Lust for Music: Christina Aguilera's 'Bionic'

Christina Aguilera's "Bionic" is probably one of the most underrated albums of the last few years. It gained a lot of criticism for it's electric feel in comparison to Lady Gaga. Not that I don't love the Gaga, but she is hardly the only artist with an electric feel in the industry.

Madonna + Cocaine

The launch of the MDNA tour has bloggers buzzing and me pretty depressed I don't have tickets for the show in LA. Madonna is my muse! Evident in the artwork above which was created by me.

The Madonna inspired work of art [above] is a reference to both Madonna and drug use. I quoted a lyric from "Vogue", "You try everything you can to escape the pain of life that you know", and referenced cocaine with the bloody nose. Meaning people use drugs to escape pain, or their situations.

Video Lust : Rihanna's 'We Found Love'

Lots of controversy over Lust Icon Rihanna's new video "We Found Love", but what else would you expect?

Before the video even debuted, news broke that filming was interrupted by an angry farmer in Ireland. Rihanna was shooting scenes from the video on his farm and he was "outraged" over her public nudity. That's the least of the controversial material. There is plenty of drug references in the video's plot circling around an abusive relationship.

Virgine Magazine's 'Like A Virgin'

The Lust List loves a good fashion spread. Combine that with our Lust Icon Madonna and things can't get any better!

Virgine magazine recently did a tribute spread to the Queen of Pop ["Like A Virgin"], boasting that, "very few icons have had the scope of vision and longevity that Madonna has." Or fashion sense for that matter. The proof is in the pictures that touched on Madonna circa everything from "the Girlie Show" to "Like A Virgin" to "Erotica".

Video Lust : Madonna's 'What it Feels Like for a Girl'

Lust Icon Madonna's third and final single from the album, Music, was "What It Feels Like For A Girl". The song describes the pressure women feel to conform to social norms of "politeness and subservience".

The music video that eventually followed is not in fact the actual single, but a trance remix by Above & Beyond. This remix only contains a sampling of the original lyrics, including the opening line "Girls can wear jeans and cut their hair short, wear shirts and boots. It's okay to be a boy. But, for a boy to look like a girl is degrading, because you think that being a girl is degrading. But, secretly, you'd love to know what it's like, wouldn't you? What it feels like for a girl."

It was mostly popularized by this music video which was directed by Madonna's then husband, Guy Ritchie. Her depiction of violence and abuse for the music video caused it to be banned by both MTV and VH1 before 9PM. In it, Madonna suits up in bullet proof vesting, picks up an elderly women from a retirement home, and causes violence and chaos on the streets of Los Angeles [including grand theft auto, setting a gas station on fire, and shooting a police officer with a water gun]. You'll have to see what finally happens for yourself.

Madonna responded to the controversy saying that her character was acting out a "fantasy and doing things that girls are not allowed to do". The decision to ban the video was in itself controversial, since it appeared to be no more violent than some television shows that aired at the time. Ironically, the video went into heavy rotation on "Oxygen" and was streamed on "America Online" frequently.

Lust with your eyes below.



Video Lust : Madonna's 'Music'

Don't mess with Madonna. "Music" was the first single, released in 2000, from Lust Icon Madonna's eigth studio album, Music, and from what I understand her first single to leak before it's release.

An unauthorized copy of the song leaked onto the internet and spread like wildfire through various forums and Napster [remember that?]. To counteract the trend of pirating music, Madonna actively campaigned with other well known artists [like Dr. Dre] against Napster. She eventually performed the song as a live webcast and took over the internet reaching a record nine million people around the world. Take that Napster!

Eventually, it was officially released and a commerical success for Madonna. "Music" became her first single to reach number one in the United States since 1994's "Take A Bow".

The video is a comedic tribute to the decadance and bling of rap videos during that time. Long before Jay-Z and Kanye West were wearing Maison Martin Margiela, rap videos used to have matching sweatsuits, champagne, and booty shakers. Sadly, some of them still do.

Sacha Baron Cohen stars as "Ali G", her limousine driver for the video. He drives Madonna and her friends to the clubs [including a strip club] while they sip champagne and words like "Acid", "Crazy", and "Rock" flash on the screen. You can also see actress Debi Mazar in one of her more prominent cameos [she has appeared in multiple Madonna videos].

Lust with your eyes below.



Video Lust : Madonna's 'Human Nature'

"Human Nature" was the fourth and final single from Lust Icon Madonna's sixth studio album, Bedtime Stories. The song proves true to the theory that the best music is written from personal experiences.

"Human Nature" was written in response to public backlash from Madonna's previous album, Erotica, and her coffee table book, Sex. Lyrically, she sarcastically asks rhetorical questions based on actual encounters. "Did I say something wrong? Oops! I didn't know I couldn't talk about sex. What was I thinking?". It also repeats one of my favorite Madonna theories "express yourself, don't repress yourself" multiple times.

