Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Life is a mystery you are listening to,
(00:07):
Biz of Ford.
Welcome to Pop Palace.
Hey everyone, welcome back to Pop Palace.
This is Jack and this is episode 4.
Episode 4 is going to be like a prayer.
If you're new to Pop Palace, welcome.
I'm your host Jack.
I'm currently studying contemporary music business and I have a passion for iconic women
(00:32):
in pop music.
This is Pop Palace.
Let's get started.
At Pop Palace, our mission is to celebrate the iconic women in pop music history and
celebrate them as well.
So with season 1, I be on with the queen of pop herself Madonna and we have begun at
(00:53):
her early beginnings all the way up to her third album release True Blue which was last
episode.
And now here we are episode 4 which is going to be like a prayer.
I'm so excited to have you guys back.
This is such a fun experience for me and let's get started.
Yay.
(01:14):
Welcome to 1989.
This is a pivotal year for Madonna.
So this year is not the best year for Madonna.
She is actually ending her relationship with Sean Penn and they are beginning a divorce.
And during this time she starts to work on her newest album like a prayer.
(01:37):
So Madonna is facing a lot of personal issues right now and she goes back to what she knows
which is music.
So during this time Madonna partners back with Patrick Leonard and Steven Bray who we both
know from working on her past three albums with her and if you listen to the other episodes
(01:59):
you'll be already familiar with those names.
And they infuse her music with her personal trials and tribulations.
So this album is about Madonna.
It's no longer her honeymoon phase.
This is Madonna ending her relationship and finding her true self again.
Madonna used like a prayer to explore themes closer to her heart such as her Catholic upbringing,
(02:25):
the complexities of her relationships added a personal touch to that really resonated
deeply with her fans.
This is probably one of her most introspective works yet.
Madonna is the 8 girl right now, she has been the 8 girl for a few years.
This is the end of the 80s and we're transitioning into early 90s.
(02:47):
Madonna is ever evolving.
So even within the few years that she has been in the music industry she is now evolving
into something new.
Each album is a metamorphosis of who she is or who she was and they are all similar
(03:08):
to her and true to herself but they're also vastly different.
And something that I truly appreciate about Madonna that I don't think people really give
her enough respect for is the amount of times that she can totally revolutionize and change
her entire existence and do it successfully over and over and over again.
(03:31):
There aren't many artists that can do that.
There aren't many artists that can't not stay in their same lane for the rest of their
career.
Think about all the famous legacy artists that you know and how they're known for the same
songs their entire life and the same style of music and the same aesthetics for their
(03:52):
entire career when Madonna changes that every four years or so even sooner and she does
it well.
I don't think she gets the credit she deserves.
How can you revolutionize and for every evolve as your career continues instead of staying
in the same lane and just doing what you know has worked in the past.
(04:15):
I don't know.
I think that's just so amazing.
So out there.
She's so ahead of her time.
An interesting facet of like a prayer was Madonna's collaboration with Prince on the
track Love Song.
So she recorded this at Prince's own Paisley Park Studios and the song highlights a fusion
(04:37):
of their distinct styles.
I love this song and the first time I heard it I immediately checked the credits to see
who was singing on it or who was playing on it because you can feel Prince's presence
from the beginning of the song.
I love this song so much.
I was finding it kind of interesting that when I was checking the Spotify credits though
(05:03):
and on Apple Music I checked too and Prince wasn't credited even though he's clearly on
the album.
I think that this probably is just like an oversight and an overlook because he definitely
is on that song.
Something that also makes this song honestly really strange is that in the creating of
(05:25):
the song they were both at Prince's Paisley Park Studios but not together.
They recorded it separately while each other weren't there and so I think that is honestly
really strange and really weird but looking back they did have some sort of an interesting
relationship.
Prince and Madonna were briefly dating sort of it's not like 100% yes they dated it's
(05:50):
more like they had a relationship in the 80s that didn't last super long and Prince later
said in like 2013 talking to Billboard how his strained relationship with Warner Bros.
Music was due to the pop icon Madonna.
The album itself is a rich tapestry of pop gospel rock and dance elements.
