Of all the influential album pitches I could have chimed in on, I have no idea why I chose this one. With that said, Mitch hits the key notes on Madonna's debut album as well as her impact in music, culture and bad ass girl power. Successful pitch. Much the way Blondie, Joan Jett and, to a lesser degree, Patti Smith blazed a trail for Madonna, she paid it forward for Lady Gaga. All are as much cultural icons as talented musical artists. I crushed hard for Madonna in the 80's and slept out overnight to buy tickets to see her on the Like A Virgin 1985 tour (opening act Beastie Boys were booed for most of their set while mocking the mostly 14 yr old girl audience). I still occasionally jam to her Immaculate Collection when mowing the lawn or sitting @ the beach. Her catalog is deep and still stands up.
I guess being a couple years older and more rock hardened than you guys meant I could reject Madonna with prejudice for the entirety of the 80s, with no possibility of parole...until Vogue finally dragged me in, and the sex book raised the ante on Penthouse.
However, this raises a question for the EONS crew: Does enshrinement require only the artists' name appear on the album? Can someone who doesn't write their own songs be so honored? Madonna is an interesting test case because she wrote alot of her music -- however the biggest hits that put her on the map (Borderline and Holiday, the only two to crack top 10 on billboard) were written by others. As far as I can tell, this was a consistent pattern at least through the 80s -- she wrote the filler songs and wore the outfits, while others wrote the hits.
Funny enough, that issue came up with Bon Jovi a few weeks back. Several of the songs on "Slippery When Wet" were written by hit maker Desmond Child, including two of the biggies--"You Give Love a Bad Name" and "Livin' on a Prayer". And while one could argue that this detracts from the creative purity of the work, there's no denying that it was the band that made these songs famous and not the writer. (And I say that as a writer.) If Desmond Child released "You Give Love a Bad Name", you never would have heard of it. I know this because Desmond Child did release a bunch of his songs and I'm fairly confident you don't know them. Likewise, it was Madonna who propelled those two Top Ten hits up the charts and not Reggie Lucas, Curtis Hudson or Lisa Stevens. (Yes, I had to look that up.)
Good counterpoint, and I'm guilty as charged for sleeping through the BJ nomination. We started to have this discussion at lunch last week -- the giant Elvis section that welcomes you to the RnR HoF, even though he's the poster child for cultural misappropriation (at least according to the Malcolm Gladwell podcast I had just listened to, "In a Metal Mood").
I think there's a wide gulf between paying someone to write you a song while also giving them credit on your album and completely stealing someone's act, getting rich off it and never acknowledging them
it's not the getting rich off it part -- totally agree with you there, that's a commercial transaction. the question comes into focus when considering recognition for artistic achievement, for example a hall of fame
Well, I'm gonna go back to Joan Jett again. Here are some of her biggest hits (and who wrote them): "I Love Rock 'n' Roll" (The Arrows), "Crimson and Clover" (Tommy James and the Shondells), "Do Ya Wanna Touch Me?" (Gary Glitter, eww), "Light of Day" (Bruuuuuuce), "I Hate Myself For Loving You" (Desmond Child, there he is again) and "Dirty Deeds" (AC/DC). And yet, Joanie is a first ballot HOFer who everybody loves and admires, myself included. So, it appears to be a lot less of a consideration than one might think
it's the difference between recognizing them for their contribution to the intrinsic artistry, or for being the driving force that achieved commercial popularity -- my question is which side does EONS fall, and i guess you've answered it ;-)
Madonna was the artist no one claimed to like, but somehow(!) knew the words to every song. She certainly paved the way for Lady Gaga, but countless others as well...and of course MC Miker G & DJ Sven. They can't all be winners...
At this point, it's a tired trope to say you only like an artist's old stuff, but I'm not sure I could name more than 5 songs after "Vogue?" This record and "Like A Virgin" were classics and ahead of their time all at once. A great addition for the EONS collection.
P.S. Re: Hobo porn. There was a strip of forest between my subdivision and the next one over. We...we saw some things...
It's pretty wild how long the album versions of these songs are. The singles are how the songs are lodged in my memory. Some of the songs go on so long they remind me of Chic, who always had long songs and shorter singles. This is a quintessential 80s pop album. Its influences are drawn from all over the place and that's probably what makes it sound pretty good all these years later.
