Madonna incorporates fads and new trends in her music, always keeping up with contemporary culture. She employs contemporary culture in her videos transforming the culture one step further by into commoditizing it. In her song ‘Jump’ she incorporates a new urban sport called ‘free running’.
Madonna also integrates different cultures and subcultures into her film clips evident in ‘Hung Up’. She juxtaposes attitudes of Japanese in a sushi shop and African-American subculture in the streets. She portrays empowerment of women through their sexuality (in the club) and stance (of a women on a tube). The power of music in cultures and movements is depicted through the boom box in the ballet studio and on the streets.
Many of Madonna’s video clips have underlying meanings contradicting or facilitating the words of Madonna’s songs. She is able to subvert ideologies by placing images with words.
-Madonna states many times that she wants to be ’political’.
On Tour:
‘Like A Prayer’
Madonna employs religion to describe sexual activities. She conveys phallic connotations through a ‘Like a prayer’ relating her partner to a godlike figure normalising and extracting bad connotations of sex by relating it to religion. She also subverts the idea of Christ being white through depicting Christ as black. Through showing prejudice towards black people by incorporating two figures of an innocent black victim and black Christ as one figure Madonna supports the black movement.
‘Like A Virgin’
In ‘Truth or Dare’ on tour ‘Like A Virgin’ was an expression of sexuality and gender on stage. Her explicit performance on stage reverts the title of the song ‘Like A Virgin’. She also removes and displaces gender through costume. The males to either side of her wear an exaggerated imitation of her bra. They have cone shaped ‘breasts’ comparatively smaller than the cone shaped bra designed by Jean-Paul Gautier.
Material Girl
The video clip for ‘Material Girl’ empowers women positions amongst men. Although the song is insisting that woman only want a man for material means Madonna reverts this concept of ‘woman as goldigger’ in the video through the scene of her backstage denying a man that brought her expensive gifts. These two positions contradict each other demonstrating that a woman can possess wealth whilst not being dependant of men which one line insinuates;
‘Experience has made me rich and now they’re after me’.
Madonna contradicts patriarchal ideology as women being a nurturer by pursuing a career and performing her sexuality on stage.
She also exaggerates images that represent women as subordinated in patriarchal society, which has the affect of denouncing them. Madonna’s performance to ‘Like a Virgin’ is extremely contradictive to the words. I feel that it is quite ironic that she emulates herself to a virgin and that her name ‘Madonna’ is the same name for The Virgin Mary which she contradicts the image of through her sexual performance.
An analysis of David Tetzlaff’s article ‘Metatextual Girl’:
Madonna is popular with many people as she is able to transverse many age groups, subcultures and ethnicities. Her popularity derives from her iconic image as fashionable in a time and moment. She is able to remain contemporary over a long period of time by changing her image. Madonna remains popular by continuing to ‘push the envelope of exposure’.[1]
John Fiske feels that fans and the media’s interest in Madonna rest on ‘what she looks like, who she is, and what she stands for than to what she sounds like.’ The music is irrelevant compared to her image and culture she creates.
Tetzlaff: asks – ‘Is her audience attracted by the sort of charismatic, symbolic personality possessed by old-time Hollywood film stars?’
Tetzlaff believes that this is not the case because in comparison to old Hollywood stars Madonna is not a ‘memorable character’.
Tetzlaff: asks – ‘Is her audience attracted by the sort of charismatic, symbolic personality possessed by old-time Hollywood film stars?’
Marilyn Monroe
Tetzlaff believes that this is not the case because in comparison to old Hollywood stars Madonna is not a ‘memorable character’.
Tetzlaff perceives Madonna’s responses to the media as ‘manipulative’ and to be ‘media savvy’. The information she chooses to disclose is provocative, radical and contradictive opposed to old female Hollywood Stars whom had a clear stance on political issues which thereby adds to Madonna’s persona defining her as a mystery.
