Loving the new Madonna X Kylie collab, Love Sensation. I’m happy it came out sooner than some time in the near future. They say tomorrow is now really in this hyper-real world. And something had to come from all that talk about a duet between two of the world’s greatest pop sensations. And I will call it a duet because duets don’t have to be mushy and slow and this track is less of a collab and more of an event. It had to come out now. After all, hype is futile without followup, and in today’s InstaWorld that means it ought to have been out yesterday. For devotees in the LGBTQIA communities, the song ought to feel instantly likeable, perhaps even a little familiar – hope and devotion can do those things to your mind. Before you know it, you’d imagine the song was pretty much written for you. And that intent, the natural chemistry, the familial connections, the doing away with too much trickery, that better clarity in vocals, the chiller beats per minute, and that universal message connects instantly with the audience it’s intended to gift. The others will catch on by summer’s peak.
I like this new version better than the album one, actually. It’s got a more potent vibe to it. And of course it’s got Kylie!
I don’t mind the video. A bit slapped-together-at-an-Amsterdam-promo-gig and with words all over the place having the nerve to think they’re in a lyric video – but, hey, if hideous fonts helps brattier artists go viral, hopefully a few lovelier fonted words like these will help teach the folks how pretty language used to look before it went #awol and before we let the machines do all the talking.
But something stuck with me after I watched the clip. Not just the naughty earworm that crawled out of the catchy-as-heck song. Not the flashing graphics that for all I know might have read, “You must love Madonna and Kylie or you will perish in hell” (for all I know). And not just the joy of finally seeing two brilliant pop artists coming together to bring their learn-ed all to the contemporary pop scene. It was a little joke Madonna makes at the end when she orders “Coke and ice” on her cellphone.
Now it’s not the statement I’m really questioning here: a classic Coke/coke joke is a classic joke. My pondering was more along the lines of why the statement at all? Call it overanalysing but when it comes to music icons, well, that’s kind of what I do.
So I started asking myself… Was it to sound cool with the kids? Was it possible shade at Pepsi for some odd royalty dispute from yore? Was it payola from a competitive big beverage brand? Was it street-talk hinting that a mix of cocaine and meth might just be where enlightenment’s at? (not tried that combination and probably won’t ever). Was it a woman not having to mind her Ps and Qs (because in a free-speech democracy we shouldn’t have to hold our tongue) and just letting some silly quip slip through her lips in place of silence? As a Leo, I know it’s really difficult to keep your mouth shut, especially when everything that comes out of it is golden. See what I did there?
Anyhoo, the cocaine-was-once-an-ingredient-in-Coke jokes probably began some time in 1930 – a few months after the beverage became completely-cocaine free in 1929 (I’m guessing it took a few years for everybody to get over the Charlie hangover). Like all good jokes, it has longevity and, quite frankly, I think it has purpose. If there’s good reason for the joke’s survival and random injection into the popular vernacular, I’d like to think that it was that any soft drink, with or without the excess sugar, is probably a better stimulant to help you reach a certain (even small) level of conscience or higher consciousness (seriously, because there really is nothing that you can’t do) than, say, coke, ice or a combination of the two.
I’m leaning more towards that than any idea that it fell under a Scattergories list of Stupid Cool-Kid Words, or Jokes To Help Break Those Seconds Of Awkward Silence, and I certainly hope they weren’t three words scribbled on paper and handed over from a PR rep who probably likes her real coke too much.
I’m not sure why I really tried to analyse that one. Just something about it stuck. Like so many of the things Madonna has said since blessing us with her ultra-presence all those decades ago. But I do kind of feel Someone needs to sit this woman down and give her a dose of her own Leo medicine. Or a nice cup of herbal tea and a chat. Or a Tequila cocktail or Coke with ice, even. The point is guaranteed positive public relations is now out of everybody’s hands. Well, kind of in everybody’s hands. Actually, I’m not sure anymore because AI has a pretty big mouth, too. Iconic one-liners might just be bandied about the wrong way if an artist’s delivery is too ambiguous.
