August 5, 2007

Before they ruined themselves 3: Madonna

[Part 1 on Shakira, Part 2 on Mariah Carey.]

Yes, there was a time when Madonna was neither slutty nor new age-y, although I'm too young to remember it personally. I recall hearing "Open Your Heart" and "Like a Prayer" when I was in elementary school, and by the time I started secondary school, she had just crossed the Rubicon of skankdom with Erotica and Bedtime Stories. Since then, it's all been pretty bad or mediocre compared to her earliest albums.

One thing worth clearing up is that she has never returned to her dance music roots -- I didn't know so many people thought so, but reading around, I find lots of references to Ray of Light and her newest Confessions on a Dance Floor as being dance music. No, they're more of a return to her techno/house megahit "Vogue." But techno, house, trance, ambient, and recent electronic music generally, are not crafted to facilitate dancing. It is overly repetitive, amelodic, lacking in vocal range, and has lots of percussion, most of which has a "marching in lockstep" rhythm: BOON-chick BOON-chick BOON-chick BOON-chick.

Now, to enjoy truly danceable music, you have to go back to her first, eponymous album. Just listen to "Holiday" -- a naive listener would guess it was a disco song, which is understandable since the album came out in 1983, right after disco's downfall. "Lucky Star" isn't quite as lively, but still works well. The year after her debut album, she released Like a Virgin, my favorite. The title track, "Dress You Up", * "Material Girl", and "Into the Groove" -- great dance-pop music.

The lyrics are sanguine rather than cynical,** celebrate long-term love over fucking and spanking, and focus more on the irrational helplessness and possessivenes of falling head-over-heels as opposed to the jaded calculation of a cougar on the prowl. The videos are basically slut-free, although there is the occasional instance of her acting like a dopey seductress. Even her infamous performance of "Like a Virgin" at the 1984 MTV Video Music Awards is pretty tame. For all but the last 30 seconds, she's not doing much of anything, and then lightly humps the ground for a few seconds near end. She was hardly an ideal role model, but she wouldn't have been an awful one then either.

Now fast-forward to 1990: that's the year of the switch to house/techno music ("Vogue"), of the Blond Ambition Tour with its skeezy NSFW rendition of "Like a Virgin," and of the harbinger of much later S&M-themed videos (the NSFW "Justify My Love"). This latter video is as druggy as an Andy Warhol movie, and about as erotic -- the kind of goofy, fumbling attempt at edgy sensuality you'd expect from the goth kid in a freshman filmmaking class. After her sleazy phase, she turned into a new age spiritual flake,*** passed the torch of skankiness in saliva form to Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, then released the obligatory "post-fame political manifesto" album like every superstar, and most recently put out the aforementioned non-dance album.

Nevertheless, in Madonna's defense, she deserves credit for not caving in to dissoluteness until as late as she did. Born in August 1958, she was nearly 32 when the Blond Ambition Tour marked her descent from dance-pop greatness. By contrast, the other two women I've profiled so far in this series -- Shakira and Mariah Carey -- were 28 and 27, respectively, when they sold out their earlier fun and nonchalant personas in favor of what they have become. It's possible that the difference is due to Madonna entering the spotlight much later in life than the other two -- she was 24 when her first album came out, while Shakira was 19 and Mariah Carey 20 when their first major albums came out. As another data-point, Janet Jackson began her foray into voyeurism and sluttiness when she was 27, having first made it big when she was just under 20.

I still think it's somewhat due to Madonna having a stronger character than Shakira, Carey, or Jackson, though. As a woman approaches 30, on some level she is aware that her youth is basically over. For example, even if she's on the attractive side, she won't automatically turn lots of heads anymore. She has to make a decision about whether to age gracefully, accepting that she's no longer a "pretty young thing," or to hurl herself headlong into the abyss of skankdom in order to maintain the same level of attention she's been used to. See Roissy's post "From kitten to cougar" for more detail.

In high school, Madonna got straight A's and go into the University of Michigan -- that takes a certain amount of IQ and conscientiousness. Hell, a weak person could never conquer the world of entertainment and earn the title Queen of Pop. Partly for this reason, Madonna's vulnerable period from 27 to 31 was much more dignified than that of most female stars. So, one cheer for her career overall, although she's pretty good if you focus on her pre-1990 albums, especially the first two.

* There's no music video for the song, and this clip had the best sound. I don't actually like Jem and the Holograms...

** "Material Girl" pokes fun at plotting, princess-y types; remember this was from her early, Cyndi Lauper-esque period. The music video makes that clear when she tells her friend that diamonds don't move her, and asks the friend if she wants the expensive jewelry a suitor has given her.

*** On some level, she must have been ashamed of her early-mid '90s sleazefest, and sought some form of redemption, but her look-at-how-spiritual-I-am image just shows how self-absorbed she had become.

