Whats new pussycat? woah, woah, woah
Whats new pussycat? woah, woah, woah
Pussycat, pussycat You're delicious And if my wishes Can all come true. I'll soon be kissing your sweet little pussycat lips! -- Tom Jones
In or around sixth grade, I spent many months hanging out with a kid named Nate. Nate was a preacher's kid who I went to school with, and like most kids with an authority figure for a parent, was completely out of control. I remember him leaping from trees, hitting a kid on a bike with a rock during what was supposed to be a friendly game of war and for once rolling down the side of Mt. Southington on purpose... a trick that would have likely killed just about anyone else.
Still, Nate and I had good times. Once, and this is a memory that still sticks with me though it is really of no consequence whatsoever, Nate and I were marching up the road from his Plainville, CT home to get some snacks (Now and Laters were real popular then). He was telling me about a planned roller skating party and about a girl he liked (or maybe it was a girl that our friend Kenney liked... this detail is fuzzy). The thing that made this girl so desirable was her close appearance to a super star of the time.
"This girl looks just like Madonna," I recall Nate saying.
It was a declaration that was supposed to end any discussion. Madonna was a one-of-a-kind sex symbol then. There was no comparison, certainly no gaggle of oversexed and under-talented tarts like we have today. Though she may have been controversial to some, to young, sixth grade boys who were just beginning to really notice girls (though some of us -- like me -- were still years away from caring), it was a given the Madonna might not have been the mother of Jesus, but she was something like a living miracle. Madonna was it.
Some 23 years later, Madonna is still an "it" girl. She's an icon that has been down but never out. The godmother of the pussycat doll set, she is closing in on a 30-year-career as an artist who never seems unable to release a chart-topping dance hit at will. This week, a greatest hits compilation Celebration hit store shelves with some 38 songs and another 30 music videos from the days she absolutely ruled MTV. I read yesterday that the album quickly captured the number 1 spot in the UK.
How did Madonna do this?
Madonna was a convergence of the right person at the right time with the right medium. Her talent is certainly something we could argue about... I've never thought she was a talented singer. She's not a talented song writer that I'm aware of. But, she is an artist whose tastes have always been ahead of the main stream. And she's always had the biggest pair of balls in pop performance. 70s rock sex symbols like Stevie Nicks didn't have an act. They stood there and sang. Madonna brought a burlesque show to the stage (and to video). It was light years into the future.
These assets -- and lets not forget her looks -- helped her take over MTV back when MTV was still a serious vehicle for music (those days ended at least 15 years ago by my guess). As the network changed, so did she. In the Early 80s she was the frilly "Like a Virgin" tease. By the Late 80s she was the concrete blond bombshell and icy "Vogue" queen.
In the 90s, when alt rock threatened the pop business, Madonna upped the ante and released the picture book Sex, just what all those sixth grade boys now entering high school had been waiting for. She also launched a record label, Maverick, that put out pretty daring fare by bands like Bad Brains and The Deftones. She starred in a film version of Evita and seemed larger than ever before.
The act continued. In the late 90s when electronica became the rage (Prodigy's 1997 genre defining The Fat of the Land was released in the US by Maverick, incidentally) Madonna released Ray of Light, an electronica-influenced album made with producer William Orbit. It went triple platinum and won three Grammy awards.
Madonna hasn't had quite that much success since, but her subsequent records have sold plenty (certainly more than most artists in these post-album days). In a time when female pop stars come an go at a completely disposable pace, Madonna is still huge. Her reach and influence is indisputable. From Brittney Spears to Lady Gaga and Foxy Brown to Amy Winehouse, the sex, the bad behavior... all of it belongs to Madonna. What is Lady Gaga's nearly clothes-less act if not the next logical step in the sexed up game of female pop acts that Madonna set in motion?
For better or worse, when we talk about sex in pop music, we're talking about Madonna. I'm sure that in another 30 years, she'll still be with us.. She'll be 81 then, and not in the shape to make sixth grade boys sweat any more, but the next time they do drool for a pop tart, it will be because of Madonna... The tart who started it all.
That was a thought-provoking essay.
ReplyDeleteI never considered Madonna to be anything other than a pop star and feel she has not made a lasting contribution to music in any way, shape, or form.
I think that what she had was an art-school chick cynicism and willingness to expose herself beyond the limits of anyone else. Pat Benetar (sp?) and Joan Jett and even Cyndi Lauper tried for the effect, but weren't willing to go bare-assed like Madonna did. So Madonna got more attention.
The rest of Madonna's career has been one cheap, tawdry imitation of famous female icons after another. The Hollywood costumers can make her up to look like Marilyn/Veronica Lake/Betty Grable, whatever, but the minute she opens her mouth the effect goes flat. There's no "there" there.
Nonetheless, I know lots of females who unqualifiedly approve of Madonna because they see her as a powerful female icon...someone not held back by inhibitions.
I see her as being like a porn actress: someone who is willing to show herself, down to the last pubic hair, and goes through the motions of seeimg uninhibited, but actually derives no pleasure from the act, Just an act. Just a "hey, look at me." I certainly wouldn't want to share a stage with her.
Having said all that, I must say, that if she had come along when I was twelve or thirteen, I'd have instantly started masturbating to her images and then developed a lifelong affection to someone who had brought me such pleasure in my youth. The music would have been an important association to my erotic memories.
But musically: dull, dull, dull. Like most art school kids who've made it commercially, she's very cynical in her willingness to throw swill at her fans.
And one minute of Amy Winehouse is better than 30 years of Madonna, as far as the ear is concerned.
Anyway, I really enjoyed your essay Pete, though I took it for what it was: a tribute to a pinup of your youth and not a musical tribute, like your other essays.
Hugh,
ReplyDeleteMadonna was never really a sex fantasy for me. And I was never a fan, but I think as far as pop performer goes, she was above average. If one can get credit for manipulating cultural forces to one's benefit, she is a remarkable talent in that regard. For that I can respect her (as cynical as that may sound).
So, sure, would never put her in a cannon of top singers or songwriters. But she's an icon who has managed to survive many, many rounds of pop renewal. Many, many lesser and some greater talents have come and gone in the last 30 years (coincidentally, Barbara Streisand and Mariah Carey have also put out new albums this week).
One more positive thing I'll say for her: She never put out a country album.