Well, as a lifelong fan of Madonna I am thrilled to hear a song from her like this. Generic is not a word that came to mind immediately, although I do understand why that description is being used. Look, Madonna came about by singing such trivial lines like:

Holiday, celebrate.
Holiday celebate.
If we took a holiday, took some time to celebrate!

Hardly mind blowing lyrics. But everyone knows she's capable of singing deep lyrics, but sometimes she just wants to let her hair down. Girls Gone Wild is just her letting her hair down. It's modern, relevant and catchy. Infact everything virtually every Madonna track has been. People expect way too much from Madonna which is why she's criticised all the time. The song will be UK top 10 definetely and I for one realise that several album tracks will be upbeat and bubblegum, but that will make MDNA all the better as it promises to have a genuine varied mix of genres. That is something Madonna achieves magnificently.

I tell you what the problem is. Fans expecting too much all the time. Everyone wants another Ray Of Light but its just never going to happen. That was a one off that can't ever be repeated and trying to repeat it would be foolish.

My favourite Madonna work is American Life yet just as many ''fans'' hated (yes they really did) that despite the fact it was lyrically her greatest work. I would love nothing more than Madonna to release another album in the vain of American Life/ Ray Of Light but I know its not going to happen. She has nothing left to prove, no more scandals to create. She is now at a point in her career where she is singing what she wants rather than what people are expecting her to be.

The problem I have here though is people nit picking over lyrics when you could pull up 90% of Madonna tracks and pick apart their lyrics. Its just a lazy attack to be honest.

I like it. It's a fun pop/dance song. Nothing more nothing less. Let's not over-analyse it.

I agree with everything you just said. And I admit it myself. My expectations are too high but I just can't bring them down.

And unrelaed, I know, but American life is my favourite too! i thought that everyone had that same opinion until i joined internet forums. the lyrics were personal and the album was full of simple acoustic/ electronic masterpieces!

Hollywood is my favourite song by Madonna and one of my all time favourite songs. Intervention, Love Profusion, Easy Ride and X-Static Process are just gems. Perfect, catchy, simple, melodic and full of emotion and guts. I even didn't mind the awful raps in American Life and Mother and Father, they added a bit of pace and bounce to the album.

But yeah, back to GGW. I honestly think she doesn't care about music the way she used to. But i understand why.
Its because she loves to tour, and in her head, she's just creating big party numbers that would sound good at a massive party/ tour. And she really enjoys doing that - even if it means the music isnt great. She's a performer, and you could tell by the Superbowl that clearly she makes music she thinks will translate into good singalongs that look/sound spectacular with a great big production behind them.

But, unfortunately for me, I'm always going to be that guy who wants Ray Of Light/ American Life part 2. But for now, we're getting a Confessions/hard Candy mash up. There's still another couple of albums for her to go all Kabbalah on us again!

Ray of Light, as you rightly say, was a one off. As was Confessions, as was American Life. The thing about Madonna is that she creates a different sound everytime she releases an album. Your post pretty much sums everything up pretty well. Expectations are unhealthily high causing disappointment. No other artist is expected to create such high standard work, but even when Madonna's work is "bad" it's good!

Ray of Light, although a fabulous album, is one I feel has become more tired each time I hear it. American Life however gets better and better each time I hear it. Real Fans of Madonna just enjoy each era for what it is. A different one to the previous and a one off compared to what will come. That's why I like Madonna and why she NEVER disappoints me.

Great post this is how I feel as well. I am a huge fan and I am not slagging her off......however I am very dissapointed with GGW. It does nothing for me....

I'm not gonna bang on about how much I dislike this new track since I've stated my opinion and having heard the track in full, my views remain pretty much the same.

But for me, it's a question of relevance, with every release, she appears to be becoming increasingly irrelevant to a contemporary audience, which is a big shame and furthermore something us fans are just not used to.

Ok, so we had Hung Up a few years back which demonstrated her creative prowess, how she is able to sample trends in musical subcultures and reinterpret them into something more mainstream, she definitely had her finger on the (underground) pulse with that one.

However, her finger seems to have slipped in recent years and these days it's on the pulse of what is 'mainstream' and that's the big problem here, that's just not Madonna! There's nothing inventive in that, it's merely a game of catch-up and delivers nothing remarkable.

