Madonna’s second single released from the upcoming MDNA album (after the dispiriting chart performance of the Super Bowl-premiered “Give Me All Your Luvin”) is “Girl Gone Wild”–which seems, from its housey beat to its references to DJs and 808 drums, to the Joe Francis-iness of its title and “bad girl” posing, like Madonna’s chasing trends. “Girls, they just want to have some fun,” goes the refrain–Cyndi Lauper, get your lawyers on the phone!
The whole song seems rather like 2000’s “Music” in its references to DJ culture and to going out and having fun and being bad–but leaving aside that Madonna was twelve years younger at that time and thus perhaps a more convincing “bad girl,” so too was our culture–electronica in pop music and fronting like one is “wild” no longer shock the consciousness. This is to be Madonna’s sixth consecutive dance-music album (a line that began with 1998’s Ray of Light)–maybe it’s time for her to try something totally different?
