Why does she hate Dress You Up so much?

xlr8r said:

that's news to me, She rehearsed it in 2004 for the RIT and is currently performing it on Sticky and Sweet

Moonbeam said:

Yes, the songs were completed and the film shot prior to or congruent with recording LAV. the movie kind of sat around in the can awhile before it was released. I'm sure her appearance in it is probably what finally prompted its release on a major scale.

I haven't read the conversation in-depth for a few days, but I just caught a glimpse of someone talking about the Immaculate Collection maybe going out of print?

none of Madonnas albums are going to go out of print, even the older compilations. they may call them back for awhile to get people to buy Celebration for a few months (a year?), but everything is going to stay in print. she's no longer on WB and they're going to milk anything that's already been released forever.

why do you think it's so easy to find CD maxi-singles for the Scandalous Sex Suite, Thieves In The Temple, New Power Generation, etc. in stores?

RKJCNE said:

She played that song live in the reinvention tour? I saw that tour but have no recollection of her doing that song.

ehuffnsd said:

I did not know that.

heartbeatocean said:

had old photos of her and her parents plus images of Mary and Jesus and an interlude of Intervention

xlr8r said:

[Edited 8/10/09 21:27pm]

ehuffnsd said:

whoah

that rock version actually made me LIKE that song.

errant said:

You don't like "Dress You Up" normally?

Moonbeam said:

not really.

I like Like a Virgin and Material Girl for their campy, classic novelty tune qualities.

I always loved Stay for some reason. Over And Over is also good.

I've always thought LDLHA was an underrated ballad from her.

And your brother forced me to re-evaluate Angel and Pretender.

So really, I'm only down to despising Dress You Up and Shoo-Bee-Doo. I can enjoy DYU from time to time as it's playing, but it's never one I'm going to seek out to listen to. That tinny sound just kind of grates on me nerves.

And you know that I will never find any value in Shoo-Bee-Doo.


I really kind of don't like that album very much

I seem to be part of a minority that enjoys her post Erotica carrer more than pre. don't get me wrong I LOVE LAP but I think other than "Madonna" all her earlier albums are full of crappy fillers and a few fun campys songs. "Secret" is the song that made me fall for her music, followed by the amazingness of "Human Nature" and "Sanctuary". But when Ray of Light came out I was like OMFG this is AMAZING! and Music became my favorite of hers when it came out ust a couple years later. I Still think AL is a brave and awesome Album and Confessions was quite the dance album. hard Candy on the other hand is the first time either Madonna's Sexy side or innocent side wasn't able to cover up the shameless attempt at a hit, its sad to think her best break up songs are not about her longest marriage.
Sorry but "Till death do us part" "Don't Tell Me" "The Power of Goodbye" are all masterpieces compared to "Miles Away"

RKJCNE said:

I used to love her post-Erotica career more. It's all artsy and shit. but somewhere along the way, I realized that she kind of sacrificed something in her bid to be seen as a real "artist." That upbeat, positive, go for your dreams, reach for your goals message that permeated so much of her pre-Erotica work. And also, the FUN moments in her music became fewer and farther between. and now, when they do show up, "Spanish Lesson," "I Love New York," etc. ... they're just kind of stupid, really.

RKJCNE said:

It's funny. My favorite Madonna albums are Ray of Light and Confessions, but I would definitely call the '80s my favorite decade for Madonna. Madonna is far and away the best album of that period (and my #3); after that, all of her albums have at least some filler IMO.

I love "Dress You Up."

AlexdeParis said:

One of the reasons I've heard that GHV2 didn't work is during the 90s Madonna was an album artist more than a singles artist.

RKJCNE said:

I'm pretty much on the same page with you here (except for the "Miles Away" comment ) To be honest, I couldn't stand Madonna when she first came out. I thought she was an empty pop act. I continue to feel blasé about her early work, although I've recently begun to appreciate her first album a little bit. It was never my type of thing. What turned me onto Madonna was her brash personality and a fearlessness that came from an underlying intelligence which I could not help but admire. When I found out much later in the game that she was doing some tantalizing experimental work, I became attracted to her music. Bedtime Stories was the first album that caught my ear. I find her later songs to be far more compelling than her early work, as they better suit my taste. And her concert use of video/performance/music is absolutely stellar.

heartbeatocean said:

One thing that sets Madonna apart from her contemporaries, like MJ and JJ, and the people she has influenced is her use of the concert experience as a piece of Performance art vs just the standard I'm going to entertain you. The messages in all of her show is something the others just don't do.

errant said:

The only ones I seek out on Like a Virgin are "Over and Over", "Angel", "Dress You Up" and "Love Don't Live Here Anymore".