I believe that Madonna does in fact act like an ‘old-time Hollywood Star’ in presenting herself as a mystery by providing the media with intimate details. Hollywood stars were in fact ‘media savvy’ presenting themselves a certain way behind the scenes and on screen to form an identity. Madonna’s appeal lies in her image and charisma in the same way as Marilyn Monroe. Both stars shared intimate details with the media portraying themselves as individuals in order to install and maintain popularity.
An article by Richard Dyer supports the notion of Madonna:
Dyer believes ’stars are made for profit’ and ‘a star’s image is a given, like machinary’. He relates a star to Karl Marx’s definition of ’congealed labour’ wherein ’something that is used with further labour to produce another commodity.’ Madonna’s image can be regarded as a machine which develops itself to produce further transformations and replications to her image.
[1] Dyer, Richard, 2999. ‘Heavenly Bodies: Film Stars and Society’ in Film Theory: An Anthology. Robert Stam, Toby Miller (eds.), Oxford: Blackwell, p.603-617.
[2] Dyer, Richard, 2999. ‘Heavenly Bodies: Film Stars and Society’ in Film Theory: An Anthology. Robert Stam, Toby Miller (eds.), Oxford: Blackwell, p.603-617.
Hollywood stars conveyed an ‘image’ of the ‘real’ person in their films to their reality. Madonna plays with this idea within the film ‘Truth or Dare’. She conducts her presentation on screen to be honest and truthful by behind the scenes and being overly indigant towards others that were not sincere. An example of this is of her mocking tone towards other famous people who credit themselves as her friends. The film instead portrays her as someone who will relate to an ordinary person, such as the dancers that she says she ‘likes to mother’ informing the viewer that they came from disadvantaged backgrounds. Thus, Madonna illustrates herself as an individual linking herself to the viewer. The concept of the ‘individual’ was reiterated through the star as their ‘soul’ and ‘true self’ was identified in the film projecting the notion of the viewer as bestowing an identitiy.[2]
The individuality that Madonna illustrates instructs viewers that she is in charge of her life and that they are also capable of it. The sixties was an era wherein sexuality was accepted and embrassed which granted Marilyn Monroe with her authenticity of a sex symbol. Her individuality was subject to consummation. The title ‘In Bed with Madonna’ is emulated by the close-ups of her which are employed as a device to show intimacy between her and the viewer. Her ‘inner, private, essential core’ is represented in the way that old-time Hollywood stars were.
‘Hollywood’ Madonna
The video clip ‘Hollywood’ presents the viewer with her ‘real’ self by providing them with intimate details. Madonna depicts private details of herself on screen such as herself being injected herself with collagen. She also illustrates herself on a home video providing the viewer with the notion of voyerism. The commodification of sexuality is translated into a repulsive vision. The idea of her body being commodified is transgressed through her body being manipulated in different ways. Madonna lies on a corpse table implying scientific observation of a fragmented body whilst also being sexually objected. The video also duplicates her body emulating Andy Warhol’s illustrations of reproducted images of stars signifying their commodification.
Andy Warhol
Marilyn Monroe
Elvis Presley
Dyer :
‘We’re fascinated by stars because they enact ways of making sense of the experience of being a person in a particular kind of social production (capitalism), with its particular organisation of life into public and private spheres.
This quote by Dyer may explain why publicity focuses on stars such as Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan. Do stars represent hightened products of capitalism?
The key difference between Madonna and old-time Hollywood stars such as Marilyn is her ever-changing persona which enalbles her to maintain her popularity.
Tetzlaff perceives Madonna to be presented impersonally because she does not portray a distinct personality. I believe this contributes to her prolonged popularity. although Old-time Hollywood stars project their subjectivities through similar devices they maintained a single image allowing themselves to be type cast to improve their popularity. Madonna proves this was a short term solution for success by reissuing her image improving her success-rate.
A Sunsilk addvertisment for hair product endorses Madonna’s her ever-changing image.
3 Stages- faux, neo and uber.
Madonna, along with the Beetles was one of the longest stars ever to maintain popular and desired.
POWER
Tetzlaff believes Madonna’s popularity stems from her being popular with heterosexual young women because she empowers them.
