Madonna Said She Couldn’t Write Songs Like Michael Jackson
Madonna and Michael Jackson will always be the King and Queen of Pop, regardless of what thoughtless clickbait articles say. Madonna revealed that she didn’t write songs the way that the “Thriller” singer did. She said doing so would be bad for her mental health. Interestingly, Madonna explained what goes through her mind when she writes tunes.
Madonna would hate to work on songs as long as Michael Jackson did
During a 1991 interview with Rolling Stone, the “Like a Virgin” singer discussed what happened when she learned to play guitar. “I started writing immediately,” she said. “For a couple years I practiced the guitar two hours a day and the drums four hours a day. But as I got more involved in the things you have to do to make records and videos and go on tour, I just stopped playing.”
Madonna was asked if she was able to write songs in 15 minutes. “Yeah, but pop songs are really easy to write,” the Material Girl said. “Michael Jackson’s been working on his album for something like three years. I can’t imagine doing that! I’d go insane.”
Madonna didn’t think when she wrote her best songs
During a 1992 interview with The Guardian, the Queen of Pop said she gets frustrated if it took her more than 15 minutes to pen a song. “Oh yeah, I can write a song just like that,” she said. “But it’s weird sometimes, it takes me months to write a song, it’s a nightmare how long it takes me to finish them.
“Like there’s a song on my album that I’ve just finished writing a second verse for and I’ve been working on it for a year,” the “Frozen” singer added. “Other songs, and these usually end up being my best songs, are the songs that just go bam [clicks fingers]! You don’t even think about it, it just comes out.”
Madonna has been widely praised for her fantastic catalog of music videos. She told The Guardian that she often wrote songs with music videos in mind. She saw herself as a cinematic songwriter. That explains why she was so good at making music videos that captured the feel of her songs, even if they didn’t portray the lyrics of the song literally (e.g., “Frozen,” “4 Minutes,” and “Don’t Tell Me”).
Why Michael Jackson’s writing process was important
It is true that Jackson got quite fussy about his music. The gaps between his albums got pretty long. He released Thriller in 1982, Bad in 1987, Dangerous in 1991, HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I in 1995, and Invincible in 2001. Between 2001 and his death in 2009, he released no new music.
On one level, it’s great that Madonna was prolific and produced as much good music as she did. At the same time, it was great that Jackson was able to craft each album carefully over the span of years. Different creatives have different creative processes. It’s always been that way, and it always will be.
Madonna and Jackson stand as two of the titans of popular music even if they didn’t reign over their kingdoms in the same way.