(06:14):
The title track features a gospel choir blending spiritual tones with pop rhythms.
So this sets a compelling tone for the entire album like as soon as you play the first song
which is the title track it's immediately brings you to note and immediately transforms
(06:35):
you into this space that you know what the rest of the album is going to be like.
Like a prayer had a large cultural impact it soared to number one across the globe it
become a defining moment of the album was in the late 80s it wasn't just melodies that
captured the world it had bold examinations of themes like religion and personal pain.
(06:59):
This is something that we've seen in the past Madonna loves to examine religion and pain.
If you could describe Madonna's career religion would be a big part of it and her examination
of religion.
So this whole album is basically that and it's examining what she was taught growing
up in Catholic school with the current pain that she's facing in her adult life.
(07:22):
Well also I don't think that Madonna gets enough credit for is how she is willing to
have these introspective conversations about her pain in her religious trauma and share
with the world because this allows other people who might be feeling the same way to listen
to her music and feel free.
(07:43):
Madonna is just helping people feel free.
Even years later like a prayer has still a massive cultural impact.
Like a prayer is celery not only artistically but for its boldness and its influence in
the music industry and in culture.
Madonna really took another step out of her comfort zone for this album.
(08:04):
She never does anything with the norm or anything that's just going to casually go
by.
No she's always making a statement.
And this was credited to transforming Madonna from a pop icon into a serious musical artist.
So before this in True Blue she was solidified as the 80s queen of pop and 80s pop ballad
(08:27):
icon but now she's really proved to herself and proved to the world that she is a serious
musical artist.
This album has inspired countless generations of new musicians.
So its 1990 and Madonna was ready to be a global superstar.
She was ready to take this album on the road and that's what she did.
(08:52):
This is when Madonna started honestly one of her most iconic and most infamous tours
ever.
This is the blonde ambition tour.
The blonde ambition tour becomes one of the most controversial and critically acclaimed
projects ever.
So the tour was designed to promote her fourth album like a prayer.
So during this time Madonna was also working on a movie Dick Tracy and was starring in it
(09:17):
and creating all the music for it.
So this album was to promote that as well as like a prayer her album.
So from the beginning blonde ambition was set to dazzle.
Madonna was known for her meticulous attention to her artistic expression.
So she brought in a team that included her brother Christopher Chaconet as the tour's
(09:38):
art director, a French fashion icon Jean-Paul Goodtier and he designed all the costumes.
Each element of the tour was carefully crafted to challenge and entertain.
So from the complex dance routines to the refractive fashion Madonna was doing it and
just like she said in her last tour this was going to be multimedia theatrical experience.
(10:02):
This is not a show this is not a concert.
This is a theatrical experience.
If there's any Madonna tour that I wish I could go back in time and see it was the we
was the blonde ambition tour and it's just like so iconic in every sense of the word.
So Madonna used Catholic imagery once again and explicit sexual content grew criticism
(10:26):
from religious groups and this even led to a boycott by Pope John Paul II.
Despite this or maybe because of it the tour was a commercial success and it grossed over
$62 million and it won Polestar Award for the most creative stage production.
If you don't know Polestar they do live rankings for like live performances and concerts.
(10:51):
They're honestly a really good resource to check out if you're ever interested to see
how someone's tour is doing.
They put out a weekly roster of the tour and ranks them based on attendance, social rank,
ticket sales and pretty much everything else.
It's really interesting.
The legacy of the blonde ambition tour it extends beyond its immediate impact.
(11:17):
So it set new standards for live performance in the music industry and it influenced artists
for decades.
So Madonna set the standard for what the new music industry was going to be and everyone
else followed.
Madonna proved that a concert could be a theatrical event.
A place to make statements and break taboos.
This isn't just her singing on a stage, pretty songs as a pretty person.
(11:41):
No, she's so much more than that.
This is her making a statement.
This is her time to shine and change the world and she also wants the fans to have an experience
that's not boring.
She wants them to have an experience that is theatrical and something that she would enjoy
herself and something that truly expresses her artistic value more than just her singing
(12:04):
a song.
So with Madonna's brother's help, Christopher and Jean-Vogue Guite, they crafted a stage
experience that was divided into five acts.
