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Background

Madonna's impact transcended music as noted reviewers like Billboard editor-in-chief Janice Min. In 2018, The New York Times defined she had a "singular career" that "crossed boundaries". She was described with having "pioneered" a "multifaceted career" encompassing many aspects of contemporary culture. During late 1990s, Canadian scholar Karlene Faith named her "peculiarity" to the fact she "cruised" through so "many cultural terrains". In 2022, Robin Raven from Grammy Awards' official website noted how it was "often said" she was "ahead of her time". During a discussion lead by The Independent in 1998, a commentator felt she translated things into a social "phenomenon" in comparison of other women doing same things.

Cultural and critical attention

Responses to her impact has been both immediate and retrospectively. It has been "extensively analyzed by many authors", wrote Romanian scholar Duro Pop in 2018. She became the subject of a wide range of topics by multiple scholars from different disciplines. Eduardo Viñuela, a musicologist at University of Oviedo expressed that analyzed her was delve into the evolution of many relevant aspects of society in recent decades. Defining her impact was considered "brutal" by Billboard's Louis Virtel in 2017.

Madonna was regarded by media outlets ranging from El Universal (1999) to The A.V. Club (2012), as possibly the female singer who attracted more analyses, discussions and debates over decades. In 2018, Laura Craik wrote for The Daily Telegraph that she perhaps "contributed more to the cultural conversation than any female performer in history". Broadly speaking, in 2008, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame said she is one of the most "well-documented figures of the modern age".

Societal and cultural

Popular culture

Madonna (left) and then president of Argentina, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner in 2008

Madonna debuted in the 1980s. Throughout the late 20th century, some reviewers described her a sign of her time, with one scholar calling her a "hero of our time". Vogue France's Martine Trittoleno commented in 1993, she was an active "reflection" more than a witness, and in similar remarks, professor Marjorie Garber commented she "read the temper of the times" perhaps more than others. Professor Suzanna Danuta Walters noted how she circulated "constantly in the cultural practices of everyday life", while American critic Greil Marcus described her as "undeniably part of our culture". American poet Jane Miller held she functioned as an "archetype directly inside contemporary culture". During this decade, scholars and authors from Marsha Kinder to Ryan Ruggiero called her the "reigning queen of global pop culture" or with other similar reference.

Madonna's impact faded in the 21st century, but she continued to left a mark while aging and was retrospectively recognized. Talking about her career spanning four decades, The New York Times commented she "made real cultural change". In 2018, British author Matt Cain granted her a significant role for helping shape popular culture in many ways. Other assessments however, delineated her for having transcended boundaries of pop culture, like Entertainment Weekly's Noah Robischon in 2001, saying she has "defined, transcended, and redefined pop culture". Therefore, from Robert Christgau in the mid-1980s to Russell Iliffe of PRS for Music in 2012, Madonna was also suggested to have crossed the status from pop icon to global cultural icon. In Maiden USA (2008), scholar Kathleen Sweeney used both Madonna and Marilyn Monroe to illustrate how some transcended status beyond "mere celebrity" to become "enduring cultural icons". In Ageing, Popular Culture and Contemporary Feminism (2014), authors noted how her "status as a cultural icon is acknowledged" in press accounts. In Ellis Cashmore's view in 2022, many have recognized her as a "genuine cultural icon" in her sixties.

Myth-like impact

In 2009, cultural organization MiratecArts noted her extended influence into "the subconscious world of imagination, fantasy and dreams". Editors of Mythic Astrology Applied (2004), commented: "Many men and women have reported Madonna appearing in their dreams. As she become a living archetype in our culture, it is no wonder that this is so". Folklorist scholar Kay Turner, devoted a book titled I Dream of Madonna: Women's Dreams of the Goddess of Pop (1993), which tells the dreaming of dozens women on Madonna. Others like Kelly Sullivan in I Had the Strangest Dream...' (2009), included her in dream interpretations. In her book Confessions of a Pretty Lady (1989), Sandra Bernhard wrote "I dream about Madonna more than anyone I know (or don't know)". Andrew Morton documented the case of an Italian artist in Madonna (2001), who confessed he dreamt of her every night for five years.