Of all the influential album pitches I could have chimed in on, I have no idea why I chose this one. With that said, Mitch hits the key notes on Madonna's debut album as well as her impact in music, culture and bad ass girl power. Successful pitch. Much the way Blondie, Joan Jett and, to a lesser degree, Patti Smith blazed a trail for Madonna, she paid it forward for Lady Gaga. All are as much cultural icons as talented musical artists. I crushed hard for Madonna in the 80's and slept out overnight to buy tickets to see her on the Like A Virgin 1985 tour (opening act Beastie Boys were booed for most of their set while mocking the mostly 14 yr old girl audience). I still occasionally jam to her Immaculate Collection when mowing the lawn or sitting @ the beach. Her catalog is deep and still stands up.
I guess being a couple years older and more rock hardened than you guys meant I could reject Madonna with prejudice for the entirety of the 80s, with no possibility of parole...until Vogue finally dragged me in, and the sex book raised the ante on Penthouse.
However, this raises a question for the EONS crew: Does enshrinement require only the artists' name appear on the album? Can someone who doesn't write their own songs be so honored? Madonna is an interesting test case because she wrote alot of her music -- however the biggest hits that put her on the map (Borderline and Holiday, the only two to crack top 10 on billboard) were written by others. As far as I can tell, this was a consistent pattern at least through the 80s -- she wrote the filler songs and wore the outfits, while others wrote the hits.
Funny enough, that issue came up with Bon Jovi a few weeks back. Several of the songs on "Slippery When Wet" were written by hit maker Desmond Child, including two of the biggies--"You Give Love a Bad Name" and "Livin' on a Prayer". And while one could argue that this detracts from the creative purity of the work, there's no denying that it was the band that made these songs famous and not the writer. (And I say that as a writer.) If Desmond Child released "You Give Love a Bad Name", you never would have heard of it. I know this because Desmond Child did release a bunch of his songs and I'm fairly confident you don't know them. Likewise, it was Madonna who propelled those two Top Ten hits up the charts and not Reggie Lucas, Curtis Hudson or Lisa Stevens. (Yes, I had to look that up.)
Good counterpoint, and I'm guilty as charged for sleeping through the BJ nomination. We started to have this discussion at lunch last week -- the giant Elvis section that welcomes you to the RnR HoF, even though he's the poster child for cultural misappropriation (at least according to the Malcolm Gladwell podcast I had just listened to, "In a Metal Mood").
I think there's a wide gulf between paying someone to write you a song while also giving them credit on your album and completely stealing someone's act, getting rich off it and never acknowledging them
it's not the getting rich off it part -- totally agree with you there, that's a commercial transaction. the question comes into focus when considering recognition for artistic achievement, for example a hall of fame
Well, I'm gonna go back to Joan Jett again. Here are some of her biggest hits (and who wrote them): "I Love Rock 'n' Roll" (The Arrows), "Crimson and Clover" (Tommy James and the Shondells), "Do Ya Wanna Touch Me?" (Gary Glitter, eww), "Light of Day" (Bruuuuuuce), "I Hate Myself For Loving You" (Desmond Child, there he is again) and "Dirty Deeds" (AC/DC). And yet, Joanie is a first ballot HOFer who everybody loves and admires, myself included. So, it appears to be a lot less of a consideration than one might think
it's the difference between recognizing them for their contribution to the intrinsic artistry, or for being the driving force that achieved commercial popularity -- my question is which side does EONS fall, and i guess you've answered it ;-)
Madonna was the artist no one claimed to like, but somehow(!) knew the words to every song. She certainly paved the way for Lady Gaga, but countless others as well...and of course MC Miker G & DJ Sven. They can't all be winners...
At this point, it's a tired trope to say you only like an artist's old stuff, but I'm not sure I could name more than 5 songs after "Vogue?" This record and "Like A Virgin" were classics and ahead of their time all at once. A great addition for the EONS collection.
P.S. Re: Hobo porn. There was a strip of forest between my subdivision and the next one over. We...we saw some things...
You can’t unsee that either. Sleep well, my friend.
It's pretty wild how long the album versions of these songs are. The singles are how the songs are lodged in my memory. Some of the songs go on so long they remind me of Chic, who always had long songs and shorter singles. This is a quintessential 80s pop album. Its influences are drawn from all over the place and that's probably what makes it sound pretty good all these years later.
I noticed that too Paul. There’s a strange middle section of “Borderline” that I don’t remember as a kid.