VH1 premiered Madonna's "new" video for American Life last night -- and it's completely different than the video that aired in Europe a couple weeks ago.

No military images, no fashion runway, no models in skimpy military garb, no George Bush lookalike catching the handgrenade and lighting his cigar with it -- in other words, nothing with teeth. This is the kinder, gentler video: Madonna singing in front of a succession of flags from around the world dissolving into each other.

I thought she was doing a marketing stunt by pulling the video at the last minute, but now I'm not sure. Since she's completely re-shot the video, I think she was truly worried the first video would hurt her record sales. Looks like Madonna only wants to be challenging or shocking in a conformist sort of way.

It's too bad. I liked the first video. I thought it brought out a subtle level of the song -- the flag video is just plain boring. And worse, it makes the song really stand out as boring, too.

it wasn't completely reshot. the stuff in the video that was shown last night appeared in the original. there's just more of it, and that's all there is to it now.


btw, there are like 5 already-established threads that this could have gone under...

but i agree. it is boring, and it looks cheap.


but the little snippets from the original video i saw looked cheap too, so...

Yeah, of course I didn't see the other threads until AFTER I posted this. Oh, well. At least I didn't invade Iraq...

gnations said:

sure you did.

I said it before and I'll say it again:

I JUST HAVE TO SAY...

Madonna seemed really stupid last night on Vh1. I have always liked her and her music, regardless of her political views. But please, she's gonna sit up on VH1 and preach about life and what it means to be truly happy. Excuse me? And whats her name from Will and Grace, was such
a horrible interviewer, she was totally kissing her ass, it was pathetic.

So, she remakes her video for fear of how it will effect her family or for how it may be
misinterpreted? Please, I thought she hat more balls than that. She's disappointing here, because
I wish she would have shown it, so that she could have been critiqued. I cannot see how these celebs
can sit there and trash the president, but God forbid anyone do the same to them...

freakin fools...

><

gabeez said:

concur wholeheartedly!

Rock stars shold be seen & not heard.

I don't have cable but I really want to see the new edit of the video. I actually only clicked here to see if there was a link I could see it at. Are MTV or VH1 streaming it? I really want to see it. And yes, I've already seen the original.

VinnyM27 said:

see my avatar? if you've seen the original, then it's just the parts in my avatar, but for the whole video. she's got flags from a lot of countries green-screened in behind her while she sings.

thedoorkeeper said:

Somehow this makes no sense to me...(movie stars maybe)

AaronSuperior said:

I just read that in an article. Very dissapointing. She really should have just kept most of the original video. The new video sounds very dull. Why bohter? BTW, I congratulate you for not listening to the album and waiting for Tuesday. I'm doing the same thing. Stay strong!

VinnyM27 said:

i'm trying! these people talking about it on here all day long is tempting, though

i think it would have been a much stronger statement (artistic or otherwise) if she had stuck with the original video. As an artist, if you have an opinion about something and you are expressing it in your work, the thought of offending is not a consideration. It comes down to the fact that it would have been a bad business move to not release the video at all so she made a compromise in her "art". This is precisely what i'm talking about with madonna and why i don't ever believe too much in anything she says. She flat out said, in the interview last night, that she did want to risk her career or her husband's career by angering people. That is what artistic statments are about though...taking risks and expressing yourself.
I will continue to enjoy her on a superficial level, but i just can't listen to her tell me what I need in life to be happy and satisfied when she doesn't even know who the hell she is. Fame...it really does make you crazy!

Well, on the one hand I agree that she should have gone ahead and made her artistic statement. However, seeing how the Dixie Chicks are being demonized in the US, I can see her hesitation.

JediMaster said:

I hope that there is going to be a backlash against this propaganda soon. If you like the Dixie Chicks songs (and I don't) why should it matter if they are ashamed of the President. If they said that they will kill the President, I could understand but seriously.

I saw part of the new Madonna video and its awful! I wonder if anyone is going to be airing it that often. The original is sooo good and if they really just cut out the war images on the TVs by blurring them out, it would have been fine. THey could have done clips from Madonna music videos. Such a bad idea. I hope she just sells it on DVD beucase I'm having problems downloading it.

You know,I've seen the new video on VH-1 a couple of times and it's not *that* bad.Many artists do simple videos that just feature them singing the song,without all the special effects (think Prince's "Sign O' The Times" video in which he didn't even appear,or George Michael's "Praying For Time" video) so I'm gonna cut Maddy some slack.Besides,she's done so many other outstanding,groundbreaking videos in the past so we should let her slide this time around...lol...


That said,I do hope her "Hollywood" video kicks major ass


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[This message was edited Sat Apr 19 15:51:21 PDT 2003 by DavidEye]

I think we never know why some people like Madonna or Prince do certain things. It might be to "please the audience", but then again, maybe she rejected the video for the reasons she mentioned. Who knows?

calldapplwondery83 said:

Exactly! But,as usual,there are some people who question her every move and think that everything she does is just for controversy and to sell records...lol...


But,to be honest,I LOVE the excitement,the rumors,the controversy that happens whenever she releases a new CD.It's fun watching people speculate,analyze and try to figure her out...lol...