American culture

Mostly from foreign reviewers, Madonna became for a longtime an icon of American identity, and was often described as a "metaphor for American society". In 2006, German critic Josef Joffe referred to her a global example of American soft power. Argentine writer Rodrigo Fresán once described her as one of the "classic symbols of Made in USA". In 2008, British music critic Kitty Empire referred to her as "Michigan's biggest export since the automobile".

To American critic Gina Arnold, her primary contribution to the national culture has been musical. Theather historian for University of Marylan, Catherine Schuler called her "the high priestess of American pop culture". Madonna epitomized one of the cultural faces of the 1980s according to American historian Glen Jeansonne in A Time of Paradox: America Since 1890 (2006). Her prescense and influence during the late 20th century American history, was compared to that other entertainers, including Elvis Presley by author Gilbert B. Rodman in Elvis after Elvis (1996), and with Oprah Winfrey by media scholars Charlotte Brunsdon and Lynn Spigel.

Globalization

Madonna's figure also reached globalization camp. As reports Viñuela, her career is closely linked to the consolidation of the globalization. In 2014, CUNY Graduate Center professor Jean Graham-Jones, called her "globalization's quintessential femicon". Third Way's Paul Northup also commented in 1998, how critics hailed her an "icon of Western society". In 2014, associate professor Juana Suárez was quoted as referring to her as a "universal symbol".

Her globalized appeal was reflected in contemporary pieces from different sectors, including an article published by Micromanía in 1989, describing to the "symbol Madonna" as the "most palpable proof that Western society advances and changes", while political scientist David Held with other academics stated in 1999, that "the most public symbols of globalization consist of Coca-Cola, Madonna and the news on CNN". In Israel (2003) by historian Efraim Karsh, she is cited as the following: "Madonna and Big Macs the most peripheral of examples of ... 'normalness' which means, amongst other things, the end of the terrible fear of everything that is foreign and strange". In lands like hermetic North Korea, some including koreanist scholar Mózes Csoma have documented references of Madonna. For instance, her film Evita (1996), became the first American film screened in the country. Her globalist status is also attested in some associated phrases, including:

• Madonna-economy: Defined at the 1993 International Federation for Information Processing held in Namur, Belgium, under the concept of global cultural industry as "risks to become an aggresive and arrogant phenomenon", for example by imposing the transformation of all cultural activities into "cultural goods". Conversely, the Group of Lisbon, an international consortium of 19 scholars from different disciplines, described it as a "process that is unifying (essentially by homogenization) the consumption of information and communication goods" in the same way Coca-Cola did. German scholar Frank Sowa from Technische Hochschule Nürnberg lumped it with other terms such as McDonaldization, McWorld and Cocacolonization.

• Madonnanization: Economist Tyler Cowen from Forbes used it in the context of the performing arts as a "homogeneous global culture of the 'least common denominator'". French academic Georges-Claude Guilbert, notes that in a postmodern context the definition would not be derogatory, arguing that "there seems to be some sort of equation between the McDonaldization of American and its "Madonnanization", which can both be "celebrated by postmodern critics".

Multiculturalism

A world map showing countries where Madonna has put her feet as of 2021

Madonna's figure was significantly documented from racial studies and multiculturalism, either for her impact, relationship and her mix of cultures. She was described as a "critical nexus of race". In 1993, Australian Gay & Lesbian Law Journal said "it is not possible to read/interpret" her without a "recognition of elements such as race, class [and] ethnicity", which are present in "almost all" she does. Recognizing her inclusivity and cultural diversity since 1982, music critic Ann Powers commented "her virtual workplace was multicultural long before that was a mandated corporate goal".

In 2004, Details magazine called her a "Queen of Cultural Juice". Frances Negrón-Muntaner referred to her as "last century's American transcultural dominatrix". In late 1990s, professor George J. Leonard described her as "the last ethnic and first postethnic diva".

