Why does Madonna disdain her past self and the old hits?

[tommie2]

Most artists get bored with their old material at various points in their career - it's not that uncommon.

Also, she's not doing greatest hits tours. She's trying to promote her current material so fair play to her for including it in her live shows.

[MadgeBrit]

No it's not just "not playing them" it's her "gag me with a spoon!!!11" attitude towards them as if the new material is better when the new material is the same dance pop shit as 30 years ago.

[tommie2]

But most artists do get tired of their own material - it's nothing that is unique to Madonna. She's just one of the few artists that are lucky enough to do be able to ignore doing most of her old material.

[push the button]

if you cut Madonna up into littler pieces, chucked her in a blender and served her over ice in a cocktail glass she would taste like Into The Groove. It is the very essence of Madonna!

[Kirkland]

I mean, why does she have so much disdain and disrespect for her 80s self?

Does Madonna think Girl Gone Wild and Turn Up the Radio are equal to or superior than Into the Groove and Dress You Up?

I really wish Madonna would be asked this in an interview.

This is a serious question. She mocks her old self - but the old Madonna, the dance tart of the 80s gave her what she has now.

Why? It could be due to fans such as yourself.

[Kirkland]

if you cut Madonna up into littler pieces, chucked her in a blender and served her over ice in a cocktail glass she would taste like Into The Groove. It is the very essence of Madonna!

The very essence of pop, you mean. It is quite literally a perfect pop song.

[Maureen]

She has said more than once that she feels "dumb" singing some of her older songs, or songs she deems silly. I remember Holiday, Into The Groove and even Sorry getting a bashing. And that's up to her, but then she presents an album full of songs with all the depth of a petri dish and lyrical enemas such as Girl Gone Wild, which makes Into The Groove sound like a fucking HYMN, such is its balls-out, gum-chewing, reality TV-addled, shit-for-brains CRAPNESS.

In short: sometimes she speaks utter shit and is a contradictory old fucker. C'est la vie.

[RJF]

Can you imagine how sick of some of her older stuff she is by now? I mean, even we get can get sick of some of the old pillars of her back catalogue, and we only really need to hear it once every tour. Take something like "Like A Virgin", which has been out since the mid 80s. She's performed it on nearly every tour since its release, with each tour spanning about one hundred dates. Count in all the other performances she's done for it, and I'm sure she's actually performed some of her older literally over a thousand times. I find "Like A Virgin" horrid enough with just a few sittings, let alone thousands over thirty years!

And her apparent disdain is total bullshit anyway when you see her perform stuff like "Like A Prayer" and become totally lost in the performance of it.

[Mike]

She's not the only artist out there with an extensive back catalogue to pick from - but her decisions on what is included or excluded, and in what form, are more bizarre than most. The remix of Give It To Me picked as the (anti) climax to Sticky and Sweet; the horrific version of Like A Virgin performed on the Girlie Show; stripping the ABBA sample out of Hung Up; performing unloved album track Nobody Knows Me on two separate tours....the list goes on.

I don't think she has disdain or contempt for her fans, but her own preferences always come first. I think the hardcore fans who go every time are, by and large, OK with that - it's the more casual ones who might come away disappointed, as I know quite a few people did in Edinburgh at the weekend.

[Mvnl]

She's not the only artist out there with an extensive back catalogue to pick from - but her decisions on what is included or excluded, and in what form, are more bizarre than most. The remix of Give It To Me picked as the (anti) climax to Sticky and Sweet; the horrific version of Like A Virgin performed on the Girlie Show; stripping the ABBA sample out of Hung Up; performing unloved album track Nobody Knows Me on two separate tours....the list goes on.

Well sometimes it turns out nice.
I never cared for Nobody Knows Me either, but the Reinvention Tour performance made me love it.

Not really related, but I hated how the Confessions tour ended. Singing 'time goes by so slowly' for 85 times, and then no final chorus to round it up.. anticlimax much.

[MadgeBrit]

She has said more than once that she feels "dumb" singing some of her older songs, or songs she deems silly. I remember Holiday, Into The Groove and even Sorry getting a bashing. And that's up to her, but then she presents an album full of songs with all the depth of a petri dish and lyrical enemas such as Girl Gone Wild, which makes Into The Groove sound like a fucking HYMN, such is its balls-out, gum-chewing, reality TV-addled, shit-for-brains CRAPNESS.

In short: sometimes she speaks utter shit and is a contradictory old fucker. C'est la vie.