The music video for "Human Nature" continues on these themes and was heavily inspired by comic artist, Eric Stanton. Madonna explains, "Mondino [the Director] found this book by this illustrator named Stanton who did kinda S&M drawings and stuff, but we didn't want to go with the straight S&M; we wanted to have it be more about making fun of it".

For the first time, Madonna teamed up with choreographer Jamie King [who has choreographed and directed her last four tours] to dance, whip, and punch in latex and leather. She even had leather strips braided into her hair. The costumes for the video are said to represent the "constraints of society". Even her dog at the time, Chiquita, suited up to express herself.

Lust with your eyes below. "Absolutely, no regrets".

Performance Lust : Madonna's 'Vogue' for MTV

Probably one of the most successful songs ever from a soundtrack album, "Vogue" is from Lust Icon Madonna's I'm Breathless album which is music from and inspired by the movie "Dick Tracy". However, the background on the song doesn't seem to be inspired by the film at all.

Lyrically, Madonna was inspired by vogue dancer and choreographers Jose and Luis Xtravaganza from the Harlem "House Ball" community, the origin of the dance Vogue. They introduced "Vogueing" to her at the New York City club "Sound Factory". Prior to the singles release of the song, Vogue was only performed in bars and disco of New York City in the underground gay scene. Madonna made it mainstream.

One would venture to guess that Madonna did find inspiration from "Vogue" from the movie based on the role call of old Hollywood glamour about midway through the song. The music video also depicts the material girl in a style similar to her character in the film, "Breathless Mahoney".

The success of "Vogue" not only boosted sales of the I'm Breathless soundtrack, it also generated massive publicity for the movie "Dick Tracy".

In 1990, Madonna once again made headlines on MTV at the Video Music Awards. She performed "Vogue" with several dancers in 18th-Century French costume a la Marie Antionette. Her costume was actually originally worn by Michelle Pfeiffer in the film, "Dangerous Liaisons". During the performance, Madonna and her dancers did more than flash undergarments. She not only pushed the faces of two male dancers into her breasts, she actually had one of them fondle her breasts on stage.

Lust with your eyes below. Prance over to LuSylist to get the look!

Video Lust : Madonna's 'Express Yourself'

"Express Yourself" is Lust Icon Madonna's second single from the Like A Prayer album. The queen of reinvention flips the script on us. The opening lines of the song take us in the complete opposite direction of "Material Girl" in which she sings, "you don't need diamond rings or eighteen karat gold".

In fact, the main inspiration behind "Express Yourself" is female empowerment, urging women never to "go for second-best" and to put their love "to the test". We all dig the guy with satin sheets, but what happens when you're not in his bed?

Madonna tells Rolling Stone, "the ultimate thing behind the song is that if you don't express yourself, if you don't say what you want, then you're not going to get it. And in effect you are chained down by your inability to say what you feel or go after what you want. No matter how in control you think are about sexuality in a relationship there is always the power struggle...always a certain amount of compromise. Of being beholden, if you love them. You do it because you choose to. No one put the chain around this neck but me. I wrote 'Express Yourself' to tell women around the world that pick and choose the best for yourself, before that chain around your neck, kills you instead. Its my take on how man can express what they want, the same prerogative should be there for a woman too."

The video is set in a dark and busy metropolis where muscular men work in the steam and rain. Madonna appears as a lonely but strong figure of beauty and grace in double-breasted suits, silk nightgowns, nude corsets, and nothing at all. One analysis explains that Madonna is shown in a seductive manner and chained to her bed not to portray women in an empowering position, but rather to emphasize the fact that women can be in control because of their sexual prowess.

Lust with your eyes below and put your style to the test at LuStylist.

Video Lust : Madonna's 'Material Girl'

The Lust List doesn't find comfort in all the beautiful Model Lust's we frequently celebrate, the Lust List lives in a material world.

"Material Girl" was the second single from Lust Icon Madonna's second album, Like A Virgin. The lyrics identify with materialism, with Madonna asking for a rich and affluent life, rather than romance and relationships. Contemporary and old critics have frequently noted "Material Girl" and "Like a Virgin" as the songs that made Madonna an icon.

The "Material Girl" video pays homage to one of Madonna's icons, Marilyn Monroe, and her performance of the song "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" from the 1953 film "Gentleman Prefer Blondes". In fact, it was this video that caused Madonna to beign to accept and utilize herself being compared to Monroe. However, she established a safe distance from those comparisons. Madonna explains, "Well, my favorite scene in all of Monroe's movies is when she does that dance sequence for 'Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend'. And when it came time to do the video for the song, I said, I can just redo that whole scene and it will be perfect...Marilyn was made into something not human in a way, and I can relate to that. Her sexuality was something everyone was obsessed with and that I can relate to. And there were certain things about her vulnerability that I'm curious about and attracted to."