References for Madonna, and cultural depictions

Madonna singing French song "Je t'aime... moi non plus" in 2012.

According to professor Santiago-Fouz-Hernández in 2004, Hispanic culture is "perhaps the most influential and revisited 'ethnic' style in her work". In 2018, Billboard made the list of her best Spanish songs and Latin style. During an interview with Jam! in 1996, Madonna herself declared: "I've always been very attracted and intrigued by Latin culture, I mean I'm half-Italian, so I suppose I'm Latin [...] I love Latin music. I love Latin men. I feel an affinity toward the Latin world".

Aside her native English, Madonna also ventured to sing, partially or fully, in other languages, including Spanish ("Verás" or "Lo Que Siente La Mujer"), French ("La Vie en rose" or "Je t'aime... moi non plus"), Portuguese ("Faz Gostoso" or "Fado Pechincha"), Sanskrit ("Shanti/Ashtangi") and Euskara ("Sagarra jo").

Her relationship with countries or cultural footprints have been depicted in documentaries and journalistic pieces. For instance, BBC Four broadcast the documentary There's Only One Madonna (2020), which charts "Britain's relationship with Madonna" and examines the "influence" she has had "on British music and fashion". In 2022, France 5 broadcast the documentary In France with Madonna, exploring her connections with the country. Local leading newspapers including El País, documented Madonna's relationship with Spain, South China Morning Post with Hong Kong, and Clarín with Argentina. With the later country, La Nación commented she achieved great milestones during her career in the country.

Critical explorations

Her impact was noted mostly during the 1980s and 1990s, or before massification of Internet. Her reception with Latin audiences and representation of its culture, was commented in some works, including Negrón-Muntaner in 2004 amid the Latin culture in the U.S.. She also explored her relationship with Boricuas, saying it produced a "queer juncture" representation in mass culture, but she felt it "came to most successfully commodify Boricuas cultural practices for all to see". Others commentators, including Carlos Pabón in De Albizu a Madonna (1995) to Carme R. Lugo-Lugo in The Madonna Experience (2001), also devoted her Boricua reception of that time.

Madonna's Italianness was also remarked in academia and press, including in The Italian American Heritage (1998), where she was described as a "vehicle for the expression of many of the qualities" of Italians and Italian Americans. She was regarded as one of the most significative Italian American performers in musical culture, in Racing in the Street (2004), and called by historian David Roediger in Colored White (2003) as "the most popular United States Italian American entertainer of our time". At some stage of her career, the usage of Asian cultural elements in her fashion and work, was also noted and explored by scholars such as Gayatri Gopinath, Douglas Kellner or Christopher Partridge, generally agreeing she was a conduit to help introduced to Western mass culture numerous elements from the region.

Fouz-Hernández said that her exploration of intra-Caucasian identities has received "little academic attention". Writing for The Journal of Popular Culture in 2012, scholar José I. Prieto-Arranz said "various critics" noted that rather export American music, she introduced various European trends in her home country. Madonna had a more complicated reception within Black critics. In 1990, CineAction! said her "blackness is a common, though poorly articulated theme of popular press literature". Authors like bell hooks and Thomas Ferraro analyzed her from the perspective, with the latter referred to her in 2005, as "the most accomplished Italian-to-black crossover artist".

Music industry

Madonna's impact in music industry was condensed by Greek lecturer from University of Patras, Constantine Chatzipapatheodoridis in 2021, saying she helped shape her contemporary music stage in terms of sound, image, performance, sex, fandom and reinvention. She was also credited by others, for helping transform in her generation how music is performed, delivered to masses, purchased, packaged and downloaded. As early as 1984, Billboard referred that a simultaneous releases of LP, cassette and CD was pioneered with Madonna. Writing for El País in 2014, Xavi Sancho described her releases were more than "musical and commercial events" as they market in many levels a way forward.

