MADONNA HALF-TIME SHOW
Madonna showed why she has been the most successful live female performer in pop at the Super Bowl. A lot of different reactions are coming in to her half-time show yesterday. Conservative religious pundits say it was laced with evil Illuminati symbology. If they ever gave her a fair listen, they'd find "Papa Don't Preach" is the most pro-life pop song ever, about a young girl who stands up to her father and says she wants to keep her baby.
Some say the show was too much hype and dancing and special effects to mask she's an aging woman who no longer deserves the stage. I respect everyone's right to an opinion, but I loved her show, especially "Like A Prayer." The choir and gospel feel and choreography was superb. Madonna came from a poor Catholic family of eight kids in Michigan to become an artist who does so many things. She writes songs, she dances, she sings, she acts. She probably is not the best person at any of those things but she does them all well. The football crowd is not a Madonna crowd so she had an uphill battle. She may not be the demographic fit for football fans that someone like Hank Williams Jr. is, but she is talented in a variety of ways a country singer crooning about all his rowdy friends is not. Her music had elements to appeal to different elements: the dance crowd, the gospel crowd, the pop crowd.
The reactions, especially the intensity of the negative reactions, demonstrate something very important for all my friends pursuing passions in arts and entertainment. No matter how good you are, no matter how much you achieve, there will always be critics. I've heard people say they hate Picasso's paintings. I've heard people knock Shakespeare and call his writing over-rated. The higher you go up the ladder, the more your butt is exposed and the more people will write criticicms, some valid and some out of jealousy. The media will print things, some true and some untrue. So do your work the best you can with what you have to work with. Please yourself and give up trying to please everyone else. If even 1% love your work and love you, you'll do fine. Resist the urge to knock other artists and find a way to bless their talent. I don't know all the quantum physics and metaphysical reasons for it, but I've learned if we recognize the talent in others rather than knock it, our own growth as artists is enhanced rather than diminished.
Knock her all you want, but how many other 52 year-olds can do what she did yesterday half as well? It was like a prayer.
Some say the show was too much hype and dancing and special effects to mask she's an aging woman who no longer deserves the stage. I respect everyone's right to an opinion, but I loved her show, especially "Like A Prayer." The choir and gospel feel and choreography was superb. Madonna came from a poor Catholic family of eight kids in Michigan to become an artist who does so many things. She writes songs, she dances, she sings, she acts. She probably is not the best person at any of those things but she does them all well. The football crowd is not a Madonna crowd so she had an uphill battle. She may not be the demographic fit for football fans that someone like Hank Williams Jr. is, but she is talented in a variety of ways a country singer crooning about all his rowdy friends is not. Her music had elements to appeal to different elements: the dance crowd, the gospel crowd, the pop crowd.
The reactions, especially the intensity of the negative reactions, demonstrate something very important for all my friends pursuing passions in arts and entertainment. No matter how good you are, no matter how much you achieve, there will always be critics. I've heard people say they hate Picasso's paintings. I've heard people knock Shakespeare and call his writing over-rated. The higher you go up the ladder, the more your butt is exposed and the more people will write criticicms, some valid and some out of jealousy. The media will print things, some true and some untrue. So do your work the best you can with what you have to work with. Please yourself and give up trying to please everyone else. If even 1% love your work and love you, you'll do fine. Resist the urge to knock other artists and find a way to bless their talent. I don't know all the quantum physics and metaphysical reasons for it, but I've learned if we recognize the talent in others rather than knock it, our own growth as artists is enhanced rather than diminished.
Knock her all you want, but how many other 52 year-olds can do what she did yesterday half as well? It was like a prayer.
posted by Richard Rossi at 11:34 AM
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