So each act was with a unique theme and Guite's designs played a critical role.
So he made the iconic conical bras.
(12:27):
Everybody knows about this.
They were the bras that have the cones where the boobs are and they become a statement for
Madonna and a statement for Jean-Paul.
He even uses this as a perfume bottle in the future.
Like, to this day, you can buy his perfume and it's a bottle wearing one of his cone bras
(12:49):
that he made originally for Madonna.
You can even see the impact of the cone bras with Lady Gaga.
She brought out a cone bra for her live performance when she did the sparks coming out of the
cone bra.
Once again, who started it first, Madonna.
(13:10):
The stage itself was a technological marvel.
It cost about $2 million and featured a complex arrangement of hydraulics and multiple set
pieces that facilitated quick change between the high energy acts.
So this was a whole production that needed entire teams and it was way before its time.
So Lyca Prayer and the Blondie Ambition Tour that followed it were massive, massive points
(13:37):
in Madonna's career.
Madonna's Lyca Prayer and Blondie Ambition Tour were legendary.
Not even just for Madonna but for the entire world.
These are two cultural moments that will never be forgotten for the rest of time.
Past Madonna's time past our time, these will still be moments that I refer to and that
(13:59):
have been adding to the current culture.
This might be a little controversial but I think if we didn't have Lyca Prayer the
album that a lot of public culture today would be significantly different.
Specifically like pop music, pop culture.
Like always this is just a brief overview of the album and the tour.
(14:22):
I know that this album has so much more intricacies and so many more details that we could talk
about for hours but I just wanted to give you like a little brief history of Lyca Prayer
and the Blondie Ambition Tour.
I really hope you enjoy the podcast.
I highly, highly, highly suggest that you look up the Chronicle bras specifically and
(14:47):
go listen to Lyca Prayer and watch some of the Blondie Ambition videos from the tour.
I hope everyone has.
I hope you have a wonderful rest of your week and if you have ever listened to the first
three episodes you should do that and yeah that's all.
Have a great day.
This is Jack.
Happy Blondeach acqu
Life is a mystery you are listening to,
(00:07):
Biz of Ford.
Welcome to Pop Palace.
Hey everyone, welcome back to Pop Palace.
This is Jack and this is episode 4.
Episode 4 is going to be like a prayer.
If you're new to Pop Palace, welcome.
I'm your host Jack.
I'm currently studying contemporary music business and I have a passion for iconic women
(00:32):
in pop music.
This is Pop Palace.
Let's get started.
At Pop Palace, our mission is to celebrate the iconic women in pop music history and
celebrate them as well.
So with season 1, I be on with the queen of pop herself Madonna and we have begun at
(00:53):
her early beginnings all the way up to her third album release True Blue which was last
episode.
And now here we are episode 4 which is going to be like a prayer.
I'm so excited to have you guys back.
This is such a fun experience for me and let's get started.
Yay.
(01:14):
Welcome to 1989.
This is a pivotal year for Madonna.
So this year is not the best year for Madonna.
She is actually ending her relationship with Sean Penn and they are beginning a divorce.
And during this time she starts to work on her newest album like a prayer.
(01:37):
So Madonna is facing a lot of personal issues right now and she goes back to what she knows
which is music.
So during this time Madonna partners back with Patrick Leonard and Steven Bray who we both
know from working on her past three albums with her and if you listen to the other episodes
(01:59):
you'll be already familiar with those names.
And they infuse her music with her personal trials and tribulations.
So this album is about Madonna.
It's no longer her honeymoon phase.
This is Madonna ending her relationship and finding her true self again.
Madonna used like a prayer to explore themes closer to her heart such as her Catholic upbringing,
(02:25):
the complexities of her relationships added a personal touch to that really resonated
deeply with her fans.
This is probably one of her most introspective works yet.
Madonna is the 8 girl right now, she has been the 8 girl for a few years.
This is the end of the 80s and we're transitioning into early 90s.
(02:47):
Madonna is ever evolving.
So even within the few years that she has been in the music industry she is now evolving
into something new.
Each album is a metamorphosis of who she is or who she was and they are all similar
(03:08):
to her and true to herself but they're also vastly different.
