Y&RWorldTurner

Ah okay. Carl said, "That last scene was the final goodbye for the Santer era" so I thought Friday's episode was Santer's last episode.

It was probably the last major event/confrontation of the Santer era with Max confronting Stacey for the first time since Bradley's death, and it ended with a sleek choice in direction. Santer is like a John Conboy of British soap producers, he really made EastEnders look amazing at times aesthetically, even if a lot of his stories were poorly executed or followed though on.

I guess I'll wait for another couple more months to start watching EE.

I'm predicting Kirkwood's name will probably pop up in the credits late in May or definitely by the first week of June.

So Monday is Kirkwood's first episode?

I think it won't be until June.

Santer started in October 2006, and his first episodes didn't air until January 2007. So, I guess there's a 3 months in advance gap in production. Kirkwood officially started on March 1st behind the scenes. Though, there might be a time where both of their names will appear in the credits, Kirkwood was helping in the storylining during Santer's final weeks. Though, I suspect, we won't really see Kirkwood's stamp on things until well into the summer, when Santer's plots will mostly run dry.

It should be interesting to see where everyone goes from here. How the road to recovery for Stacey will be.

I'm wondering if she'll even get to have the baby, or will she miscarry?

Tanya isn't coming back until the late summer or so. So, I guess Zoe Lucker's new character will be introduced before then. I'm excited to see her on EastEnders, I hope she's playing some type of fierce bitch.

I love Santer's artsy production values. LOL! Yeah, more cohesive stories are better, but I'm a sucker for good aesthetics.

I don't know what Kirkwood has in store for this show, so little has been revealed and he's done no interviews as of yet.

I kind of just fell back into watching EastEnders randomly again. I find I can stomach it more than Corrie or Hollyoaks right now. I've never been a big Emmerdale fan.

I'm hoping EastEnders, Corrie, and Hollyoaks all improve with the changes in Producers this year.

Sam and Olena are horrendously boring.

God, I loved the directing of that final scene in Friday's episode.

EastEnders is lucky to have many great actors that can sell some of this shoddy storytelling.

Not crazy about the story, but Jake and Lacey were amazing in Friday's episode.

New Jake Wood interview:

http://www.digitalspy.com/soaps/s2/eastenders/interviews/a210371/jake-wood-max-branning-eastenders.html

Who knew you liked the police. I didnt figure you as a fan.

I like many different things. It's really hard to pin-point my exact tastes in music.

The Police - Wrapped Around Your Finger

I mean Diana Ross' sales in the 70s were through the roof, Donna Summer's bad Girls double LP sold over 2.5 mill, etc.

We'll never quite know how much many of those Motown albums sold in the 60's and 70's. Berry Gordy hated the RIAA and refused to pay fees to gets the albums from his acts certified.

But Like A Virgin was the first female album that was certified for sales of over 5 million. By the end of the 80's, Like A Virgin and True Blue, along with Whitney Houston's first two albums were the best selling albums by females acts. Though many albums by females have come close or even surpassed them over the years, it was very telling. Madonna was the first in a line of female artists in pop music who broke a glass ceiling in terms of consistent album sales for female artists, or at least sold comparably and consistently to male artists at the time.

Though, aside from a few mega selling albums, albums weren't selling as much in 70's as they were in the 80's and much of the 90's, when Madonna was at her peak.

Well a lot of that is cuz Madonna broke into New York as a dancer--that's what brought hero the city. Gaga broke into clubs as a singer/songwriter. It's a very different foundation really

Yes, which is why I think Gaga doing "dance music" was more marketing genius on her mentor's part than her's.

I'm intrigued by this Madonna had a message. Really? I can only laugh at that. And her "message".

I think there's a clear feminist theme throughout much of her earlier work and videos.

Many mainstream women in pop weren't exploring themes regarding sex, religion, and unapologetic abrasiveness before her, or at least they didn't have the type of commercial success she had doing it.

Prior to Madonna, female artists weren't selling very many albums. In fact, Like A Virgin was the first album by a female act to have a certification of over 5 million by the RIAA. She may have gotten too snobby in recent years, but I don't think we can deny the impact she's had on the music industry. Whether you're a fan or not, she had an impact on both pop music and pop culture that other acts that came from that era just don't have, and she did it by being a essentially a self-made woman. She didn't get her foot in the door by being in a successful group like Michael Jackson, she didn't have the Clive Davis/Tommy Mottola mentor that Whitney and Mariah had, and she wasn't the product of a successful writing/producing team like many others were.