Madonna dances and sings the song, while she is showered with cash, expensive jewellery and furs, and is carried men over stairs perfecting sex kitten pouts while batting her lashes. Lust with your eyes below and shop the material world with LuStylist.

Performance Lust : Madonna's 'Like A Virgin' for MTV

The Lust List is going through the wilderness to celebrate Lust Icon Madonna's birthday! I've been touched many times by the Queen of Pop, starting with the performance that put her on the map.

Madonna performed "Like A Virgin', the first single from her second album, at the 1984 MTV Music Video Awards. She began atop a giant wedding cake dressed in a wedding dress with her now infamous "Boy Toy" belt buckle adorned in pearls and a tulle veil. It wasn't long before she had her fill of cake, and was rolling around and humping the stage. Which at the time was pretty controversial [one of the many reasons I love her].

To this day, the performance is noted as one of the most iconic and biggest performances in MTV's history. Madonna has commented that she was actually terrified of the whole experience. She recalled, "I remember my manager Freddy shouting to me, 'Oh my God! What were you doing? You were wearing a wedding dress. Oh my God! You were rolling around on the floor!' It was the bravest, most blatant sexual thing I had ever done on television."

Lust with your eyes below and walk down the aisle with LuStylist to get the virginal look.

Lust Icon : Madonna

Yes. The answer is yes. I'm extremely intimidated with the idea of tackling Madonna as a Lust Icon. How could I convey to the world how iconic and amazing Madonna is? What photos would I even use? Should I pick someone else this go-around? Someone easier, like say, Lady Gaga?

I sometimes strangely loathe the fact that I even like Madonna [oh-kay LOVE Madonna]. It all just sounds so cliché for a gay man to love Madonna. But, I don't love Madonna the way we all at some point love her. Without sounding like a fanatic, I worship Madonna. Now I know that sounds extreme but, I'm not a crazy person. Madonna is an icon of music, film, fashion, art, and lifestyle. I don't need millions of record sales and awards to prove that. Who she is and what she does in the way that she does it, to me, seals the deal. How does she do that? With absolutely no regrets.

Madonna Louise Ciccone is a child of Italian decent from Bay City, Michigan. Of her youth, she recalls herself as a "lonely girl who was searching for something. I wasn't rebellious in a certain way. I cared about being good at something. I didn't shave my underarms and I didn't wear make-up like normal girls do. But I studied and I got good grades.... I wanted to be somebody." It was that ambition that drove her to drop out of college and pursue a dance career in New York City. She moved to New York in 1977 with only $35 in her pocket and describes the decision as "the bravest thing I'd ever done."

Model Lust : Jesus Luz

Proving once again that she has amazing taste in men, Madonna made like a cougar and wrapped her claws around Brazilian model Jesus Luz who at the time was 25 years younger than her 50 years. The two met while she shot her spread for W Magazine in Rio de Janiero.

Before, during, and after getting into the groove with Madonna, Luz has been on the runway for DSquared, Dolce & Gabbana, and Givenchy to name a few. It seems venturing into the cougars den was the best career move he has made thus far. Featured in publications like l'Officiel Hommes and GQ , the Lust List loves the above photo from Interview in which he channels Madonna circa her "Sex" era in the early nineties.

Video Lust : Madonna's 'Justify My Love'

While we're on the subject of Madonna's Justify My Love, should we take a moment to highlight one of my all time favorite Madonna videos? I'm sure there will be many more to follow.

Justify My Love was featured on the Immaculate Collection, Madonna's first Greatest Hits disc, and released in 1990. The song was one of four singles to be released from that album, and was produced by Lenny Kravitz.

The video for Justify My Love was filmed primarily on Laserdisc in grainy black and white in the style of a 1960s European art film. The action takes place in an elegant hotel that apparently caters to alternative lifestyle couples. Madonna enters looking tired and distressed as she walks down the hallway toward her room where she has a romantic fling with a mysterious man [yes, Tony Ward]. Some of the doors to the other rooms are open and you catch glimpses of various couples cavorting in BDSM fetish outfits [leather, latex bodysuits, and corsets].

In a dream-like sequence, Madonna rolls around in bed wearing skimpy lace underwear while various figures come and go. The only nudity [which led to the video being banned by MTV] occurs when a topless dominatrix-type woman [suspenders partially covering her breasts] appears and roughly grabs a bound man by the hair. Her outfit, which includes a peaked leather hat and black gloves, copies the iconic ensemble worn by Charlotte Rampling in the controversial film The Night Porter. The theme of androgyny is also briefly alluded to when a woman who closely resembles Madonna's lover is seen in men's clothing with a drawn-on pencil mustache. The overall presentation is surreal and deliberately ambiguous.