Her chief musical impact was noted on pop music landscape with Billboard staffers saying in 2018, "the history of pop music can essentially be divided into two eras: Pre-Madonna and Post-Madonna". She helped brought to the mainstream dance-pop according to Arie Kaplan, and had a similar effect with dance music, according to music critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine. Bob Tannenbaum from The New York Times credited her for help made remixing a standard practice, as it was noted as more an underground practice. Other music reviewers credited her for help introduce electronic music into the stage of global popular music, or at least into the mainstream American pop culture according to British scholar David Gauntlett, as the genre was most popular among European acts.

Female figure

See also: Madonna (nickname) and Feminism of Madonna

More than any other artist, Madonna deconstructed the roles that women play, not only in music but in all of popular culture [...] for the first time placed female voices at the center of pop discourse, as actors rather than spectators

—Music critic Dave Marsh (1994).

According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Madonna helped dissolve gender boundaries. The world female became significant in her assessment said Tony Sclafani from MSNBC, and English author Dylan Jones said she was "genuinely influential".

Though she wasn't the only leading female figure of her time or before, in different degrees international publications and authors agree how Madonna helped pave the way for future generation of female pop stars in the global stage of pop music. Some of them, agree that she debuted in a male-dominated and rock-oriented era, including Gillian Branstetter from The Daily Dot. Her "atypical" influence-success in the world of pop, was also remarked by authors of Popular Texts in English (2001), and German media outlet Deutsche Welle in 2018. Madonna was credited for help change paradigm shift level towards the dominance of band to solo act with an emphasis on females. "Most of biggest of pop music" are woman and Madonna "is the person who proved that this was possible, who opened up a new world for them to grow into", said British music journalist David Hepworth in 2017. Similarly, in 2014, Spanish music journalist Diego A. Manrique described we are living in a "Madonna era", after seeing a dominance of female artists, who were also influenced by her.

Her influence is further attested in the way female artists were later scrutinized —Madonna received a significant international media and scholarly attentions. For instance, a Vice contributor said in 2014, that "reviews of her work have served as a roadmap for scrutinizing women at each stage in their music career". Similarly, scholars in Ageing, Popular Culture and Contemporary Feminism (2014) agree her figure is "widely considered to have defined the discursive space for examining female popular music". Moreover, City Pages's Eric Thompson commented in 2011, her influence is "felt in the way modern female musicians are viewed, regarded and accepted". Female artists "are very often measured against the yardstick that Madonna has become" added Dutch scholars in 2013 for Celebrity Studies journal.

Musicianship

Madonna's musicianship also made an industry impact. In 1996, music critic J. D. Considine wrote that both Madonna and Michael Jackson redefined our notions of "artistic impact". In 1986, Karl Podhoretz from the University of Dallas described her a "revolutionary voice who has altered the very meaning of sound in our time". In a review of the "best debut albums of all time" by Rolling Stone in 2013, Madonna is referred to as "the most important female voice in the history of modern music".

Her "abilities as a singer and songwriter were developed" after she became famous commented critic Stephen Holden for The New York Times in 1990. According to Andrew Morton, "some writers and producers" said she is much an "underrated musician and lyricist".

Voice

Madonna found criticisms and even positive critical commentaries regarding her voice.

Madonna's voice defined her career; an author said she is "routinely dismissed by scholars, critics and fellow artists alike as someone who 'can't sing'". Madonna would become later criticized for using sometimes industry practices such as playback, lip-sync and Auto-Tune. Others from a contributor of Los Angeles Times to English music journalist Lucy O'Brien, noted how others showed counter-criticisms and positive commentaries, including a musician recognizing her as a solid interpreted who "doesn't over-embellish things". Critical recognition is seen in music publications ranging from Billboard (1999) to musicologists like Keith E. Clifton (2004) acknowledging her "ever-involving" vocals and "metamorphosis". "Madonna's voice has certainly changed since the 1980s, showing the signs of age, vocal coaching [and] vocal exercises", wrote author of Popular Music and the Politics of Hope (2019). Dutch linguist Theo van Leeuwen cited her as perhaps "the first singer who used quite different voices for different songs".