And something that I truly appreciate about Madonna that I don't think people really give
her enough respect for is the amount of times that she can totally revolutionize and change
her entire existence and do it successfully over and over and over again.
(03:31):
There aren't many artists that can do that.
There aren't many artists that can't not stay in their same lane for the rest of their
career.
Think about all the famous legacy artists that you know and how they're known for the same
songs their entire life and the same style of music and the same aesthetics for their
(03:52):
entire career when Madonna changes that every four years or so even sooner and she does
it well.
I don't think she gets the credit she deserves.
How can you revolutionize and for every evolve as your career continues instead of staying
in the same lane and just doing what you know has worked in the past.
(04:15):
I don't know.
I think that's just so amazing.
So out there.
She's so ahead of her time.
An interesting facet of like a prayer was Madonna's collaboration with Prince on the
track Love Song.
So she recorded this at Prince's own Paisley Park Studios and the song highlights a fusion
(04:37):
of their distinct styles.
I love this song and the first time I heard it I immediately checked the credits to see
who was singing on it or who was playing on it because you can feel Prince's presence
from the beginning of the song.
I love this song so much.
I was finding it kind of interesting that when I was checking the Spotify credits though
(05:03):
and on Apple Music I checked too and Prince wasn't credited even though he's clearly on
the album.
I think that this probably is just like an oversight and an overlook because he definitely
is on that song.
Something that also makes this song honestly really strange is that in the creating of
(05:25):
the song they were both at Prince's Paisley Park Studios but not together.
They recorded it separately while each other weren't there and so I think that is honestly
really strange and really weird but looking back they did have some sort of an interesting
relationship.
Prince and Madonna were briefly dating sort of it's not like 100% yes they dated it's
(05:50):
more like they had a relationship in the 80s that didn't last super long and Prince later
said in like 2013 talking to Billboard how his strained relationship with Warner Bros.
Music was due to the pop icon Madonna.
The album itself is a rich tapestry of pop gospel rock and dance elements.
(06:14):
The title track features a gospel choir blending spiritual tones with pop rhythms.
So this sets a compelling tone for the entire album like as soon as you play the first song
which is the title track it's immediately brings you to note and immediately transforms
(06:35):
you into this space that you know what the rest of the album is going to be like.
Like a prayer had a large cultural impact it soared to number one across the globe it
become a defining moment of the album was in the late 80s it wasn't just melodies that
captured the world it had bold examinations of themes like religion and personal pain.
(06:59):
This is something that we've seen in the past Madonna loves to examine religion and pain.
If you could describe Madonna's career religion would be a big part of it and her examination
of religion.
So this whole album is basically that and it's examining what she was taught growing
up in Catholic school with the current pain that she's facing in her adult life.
(07:22):
Well also I don't think that Madonna gets enough credit for is how she is willing to
have these introspective conversations about her pain in her religious trauma and share
with the world because this allows other people who might be feeling the same way to listen
to her music and feel free.
(07:43):
Madonna is just helping people feel free.
Even years later like a prayer has still a massive cultural impact.
Like a prayer is celery not only artistically but for its boldness and its influence in
the music industry and in culture.
Madonna really took another step out of her comfort zone for this album.
(08:04):
She never does anything with the norm or anything that's just going to casually go
by.
No she's always making a statement.
And this was credited to transforming Madonna from a pop icon into a serious musical artist.
So before this in True Blue she was solidified as the 80s queen of pop and 80s pop ballad
(08:27):
icon but now she's really proved to herself and proved to the world that she is a serious
musical artist.
This album has inspired countless generations of new musicians.
So its 1990 and Madonna was ready to be a global superstar.
She was ready to take this album on the road and that's what she did.
(08:52):
This is when Madonna started honestly one of her most iconic and most infamous tours
ever.
This is the blonde ambition tour.
The blonde ambition tour becomes one of the most controversial and critically acclaimed
projects ever.
So the tour was designed to promote her fourth album like a prayer.
So during this time Madonna was also working on a movie Dick Tracy and was starring in it
(09:17):
and creating all the music for it.
