Madonna's taking chances

I know that a lot of people out there feel that Justin Timberlake is the second coming in terms of the pop music world, and I can appreciate that the man is talented, but I am not convinced.
The same can be said for Timberland. I love his work with Missy Elliot, but I feel that he kind of ruined Nelly Furtado for me. His work with Bjork was a little bit of a let down as well, but that is not saying that the man has talent, because he obviously does.

Because of my doubts with these two, I am SLIGHTLY concerned with the new Madonna album. “Confessions of a Dance Floor” was a throw back to yesteryear as well as a look forward to the future of pop music. And although it was a great success as an album, only “Hung Up”, the first single made the top 40 (number seven) in the Billboard hot 100 charts (meaning mainly radio airplay and NOT sales…look here to see the breakdown).
One a side note, it is very strange that ‘Hung up’, ‘Sorry’ and ‘Jump’ were number 1 singles on the sales chart in the US, and ‘Get Together’ was number 2 yet not on airplay. If people are buying the song, isn’t that a better indication of it’s popularity then what radio stations are paid to play and make popular?

Anyway, back to this new album. Is she deciding to work with these two in order to gain back some of the radio dominance she experienced at the beginning of the decade, and lost due to her views on the war? Is Madonna selling out, or worse yet, is she trying too hard to be hip?

This is something I am a little worried about, this, and the R-n-B feel the album is apparently leaning to. “Bedtime Stories” was her first foray into the R-n-B genre, and I found it to be a very weak album, with only a few strong singles.
I probably should not fret, this is Madonna we are talking about, and she has been releasing her strongest work in recent years, but there is room for pause. Maybe it is me just disappointed that she is not going to stick to dance music and do her take on the new rave cyber punk scene that is bubbling in the underground, threatening to flood over. Maybe that is exactly what she is doing. What is funny is on his last album cover, Justin is smashing a disco ball, something that symbolized the whole of Madonna’s last.


I hope so as I am personally sick of listening to all of this faux pop/hip hop that is coming out and being released by the likes of the Nelly Furtado’s, Beyonce’s, Fergie’s, Justin’s and Rihanna’s of the pop world. KISS FM in the UK loves this type of music, and I am forced to listen to it seven hours a week, Monday to Friday at work. All of Beyonce’s and Justin’s songs bleed into one, Nelly Furtado’s already sound boring, and Fergie’s make me want to rip my ears off. At least Rihanna’s past few singles all sound different.
This is a fate I do not want to come to Madonna. I am already bored with ‘Sorry’ and ‘Jump’ (too much disco, but at least the remixes are fierce!).
I would hate to be pressing forward on tracks on my CD player/iPod soon after buying the album.
I guess I am wondering where her music can go from here, it is all sounding the same these days. No wonder we all praise people like Amy Winehouse as though she is the second coming, she isn't, she is just a unique sound on the popular airwaves.

I need something to get excited about.
I need the boundaries to be pushed again like they were when Timberland, Missy and even Dark Child were creating their darker sound full of industrial beats and techno bleeps, now it seems stagnant. I mean wasn’t the “American Life” single a combination of this sound with acoustic guitar?

I can see this new album being one of two things.
The first is a retread of everything we have heard before, but with great hooks and stonking beats that excite us at first, but begin to grate after a few listens.
The second, and I am hoping the more likely, is that Madonna is really going to push these two into creating something that pushes the envelope. something that makes people sit up and take notice.
A sound that not only solidifies Madonna as a great musician, but also pushes the boundaries between musical genre’s.
At least we have Stuart Price over-seeing the whole production. Phew!