Madonna (entertainer)
Related: pop music - American music
Madonna
Word relations: the madonna-whore complex
Madonna is a dancer. She thinks and expresses herself through dance, which exists in the eternal Dionysian realm of music. […]. Madonna consolidates and fuses several traditions of pop music, but the major one she typifies is disco […] I view disco, at its serious best, as a dark, grand Dionysian music with roots in African earth-cult. —- Camille Paglia, ‘Madonna II: Venus of the Radio Waves’, in Sex, Art, and American Culture. Essays (New York: Vintage, 1992), pp.6–13, p.7.
The roots of Madonna are in the early eighties New York club scene. Especially influential were DJs and producers Arthur Baker, Shep Pettibone, Junior Vasquez and Jellybean and vocalists Loleatta Holloway, Rochelle Fleming, Jocelyn Brown and Taana Gardner.
Biography
Madonna Ciccone Ritchie (born August 16, 1958) is an iconic American pop singer, dancer, songwriter, producer, author and actress. After signing to Sire Records in 1982, hits such as "Holiday", "Like a Virgin" and "Like a Prayer" catapulted her to massive success. She is known for several commercially successful albums, constantly reinventing her image, creating groundbreaking music videos, and incorporating controversial themes into her work. She is often referred to as the "Queen of Pop". --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madonna_%28entertainer%29 [Feb 2006]
Jellybean
[...] They snapped her up and her debut single Holiday became a huge hit in 1984.
Producer John 'Jellybean' Benitez is considered to be the brains behind her debut and he was at her side for the next two years, watching her career diversify as she made the bold move into films.
Desperately Seeking Susan, with newcomer Rosanne Arquette, was a smash hit and soon Madonna believed she could turn her hand to anything.
Her romance with Jellybean ended abruptly. He was heartbroken and seemed to grasping at straws when he said shortly afterwards, "We're still talking, I'm sure we'll be friends."
Sean Penn [...]
The reason for the sudden end of their affair soon became abundantly clear - Sean Penn. When she married the Hollywood firebrand after a whirlwind romance the words "bad career move" were on everyone's lips. Madonna says he reminded her of her father, their birthdays were one day apart and she claimed they could reach each other's minds.
To this day Madonna still considers the Dead Man Walking star to be the love of her life but the brief two years they spent together were marred by marital battles on a scale that ranked above even Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.
Vogueing
Vogueing was a style of dance that emerged in New York in early 1990. It was inspired - as the name suggests- by standing in the middle of a nightclub striking the poses favoured by fashion models. Madonna was credited with popularising the 'dance' across the world by both writing a song about it, and vogueing in her video. http://www.balls.houseofenigma.net/what_vogue.htmlCiccone Youth - Get Into The Groove(y) (1986)
Originally performed by Madonna.
The result of Sonic Youth's deeply fixated obsession with Madonna in the mid-80s. Originally released as the first Ciccone Youth single.
Titles vary. The original Madonna track was "Into the Groove". On the 1986 Ciccone Youth single, it's called "Into the Groovy". On the Whitey Album it's titled "Into the Groovey". On Screaming Fields, "Into the Groove(y)".
A sample of Madonna's original version fades in at times. SY used to play her version of Into The Groove through an amp between songs in '85 (in fact a track titled "Mad Groove" on the Walls Have Ears is just that).
Apparently another mix exists, which had more of Madonna's version preserved and was more of a "dance" mix.
Sex (1992) - Madonna, Steven Meisel
Sex (1992) - Madonna, Steven Meisel
[Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
"Sex" front cover
Sex is the title of a 1992 coffee table-size book written by Madonna with photographs by Steven Meisel which accompanied the release of her fifth studio album Erotica. The book (ISBN 0-446-51732-1) featured strong adult content and graphic photographs depicting simulations of sexual acts and BDSM.
The book caused huge publicity at the time of release, primarily leading to bad press and negative attitude toward the star. Many critics considered it another calculated controversy timed to boost sales of her new album; Spy magazine called it "a fuck book that contained no actual fucking," adding Madonna to its annual "100 Worst" list. Now long out of print, the book is extremely valuable, selling for well over $400 on Ebay and Amazon.com.
Some of the pages vary in type of paper, texture, and size. The text varies from handwritten to printed, with eyebending typefaces and colors, to a plain, and a bit out-of-place, copyright page. The images are collages of ripped and pasted prints, proof sheets, and entire pages in monochromes and full color. Depicted are acts of lesbianism, sadomasochism, anilingus, rape. None of these acts are literally depicted, instead only hinted at or simulated.
Also featured in the book are model Naomi Campbell, actress Isabella Rossellini, rappers Big Daddy Kane and Vanilla Ice, as well as gay porn star Joey Stefano.
Included with the book is the CD single titled "Erotic". It contains the original version of the song "Erotica", titled "Erotic" - not available elsewhere.
