Feel Good Hit Of The Summer 03.10.06
Posted by Frank Estrada on 03.10.2006
This week we’re feeling good about Madonna. And Coachella Artist of the Week: Guess.
This week on Feel Good… I'm more focusing on the kind of column I wanted to do in the beginning. I was trying to put news bites on my column for content and I was either coming in late or doubling what someone else was already doing better. See Read Radio Free Barry for someone who is bringing you quality content every week.
Me, well I want to discuss music with you. Music is a living organism, despite what labels are trying to do with it, and I wanted to focus on music issues weekly. This being said, I lost my focus and it's till recently where I can really get into the meat and bones of music issues with you. I am defiantly going to take a side and if you want to write and tell me I'm crap. Go ahead, that's what a discussion is all about.
A big part of my column is to try to bring you the excitement of a live show. Every year I am lucky to attend the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. And thanks to movies, dvd's, pay per views, and the local news reports, I know people have a crazy idea what a weekend music festival is like; thank you Woodstock. I'm here to say it's not that bad. If it were really that bad we would hear more bad press about Coachella every year in the nightly news. Of course there are some things that go wrong, nothing massive that would cause the whole place to burn down. In fact I love going to Coachella because it's held on a polo filed, so there is grass everywhere and there are trailers with running water for sinks and flushing toilets. Of course there are porta potties there too, but I'm not waiting on those.
My issue here is that the 2006 Coachella line up has "Jumped the Shark." A term I don't really use because I do not agree with what it stands for. I am sure that there are some people out there who liked the episode where Fonzie actually jumped the shark, while there are some that didn't. Now I realize the people I have a problem with weren't old enough to see Fonzie originally jump the shark, but through the good graces of Nick at Night, they probably see that episode every other month.
Madonna
As you may have read in our news, Madonna has joined Coachella and will perform a live set. I'm guessing here many of you have no clue who Madonna really is? You just see her as an old over the hill performer. Well I'm here to tell you, many of you have to kiss her feet and thank her, because she is the first major woman artist who brought "sexuality as a weapon" to the main stream. How does this affect you? Remember all those nights of you spanking it to Jessica Simpson, Gwen Stefani, Brittany Spears, Christina Aguilera, etc. Thank Madonna. See before Madonna, women were women and the ones seeking to buck the trends would try different means of getting it; i.e. playing with the masculine image (Laurie Anderson, Patty Smith) or cop a punk attitude (Chrissie Hynde, Deborah Harry) , or whatever. Madonna embraced sexuality and forced it into the face of the mainstream and never looked back. (For example look up her Open Your Heart video online and you will see what she was the first to do.) The Like a Virgin song and video were so controversial she topped it on the MTV Video Music Awards by wearing a wedding dress and rolling around on stage. Did you think the famous MTV performance with her kissing Brittany and Christina was original? Nah it was homage to the performance years earlier. Want to talk controversy, what about her Like a Prayer video/commercial for Pepsi. The commercial was only shown once and the video was only played late nights. Still today images of her singing in front of burning crosses is disturbing to some. Who is going to do that today? Marilyn Manson possibly, but he already has a stigma of a scary person/monster. If he did that, it probably wouldn't really shock people. Imagine the effect of a regular person in front of many burning crosses. I know a lot you out there don't want to think and just see pretty fire burning. It's sad really.
Not buying it yet? O.K. Madonna has been criticized her whole career for taking the underground culture and bring it to the mainstream. You have to remember she started making underground dance club songs. She'd perform live in clubs. So I never really bought it. It's kind of like the argument that Trent Reznor doesn't make industrial music. But that's a whole other argument all together. She brought the Vogue scene to the mainstream; she sings with the Gorillaz, she has Krunk Dancers on stage with her. Say what you will, people are still talking about her today, as they were talking about her in the 80's. She does this on purpose. She knows, good or bad, this is going to get people talking. And there is no such thing as bad press, right?
Let's take this argument in another direction. Bonneroo is another festival and kudos to them for not specifically setting their line up on today's trends or future trends. They bring bands around that bring something to music. I really appreciate that this year they have Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and in the past they have had Steve Winwood. I mean that there is diversity. Coachella has a more focused market and Madonna makes a lot of sense or bringing in past musical heroes makes a lot of sense. I mean this is the show that brought back Pixies and Gang of Four. Remember this festival has more areas than the main stage. If you don't like the "geezer" acts, just avoid them. Madonna at Coachella does have merit. One major highlight at Coachella is the Sarah dance tent. A massive dance tent that brings in major worldwide D.J.'s and dance artists. I saw Underworld do their 2-hour set that was mind blowing. The Prodigy, The Chemical Brothers, Fatboy Slim and Groove Armada have all played in here. Now one of the original underground dance acts is coming to town to get all the groovers grooving. Every year some d.j. spins a Madonna track and gets the crowd jumping. So it makes all the sense in the world to have her play.
History will tell you that there are three acts from the "Me" decade that matter: in no particular order Madonna, Michael Jackson and Prince. All are controversial and at the same time all made great music then. While some of their current music choices lately have my head scratching, I do think Madonna's music has been better lately than the other two. That said the only way to top Madonna is to have Prince headline your festival, hint hint Lollapalooza, because The Smashing Pumpkins Reunion has been talked to death already. Remember legendary festival Woodstock. The first one. As legendary as it was imagine if they did a second one the following year and had Elvis as the headliner. Love him or hate him, that's Elvis. That's music history. Same thing with Madonna, she is music history. If I didn't turn your ear her way, there will be other tents and stages for you to go to and that means more room for me in the Sahara Tent.
This leads me to:
The Coachella Artist of the Week: Madonna
Well if you couldn't guess you probably just scrolled down to the bottom of the page.
Well enough of praising her, let's get to the music to listen to get ready.
Confessions on a Dance Floor: Well this is homework for me. I don't have it but I have a suspicion that some songs off this album will be played live. And the song with the Abba sample? That's growing on me.
Immaculate Collection: This is Madonna 101. Holiday, Lucky Star, Borderline, Live a Virgin, Crazy For You, Live To Tell, Papa Don't Preach, Vogue, Justify My Love…whew. I usually skip greatest hits albums in stores, but this is really the complete Madonna.
Madonna: If you don't believe in buying Greatest Hits albums because you think they handicap the artist, like I do, then pick this album up. This is her first album and you'll hear why D.J.'s in the 80's instantly embraced her.
GHV2: This really completes where she went with music. Or if you are a closet Madonna fan and don't want all these Madonna albums in your ipod or clogging up your collection. We get a great collection here with Secret, Beautiful Stranger, Take A Bow, Ray Of Light, Don't Tell Me (one of her best songs), and Music.
College Prep Students
Ok so you have all these albums and want to further your Madonna Collection and you don't want to buy a Kabbalah bangle. Pick up: Madonna – The Immaculate Collection DVD. You can see why she made the news with almost every video here. The good (Express Yourself), the bad (Like A Prayer) and the Danny Aiello (Papa Don't Preach)
A.P. Students Sex by Madonna. It's a book that came out in 1992. The title says it all.
