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Madonna canonized the concept of eras long before the internet made it a pop cliche.
Of course, anyonethatfamous andthatrich forthatlong is destined to lose some of their foresight over time.
.The Dance-Floor Ringmaster
.
Though dance-pop provided a natural launchpad, it was never a fail-safe route: The Disco sucks!
crusade of the late 70s put the genre on shaky terrain.
But the Madonna who spent her teens and early 20s in conservatories wasnt about to discard her training.
She was first and foremost a modern dancer who studied the expressive, torso-centric Martha Graham technique.
And though her sound upcycled disco, her ambiance was pure punk.
Because she had so much style, her relentless work ethic seemed effortless.
That particular album was a savvy crowd-pleaser that redeemed Madonnas youthful appeal.
.The Sex Provocateur
HIGH:Justify My LoveLOW: The S.E.X.
1 on the Hot 100.
(She released it on VHS instead, leading to record-breaking sales.
By then, Madonnas supposed sexual transgressions had long threatened to eclipse her music.
(Im not ashamed, she blared on the cover of the New YorkPost.
She made an art out of it, even if no one wanted to call it that.
People freaked simply because it was Madonna, the master of making headlines.
But provocation could be a burden.
Shocking the public is Madonnas high; she cant go too long without a fix.
Madonna was literalizing the ground she covered far more artfully 30 years ago.
You have to hand it to her, though: The last thing shell ever be is boring.
Its right there in her name.
To the Catholic church, shes the embodiment of blasphemy.
Madonna has always treated Catholicism as a prop, amplifying the theatricality of its pomp and circumstance.
Earlier this year, sheemulatedthe Virgin Mary on the decadent cover ofVanity Fairs European editions.
From the beginning, Madonna saw religious symbols for what they were: ornamentation.
Like them, her moneyed perfectionism delighted and disgusted the public in equal measure.
The goal was to be themostpopular, themostalluring, forever on top.
She and her date Michael Jackson, no less had front-row seats.
It was perfectly Madonna: She turned a song that sounds like the 30s into a low-necked 90s seduction.
That same essence made her a fashion magnet.
Madonna has a models grasp of the camera and a photographers grasp of iconography.
She understood self-portraiture beforeeveryoneunderstood self-portraiture.
That aptitude can lead even the sharpest vanguard astray, though.
Earth Mother Madonna doesnt flaunt her wealth, at least not as loudly.
Shes more devoted to spiritual seeking than to crotch-grabbing.
She sings aboutnotbeing a material girl.
Shes the peoples queen, elegant and attuned to fames impression.
Evita, released in 1996, demanded the high-brow respect that often eluded Madonna.
Madonna found out she was pregnant while shootingEvita.
Unlike the Christian crosses shed brandished in the 80s, her much-mockedred braceletwasnt just for show.
Plus, she made yoga cool.
As for phony British accents?Debatable.
Earth mother Madonna is also more political.
I feel a sense of responsibility because my consciousness has been raised, shetoldSPINin 1998.
She now has six children, four of whom were (somewhat controversially) adopted there.
Perhaps her most rebellious act as Earth mother is not letting it dull her sharper edges as she ages.
She has remained, most crucially, a dance-pop disciple and a sexual rabble-rouser.
But even her most innocuous persona can get messy.
Madonnas entry into the nebulous world of NFTs yielded a 2022video seriescalled Mother of Creation.
Theysoldfor a few hundred thousand dollars apiece, signaling that multimillion-dollar NFT sums had already flamed out.
Rock stars arent supposed to show their work, but Madonna never hid her go-getting nerve.
She turned up at Sire Records co-founder Seymour Steinshospital bedso hed sign her first record deal.
Almost immediately, she was an emblem of the moment.
Call it business acumen, call it artistic ingenuity, call it luck.
Madonna understood before almost anyone else how music videos, fashion, and media attention perpetuated pop stardom.
If tabloid scrutiny bothered her, she seldom let on all press is good press.
At her 1985 wedding to Sean Penn, the spectacle was the point.
The event brimmed with celebrities, drawing paparazzi choppers determined to capture the outdoor Malibu nuptials.
In 2007, Live Nation gave her a pacesetting$120 million promotional deal.
Madonnas trick was to never separate creativity from business.
What I do is total commercialism, but its also art,she said in 1989.
I like the challenge of doing both.
I didnt approach it the way I approached my music career.
And I didnt think about it.
I just took it.
But even a Golden Globe win for 1996sEvitacouldnt sweeten the stench of Madonnas weakest performances.
(Theres also a score of missed opportunities.
At one point, she was developing a biopic about Martha Graham.
She wasattachedto play Velma Kelly opposite Goldie Hawn inChicago, a role she seems made for.
Many pop stars (most, arguably) arent meant to be actors.Or directors.
But Madonna can be counted on to drop references to Fellini, Visconti, and other cerebral auteurs.
Videos were a chance to make little movies.
And yet her dedication to cinema didnt translate to a thriving film reputation.
Her performances tend to feel distant and manicured.
Madonnas brush with Hollywood isnt exclusive to the big screen, though.
Kill!in Girl Gone Wild; Marylin Monroe in the pages ofVanity FairandV.
She has a Hollywood perspective, whether or not Hollywood has known what to do with her.
Gone was the evocative delivery that made Madonna singular, replaced by overproduced soullessness.
(As it happens, M.I.A.
TheMDNAmisstep came at a crucial moment.
Someone who spent so long reinventing herself was now stuck in the shadow of younger, buzzier upstarts.
That became glaringly transparent when Instagram drained celebrity culture of its mystique in the 2010s.
Her presence there, and on TikTok, can be described, generously, askooky.
She posted rambling captions and went a little too hard on frivolousfilters.
Her wit and intelligence butted up against what could be perceived as childishness.
They failed to produce the hit singles shes known for (Bitch Im Madonnaexcepted, sort of).
Still, glimmers of the old Madonna emerge.
Her concerts in particular remain acrobatic parades.
Theres no other performer like her,The Guardianravedwhen the Rebel Heart tour launched.
As shedeclaredin 2016, I think the most controversial thing Ive done is to stick around.