I still like "Material Girl", but not as much as I used to. I've never really cared that much for "Like a Virgin". The other three are crap to me.

I'm in the same boat as you, I suppose. Like a Virgin is by far my least favorite 80s album of hers. That said, I'll take it a million times over Hard Candy.

heartbeatocean said:

I agree.To be honest with you,I didn't really become a Madonna fan until the 'Like A Prayer' album.These days,I rarely listen to the first three Madonna albums.I,too,thought she was an "empty pop act" with those albums.Like many people,I had no idea that she would grow,evolve and transform herself into a "real artist" who could be taken seriously."Live To Tell" caught my attention in 1986,as did "Papa Don't Preach".These tunes are much more serious and meaningful than the bubblegum pop stuff of the early albums.But it wasn't until I heard 'Like A Prayer' that I really became hooked.Since then,she's gone in all types of interesting directions,with each new album sounding much different than the previous one.'Erotica' and 'Ray Of Light' are my two favorite Madonna albums.I like the fact that I can listen to any of her albums and find something that I like.This isn't the case with all of my favorite artists.

Moonbeam said:

I can listen to all of it but my faves are Angel, Dress You Up, The Pretender and Stay. I can say I enjoyed all her albums. Probably my least favourite is True Blue (great singles but nothing else there). I admire Ray Of Light and I think it's her best album but I rarely play it anymore.Same with Music. Confessions is nice too but I only hear the second half now, the first half just don't feel like Madonna and I enjoy the IGTTYAS cd much more than the actual album itself. But I can honestly say that at the time of their release I enjoyed each and every album she made and Madonna, Like A Virgin, Who's That Girl, Bedtime Stories, Something To Remember, American Life, Hard Candy and the two concert albums are still hot in my cd player

What I hate about LAV (the album) is the fact that ,at its core, is a teen-pop album, and that's unacceptable; Madonna was 25 (or 26?) at that time, if I'm not mistaken, so songs like Shit-bee-doo or even Like a virgin are embarrasing; it sounds like a Britney album; in my opinion, True Blue was a much more mature album, but it also had a couple of misfires (title track and Jimmy Jimmy, which are entertaining, nonetheless)

errant said:

I'm not sure if you can be so confident about it. There's not much profit made on Madonna's back catalog anymore, especially when you release a "definitive" GH. In a few years there really won't be a point for those albums to come back when they are barely selling now! Oh and many of Madonna's maxi-singles are starting to be out of print, like "Secret", "DCFMA" etc. Also, I see flawed logic in the "Warner will be releasing dozens of compilations to milk her catalog", it doesn't work like that either anymore, they would not get much profit from releasing a Madonna Number Ones, or a Love Madonna compilation.

graeco: WTG was not a German #1, it topped out at #2, just like LAP.

JoeTyler: I agree that LAV gives that teen-pop album feel, but 25 years ago they did not have teen pop princesses so I'm sure the effect was different, and obviously Madonna was first marketed to the young crowd, nothing wrong with that.
She did write half of the album though, but of course the tracks she did not write are the better tracks there...

JoeTyler said:

Like a Virgin is definitely less mature than its predecessor, in my opinion. As for The Immaculate Collection, it still sells pretty well. Whenever a new Madonna album comes out, it seems to chart in the UK, and it's been a steady catalogue seller in the US as well.

The singles on LAV are great...


"Material Girl"---fun,bouncy pop song that screams "1985!" If you needed one song that defines mid-80s MTV pop,this is it.

"Like A Virgin"---I've always preferred the extended 12" version.

"Angel"---my favorite song on the album Infectious and fun!

"Dress You Up"---see comments for "Material Girl"



The problem with the album is,the other songs don't live up to these singles.The second half of the album totally falls apart after "Dress You Up".

Although this album isn't one of my personal favorites,it was important for a number of reasons.It took Madonna to the next level of superstardom.If you were around in 1985,you couldn't escape these songs.Even our local R&B station was playing these songs like crazy!