For others, her case served to compare and review the nature of pop music vocalists. Pop critic Ludovic Hunter-Tilney for Financial Times said "her critics do not understand that pop singers do not require the vocal technique of Maria Callas". In similar connotations, scholars in The SAGE Handbook of Popular Music (2014) compared that between pop singers in the "style of Madonna", brilliant singing ability is not of utmost important, contrary to performers of Soul and R&B "whose considerable vocal skill" are a crucial aspect. Sociologist Stanley Aronowitz considered her a performance artist, who deploys pop music as a vehicle "for something else going on". She was even included among the greatest female singers of all time by Smoot Radio in 2023, where her voice was described as "solid and clear" that works for her "pop brand".

Production

Madonna has ventured to play some instruments, including ukulele in the Rebel Heart Tour and plays regularly the guitar. She was nominated with Les Paul Horizon Award at the 2002 Orville H. Gibson Guitar Awards.

Songwriting

According to musicologist Susan McClary, Madonna "writes or co-writes most of her own material". She influenced other songwriters, including Kylie Minogue who took her as one of the inspiration to start writing her own songs. In 2015, Diplo credited her for showing him a "whole other level of dedication and old school work ethic when it comes to writing". In 1998, The Straits Times recognized her with Mariah Carey in the "pop diva league" for writing and producing their own material. To Maria Muller of W magazine, Madonna helped normalize the "idea that pop stars could and should write their own songs". However, American Songwriter commented because her image of pop star, some have assume "she didn't write her own songs".

Madonna also found critical appreciation and set some records in the songwriting realm. In 1995, Spin appreciated her as a "great songwriter". Morton called her a "musical poet in motion", and biographer Carol Gnojewski a "prolific writer". Madonna was included among Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time. She once held the record for the songwriter with most number-one songs on the Billboard Hot 100, and was also recognized by the Guinness World Records as the "most successful female songwriter in Britain" (probably first included in 1989).

Producer

Madonna also received commentaries, including praise as a producer, although some have noted the fact she collaborated with various, especially men producers, believe they were responsible for her entire creative output. She certainly hires "well-producers", said critic Gina Arnold in 1995, but Arnold applauded her consistency and personal injection. Rolling Stone magazine said "she's worked successfully with producers across many genre". According to Guy Sigsworth, she is "intimately involved in the whole creative process as a collaborator and producer", and is a side "ignored by people so fixated on her image". "You don't produce Madonna, you collaborate with her... She has her vision and knows how to get it", told Stuart Price to Peter Robinson in 2005. Madonna impacted the career of underground and then-emerging producers, including William Orbit, Mirwais Ahmadzaï and Price with Billboard commenting she "plucked" them from "electronic music obscurity".

Career control

Both Madonna's ascension and control over her musical career was also recognized; it was described as "the most ground-breaking aspect" of her career by Michael Campbell in Popular Music in America (2012). Madonna's career control slightly contrasted from past mainstream female artists, and even record label-artist relationships. Some observers ranging from Roger Blackwell to Stephen Thomas Erlewine considered her the first woman to have a "complete control" over every aspect of career and music. Music journalist Charles R. Cross was quote as saying, if she wasn't, it's as if she was. In 2022, Madonna stated she refuses the idea to sell her catalog saying "ownership is everything".

Contradictory perspectives

Aside praise, Madonna has been also criticized from vastly different constituencies in equal parts and from a variety of perspectives. Professor Ann Cvetkovich agree that "global phenomenon[s]" like Madonna, "can be articulated in highly contradictory ways". In American Icons (2006), associate professor Diane Pecknold referred to her as an "omnipresent" figure but a "polarizing" one.

