ICON-OGRAPHY
Matt Cain explains how Madonna changed the pop culture landscape.
She’s sold 300 million albums, her tours have grossed US$1.31 billion, and she’s one of the most famous women ever to have lived — and in mid-August she turns 60. But these days she is much more likely to be attacked than appreciated: For years, she has endured mockery of her refusal to dress demurely, her taste for younger men, and that one time she fell over on stage.
Amid this, it can be easy to forget how influential she has been: without her, from music to fashion to the whole concept of celebrity, today’s pop culture landscape would simply not exist as it does.
And that’s not to mention the impact she’s had on her fans, like my own teenage self, whose love for her I have channelled into a new novel, The Madonna of Bolton, which celebrates the impact that she makes on a young working-class man’s coming of age in the ’80s and ’90s.
So to mark the big occasion, here are a few ways her Madgesty has changed the world.
1 She laid out the template for the modern female pop icon
Long before Beyoncé and Taylor Swift, Madonna was the first female pop star to project an image of control, drive and fierce independence. For all her personal suffering (her mother died when she was five), she has rarely betrayed any emotional fragility. Rather, she has worn costumes that looked like armour, such as the corset designed by Jean-Paul Gaultier for the Blond Ambition World Tour.
“I’m tough, I’m ambitious and I know exactly what I want,” she once said. “If that makes me a bitch, OK.”
2 She helped define the modern music video
“Kids today worship the television,” Madonna declared in 1984, suggesting videos were “a great way to reach a lot of people who wouldn’t be able to come and see you live.” Her words were revolutionary in an industry still adjusting to the invention of MTV.
In her early days, especially, she pushed the limits of what could be explored through the medium, and each new film was a major event. She’s made exquisite narrative videos (the teenage pregnancy story of Papa Don’t Preach); re-worked pre-existing cultural imagery, such as, in Material Girl, Marilyn Monroe’s performance of Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend; and stirred controversy (Like a Prayer).
3 She brought female sexuality front and centre
From her first performance of Like a Virgin at the MTV Music Awards in 1984, which saw her writhing around the stage in a low-cut wedding dress, she fought against the double standard that allows a man to express his sexuality but encourages a woman to suppress hers. Most notorious, in this respect, is Erotica, her 1992 concept album, and Sex, a coffee-table book of explicit photographs exploring her wildest sexual fantasies. The latter represented the most transgressive move of Madonna’s career; in recent years, the book has undergone a reappraisal, with many critics claiming her message was ahead of its time.
4 She paved the way for reality television
In many ways, the 1991 tour documentary Madonna: Truth or Dare can be seen as the precursor to manipulated and “structured” reality TV.
The film contrasted footage of the Blond Ambition show with black-and-white backstage scenes that blew apart the mystique surrounding global superstardom. But, while Madonna: Truth or Dare did represent a radical exercise in self-revelation, it’s since become apparent that much of the action was set up for the cameras. It was built around a plot that was constructed — a combination of reality and invention.
5 She created the modern concert tour extravaganza
Before Madonna, the concert tour was a visually dull affair. Then, in 1990, Madonna created her Blond Ambition show, which was far more theatrical than anything that had been seen before. The show was made up of four themed sections, or “acts,” which comprised multiple costume and set changes, revolutionary lighting designs and screen projections, and ambitious dance routines made possible by a specially designed microphone worn like a headset. In his book Life With My Sister Madonna, her brother Christopher Ciccone suggests it was Madonna’s insecurity about her vocal abilities that inspired her to reinvent the live experience.
6 She popularized reinvention
David Bowie may have originated the art of pop reinvention but it was Madonna — a huge fan of his — who took it to the next level, and led to it becoming part of the strategic repertoire of every star since. Her talent for this first emerged in March 1986, when she cast off the punky look that had made her famous — the lace gloves, crucifixes, rags in her hair, and underwear as outerwear — and released the video for Live to Tell, which revealed a new stripped-back look of golden blond hair, subtle makeup and a simple dress. Since then, we’ve had everything from Earth Mother to Cowgirl Madonna.
7 She broke down social barriers
“Diversity” may be one of the buzzwords of the entertainment industry today but Madonna has always produced work that has brought marginalized groups to the fore.
As a girl brought up in multiracial Detroit, it was natural for her to surround herself with multicultural collaborators and to feature black and Latino characters in her videos. Equally, gay and lesbian characters appeared in her videos from as early as 1986, and she never missed an opportunity to proudly parade her gay dancers, friends and collaborators.
8 She’s dared to grow old
“Act your age,” Madonna is often told when she appears on stage in revealing costumes. But what many of those who age shame Madonna don’t realize is that she was always old — and from the start of her career has been mocked for it. Madonna didn’t have her first hit until 1983, by which time she was 25. Compare that to stars like Britney Spears and Beyoncé, who were teenagers when they became famous — or Madonna’s fellow 1980s icons Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Prince and George Michael, who were all much younger than her when they first enjoyed success. Perhaps tellingly, Madonna is the only one to have survived. In recent years, she’s begun to fight back against ageism.
“People say I’m controversial,” she said in 2016, “but I think the most controversial thing that I’ve done is to stick around.”