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American entertainer Madonna has elicited a wide number of public, peer, scholar and journalist perceptions regarding her image, including life, persona, appearance, choices and social media presence, since her rise to prominence in mid-1980s. She became a polarized and divisive figure, receiving contradictory responses, but found acclaim and controversy in equal demand. Reviews also transcended her own career.

Career fixation

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[...] from the beginning of her career, Madonna has been primarily defined not by her music but by [...] her ability to present herself in visually interesting and ever-changing guises. There talking points have been repeated in pretty much every magazine profile ever written about her.

—American music critic Steven Hyden (2016).[1]

Scholar John Street in Musicologists, Sociologists and Madonna (1993), refers that a notable portion of her reception has been "devoted almost exclusively to her image and appearance".[2] Her biography at the Ohio State University, points out her "image became the source of endless debate among feminists and cultural scholars".[3]

Background

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Earliest mainstream notations are back in 1985, when publications like Time magazine referring to the fact "her image has completely overshadowed her music", called her a pin-up girl.[4] "I don't think Madonna [...] has any particular interest in music", commented critic Greil Marcus the same year.[5] Gradually, critics acknowledged her amid the mixed response. For instance, in the 1990s, Annalee Newitz defined her as a non-musician but credited how Madonna has given to culture "a collection of images",[6] while critic Martha Bayles similarly claimed she "made her name" in the "extramusical real".[7] During this decade, British music magazine Melody Maker called her "the most popular female singer of all time" in early 1990s, but her success was credited to her image, as they described her as a "pure image".[2] To historian Glen Jeansonne, both Michael Jackson and Madonna represented "the triumph of image" of the 1980s, and which revolutionized the way recordings and artists were sold to the public.[8]

Madonna's hand

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Madonna's ability to toy with her image —gauging the public's perceptions of her, then manipulating those perceptions— has spawned plenty of commentary.

Brian McCollum, Knight Ridder-Bartow Press (2000)[9]

In her early decades, or before the massive usage of Internet, Madonna herself earned a reputation for being "calculate" and "in control" of her every move, including her image, which was recognized by many critics and audiences, according to professor Santiago Fouz-Hernández in Madonna's Drowned Worlds (2004).[10] Speaking about that reputation, English music journalist Paul Morley wrote in Words & Music (2015), she "controlled herself and her images".[11] In 101 Albums That Changed Popular Music (2007), Chris Smith describes her as the artist who has probably "manipulated her image the most", which helped her reach a status of "near-legendary cultural phenomenon".[12]

Role of public perceptions

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In 2000 or so before, biographer Mark Bego describes Madonna as a "selfcreated" figure.[13] However, he noted how Madonna represents "different things to different people", while the mere mention of her name "conjures strong reactions", both for and against her.[14] Similar to Bego and others, Time's Belinda Luscombe noted the wide different public perception.[15]

Reinvention

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The way Madonna employed her image, through reinvention played a major role. In her visual presentation, she mixed fashion, incorporating alter egos and gender-bending.[16] Gender theorist Judith Butler also said she embodied multiple identities at once.[17] She was quoted as saying in 1987, that she liked "to have different characters" to project.[18]

Her reinvention has been compared to, or said to be influenced by art-world figures such as Cindy Sherman and Picasso,[19][20] and entertainers like David Bowie, with whom Australian scholar McKenzie Wark said both "raised this to a fine art".[21]

Impact on Madonna's literature

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The word reivention (alternative known later as "eras"[22]), was constantly attributed to her reviews, said biographer Michelle Morgan in 2015.[23] Speaking about her first decade, in 1990, The Straits Times said that she made headlines in the 1980s "every time she changed her image".[24]

Madonna received cultural acclaim, and it was defined as one of her "cultural meanings" in Psychoanalyses / Feminisms (2000).[25] In Gendering the Reader (1994), scholar Sara Mills noted how she was described in "academic writing" as "innovative" in her usage of images.[26] Madonna was called the "master of the unexpected",[27] and for which, in early 1990s, Roger Ebert said she was "ahead of her audience".[28] Susan Hopkins referred to her in Girl Heroes (2002), as the "quintessential image strategist".[29] Contradictory perspectives to mixed responses, include American critic Ginia Bellafante, saying in 2005, she "no longer re-invents, she maintains".[30]

Cultural concerns, criticisms and ambiguities

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In 2000, photographic critic Vince Aletti said she "has been attacked by critics for being more about image than substance".[31] Around that time, various feminists were concerned about her multiple personae as they considered it as a "threat to women's socialization, which entails the necessary integration of female identity".[32]

Many debated the concept of realness, including Michael Musto,[10] while academic Douglas Kellner explored in Shari Benstock's Oh Fashion (1994), the problematization of identity, constructedness and alterability.[33] In Women in Theatre (2005), Julia Pascal compared both Cleopatra and Madonna, as both "created so many and such various self image that it is difficult to identify a 'real' identity'".[34]

Jock McGregor, wrote for L'Abri in 2008, that in "many ways Madonna is a victim of her own image".[35] Kat Bein opined for Miami New Times in 2019, that she has also "offended, affronted, and confused the masses".[36] In Representing Gender in Cultures (2004), authors compacted:[37]

It is the very instability of Madonna's image, its incessant reinvention that produces anxiety both in the mass audience and the academic circles, and encourages frequent and rather desperate attempts at finding a steady point.