With numbers in the hundreds of thousands there may be too many of them to really be collectors items. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_%28book%29 [Feb 2006]
See also: sex - 1992 - erotic photography
CDs
- Madonna (1983) - Madonna [1 CD, Amazon US]
1. Lucky Star 2. Borderline 3. Burning Up 4. I Know It 5. Holiday 6. Think Of Me 7. Physical Attraction 8. Everybody 9. Burning Up (12in Version) 10. Lucky Star (New Mix) This is the album that launched her to the world and she has never looked back since. This album I orginally bought in late 1983 and again on cd in early 1987 and is one of my favorites because she isn't trying to be anything but a dance artist and the songs showcase a vibrant energy that most of her later work doesn't have. In 1982 the dance community got the first glance at her with the 12"s of "Everybody","Phyical Attraction" and "Burning Up". The came "Holiday" in 1983 and the rest is history. "Holiday " remains my favorite Madonna song of all time because she is at ease and happy and that energy in any form of music is very very rare . This new remastered cd features the 12" mixes of "Lucky Star"(7:15) and "Burning Up"(5:56) which were mixed by then boyfriend Jellybean Benitez. Classic Madonna from start to finish. --kenny eisenberger for amazon.com [...] [...]
Desperately Seeking Susan (1985) - Susan Seidelman
Desperately Seeking Susan (1985) - Susan Seidelman
[Amazon.com]
[FR] [DE] [UK]
Rosanna Arquette is Roberta in Desperately Seeking Susan
Image sourced here.
Desperately Seeking Susan is a 1985 film directed by Susan Seidelman and starring Rosanna Arquette and Madonna.
Arquette plays Roberta, a bored housewife living in Fort Lee, New Jersey who is fascinated with a woman she only knows about by reading messages to and from her in the personals section of a New York City tabloid. This fascination reaches a peak when one such ad with the headline "Desperately Seeking Susan" proposes a rendezvous in Battery Park with the man who seeks her. Roberta goes to Battery Park too, and gets a glimpse of the woman, played by Madonna, whose life so fascinates her. In a series of events involving mistaken identity, amnesia, and other farcical elements Roberta goes from voyeur to participant in an Alice in Wonderland-style plot, ostensibly motivated by the search for a pair of stolen earrings.
The film captures the feel of a certain underground scene of mid-1980s in New York City, a scene that in real life helped Madonna get her big break in the music business.
For Madonna, her part in this movie remained one of her best reviewed performances, which also reinforced the opinions of many that Madonna is only good when playing someone who is not unlike herself. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desperately_Seeking_Susan [Feb 2006]
Amazon review
This likeable, feminist screwball comedy about several incidents of mistaken identity is remembered more as the film that made Madonna a movie star. She's flip, hip, and energetic as Susan, the wild tramp with whom bored, suburban New Jersey housewife Roberta Glass (Rosanna Arquette) becomes obsessed after reading of her sexual conquests in the personal ads. Of course, since Madonna essentially played herself, the role's hardly a stretch. Director Susan Seidelman presents a series of zany incidents too complicated to recount, but the result is that Roberta swaps lifestyles with her fixation to explore New Wave culture on New York's Lower East Side. It's territory Seidelman knew well as her more offbeat, indie debut, Smithereens, reveled in the same setting. But where Smithereens took a more edgy approach to its characters, Susan is a fairy tale romantic comedy, and eventually becomes as conventional as the suburban characters it mocks by settling conflicts with predictable Hollywood formulae. Still, there's much to be enjoyed. The film's at its funniest when juxtaposing New York hip and New Jersey suburbia, like when Arquette's straight, suit-and-tie husband dances with Madonna in a punk club. The performances, too, are engaging, especially Arquette and Aidan Quinn, playing a romantic film projectionist who becomes her grubby Prince Charming. --Dave McCoy for amazon.com [...]
See also: 1985 - Madonna - film - American cinema - Hollywood
Sex (1992) - Madonna, Steven Meisel
Sex (1992) - Madonna, Steven Meisel [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
In 1992 Madonna released an erotic book called Sex. Adult in nature, it featured Madonna as the centerpiece of photographs depicting various sexual fantasies and acts (including lesbianism, anal sex, sadomasochism, homosexuality and rape.) The book was bound in sheet metal and mylar, and came with a CD single of her new song "Erotic", which was packaged to look like a giant condom.
Sex (1992) - Madonna, Steven Meisel
[Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
"Sex" front cover
Sex is the title of a 1992 coffee table-size book written by Madonna with photographs by Steven Meisel which accompanied the release of her fifth studio album Erotica. The book (ISBN 0-446-51732-1) featured strong adult content and graphic photographs depicting simulations of sexual acts and BDSM.
The book caused huge publicity at the time of release, primarily leading to bad press and negative attitude toward the star. Many critics considered it another calculated controversy timed to boost sales of her new album; Spy magazine called it "a fuck book that contained no actual fucking," adding Madonna to its annual "100 Worst" list. Now long out of print, the book is extremely valuable, selling for well over $400 on Ebay and Amazon.com.
Some of the pages vary in type of paper, texture, and size. The text varies from handwritten to printed, with eyebending typefaces and colors, to a plain, and a bit out-of-place, copyright page. The images are collages of ripped and pasted prints, proof sheets, and entire pages in monochromes and full color. Depicted are acts of lesbianism, sadomasochism, anilingus, rape. None of these acts are literally depicted, instead only hinted at or simulated.
Also featured in the book are model Naomi Campbell, actress Isabella Rossellini, rappers Big Daddy Kane and Vanilla Ice, as well as gay porn star Joey Stefano.
Included with the book is the CD single titled "Erotic". It contains the original version of the song "Erotica", titled "Erotic" - not available elsewhere.
With numbers in the hundreds of thousands there may be too many of them to really be collectors items. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_%28book%29 [Feb 2006]
See also: sex - 1992 - Madonna - erotic photography