Cultural critic Stuart Sim asserts in The Routledge Companion to Postmodernism (2001), that she "attained the status of cultural icon" but she is an "extremely problematic one" because depending on one's point of view which lead him to conclude this makes her "exceedingly difficult to categorize". By 2019, Matthew Jacobs from The Huffington Post felt that "it's hard to think" of any star with "as many singular achievements and such a durable place in Western media who provokes so much ire and indifference". In 2015, other authors similarly agree that perhaps no one has sparked more debate than Madonna among all cultural icons of the last three decades.

Social and cultural criticisms

The New York Times also noted she caused a few "cultural crises" and challenged status quo. In Women and the Media: Diverse Perspectives (2005), authors also wrote that Madonna challenged the American value system, and continued to challenge it. In the 1990s, some sectors considered her "the lowest form of popular culture". Philosopher Isaiah Berlin lamented the mass culture exemplified by her. Film critics such as William Rothman and Dudley Andrew suggested that the zeitgeist epitomized by Madonna became poltergeist.

In Leaders of the Pack (2015), Sean MacLeod also noted how "her moral integrity and responsibility are considered a subject for debate". Mary Cross also explained she has been considered a "corrupting influence". In 1991, educator John R. Silber even lumped her with Adolf Hitler and Saddam Hussein. Broadly speaking, in Representing Gender in Cultures (2004), scholars pointed out that some critique of Madonna may be related to the "general denunciation of popular culture as the obedient mechanism of ideology". Spaniard philosopher Ana Marta González, wrote in 2007, that she doesn't really look a "cultural prominence" on Madonna, but also said it depents of point of views.

According to Australian magazine The Music in 2019, she has been called a "culture vulture". Some devoted journalistic pieces in the matter, including Maura Johnston for Vice in 2015. Madonna was called the "Queen of Cultural Appropriation" by Richard Appignanesi and David Garratt. British professor Yvonne Tasker said that "her appropriation does at times work to question assumptions". Another scholar said that her "privileged position and her status as a powerful icon do little to improve the problems of minorities from which she borrows".

In 2017, Jaap Kooijman from University of Amsterdam said she "provided a challenge views on racial perspectives". In Madonna, Bawdy & Soul (1997), Canadian scholar Karlene Faith wrote that as she mixed cultural diversity, she offended those opposing sexism, racism or classism. Kellner noted she was especially criticized by Black critics. For instance, in the 1990s, bell hooks analyzed her in a white privilege place. She problematized the singer as a cultural icon, saying she is "dangerous" and called her an "Italian girl wanting to be black" further concluding she "never articulates the cultural debt she owes to Black females". Barbadian-British historian Andrea Stuart, believes she "deliberately affected black style to attract a wider audience".

Trans-global cultural criticisms

Evita lives, Get out Madonna

Madonna was retroactively called a hyperglobalist. In a thesis from three schools of though, she was deemed among "dominant motifts" of hyper-globalization. She was often positioned as an example of Americanization. Around 2001, French sociologist Bruno Étienne was quoted as saying, to have reacted with "horror" to the "ghettozoided" politics lead by Michael Jackson and Madonna as "the means by which values are transmitted in such society".

She achieved significant criticisms from pro-Union Soviet and Russian cultural spheras; Douglas Rushkoff was quoted as saying "Madonna brought down the Berlin Wall" in a certain sense. An author interpreted her notable role as a MTV figure, further noting the network itself represented one of the challenges faced by the former Soviet Union. In 2016, head of British pro-North Korea group blamed Madonna for "the collapse" of the Soviet Union. In early 2010s, Russian journalist Maksim Shevchenko remembered her as part of a "vivid symbol of everything superficial, deceitful and hateful that the West exhibits toward Russian". In 2023, news agency Ukrinform informed about a Madonna's video served as Russian propaganda, further noting that Russian propaganda had used her name to spread fake propaganda in the past.