The Spice Girls empowered women- although they did not have a chance of withstanding the ever-changing public perception of desire.
Madonna is more complex with her ideas. According to John Fiske Madonna attributes her power to young female fans through semiotic means allowing them to steer away from patriarchal ideologies projecting themselves otherwise.[1] Success is generated through manipulating her image.[2] Madonna’s multiplicity of images conveys the notion that she is an independent woman who is in charge of her subjectivity. The idea that she is able to change her identity is also installed in her female fans.
Tetzlaff believes that she was being honest when she stated ‘Power is a great aphrodisiac and I’m a very powerful person believing that she distributes her ‘aura of power’ to her female audience.
Modes of address In ‘Truth and Dare’: ‘I want to be political’, ‘Money makes people beautiful’, ‘Anyone can have everything’ and ‘I believe in freedom of speech’.
Feminism
Madonna presents her audience with a feminist image by enhancing the notion of control, independence and power. She gives the audience what they want to see employing semiotics to seduce the audience’s desire for her whilst causing controversy and provoking the media to ask questions inducing her popularity.
Kaplan perceived fans to be attracted to Madonna as she was a ‘postmodern feminist heroine’ combining ‘seductiveness’ with ‘independence’.[3]
[1] Tetzlaff, David, 1993. ‘Metatexual Girl; Partiarchy, Postmodernism, Power, Money, Madonna in Madonna Connection: Representation Politics, Subcultural Identities, and Cultural Theory. Ed. Cathy Scwichtenberg. St Leonards, Sydney: Allen and Unwin: 239-263. 242
[2][2] Tetzlaff, David, 1993. ‘Metatexual Girl; Partiarchy, Postmodernism, Power, Money, Madonna in Madonna Connection: Representation Politics, Subcultural Identities, and Cultural Theory. Ed. Cathy Scwichtenberg. St Leonards, Sydney: Allen and Unwin: 239-263. 243
The artist Cindy Sherman depicts a many different images of women as subordinated to men through photographs. She subverts the idea of women as fixed by projecting her identity as unstable similarly to Madonna
In Laura Mulvey’s article ‘The Gaze’ determines male spectatorship as active and the female to be represented as passive.
“In their traditional exhibitionist role women are simultaneously looked at and displayed, with their appearance coded for strong visual and erotic impact so that they can be said to connote to-be-looked-at-ness” [1]
Voyeurism: ‘Spectatorial desire, in contemporary film theory.The image orchestrates a gaze, a limit, and its pleasurable transgression. The woman’s beauty, her very desirability, becomes a function of certain practices of imaging–framing, lighting, camera movement, angle.’ [2]
Madonna subverts the male protagonist on the screen who controls “the look” of the male viewers in the audience by performing an active role on camera.
Madonna subverts the control that patriarchal discourse has bestowed over women by depicting ‘The Gaze’ as obvious by performing as an overt sexual object. Madonna evident performance conveys the notion of her awareness to the gaze of the camera depicting the male voyeur. She destabilises voyeurism and pleasure associated with the women’s body.
[1]Male Voyeurism and Female Spectatorship:
John Berger and Feminist Theories http://www.eng.fju.edu.tw/Literary_Criticism/feminism/gaze.htm#Mulvey
[2] Laura Mulvey Notes on Laura Mulvey, “The Gaze” and “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema (1975)| Thornham “Feminist Media and Film Theory (1998)
[1][1] Tetzlaff, David, 1993. ‘Metatexual Girl; Partiarchy, Postmodernism, Power, Money, Madonna in Madonna Connection: Representation Politics, Subcultural Identities, and Cultural Theory. Ed. Cathy Scwichtenberg. St Leonards, Sydney: Allen and Unwin: 239-263. 241
[1] Tetzlaff, David, 1993. ‘Metatexual Girl; Partiarchy, Postmodernism, Power, Money, Madonna in Madonna Connection: Representation Politics, Subcultural Identities, and Cultural Theory. Ed. Cathy Scwichtenberg. St Leonards, Sydney: Allen and Unwin: 239-263. 239
Marilyn Monroe
