Music(音乐)

麦当娜如今的位置早已不止音乐的范畴，她的影响力到达了社会文化的层面。从她的宣传、她的言论、她的婚姻和子女，麦当娜成为美国文化的代表词之一。虽然麦当娜新闻不断，但她自己却认为近两年她的生活比较低调，她说：“我心中渐渐产生出猛兽出笼的冲动，我想念演唱、跳舞和巡演路上的生活。”她的专辑《Music》的产生很大程度出于此。麦当娜十分聪明地将音乐、形象和时代潮流合为一体，80年代她的追随世俗大众路线，及至《SomethingToRemember》大碟的明显转变，同时她的形象也变成健康的中产阶级女性。而2000年推出的大碟《Music》的硬朗俊秀女牛仔形象，尽展女性的硬朗豪爽一面，音乐和形象在麦当娜身上整体来说是分不开的。在音乐上，此次麦当娜不再走乡村民谣或者布鲁斯的路子，一首首现代电子舞曲将时代感尽展。硬朗女性形象加上电子时代的现代感才足以表达现在麦当娜的全部。《Music》的制作班底集合了当今全球顶级制作人，代表欧美乐坛音乐制作的最高水平。麦当娜的《Music》，第一周就卖出了42万张。麦当娜赢得她纯粹的成功，她的音乐连同她的婚姻都能被人们接受。从麦当娜饰演阿根廷的国母埃维塔时掀起轩然大波，到今日麦当娜的崭新形象，转变自然而顺畅。麦当娜说，“我最满意的是所有的歌词都出于我自己。”麦当娜希望所有的歌曲都能在俱乐部中播放，能让人们翩然起舞。日前《Music》在中国推出，广大歌迷可以听到麦当娜日臻完美的声音。《Music》与同名专辑在英国创下了高销售量，同时也让她入围了“最佳国际女艺人”的奖项。

by Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Filled with vocoders, stylish neo-electro beats, dalliances with trip-hop, and, occasionally, eerie synthesized atmospherics, Music blows by in a kaleidoscopic rush of color, technique, style, and substance. It has so many layers that it's easily as self-aware and earnest as Ray of Light, where her studiousness complimented a record heavy on spirituality and reflection. Here, she mines that territory occasionally, especially as the record winds toward its conclusion, but she applies her new tricks toward celebrations of music itself. That's not only true of the full-throttle dance numbers but also for ballads like "I Deserve It" and "Nobody's Perfect," where the sentiments are couched in electronic effects and lolling, rolling beats. Ultimately, that results in the least introspective or revealing record Madonna has made since Like a Prayer, yet that doesn't mean she doesn't invest herself in the record. Working with a stable of producers, she has created an album that is her most explicitly musical and restlessly creative since, well, Like a Prayer. She may have sacrificed some cohesion for that willful creativity but it's hard to begrudge her that, since so much of the album works. If, apart from the haunting closer "Gone," the Orbit collaborations fail to equal Ray of Light or "Beautiful Stranger," they're still sleekly admirable, and they're offset by the terrific Guy Sigsworth/Mark "Spike" Stent mid-tempo cut "What It Feels Like for a Girl" and Madonna's thriving partnership with Mirwais. This team is responsible for the heart of the record, with such stunners as the intricate, sensual, folk-psych "Don't Tell Me," the eerily seductive "Paradise (Not for Me)," and the thumping title track, which sounds funkier, denser, sexier with each spin. Whenever she works with Mirwais, Music truly comes alive with the spark and style.