It's a bit disheartening to watch but she's definitely earned the right to rest on her laurels for a while, I just hope she's not resting for too long.

I never thought Madonna would join this latest bandwagon of cheap chavy dance Red-Bull inspired bollox!!


...catchy though.

She doesn't even have a record company up until recently. I know it's hard for us fans but I get the impression that she has reached the point in her career that she enjoys touring and performing more than creating top selling singles. I still like the song as I think its a nice fun lite dance pop but Let the single chart battles to the likes of Rihanna and Katy Perry.

Your opinion certainly isn't ever going to be taken seriously when you're trying to claim Bedtime Stories was terrible, that's beyond ridiculous to be quite frank. Bedtimes Stories was a fantastic album, you may need to go back and listen to it, then reread what you just said, utter madness.

I also think Masterpiece has already become an underrated track, very different to GGW and GMAYL and that's what I love about it. A great throwback song right there.

What I am really hoping for on this upcoming album is just one song that throws homage to the likes of Frozen, Power Of Goodbye, Bedtime Story etc etc.

Yes it is catchy, and that surely has to be the point. Madonna isn't on the "bandwagon" she's just showing everyone that she's just as capable, if not better, at creating these type of records. The point is, Madonna has ALWAYS produced dance music. She has to adapt to the styles of dance sounds that are around at any one time. It is no different with GGW.


I think she enjoyed making MDNA very much. That is clear from her cheery interviews on American radio stations. Music will always be what Madonna comes back to. I believe with MDNA, she wanted one last hurrah at producing her high energy music. She wants to have fun. I sense in a few years time as she approaches 60, that we will start hearing a more "mellow" Madonna, but all GGW is doing is allowing Madonna to let us dance in the way she has always done.

It's certainly catchy and if it was 1986 it would be fine follow up to True Blue.

But Madonna - who I have followed since 1983 - has sold out massively to the lowest common denominator and I don't know why.

Maybe to appeal more to an American market?

I'm gonna go against the general theme of this thread and gonna say I really like it. It's a really, fun, upbeat, energetic song with a great beat underneath. Also at the beginning the intro sounds a bit like Beyoncé's 'Dance For You' which is one of my favorite songs from her.

I can see why people are slagging this off because it hasn't got a of depth to the lyrics and is just another cheap generic dance song but Madonna has done plenty of non-deep lyrical songs, ie Holiday, Hung Up, Celebration, 4 Minutes ect and if you listen to the album version it does show a bit of meaning. Aswell as Madonna has all ways been doing dance songs right from the eighties so it's not nothing new imo.

Personally I'm sick and tired of hearing this utter nonsense spouted by people nowadays regarding artists 'selling out'. It's utter bo**ocks in so many cases. Seriously, if there's one person that doesn't 'sell out', it's Madonna.

Sure, you don't seem to like it a great deal, doesn't mean she's 'sold out'.

People said the same thing when she released Hard Candy yet the tour for that album just so happens to be her highest grossing ever and not only that it also became the highest grossing tour for a solo act in history.

So its horses for courses really.

I personally was referring to the recent material and not the tour. Merely suggesting that her recent releases maybe more geared towards being more US radio-friendly.

Which is exactly what was said when she went all R&B on us

At least now she is being true to her pop roots. Generic or not

I really do not care if people take me seriously or not.

Fact at the time Bedtime Stories was her lowest selling album.
Take A Bow my favourite track on that album stopped her run of UK top 10 hits at 31 (although it was no.1 in the US for weeks on end).
Human Nature another poor single only reached no.8 and was only in the top 75 for 5 weeks.
The Bedtime Stories album itself was a no.2 album and only spent 27 weeks in the UK top 75. It looks like i was not the only one to think Bedtime Stories was not a good album.

There is a good reason why Bedtime Stories was her lowest selling album at that point and it is because it is not good and in my opinion her worst album to that point and since. I also think it was the first time Madonna jumped on a bandwagon. The R+B sound was big in US at the time and that was why Madonna went down that route, the result a bad album.
Unfortunately Madonna seems to be going down the bandwagon route again. By making music that should be popular because others that do similar music are popular. That's not how it works and Madonna should know that, that's why i am so disappointed with the new song.
There is nothing different/new about it, it sounds like any other song of that type. Madonna is a leader not a follower. Justify My Love was an event song for me because it was nothing like anything she had done before and was nothing like anything that was in the chart at the time. That is when Madonna is at her best.