Over decades, Madonna was also criticized in communities from Middle East and surrounding areas. In early 1990s, Middle East scholar Patrick Clawson informed about a rejection from Iranian radicals. During this decade, an Islamic political party in Pakistan, "unsuccessfully demanded" Michael Jackson and Madonna as "cultural terrorists" for "destroying" humanity. As also reported academic Malise Ruthven both artists were called by a Pakistani religious scholar "torchbearers of American society with their cultural and social values". In Israel, Madonna was cited in Post-Zionism discourses and then president Ezer Weizman criticized the Americanization of the land, perceiving a losing of national identity by his time. Therefore, he blamed "the three Ms", Madonna, Michael Jackson and McDonald's. Madonna continued to receive more criticisms in next decades. Aaron Klein in the 2000s, reported the rejection of her figure in the various sectors of Middle East, including terrorists. He said "everyone has heard of her [and] when sheikhs cite samples of the U.S. attempting to pervert" they speak of Madonna.

Death treaths and censure

Media have speculated the Islamic State (ISIS), have banned both her name and music.

In mid-2010s, various media outlets assumed that her name was banned by the Islamic State (ISIS) for "good measure". The International Music Council informed that ISIS classified both her music and performances as haram stating that "represent anti-Islamic values" and specified that "anyone caught listening to her music will be punished with 80 lashes".

Throught her career, Madonna also received death threats by radical groups. Alone in the 2000s, the Australian Associated Press (AAP), informed that Palestinian terrorists threatened to kill her "because she represents many things they hate about the West". In 2006, it was reported that crime bosses from Russian mafia threatened to kill her when she was on tour, assumaly for her provocative performance of "Live to Tell" during the Confessions Tour. In 2009, media reported again death threats from Muslim extremists in Israel according to Yossi Melman, and same situation occurred in Serbia according to IANS agency. In late 2000s, Klein also informed about a spokesman from Popular Resistance Committees, who was recorded as threatening, he would personally kill Madonna and also Britney Spears: "If I meet these whores I will have the honor —I repeat, I will have the honor— to be the first one to cut the heads of Madonna and Britney Spears".

Entertainment sector

According to music critic Robert Christgau in Grown Up All Wrong (2000), Madonna was "honored less as an artist than as a cultural force". In Representing Gender in Cultures (2004), authors also explained that she has been "consistently denied a status of a 'real' musician". One of the focal critical views is a general agreement that her own "artistic talents" are considered to be "limited". Other critics have also complained that the content of her songs are "empty". Critically, a scholar also noted how in the "field of musicology, serious discussion of Madonna has been even rarer than in the popular press".

According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Madonna became an early emblem of women in rock. Landon Palmer from University of Alabama, recalls that she was frequently described as a "rock star" by media and official institutions, saying she served as an example of how the label exceeded the distinctions of genre. However, a number of authors including Camille Paglia and Jennifer Egan explored how Madonna attracted notable criticims from the rock scene, with Paglia saying "our minds were formed by rock music". As early as 1985, The Canberra Times referred she "nearly reversed the typical pattern of rock idol analysis", and was shortly after considered "the antithesis of the women found in early rock and roll".

Madonna and critics

Madonna's career has been defined for the correspondence of critics, described as a "well-established" and "crucial aspect" of her career by Clifton. Noting her complicated relationship, in Understanding Popular Music (2013), Roy Shuker defines she is a "star whom many critics [...] love to hate". John E. Seery similarly referred: "Madonna's critics are many [...] some of the critical issues [...] are as follows: She is not to be taken seriously [...] she is, at bottom, a joke".

Some aspects

Madonna perpetuated an image of controversialist, and as her career advanced taking risks and becoming sometimes more controversial, some critics whom at first praised her, became "disillusioned". A performer with multiple messages, she was also called a set of "contradictions", including scholars Douglas Kellner and E. Ann Kaplan, though they were generally complimentary in their reviews. In the 1990s, academics such as Linda Hutcheon and Susan Bordo to anthropologist like Roger Lancaster, noted how Madonna said she favors irony and ambiguity in everything she does and also to "entertain" herself and escape of definition. In Irony's Edge, Hutcheon was critical saying both aren't the same thing and "irony has an edge". Interpretations like the one from scholar Nancy J. Vickers as cited authors of Embodied Voices (1994), notes she was available to "multiple interpretations". Bordo, commented she resists an "overinterpretation of her work" in terms of "artistic intent". However, in Redefining Kitsch and Camp in Literature and Culture (2014), Justyna Stępień considered her a major responsible "for what may be deemed a prevailing 'irony epidemic'". In The Trickster Shift (1999), writer referred to her as the undisputed "Queen of Pop Culture Irony", while author J Gray II Richard, in 2014, said she remains the "Queen of Ambiguity".