Well yeah but to be fair to the lady (and I admit all this press comparing her to Madonna hasn't helped) Madonna certainly didn't stand for anything much till at least mid way thru her third album, the True Blue era, and didn't radically change her image or anything between her first three either--certainly not between her first two. Everything now of course happens MUCH faster, it's the nature of the age we live in and people have to make an impression faster.

Oh I agree, but I agree with bellcurve's assertion that Gaga's outfits don't signify any type of "reinvention." They basically blend together in her signature shtick.

Madonna recently admitted to Rolling Stone that her "reinventions" had more to do with accumulating money and begin exposed to top designers and photographers as her career went on and on. There wasn't much of a style difference between Madonna's debut and Like A Virgin, though the music on the albums themselves are quite different. The debut was of course a reflection of her early 80's New York dance roots. Like a Virgin was a calculated pop effort to progress her career onto a more mainstream and international stage, which worked.

Though from True Blue onward, there was definitely a synergy between the music and the personal style "reinventions."

I do agree with many of your points, but... I mean before Gaga, people used to think Britney was the new Madonna (people=the media). Gaga at least is a better fit there...

I never took any of those Britney comparisons seriously. She's always been a puppet.

Though, I do think Madonna was definitely in control of who she was and what she wanted to do from almost the beginning. It definitely helped that she had someone like Freddy Demann as her manager from Like A Virgin to Evita though, someone who had the business experience to help her do all the things she wanted to do. I don't think many women in pop before Madonna had the kind of control of their careers to the extent Madonna had.

While Gaga is definitely less than puppet and more of an artist than Britney, it's still far too early to ever make a comparison between her and someone as established as Madonna. Thanks to the over-commercialization of the music industry these days, she's probably a lot richer than Madonna was when she started out. We'll have to see if Gaga can reinvent both her music and her image style come the next album.

Eventually, the RedOne collaborations are going to wear thin, and even though she's worked with other people, we're going to wonder if she can do something major away from the type of sound, while staying true to her dance-pop market.

Hell, I don't think Gaga knew what the hell Radio Gaga was until the ex-boyfriend that's suing her now introduced her to it and to Queen. As much as I find some of the content in his suit to be hilarious, I do think he played a major role in shaping Gaga for the dance-pop market, because I don't think she'd be doing this type of music had she not met him.

She'd be doing this less marketable stuff and looking like this:

Gaga's "club roots" are a lot different from Madonna's "club roots." Though Madonna was in some punk-oriented bands, most of her New York club experience in the early days was always in the dance vein.

Devon Anderson sucked on Hollyoaks and he sucks here. He looks bloated and he is a terrible actor. He has also destroyed anything of value in the Whitney character.

Yeah, he's always sucked, but it's not just him. It's that whole scene with his friends that suck, too.

Phil told them off today when they were in the Vic. Looks like they're plotting to humiliate him, just as Social Services is coming to the Vic to check Phil and his living environment out to see if it's fit enough for Louise.

They're f.ucking with the wrong guy.

My favorite is Jake Wood/Max. I haven't seen today's show yet. I heard he has a shirtless scene, that should be OK. His best feature is his ass (which is one of the best I've seen on TV ever), but we're not going to see that, I guess, unless we get some sort of Late Night Eastenders...

It was very brief shirtless scenes, Max and Becca screwed today. And then Becca went off to visit Stacey, and Max followed her. Max seeing Stacey from afar was the cliffhanger.

A nice scene with Lucy and Peter today too, towards the end.

Yeah, I felt really sorry for Jane today.

Ian and Lucy lying to her about a miscarriage when it was really an abortion was cruel. This is going to blow up. Jane was so disappointed, and even though her whole arrangement was strange, her heart was in the right place.

I really detest Billy and that whole ghetto teen scene. Ugh!

Jack Branning is a hot piece of ass.

Keith Duffy isn't leaving after all.

http://www.digitalspy.com/soaps/s3/coronation-street/news/a210552/keith-duffy-im-staying-on-corrie.html

Corrie is so damn weak, hallow, and just not worth investing in at the moment. Hopefully that can change soon with the producer change.

I like GaGa, don't get me wrong...