I listened to Bedtime Stories just last week and i maintain in my opinion it is a terrible album, with only Secret and Take A Bow as stand out tracks. I like Survival and Don't Stop the rest i can live without.

As others have said. I too am hard on Madonna when the singles are not great because i know she can do so much better and i am desperate to love the single i just don't.

I will still be seeing her in Copenhagen, Gothenburg, Edinburgh and Colonge if it ever gets announced. That's how much i love Madonna i just want her to be the best and at the moment she is not even second best.

It's a fantastic tune, I love it. 100x better than the crappy GMAYL

Um, yeah she has. When the tune is generic and the lyrics are about nothing. I remember a time when she'd release a song like Bedtime Story or Justify My Love or Frozen or - and especially - Erotica and you'd think "She's gone TOO FAR!" this is outrageous!" Then two days later you'd think "F*K! This is genius! Weird and wonderful!" Beautifully crafted pop classics not (like THIS!) instant girly pop jingles with no depth designed to appeal to the masses. This might as well be Cascada.

And the saddest thing is ... I can't see it selling loads.

Its ok. nothing special.

What has surprised me though is that she has gone for the current mainstream dance pop sound which is now actually slowly showing the first sign's of its demise.

The other thing is that the growing popularity Nu Disco, certainly with many tracks now have an early 80s style dance mix which channel's the tempo/bpm of the likes of Borderline and Physical Attraction seems almost ironic.Perhaps she hasn't got her finger on the underground pulse that she would have us believe, although perhaps she doesn't care anymore?

The album is ultimately what will be judged though-I was disappointed at first with Erotica (the single) as it just seemed like JML Part II and I thought she had run out of ideas-the album on the other hand turned out sensational (IMO) so I'm hoping it will be a surprise-a good one.

There were R&B sounds on Erotica - there was even a rap track Did You Do It?

Bedtime Stories was influenced by the work La & Babyface were doing with Toni Braxton TLC and Pebbles. I liked it a lot but it was meant to be a bit more mainstream than Erotica. It still had that Madonna 'stamp' though. It was not anonymous dance pop. And Human Nature was the best ever 'F--k You!' song. Ever!

There's a thing called a dictionary, go and buy one and then look up the word terrible, because you clearly don't understand what that word means.

I'm not here to argue whether or not you think Bedtime Stories is her worst album, to claim it as terrible though is utter madness. For the record, it wasn't and isn't her worst selling album, so I'm not sure where you got that from.

Album sells mean nothing what so ever in terms of whether an album is good or not. You honestly believe that an album not selling as good as others means that most people think it's terrible? So by your logic, every single album that doesn't make the charts is terrible?

Human Nature, whether it sold well or not, was an iconic song that went on to actually inspire. And Bedtime Story, for me, is still one of the best songs of her career and the beginning of a sound for Madonna that we eventually went on to witness with Ray Of Light.

Believe me, Bedtime Stories isn't even close to a terrible album. It may be one that you're not too fond of, but that does not make it terrible.

^^ this showcases just how fantastic Madonna is though. The idea that across her 30 year career she has an album a fan can call their favourite and albums that cater to different tastes and you cannot ever diminish the impact she has had.

Regardless of tastes, your opinion of her or whatever she cannot ever taint/diminish her legacy by recording a song that you dont happen to like right now...its impossible when you have the hits, albums, videos, tours Madonna has had and the feats she has achieved.

If you dont like the song/album/style/direction tough...thats the one she likes and we have to go with it

But one fan may say...Bedtime Stories, hard Candy, American Life are the worst ever....when another they are the best ever...you know? Madonna has never ever by the definition of the word done a musically "terrible, bad, average" album. In the general concensus.

Also people may dislike the three songs out of MDNA thus far...but the overall album has a concept and a running theme, she is exploring what she has done, can do, what she is known for in the album...so we will have massive Dance anthems like Wild, WTF songs, experimental songs, introspective songs, ballads/mid tempos. Across the album.

The fact here is...she has already ensured her album will sell massive amounts with her fans/casual listeners on itunes alone. She has impacted Stateside with Luvin/Half Time show. And she has heightened hype.hysteria as ever with the current single like it or not! and it has the potential to be a massive chart topper!