She also described Sorry as a "big hit" which is why she "had to put it on Celebration" TOTALLY OUT OF TOUCH

[MadgeBrit]

Can you imagine how sick of some of her older stuff she is by now? I mean, even we get can get sick of some of the old pillars of her back catalogue, and we only really need to hear it once every tour. Take something like "Like A Virgin", which has been out since the mid 80s. She's performed it on nearly every tour since its release, with each tour spanning about one hundred dates. Count in all the other performances she's done for it, and I'm sure she's actually performed some of her older literally over a thousand times. I find "Like A Virgin" horrid enough with just a few sittings, let alone thousands over thirty years!

And her apparent disdain is total bullshit anyway when you see her perform stuff like "Like A Prayer" and become totally lost in the performance of it.

I don't remember Like a Virgin being performed on "nearly every tour"....and Like a Prayer is played out at this point. Along with Holiday.

[Mvnl]

She also described Sorry as a "big hit" which is why she "had to put it on Celebration" TOTALLY OUT OF TOUCH

Well, if memory serves me it was a quite big hit. Number 1 even I think?

[MadgeBrit]

Why? It could be due to fans such as yourself.

Look, as far as the new material, we can take it, but what Madonna needs to realize is that people still like her BECAUSE OF THE 80s hits. Nobody is stanning for Madonna because of Girl Gone Wild.

[Mike]

I love how the Revolver gun controversy has deflected attention from the real issue, i.e. what such a steaming vat of dog piss is doing on the setlist in the first place. It's one of Madonna's worst vocals on record (and in recent times, that's saying something) so I shudder to think what it must sound like live.

[letuinmybackdoor]

If you're doing stadium shows it's either niaveness or sheer bloodymindedness to do a non-populist setlist. And when all is said and done she has over 60 singles which she can cherry pick from to perform. If she wants to do the 'artistic' route she has 'Ray of light' songs to perform, if she wants full on dance she can do pretty much most of her back catalogue. There wasn't even any effort made on a lot of the 'MDNA' tracks to make them into something special. Kylie's albums are often transformed into really special tracks when arranged for concert. She could do the same. My biggest gripe was the show in Edinburgh was 90 minutes long and a good 20 mins of that (if not more) she wasn't on stage.

[Mvnl]

I really find it more naive to go the MDNA tour and expect a Greatest Hits setlist. If you checked out her latest album in preparation for the concert and you've occasionally listened to the radio throughout the past years you'd know all, with the exception of at tops 3, songs she's doing.
If not, you might hear some new songs you like and end up buying the album as a souvenir of a great night. And seriously, do people really need to already know songs to be able to enjoy a performance?

[Keifer3194]

The main point of all tours is to promote the album. This is called the MDNA Tour the majority of the setlist would be from MDNA. If, for every tour, the majority of her setlist was greatest hits, she would sort of become her own tribute act if that makes sense.

[Mvnl]

The main point of all tours is to promote the album.

Is that really true?
Perhaps for festivals and the likes, but for a concert with expensive tickets I'd think whoever is willing to buy one probably is going to get the album anyway.. Considering the amount of money there's in touring I'd almost consider the album to be promotion for the tour.

[Keifer3194]

I think it works both ways like it did for Kanye and Jay-Z's Throne Tour - During the UK leg, the album was #1 on iTunes. I just think that people shouldnt expect to hear the biggest hits especially when the tour is named after the current album.

[RJF]

If the only reason you're going to a Madonna gig is for the songs she did twenty years ago, than that's your problem, not hers. Personally, I enjoyed the MDNA tracks just as much as the classics in Edinburgh at the weekend.

...Well, that's not entirely true. "Like A Prayer" towered over everything, but when doesn't it?

[Mike]

Is that really true?
Perhaps for festivals and the likes, but for a concert with expensive tickets I'd think whoever is willing to buy one probably is going to get the album anyway..

I think that's probably true for relatively new artists, but for a veteran act - especially one as known for her live shows as Madonna - there will be a lot of people just going for the experience. These people won't necessarily have any interest in new material.

[Keifer3194]

But it isnt the Immaculate Tour or GH2012, or somethin. People who bought tickets must have known the MDNA would be the main focus

[Mike]

But it isnt the Immaculate Tour or GH2012, or somethin. People who bought tickets must have known the MDNA would be the main focus

Again, not necessarily. If you take the Edinburgh show as an example - she's never played in Scotland before, possibly never will again, so a lot of people would have gone purely for the experience of seeing Madonna live and wouldn't really have known what to expect, or what not to.

For the record, I fully understood that the setlist would focus on MDNA; it played a large part in my decision not to go.

[Mushroom3]

I'm sure the only song she has said she has an active disdain for is 'Material Girl' based on the fact that it was used as a nickname within the press ever since.