15 comments:

  1. You realize much of this is due to your personal dislike of house/techno/electronic music - the Erotica & Ray of Light albums, for example, gained Madonna some of the best reviews of her career & were seen as signs of her growth as a recording artist - as her growing out of dance-pop, which is less-respected as a genre & seen as more appropriate for younger singers.

    Also, your view of her as tame & not "slutty-looking" during the "Like a Virgin" period is biased by your youth & that you grew up after Madonna & her copycats had already pushed the boundaries of what was acceptable for female pop stars.

    However, at the time (in the early-mid 80s), people were totally scandalized by her & the media was filled with laments about how slutty she looked, how she was a terrible role model & poor influence on young girls, how girls were adopting her style of dress & looking like little tarts, etc.

    Anyway, from the beginning, her career was always about sexual provocation. As a result, she needed to up the ante to maintain the same level of controversy & buzz (whether she's 19 or 30, a female pop star putting on the MTV Awards Like a Virgin performance today would be greeted with yawns)

    And so we got the Like a Prayer making-out-with-black-Jesus video and her making the Justify My Love video so explicit she knew it would be banned & bring her massive amounts of press. This all seems less like caving in to dissoluteness than very canny career moves & a logical progression of themes that were present from the beginning of her career.

    The problem with Britney, Christine, Mariah, etc. is that all they are is sexually-provocative minus Madonna's creativity as a video/visual artist & talent for myth-making & crafting new personas.

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  2. However, at the time (in the early-mid 80s), people were totally scandalized by her & the media was filled with laments about how slutty she looked, how she was a terrible role model & poor influence on young girls, how girls were adopting her style of dress & looking like little tarts, etc.

    Her 1985 movie Desperately Seeking Susan illustrates this point quite clearly. Madonna's skankiness level has gone up and down over the years, but she has never had a wholesome, girl-next-door image. Her mid-1990's book Sex arguably marked the low point ... or high point, depending on one's perspective :)

    --

    the album came out in 1983, right after disco's downfall

    More like two to three years after disco's downfall, which in music terms is a near-eternity. Disco was pretty much finished by late 1980 - early 1981.

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  3. I remember that when she was first starting out, she actually named her production company "Slutco" Having fun with the slut image (while occasionally switching things up with less overtly sexual looks) has been her thing from the start. It's just that when she was doing it, it seemed more fresh & novel. The same can't be said for her progeny.

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  4. the Erotica & Ray of Light albums, for example, gained Madonna some of the best reviews of her career & were seen as signs of her growth as a recording artist

    It's not growth, despite what our dopey critical class and groupies think. She put out, maybe not excellent, but really good dance-pop on her first two albums. When those who aren't creative geniuses try to do serious stuff, it ends up like The Wall or Kilroy Was Here.

    Christopher Guest should update Spinal Tap, taking on the self-serious techno movement.

    at the time (in the early-mid 80s), people were totally scandalized by her

    Then they were wrong. That's subjective or relative sluttiness, and compared to Vanity, the bad part of disco, and the Free Love movement, she is pretty tame. Objectively, she wasn't sexually explicit in her lyrics, again emphasizing dancing and long-lasting love, etc.

    Occasional trying-to-hard seductress look -- sure. But more of a tease. Not slut or skank. Even True Blue and Like a Prayer aren't slutty lyrically, although that's when she started slutting it up in the videos (like for "Open Your Heart"). It's really 1990 that the whole package of sluttiness came together.

    You're right that she was trying to be somewhat (somewhat) provocative, but that's not skeezy. A little provocation is nice. About the worst thing she did those first two albums was wear that "boy toy" belt, but I still see that as her being more of a tease than a slut, given what she was singing about.

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  5. It's possible that the difference is due to Madonna entering the spotlight much later in life than the other two

    true, and i think there is another factor.
    madonna has had an amazingly long physical shelf life, which was no doubt helped by her dedication to weightlifting. her muscle tone is quite masculine and her hips are narrow, which leads me to suspect she has higher than average testosterone levels for a woman. this higher test may contribute to her relatively slower aging (and her blonde ambition), at least where her body is concerned. (the face tends to show age out of sync with the rest of the body.)

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  6. A lot of your recent posts go on about famous women with skanky public images. What's bothering you exactly - the look or the behavior it implies?

    Are you okay with private sluttiness (i.e. someone who dresses & acts like a lady in public but enjoys promiscuous behavior in her private life)? Or is it just women who put forward an image that's too sexual, even if they're pretty conservative sexually in their private lives, bug you because of its effects (coarsening pop culture, bad influence on younger girls, etc.)?

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  7. which leads me to suspect she has higher than average testosterone levels for a woman.

    The best test for this is digit ratio on the right hand -- the longer the ring finger is compared to the index finger, the more testosterone they got in the womb. It's hard to find a good pic of Madonna's hands in a suitable pose, but look at this one (not very safe, but not nude):

    Hands

    It's from far away, but you can still tell her ring finger's markedly longer than the index on her right hand. So yeah, she's probably more masculine for biological reasons.

