Tonight’s Quiz:

9pm – O’Connors. Jackpot: £90. Cheat clue: Alphaville(music round)

Cool.

Cheat News

One of the answers in tonight’s music round is Madonna. Do you remember Madonna?

Good.

This is the song:

The thing about Madonna is that she kind of gets worse. The eighties pop hits were massive and unarguable. The 90s pop hits were nearly as good and in the early 2000s she was still landing the odd whopper.

Since then it’s been a wee bit flimsy, certainly in terms of chart hits.

Madonna has famously pursued a course of self-re-invention which requires her to have an “edge” at all times.

This “edge” pose worked for quite a while and remained interesting but the older you get, the less “edge” is truly required.

At some point or other it’s going to start looking contrived and un-natural. That probably became most obvious in 2008 for her ‘Hard Candy’ album.

The art for this album saw Madonna dressed up in a pair of pants and sat on a chair. This ‘concept’ followed on from a previous idea for the album cover where she was going to do blackface and call the album ‘The Black Madonna’:

“I did a photoshoot with Steven Klein for my last album cover, and I painted my face black, except for red lips and white eyes. It was a play on words. Have you ever heard of the Black Madonna? It has layers of meaning and for a minute, I thought it would be a fun title for my record. Then I thought, ‘Twenty-five per cent of the world might get this, probably less, it’s not worth it.’ It happens all the time, because my references are usually off the Richter scale.”^[

– Madonna

To be fair, that’s just flirting with controversy for the sake of PR and making a margin call, based on consumer data.

Madonna likes to project ‘artist’ but remains resolutely corporate.

And how much art and revolution is there in pop music anyway, an art form that was refined in the sixties and perfected in the seventies?

At the end of the day, the “re-invention” is really just different costumes. She’s still trading n four-minute pop songs, just as she did in 1985.

However critical this may seem, you have to say it: Madonna is a huge success and is still doing it and still winning.

There’s nothing wrong with being a corporate pop star.

Just don’t pretend it’s revolutionary, art, new or edge.

The only art form that remains truly edge is PUB QUIZ, and you can experience this visceral thrill for yourself tonight.

Come to the quiz tonight. 9pm at O’Connor’s