understand that,even though the 70s were over,people still wanted to dance.Disco music didn't really "die",they just stopped calling it disco.

The funny thing is people seem to forget her label force her to do dance/disco that why Badgirls sounded so different it had rockstuff like Hotstuff and Badgirls. Donna kept on saying she wanted to do rock but she was Black and female so it wouldn't be easy for her. And also she did say she was tire of being a sex-symbol and as all artist wanted change.