Thank you to those of you who continue to subscribe to this newsletter despite its (charming?) infrequency. Time goes by so slowly for those who wait but also remains a false construct and somewhere between those two ideas is where I am writing to you from. (Today’s office etc).
Whenever I’m not here as much it means I am in the Google Doc trenches fighting for my life, eyes burning from screen time, Post-It book flags blanketing my desk and turning up in the most unexpected places (in my bed, attached to multiple items of clothing, on my dog’s paws). The official announcement of the next mini-season will be on Monday but I think that if you haven’t gleaned it from my obsessive IG story posting, the content of this letter will give you an idea of what’s to come.
In general I’ve been thinking a lot about what it means to be a Pop Star™️, both these days and in the past. It’s been an interesting and unplanned mixture of casually taking in some but certainly not all of this month’s Coachella performances from my couch, my Work, a special trip to The Abbey, and a blockbuster film that I had to see for podcasting purposes.
Here are some stray but bullet-pointed thoughts on Michael, what it means for Madonna to continue to feel free, and the limits of the theory of the Imperial Phase:
I spoke about Michael on The Big Picture podcast last week. Music biopics are 90% disappointing; due to their very nature, they are set up to fail. Obviously no person or estate thereof is willing sign off on the use of the music for a story that is anything less than a trite tale of glory shaded (ever so lightly) by at best a few minor but ultimately inconsequential flaws. And a music biopic without music can be pulled off, but it will never be a blockbuster hit. Of course, I don’t expect every musician film to be as unflinching as Nico 1988 or as illusive and insane as Better Man (which also has a far superior use of CGI chimpanzee). The films about big stars with legacies to tend to fall into a separate category. My point is that even within that tight framework, it’s surely possible to make something good? Michael had a lot of high notes: in particular Jafar Jackson’s performance scenes, his absolute fucking nailing of Michael Jackson’s otherworldly movement, were wonderful. But we also have access to the original videos of the same performances? Cosplay is fun I guess but is it enough to hang a film on? Don’t we need, I don’t know, dramatic tension? Or, and just hear me out, any sort of real insight into the main subject? Michael was especially frustrating because if there was ever a subject who not only deserves but demands deeper exploration, it’s Michael Jackson.
Patrik Sandberg put it perfectly in his newsletter about the film this week: “He was terrifying, artificial, haunted, anomalous, imperiled, defiant, insulated, pampered, dolled up, bedeviled, devastating, and quite possibly criminal. He was stranger than fiction, an explosion of drama you couldn’t dream up.” This is exactly why I (foolishly) hoped for a better film about him. Judging by the comments on The Big Pic IG posts (was self-harming this week) the only two possible responses to this film are to write it off completely because of Jackson’s alleged (and to be clear, for the most part, I believe it) crimes, or to lionize it without a shard of critical thinking or expectation for nuance. I’m 43 and grew up with so many different Michael Jacksons, most importantly the King of Pop who overtook MTV, whose style and movements made him seem not of this earth1, and whose “Thriller” dance I did gleefully every day in my living room, but perhaps most indelibly, the increasingly uncanny and grotesque figure splashed all over the tabloids, all the way up until his death at 50 years old. And the whole time he’s been this mythical but nearly completely opaque figure in terms of his interior life and motivations. While clearly shoehorning all of that complexity into one feature film would have been impossible, it would have been nice if this movie attempted to delve into who he actually was beyond his incredible musical output, his desire to “be his own man” and his purported (by the film itself) sainthood - even if it it did it in pursuit of excusing or explaining his darkness, which is WELL documented and impossible to ignore.2 That being said, like I said above, those with two ears and a heart will be rocked by all the performance scenes, and the actor who plays young Michael as a child, Juliano Valdi, in particular is wonderful.
Was Berry Gordy that hot?
Also I’m still irked by the Freddy DeMann erasure (Sean Fennessey says I get too hung up on accuracy in music biopics and that it doesn’t matter that much but I still think it does).
Anyway moving on:
I’m particularly interested in Madonna lately (wink, wink) so it was a tart little bit of kismet that I was able to attend her event at The Abbey in West Hollywood this past Saturday. It was like being a background extra in a Fellini film? Some of the celebs in attendance included Addison Rae, Lola Young, Lily Allen, Tori Spelling (we share a gyno), and my personal favorite sighting, Bruce Villanch (napping sitting up in the VIP area). Romy from The xx deejayed before turning the tables over to Stuart Price, the co-producer behind Confessions on a Dancefloor as well as its forthcoming sequel, to preview some new tracks from the new album. He was joined by the guest of honor who arrived at 1am (time goes by so slowly for sure but can also speed up considerably when you’re watching a drag queen and a queen get into it over floor real estate with the best sightline). She got on the mic and said yay gays and swayed and basked in the adoration of the room. And you know what? It was worth every second. The songs are pretty fucking good, and I cannot wait to hear the album.
Also (pink pussy hat descends onto my head) I’m interested to see how the world meets a 67 year old woman pop star with a full album roll-out and no interest in being demure or “age-appropriate.” They said she was too old when she was 40 (hinting it as early as 35 actually) and she simply proceeded to mow them down with one of the greatest albums of her career, Ray of Light. Regardless of what heights this new record hits, I wonder if simply by making it, and refusing to tone herself down or go away entirely, Madonna will do what she has always done - take the hits and in doing so clear the way for those that are coming up behind her. I don’t care if that sounds girl boss Canva designed HomeGoods mug, it’s true!
That being said I kinda feel like the girls could do a bit more with the paved road Madonna laid for them? That’s all I’ll say about that. 3
(I really hope they do not ever make that Madonna biopic).
In particular because her career is both so long and so deep that it evades the reliable rubric of an identifiable Imperial Phase.4 Madonna’s work is like a mountain range - a lot of altitude almost all of the way through, with multiple peaks.
(Copying and pasting this from Wikipedia): The Pitchfork critic Tom Ewing described three criteria for defining an artist's imperial phase: "command, permission, and self-definition". He defined "command" as the ability to push the boundaries of their medium in a way that produces lasting change; "permission" is the public's goodwill toward and interest in the artist's work; "self-definition" is the concept that the imperial phase defines the rest of the artist's career, and that future works will be compared to those from the imperial phase.
The first bit has pretty much been a hallmark of her career since jump (at the very least up through 2004 though again I would argue simply existing in the pop music space at her age has pushed boundaries outward for the last two decades), the second bit is a funhouse mirror depending on what year you’re talking, given the continual reappraisal of several of her older records, and the third bit is sort of in the eye of the beholder? Anyway I’ll…save it for the pod.5
I’ll be back with some more new music recommendations next week xx
I think it’s interesting and maybe a little sad that the biggest pop star of our time uses the opposite framing, extreme relatability, to reach peak audience but hey no one asked me
I know they apparently did attempt to tackle the allegations of child molestation in the film and were blocked from doing so legally, but judging by the movie they did put out, it’s unlikely they would have done that with any nuance or depth either.
Okay additionally I will add that I do really like what Addison Rae is doing and it reminds me a tiny bit of the energy and joy and crucially, the cleverness, of very early Madonna.
The term coined by Neil Tennant of the Pet Shop Boys to describe his feelings on their career circa "Domino Dancing." It’s been expanded to mean the peak period in an artist's career when they simultaneously achieve maximum creative, critical, and commercial success.
I don't know what the general consensus is, but I just want to say I've always been a big fan of the American Life album. Hollywood is such a jam.
As someone who, at around 9 years old, bought Jackson’s bloody awful “autobiography”, I’d love to hear him get the full bandsplain treatment. I guess the risk of insanity from the research needed might put you off though!