But I don't think putting on a bunch of weird outfits qualifies as a "reinvention." Madonna reinvents herself, but she adopts a new style every album. We've only had one album and an extension LP from GaGa. That's not enough to decide whether she will have staying power or whether she will be the next Madonna.

The real test comes with her next album. She's gonna have to realize that she can't rely on the same tricks she did with the first, nor can she rely on comparisons to Madonna to sell records. She's gonna have to do more than make Poker Face 2.0, make glossy music videos, and wear weird outfits and accessories. And she's gonna have to accept that her second album may not be as good as her first and, instead of breaking down, just tour with it and work on the next one.

Madonna had staying power because she(unlike other popstresses of the 80's) never gave up. If an album or movie didn't quite work out, she focused on the next effort.

Exactly. +1

Back when she cared more, Madonna always had not only a new look every album, but some sort of new message and some sort of musical output change, while staying true to her dance-pop roots.

Gaga has never really stood for anything, and those "weird outfits" all blend together as her only image as far as I'm concerned.

We'll have to wait until the next real album to see if Gaga has strategically reinvented her image and music. The Fame Monster, though an EP, was basically a continuation of the same sound and style of The Fame.

Since some of you were talking about it.....

Lady Gaga: A New Madonna Making Pop History

Wow, I'm amazed that "her debut album is still No. 7 after 72 weeks."

It's #1 in the UK this week, nearly a year after it first hit #1 there.

Though, some of these journalists are really misleading. Gaga's "6 #1 singles" come from Pop AIRPLAY, which was said in a very minor way. On the main singles chart, Billboard's Hot 100 Singles, she only has two #1 singles - Just Dance and Poker Face.

On the UK singles chart, she has 4 #1 singles - Just Dance, Poker Face, Bad Romance, and Telephone.

Jonas Aukerlund talks about the Madonna/Gaga thing:

http://uk.news.launch.yahoo.com/dyna/article.html?a=/17032010/364/telephone-director-hails-gaga-new-madonna.html&e=l_news_dm

Telephone director hails Gaga as the new Madonna

(Tuesday March 16, 2010 11:26 PM)

The man behind some of Madonna's most iconic videos has hailed Lady Gaga as the next Queen of Pop, after noticing the similarities between the pop pair while filming the singer's epic new video for Telephone.

Jonas Akerlund directed GaGa's racy new promo, which features Beyonce and lasts a staggering nine-and-a-half minutes.

And the Swedish filmmaker, who worked with the Material Girl on her Ray of Light and Music videos, couldn't believe how alike Madonna and the Poker Face hitmaker are.

He tells MTV.com, "I really don't like to compare the artists that I work with, because they are all so unique and so different. One thing for sure is that GaGa is a true artist. She's really a huge talent, and she's such a hard worker. That makes me think of Madonna, because Madonna is always such a hard worker, more than anybody else.

"She's (Madonna) always very creative. She always goes back to creativity. She has so much politics around and all these stupid rumours and gossip and all that, and some artists manage to stay above that. So, in that sense, I'm fine with comparing (Gaga and Madonna), but then again, they're so different.

"I also have 12 years with Madonna and I have two videos with GaGa; it's the future to tell, but I think that GaGa has all the potential and all the tools and all the brain to take her creativity as far she wants to. But she's great."

GaGa recently insisted she was ready to revolutionise the pop charts, the same way Madonna did in the 1980s.

I love how it spoofs the fact that Gaga has ZERO sex appeal.

Really, she tries, but it's just not there.

It's sickening how much Jane wants Lucy to have this baby and is basically guilting her into having it. I'm glad Lucy decided on that abortion and Ian supported her, also happy that Peter called Jane out on how disturbing her whole arrangement is.

Peter: Whose baby is this exactly?

Jane: Well, it will belong to all of us!

Peter: All of us?!?

Jane: Yes!

Peter: Alright, so I'm the baby's uncle-brother?

Jane: Labels don't really matter! Love is what really matters!

Peter: This is SO sick!

:lol:

Thanks to Ben from EastEnders.

Girls Aloud - The Promise

Ben NEEDS to be gay! It's so obvious!

He just doesn't know it yet.

Ben dancing to Girls Aloud's "The Promise":

Some may find him annoying, but I really like the little actor that plays Ben.

U2- With or Without You(rattle and hum)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8SPeR60lRI

Cool, looking forward to it. Lucker is gorgeous.

I hope the start of Kirkwood's tenure is strong.