What one needs is a good guide or mantra to help practice the marrying of the natural with intention with any desired material result – in this particular case, stream this song, or love me when I’m gone from your phone screen. [He wrote after seeing the video an hour ago and is still thinking and writing about it.]
Point being: genuine intention is good. When that’s in place, everything else follows effortlessly.
That Madonna and Kylie collab is out and it’s pretty fab, but wait, did Madonna just throw shade at Pepsi at the end of the video?
By creammagazine,
Loving the new Madonna X Kylie collab, Love Sensation. I’m happy it came out sooner than some time in the near future. They say tomorrow is now really in this hyper-real world. And something had to come from all that talk about a duet between two of the world’s greatest pop sensations. And I will call it a duet because duets don’t have to be mushy and slow and this track is less of a collab and more of an event. It had to come out now. After all, hype is futile without followup, and in today’s InstaWorld that means it ought to have been out yesterday. For devotees in the LGBTQIA communities, the song ought to feel instantly likeable, perhaps even a little familiar – hope and devotion can do those things to your mind. Before you know it, you’d imagine the song was pretty much written for you. And that intent, the natural chemistry, the familial connections, the doing away with too much trickery, that better clarity in vocals, the chiller beats per minute, and that universal message connects instantly with the audience it’s intended to gift. The others will catch on by summer’s peak.
I like this new version better than the album one, actually. It’s got a more potent vibe to it. And of course it’s got Kylie!
But something stuck with me after I watched the clip. Not just the naughty earworm that crawled out of the catchy-as-heck song. Not the flashing graphics that for all I know might have read, “You must love Madonna and Kylie or you will perish in hell” (for all I know). And not just the joy of finally seeing two brilliant pop artists coming together to bring their learn-ed all to the contemporary pop scene. It was a little joke Madonna makes at the end when she orders “Coke and ice” on her cellphone.
Now it’s not the statement I’m really questioning here: a classic Coke/coke joke is a classic joke. My pondering was more along the lines of why the statement at all? Call it overanalysing but when it comes to music icons, well, that’s kind of what I do.
So I started asking myself… Was it to sound cool with the kids? Was it possible shade at Pepsi for some odd royalty dispute from yore? Was it payola from a competitive big beverage brand? Was it street-talk hinting that a mix of cocaine and meth might just be where enlightenment’s at? (not tried that combination and probably won’t ever). Was it a woman not having to mind her Ps and Qs (because in a free-speech democracy we shouldn’t have to hold our tongue) and just letting some silly quip slip through her lips in place of silence? As a Leo, I know it’s really difficult to keep your mouth shut, especially when everything that comes out of it is golden. See what I did there?
Anyhoo, the cocaine-was-once-an-ingredient-in-Coke jokes probably began some time in 1930 – a few months after the beverage became completely-cocaine free in 1929 (I’m guessing it took a few years for everybody to get over the Charlie hangover). Like all good jokes, it has longevity and, quite frankly, I think it has purpose. If there’s good reason for the joke’s survival and random injection into the popular vernacular, I’d like to think that it was that any soft drink, with or without the excess sugar, is probably a better stimulant to help you reach a certain (even small) level of conscience or higher consciousness (seriously, because there really is nothing that you can’t do) than, say, coke, ice or a combination of the two.
I’m not sure why I really tried to analyse that one. Just something about it stuck. Like so many of the things Madonna has said since blessing us with her ultra-presence all those decades ago. But I do kind of feel Someone needs to sit this woman down and give her a dose of her own Leo medicine. Or a nice cup of herbal tea and a chat. Or a Tequila cocktail or Coke with ice, even. The point is guaranteed positive public relations is now out of everybody’s hands. Well, kind of in everybody’s hands. Actually, I’m not sure anymore because AI has a pretty big mouth, too. Iconic one-liners might just be bandied about the wrong way if an artist’s delivery is too ambiguous.
What one needs is a good guide or mantra to help practice the marrying of the natural with intention with any desired material result – in this particular case, stream this song, or love me when I’m gone from your phone screen. [He wrote after seeing the video an hour ago and is still thinking and writing about it.]
Point being: genuine intention is good. When that’s in place, everything else follows effortlessly.
Antonino Tati
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