So let’s talk about something that’s racing through the pulse of the gay blogosphere at this very moment. Today is the day we’ve all been looking forward to. This is the day that Madonna WINS the Super Bowl. Oh, I’m sorry. Was that reductive? Yep, I looked it up and I’m still not certain what reductive means or the context in which to use it. However the best definition I could find on Google is “Tending to present a subject or problem in a simplified form.”
That aside, in just a few short hours Madge will take the stage and perform live before what will be perhaps her largest audience ever. Thus, reclaiming the thrown as the reigning Queen of Pop (Lady Who?). So what do you think of her new single Give Me All Your Luvin’?
When I first heard the bouncy little tune I thought it sounded a bit reminiscent of an early 80s Go Gos/Toni Basil mashup. Of course, this is a genre that Madonna helped define - lord Kabbalah only knows she was there! Upon second listen I started to sing along. And now, after a weekend of hearing Give Me All Your Luvin’ all over the place it’s running through my head like an ear worm. Thank God it got that Selena Gomez song off my mind.
It’s interesting that Interscope Records has invested so heavily in promoting this single. Is it just me, or has anyone else noticed that KISS FM stations are playing the tune every hour on the hour? No, this isn’t by mistake. The program managers haven’t decided to cut Rihanna’s airtime in favor of a 54-year-old mother of four who has yet to lose her blonde ambition. It’s obviously some sort of media buy Interscope did with Clear Channel (does Clear Channel own KISS? I have to fact check that one) and perhaps the most ingenious example of good old-fashioned payolla I’ve seen in my lifetime. This heavy airplay is necessary because mainstream audiences expect to hear something familiar when an artist as iconic as Madonna plays an event this major. Papa Don’t Preach and Like A Prayer don’t pair well with nachos and chili cheese sauce, so there goes the set list. Fans need to be able to walk into that stadium knowing the lyrics and bopping their heads to Give Me All Your Luvin’ in order for this performance to work. As for Madonna’s gaybie fans? Well, she could start voguing to Oh, Canada on the fifty yard line and we’d call it reinvention. (Then we’d all grab our passports and head north. Hhhmm.... not such a bad idea come to think of it, ay?)
Now how about that music video? I like it! Finally, Madonna’s gotten back to doing videos with a theme. Video releases from her last two albums have been quite disappointing to say the least. I mean, watching her mug for the camera in front of a white screen song after song is hardly entertaining let alone inventive. For Give Me All Your Luvin’ she’s cleverly played out a football cheerleader theme (again, giving me some Toni Basil), and it’s refreshing to see her reprise her “Marilyn” persona. But most of all, Madonna looks absolutely unbelievable. If she sold her soul to look like this at age 54 then even the devil wouldn’t recognize her (haha... get it? Hard Candy album reference here). If that’s what yoga and macrobiotic diets do for a body, then Touch-to-the-Down and sign me up!