So this album was to promote that as well as like a prayer her album.
So from the beginning blonde ambition was set to dazzle.
Madonna was known for her meticulous attention to her artistic expression.
So she brought in a team that included her brother Christopher Chaconet as the tour's
(09:38):
art director, a French fashion icon Jean-Paul Goodtier and he designed all the costumes.
Each element of the tour was carefully crafted to challenge and entertain.
So from the complex dance routines to the refractive fashion Madonna was doing it and
just like she said in her last tour this was going to be multimedia theatrical experience.
(10:02):
This is not a show this is not a concert.
This is a theatrical experience.
If there's any Madonna tour that I wish I could go back in time and see it was the we
was the blonde ambition tour and it's just like so iconic in every sense of the word.
So Madonna used Catholic imagery once again and explicit sexual content grew criticism
(10:26):
from religious groups and this even led to a boycott by Pope John Paul II.
Despite this or maybe because of it the tour was a commercial success and it grossed over
$62 million and it won Polestar Award for the most creative stage production.
If you don't know Polestar they do live rankings for like live performances and concerts.
(10:51):
They're honestly a really good resource to check out if you're ever interested to see
how someone's tour is doing.
They put out a weekly roster of the tour and ranks them based on attendance, social rank,
ticket sales and pretty much everything else.
It's really interesting.
The legacy of the blonde ambition tour it extends beyond its immediate impact.
(11:17):
So it set new standards for live performance in the music industry and it influenced artists
for decades.
So Madonna set the standard for what the new music industry was going to be and everyone
else followed.
Madonna proved that a concert could be a theatrical event.
A place to make statements and break taboos.
This isn't just her singing on a stage, pretty songs as a pretty person.
(11:41):
No, she's so much more than that.
This is her making a statement.
This is her time to shine and change the world and she also wants the fans to have an experience
that's not boring.
She wants them to have an experience that is theatrical and something that she would enjoy
herself and something that truly expresses her artistic value more than just her singing
(12:04):
a song.
So with Madonna's brother's help, Christopher and Jean-Vogue Guite, they crafted a stage
experience that was divided into five acts.
So each act was with a unique theme and Guite's designs played a critical role.
So he made the iconic conical bras.
(12:27):
Everybody knows about this.
They were the bras that have the cones where the boobs are and they become a statement for
Madonna and a statement for Jean-Paul.
He even uses this as a perfume bottle in the future.
Like, to this day, you can buy his perfume and it's a bottle wearing one of his cone bras
(12:49):
that he made originally for Madonna.
You can even see the impact of the cone bras with Lady Gaga.
She brought out a cone bra for her live performance when she did the sparks coming out of the
cone bra.
Once again, who started it first, Madonna.
(13:10):
The stage itself was a technological marvel.
It cost about $2 million and featured a complex arrangement of hydraulics and multiple set
pieces that facilitated quick change between the high energy acts.
So this was a whole production that needed entire teams and it was way before its time.
So Lyca Prayer and the Blondie Ambition Tour that followed it were massive, massive points
(13:37):
in Madonna's career.
Madonna's Lyca Prayer and Blondie Ambition Tour were legendary.
Not even just for Madonna but for the entire world.
These are two cultural moments that will never be forgotten for the rest of time.
Past Madonna's time past our time, these will still be moments that I refer to and that
(13:59):
have been adding to the current culture.
This might be a little controversial but I think if we didn't have Lyca Prayer the
album that a lot of public culture today would be significantly different.
Specifically like pop music, pop culture.
Like always this is just a brief overview of the album and the tour.
(14:22):
I know that this album has so much more intricacies and so many more details that we could talk
about for hours but I just wanted to give you like a little brief history of Lyca Prayer
and the Blondie Ambition Tour.
I really hope you enjoy the podcast.
I highly, highly, highly suggest that you look up the Chronicle bras specifically and
(14:47):
go listen to Lyca Prayer and watch some of the Blondie Ambition videos from the tour.
I hope everyone has.
I hope you have a wonderful rest of your week and if you have ever listened to the first
three episodes you should do that and yeah that's all.
Have a great day.
This is Jack.
Happy Blondeach acqu
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