Journal: News & Comment

Retro-retroness

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Madonna is doing a weird thing right now in her new video. First of all, the Marilu Henner impresonation is frighteningly accurate. Second, she's doing a big retro thing—except, if you think about it, she's retro-oing right back to the early- to mid-'80s, which was when she herself first appeared on the scene.

I was watching the video and thinking, "Yeah, that takes me back to the days of Fame and shoulder pads and The Police and... hey, and Madonna! What the hell?"

It would seem very strange indeed if, say, Paul McCartney started parading around in Sgt. Pepper's satin sailor suits, Bono spiked his hair and wore ripped-sleeve tank tops, Cher went back to her long-straight-hair-and-macrame Native American Princess days, or Neil Diamond...er, well, never mind.

Anyway, it just strikes me as strange. Generally, when an artist goes retro, they're channeling one of their early influences, i.e. someone older and someone else, not themselves.

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