In the end, a rejuvenated Madonna rushes out of the hotel room smiling and laughing. The video then fades to a black screening with a written phrase shown, "poor is the man whose pleasures depend on the permission of another".

Justify My Love was the first ever single by Madonna to be released on VHS [remember those?] after it's ban by MTV. On December 3, 1990, ABC's Nightline played the video in its entirety, then interviewed Madonna live about the video's sexual content and censorship. When asked whether she stood to make more money selling the video than airing it on MTV, she shrugged and answered, "Yeah, so? Lucky me." She also mentioned that the banning was hypocritical as male artists were able to show music videos on the channel which contained sexist and violent imagery.

Lust with your eyes below and justify your look with LuStylist.

Model Lust : Tony Ward

Anthony Borden Ward, better known as Tony Ward, is an American model, actor, fashion designer, painter, and photographer. Ward was born in Los Angeles and grew up in Santa Cruz [ironically, my favorite and least favorite cities].

Ward began his modelling career in 1983 and achieved fame as an international supermodel, first for Calvin Klein underwear with images by Herb Ritts. Later, he worked with photographers like Karl Lagerfeld, Steven Klein, Steven Meisel, and Terry Richardson and for fashion designers such as Roberto Cavalli, Chanel, Dolce & Gabbana, Diesel, Fendi, H&M, and Hugo Boss. And yes, I did mention he is a fashion designer. He has his own line SixInTheFace "Hand Ravaged Clothing by Mr.Ward".

More recently, Ward is all over the print ads for Dolce & Gabbana [who seems to have the best taste in men]. These images are from Dolce & Gabbana's latest book Uomini, which should be arriving at my door sometime this week! The book features Ward and some of our other favorite Model Lust's like Andres Velencoso and Noah Mills.

Ward was Madonna's boyfriend [someone else who seems to have great taste in men] in the beginning of the 1990s and he appeared in some of her music videos as well as the controversial Sex book in 1992. You can spot him looking all kinds of sexy in the Justify My Love video.

Can you believe Tony Ward is 48 years old? Neither can I.

Icon : Rihanna

Music, sex appeal, fashion, independence, dance, tattoos, the only girl in the world seems to have it all. First Icon, Rihanna.

Rihanna, a native of Saint Michael, Barbados, moved to the United States when she was sixteen years old to pursue music and almost immediately signed a record with Def Jam Recordings after an audition with then-label head Jay-Z. Five studio albums, countless music awards, and nine number one singles on the Billboard Hot 100 [the most by any artist in the time of her career] later, Rihanna has cemented herself as a music and fashion icon.

I'm always excited to see Rihanna's next move in both music and fashion. My personal highlights of Rihanna would have to include her amazing video style in Hard, Rude Boy, and What's My Name? [pictured]. Even when she appears in videos for everyone else, she never loses sight of her individuality. Music videos aside, on the streets in her public life she never misses a fashion beat, creating an entire look distinctly her own out of even the most branded pieces and labels.

On top of all that, she did an amazing live performance covering Madonna's Vogue that you can catch on youtube.com.

"I hate anything that's too straightforward, too routine, too familiar. I get bored really, really quickly." - Rihanna

Download these : Rude Boy, Love the Way You Lie [Pt. II], Hard, Disturbia, Raining Men, Umbrella

Watch these : Rude Boy, Hard, What's My Name?, S&M, Rockstar 101

Music : Madonna's 'Erotica'

Madonna's Erotica is by far my favorite Madonna Album. I was only ten years old when it was released in 1992. Like many things, I've come to understand it more and more the older I get.

Madonna was widely condemned in the media for having pushed the limits of sexuality too far with her first album to have a "Parental Advisory" sticker slapped on the cover. She was no longer considered acceptably suggestive, but vulgar and raunchy. She has never been as explicit as she was during this phase of her music. Which is probably why it's my favorite of all her persona's.

The album was released nearly simultaneously with Madonna's first publication, Sex. Sex is the most successful coffee table book ever released [selling all 1.5 million copies published in the first three days!] and features strong adult content and softcore pornographic photographs depicting simulations of sexual acts, including sadomasochism and analingus. She wrote the book as a character named Mistress Dita, inspired by 1930s film actress Dita Parlo. She told Larry King in 1999, "I didn't write a book about sex. I wrote a book that—I mean I published a book that basically was sort of a—an ironic tongue-in-cheek, sticking-my-tongue-out-at-society photo essay..."

Interestingly enough, Madonna was inspired for both the album and the book by Andy Warhol. She even pays homage to Edie Sedgwick in the Deeper and Deeper music video.

Despite all the criticism, the album is double platinum, and has sold over five million copies. So, it seems, as always, that Madonna had the last laugh.

Download these: Erotica, Deeper and Deeper, Where Life Begins, In This Life.