No way. No chance. First time she’d released something so far below her it made me a little sad. Lyrics, vocals and production all trash - and video only liked because of extreme “gays will like it!” aesthetic. To me most of that era bar Superbowl and Tour were evidence of her not caring about the music for the first time ever. It’s ok to enjoy trash bops (I do!) but as a Madonna single…it was hard. There were exactly no layers to it worth examining. Just…reality star goes pop style song anyone could have released.
I think the song is a bit better than you're giving it credit for but this is all tea. With all due respect to @Wallow, saying that Girl Gone Wild is top tier Madonna is a bit insulting to the artist, who has released some of the most exceptional pop music ever recorded.
Girl Gone Wild was the first time I truly wondered if Madonna had lost the magic touch. Those bargain bin oontz oontz beats, the autopilot lyrics, the pandery video (Madonna reciting a prayer! Hot naked guys doing vaguely homoerotic stuff!), stuff I was sure she would roll her eyes at before. It was the first time she felt like a legacy act.
I do enjoy the song, but yeah, the video is so overrated. It's really not that good. It's beyond trite and doesn't even look particularly nice. The imagery with blood coming out of her eyes is so silly and not in a good way.
It definitely felt a bit reductive but I don't agree it doesn't look nice - I mean it was shot by Mert and Marcus. She looked beautiful in a lot of the set ups. But yeah, it's the first Madonna video that felt like it was made by an algorithm - taking some of her past looks/references and then producing something that is kinda basic. I mean that's entirely fair either - because she did have the whole Russ Meyer aesthetic, which was new for her.
Jimmy Jimmy isn't as terrible as people make it out to be. It's a bit hectic but that's part of its charm. I Know It and Pretender are probably her least interesting 80s songs, both being a bit of a slodge to get through. Can't Stop and Love Makes the World Go Around are pretty weak too. Overall her 80s output, even album tracks, is near pristine.
'Give Me All Your Luvin' and 'Girl Gone Wild' were both throwaway trash but the latter at least got an incredible tour performance.
The way people can forgive octogenarian cheerleading but not hot guys in heels doing a dance!! As soon as the pom poms came out that's when she felt like a desperate legacy act grasping for attention to me. But I'm happy to give her that attention t b h so. I maintain that the worst of that trio of singles is Turn Up The Radio. She truly has no substance (the song, not Madonna).
MDNA still sounds dreadful. An absolute disaster of a record. The only salvageable parts still require a complete overhaul.
I mean, it’s not a bad album. It’s nice throwaway 2010s dance pop with some confessional tracks thrown in. But the mixing is genuinely horrific, and that is what ultimately makes it unlistenable for me.
Can't Stop is probably her worst 80s song for me. Even more so when you compare it to the other 3 Madonna Who's That Girl soundtrack songs.
Girl Gone Wild is in the same category as Britney's Everybody for me - it's trash, I am aware it's trash, but it bangs in the whip so who care Rosette's writer's demo also goes OFF.
Sometimes I wonder if she picks songs like Girl Gone Wild or Candy Shop because she can see how well they'd work as a performance. Say what you want about the songs but she makes them both work as a live performance.