Responses of Madonna

Madonna during the performance of "Human Nature" on The MDNA Tour (2012). The song is an answer to her critics during the era of Erotica (1992).

Madonna has responded numerous times to criticisms in statements and works. She often defended her body of work, once stating: "I've been popular and unpopular, successful and unsuccessful, loved and loathed and I know how meaningless it all is. Therefore I feel free to take whatever risks I want". She has maintained her image of provocateur, saying to the audience at the 2023 Grammy Awards if an artist is labeled "scandalous" or "problematic" are "definitely on to something". She stated that favored rethinking people the things.

Exploring Madonna's responses, Mary Gabriel told USA Today in 2023: "She has empowered so many people and enriched so many people, and in the process, she's had to defend herself every step of the way". In 2017, feminist authors Elena Favilli and Francesca Cavallo noted how other were inspired the criticisms she faced in the way of "stay[ing] true" in "adversity". In 2008, critic Jon Pareles for The New York Times, considered as she telegraphed her intentions since the beginning of her career, she "labeled herself more efficiently than any observer".

Critical explorations

Background

In regard her criticisms, more than one reviewer have recognized weaknesses on Madonna but have acknowledged her in different degrees. This is noted by Deborah Jermyn from Roehampton University saying in 2016, that "numerous academic studies have considered the way Madonna polarises views". In 2015, MacLeod similarly noted "despite the criticisms, many have seen her vast contribution, lyrically, musically, and artistically to the world of popular culture". For instance, Glamour's Christopher Rosa in 2020, recognized her "profound impact" in the industry saying it was "most of the time for the best". Alongside harsh criticisms, scholar John Street wrote in Musicologists, Sociologists and Madonna (1993) that she has been also "defended" in "equally extravant terms".

Some examples

Madonna was deemed as a "connoisseur of critical theory" by Genders in 1988, a publication runs by the University of Texas Press. Gayle Stever in The Psycology of Celebrity (2018) noted how the "attention Madonna received from being controversial" also "opened up an entire new way of thinking" on some. During an international congress in 2005, Lydia Brugué from Universitat de Vic concluded she is an artist with "multiple messages" leading frequently to ambiguity and certainly, it "provokes" but "it goes beyond creating controversy". In 1992, scholar Cindy Patton considered her as a "social critic in a certain way", further expressing she "has an instinct for not just what's going to get people upset, but what's going to get people thinking". Scholar Catherine Schule expressed that her controversies in early career had "little effect on Madonna except to increase sales". Thorought the 1990s, scholars like historian professor Jesse Nash to Stan Hawkins from University of Leeds, also considered her critiques of society.

Others like music critic Ann Powers specifically explored criticisms of cultural appropriation, while Jennifer Egan, who avoided her most of her life, felt some criticisms as cliché, including that she "has no real talent". On the other hand, commentators like Lynne Layton from Harvard Medical School noted misogynists-oriented criticisms. She adds "you get some idea of the role gender plays" in her critical responses. In 2008, Guy Babineau from LGBT-targeted publication Xtra Magazine, felt and compared how "straight men in music, industry and politics who are much richer and more powerful, and who do much worse things, are admired".

Book sources

• Brooks, Ann (2002). Postfeminisms: Feminism, Cultural Theory and Cultural Forms. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 1134822324.
• Dunn, Leslie C.; Jones, Nancy A. (1994). Embodied Voices: Representing Female Vocality in Western Culture. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 052158583X.
• Hutcheon, Linda (2003). Irony's Edge. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 1134937547.