LiveToTell86 said:

I didn't say that they were going to keep on releasing compilations (since they can't). I just said they're going to keep everything that already exists in print to milk it for eternity. so Celebration will supercede all of the others. maybe, maybe not. it's possible that certain tracks will be left off of Celebration specifically because they already turn up on The Immaculate Collection or Something to Remember or GHV2. The Immaculate Collection is a classic release in its own right, and they will not let that one go out of print. they *might* let GHV2 go out of print. but I seriously doubt it. I see it AND the Immaculate Collection *everywhere*... and if they were going to take them off the market, now would be the time, to save up future buyers of a new collection. and yet store shelves are full of each.

I bet once it's all said and done, a year from now, you start seeing more maxi-singles from the past turning up. they're going to keep everything they can in print, or put a lot of the more lucrative ones BACK into print to keep generating revenue off of that asset.

errant said:

But you assume that selling old CDs still equals "milking", while I say it does not. Although for this year we don't get the weekly SoundScan sales, apart from TIC, ROL and LAV, all her albums were like 100 copies/week at most even 2 years ago.

From what we gather in the hints, everything except "Rescue Me" will be re-used on Celebration. Several GHV2 tracks will be left out but that never became a strong catalog seller and everything can be found on studio albums (except "Beautiful Stranger" but that looks to be on Celebration. GHV2 will undoubtedly get deleted, it even has a bad reputation among fans and nobody would recommend it to casuals.

You see TIC everywhere because those are unsold copies that stores had for ages. Warner won't ask the stores to pull them back, neither the other albums, but I'm convinced they won't ship more. It's also a matter of weeks and TIC will be gone from US iTunes, like I said it's absent from every other iTunes store, even the UK, where it's among the top 10 best selling albums ever.

TIC is indeed a classic but Warner knows most people will keep on buying it, no matter what kind of compilation they release, so they had to make a decision.

And moonbeam, that was the past. TIC barely reaches the US catalog chart anymore, and last year it showed a very poor UK performance even though she played to more than 100,000 people there on tour, had a televised promo tour performance, 3 new singles and of course a new album. TIC is no longer selling anywhere near as Thriller, Off The Wall, Dark Side Of The Moon etc, Madonna is not in this league and Warner no longer has a definite catalog seller. It just had to happen at some point, iTunes is clearly responsible because in the UK several hits charted at the bottom of the chart last year, which showed that people chose to download a handful of songs instead of buying TIC.

So TIC is unlikely to add more to its total. I do know for a fact that in 2004 it sold around 197,000 copies in the USA, but in 2007 it was just above 100,000! This year it definitely drops below 100,000 especially if it's gone by the holiday season. Also, I don't think it charted in the UK Top 200 in 2009 even though Madonna opened the 2009 leg of her tour in the UK with 3 dates.

Celebration won't even be a big seller, I'm not even sure if it can pass 500,000 in the US and 2 million worldwide. Of course it's gonna cause a meltdown among fans who will say Madonna is over and nobody cares about her anymore, but it's just sign of the times...

Oh and yes, the songs after "Dress You Up" are among her all time worst!

RKJCNE said:

I find her studio albums have become better since LAP.

the first hree consistsed mereley of hits and fillers, sometimes more, sometimes less of both.

LAP was the first album that had a theme, Catolicism and Family, so did Erotica, BS, ROL.

Music was a departion, but the theme was being experimental.

AL was about fame and disilusions, COADF had no real theme and HC had a sense of urgency to it!

Some of y'all are huge Madonna fans! You guys know the chart positions,even the chart positions from different countries!! lol

I thought I was a big Madonna fan,but you guys could write a book on her career

LiveToTell86 said:

the thing about catalog sales, especially for compilations is that they get a bump when there is a new album out or if the artist does something newsworthy or noteworthy or goes on Oprah or late night TV to perform or... dies.

there is very little chance that WB are going to take any of her albums out of circulation for very long. the only one I can think of that isn't readily available for purchase at a store is You Can Dance. and I wouldn't be surprised if after the dust settles on Celebration, even THAT one gets a new pressing or a backlog of old stock gets shipped to stores.

Celebration is it. WB will be getting no more new Madonna product on the shelves for the forseeable future, unless they work out some one-off deals to put out a "new" collection. They are going to keep everything they have in circulation forever, because this is all the Madonna product they're ever going to get and there will always be demand for it. they will supply that demand in every way they can until the end of time, as long as they own it.