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  8. Are you okay with private sluttiness (i.e. someone who dresses & acts like a lady in public but enjoys promiscuous behavior in her private life)?

    Promiscuous as in having low barriers to giving up sex and sleeping around -- sure. Most girls end up feeling used and regretful, so I don't approve. Some girls may not mind, but they're rare.

    But in general, public and private personas highly correlate: where there's smoke, there's fire. Superficially prim & proper ladies who, after the workday, drip wax onto their boy toy's nipples -- that's for Law & Order, not real life.

    its effects (coarsening pop culture, bad influence on younger girls, etc.)?

    More like this. One person feeling used and regretful is one thing, but encouraging lots of other girls to do so is irresponsible. Girls obviously don't ape their mothers or post-prime females, so the public behavior of 20-something female stars is of societal concern; hence all the celebrity news.

    They don't have to mimic the star exactly, but a laxing of standards among the trendsetters leaves ripples below. Pretty soon you see, as I just did at Barnes & Noble, middle school girls wearing their bra a few sizes too big so that the straps conspicuously fall off the shoulder in plain view. Not attractive, and encourages guys to treat her like a slut, whether she is or isn't.

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  9. "sure" as in, I'm surely against that kind of promiscuity. I misread the way your question was phrased. in case you can't tell, I didn't get much sleep and am very wired from caffeine & ginseng.

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  10. "The face tends to show age out of sync with the rest of the body."

    The easiest place to look to gauge age is to look at a person's hands. This picture from Live Earth demonstrates.

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  11. hm, it seems courtney love is following in the footsteps of other post-30 aging beauties and hitting the weight room hard. as the flesh sags, they turn to throwing iron to hoist it back up again. check out her biceps. very madonna-esque. the hands are a dead giveaway though.

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  12. Dissing the Wall while praising Madonna? What's the world coming to! I bet kids will still be singing "we don't need no education" long after knowledge of Madonna marks one as an old fogy.

    Madonna's transformations are legendary, but she's been outdone. Just changing your lyrics, sound and approach is one thing. Now recent innovations in technology allow you to transform yourself from just another honky with a decent song to model of diversity with an inferior one, an unprecedented feat that incidentally may spell the demise of affirmative action. Far more serious is the contempt these performers must feel for the general public in expecting them to call them by the same name when they have none of their original members left.

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  13. I bet kids will still be singing "we don't need no education" long after knowledge of Madonna marks one as an old fogy.

    Do you mind if I ask how old you are and where you grew up?

    I was born in 1980 and grew up mostly in the DC metro area, and went to college in New England. I can confidently say that very few people knew of Pink Floyd -- except the nerds and geeks. That seems to be true with the teenagers I currently tutor.

    I think the last time self-absorbed rock was popular was right when it came out in the mid-70s. Look at how quickly the reactionary punk & new wave movements wiped it out. Maybe Pink Floyd was cool among some stoners into the '80s (I was too young to recall), but by the '90s only a few people knew of them, and Pink Floyd had the best chance of being known -- forget about Styx et al.

    In any event, "we don't need no education" the line itself may remain popular among adolescents, but that's nothing to brag about. Kids *do* need education, and Lord of the Flies will remain popular reading for that reason.

    (That scenario comes true in real life when you do psychological experiments that re-enact LotF, which have been called off due to concern for the kids' safety. Also, the Stanford Prison experiment.)

    I mean, get real, The Wall is about a rocker who becomes alienated from his fans, broods over his upbringing, and walls himself off from the world -- heavy, deep. Obviously I don't think Madonna is any deeper, but at first she didn't try to be. I'd take the greats of Classical over those of Pop any day, but early Madonna over Spinal Tap-ish rock for sure.

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  14. Do you mind if I ask how old you are and where you grew up?
    Heck, I've revealed way more personal stuff to you guys before. I'm 20, and about to start my third year at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. I've lived in what could be considered the suburbs of Chicago since I was in fourth grade. I see plenty of kids in Pink Floyd shirts. It's not uncommon to come across people who don't like any music made before the eighties with the exception of Pink Floyd. Even people dissing them say something to the effect of "Lots of us through a phase when we're teens when we discover Pink Floyd and think they're all that, but but those who aren't idiots grow out of it". I'm not actually that big a fan of them since I like my classic rock more lunk-headed and my prog more masturbatorially aping of classical/jazz/avant-garde art music. It is certainly true that my tastes are not those of the general public. I identify with the Saint Vitus song "Born Too Late", and that was written before I was born, complaining about how much lamer music of the early eighties were than the early seventies. But I think if you check for frequency of song covers, you'll find Pink Floyd has more staying power than Madonna.

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  15. I recall reading somewhere Madonna had a high IQ. The testosterone would make sense given her fascination with SM.

    She's definitely extraordinarily accomplished in the area of self-promotion. Do you have any idea how hard it is to have a 25-year career in popular music?

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