Responses

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Other group, however, said she helped transcends "authenticity", connecting "new ideas" about a form of politics based in ideas of "play" and "freeing", as wrote Brian Longhurst in Popular Music and Society (2007).[38] Author Ty Burr considered "Madonna was ahead of her time because she saw that image was mutable" and also audiences were ready to accept the notion.[39] In 2013, art historian Jasmina Tešanović said despite the criticisms of "shallowness or insincerity", asked "Would you expect a magician to be sincere once he performs his tricks in order to marvel you?" to later conclude "I would call Madonna as one of the most honest performers in pop culture. She always showed us the dirty laundry in the pop business".[40]

In 2023, Jennifer Weiner opined for The New York Times that every new version of Madonna was both a look and a commentary on looking, a statement about the artifice of beauty.[41] In 2010, German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung said she linked patterns that were seen as largely "incompatible",[17] while Vicki Karaminas and Adam Geczy agreed that she achieved "iconic status" in the mixture of contradictory portrayal, but becoming perhaps the first mainstream female with such response.[42] In regards identity, Manchester Metropolitan University scholars wrote in 2013, that she was able to control it, and which prompted her to be heralded as a "unique female figure".[43] Writing for The New York Times in 2018, Wesley Morris referred to her as the "first great identity artist".[44] According to British scholar David Gauntlett, Madonna was "credited with popularizing the view that identity is not fixed and can be continuously rearranged and revamped".[45] On the same plain, critic Stephen Holden similarly discussed how she manipulated the persona of the good-bad girl, making her self-invention a "kind of ongoing performance".[46]

Impact and recognition

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Though she is not the first musical artist to reinvent her image,[32] an author noted in 2010, that she was "widely" dubbed the "Queen of Reinvention".[47] "She is truly the Queen of Reinvention" wrote a contributor from Vogue magazine in 2020,[48] while similarly Jennifer Weiner referred to her as "our era's greatest chameleon".[41] Writing for The Daily Telegraph in 2018, Matt Cain, claims she helped popularize reinvention in popular music.[49] In 2019, Erica Rusell from MTV discussed her "legacy", saying it "have left a lasting mark" on pop music.[22] Her influence into the concept of reinvention/eras has been perceived on other artists.[19] Joe Zee and Alyssa Giacobbe, included artists such as Rihanna, Lady Gaga and Taylor Swift.[50] Many of them, including Rihanna and Lil' Kim publicly acknowledged her influence.[51][52] Speaking about her "remarkable" reinvention, Vanity Fair's Chris Murphy commented in 2023, she "laid the blueprint for aspiring female pop stars to continue evolving".[53]

Public persona

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Critical background

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Perceptions of her public/private persona has also shaped her image, which include her personality and were widely commented by media and scholars, said Roy Shuker in Popular Music: The Key Concepts (2002).[54] In American Icons (2006), associated professor Diane Pecknold, said her persona contributed to the rise of her academic studies.[55] According to Graham Cray in 1991, Madonna is a "complex persona" but called her a "phenomenon" that requires a "detailed analysis" while praised her for "skilfully developed a persona".[56] By 2006, Swedish author Maria Wikse similarly commented many critics recognized her "ever-changing persona" and influenced the way she is read.[57]

References

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  1. ^ Hyden 2016, p. online
  2. ^ a b Street, John (1993). "Musicologists, Sociologists and Madonna". Innovation: The European Journal of Social Science Research. 6 (3): 277–289. doi:10.1080/13511610.1993.9968356. Retrieved February 10, 2022.
  3. ^ "Madonna". Ohio State University. Archived from the original on December 16, 2016. Retrieved January 22, 2022.
  4. ^ "Madonna". Time. Vol. 125, no. 9–17. 1985. p. 76. Retrieved February 11, 2023.
  5. ^ Sexton 1993, p. 3
  6. ^ Newitz, Annalee (November 1993). "Madonna's Revenge". EServer.org. Archived from the original on February 28, 2014. Retrieved September 30, 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: year (link)
  7. ^ Bayles 1996, p. 334
  8. ^ Jeansonne 2006, p. 443
  9. ^ McCollum, Brian (October 11, 2000). "Madonna and her 'Music' are no longer just disposable pop". Bartow Press. 6 (9): 1–2. Retrieved September 15, 2023.
  10. ^ a b Fouz-Hernández & Jarman-Ivens 2004, p. 188
  11. ^ Morley 2015, p. online
  12. ^ Smith 2007, p. 178
  13. ^ Bego 2000, p. 2
  14. ^ Bego 2000, p. ix
  15. ^ Luscombe, Belinda (February 9, 2023). "Madonna's Face and the Myth of Aging Gracefully". Time. Retrieved November 28, 2023.
  16. ^ Rainer, Peter (January 23, 1993). "Commentary: Madonna as Actress? The 'Evidence' Is In". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved July 14, 2023.
  17. ^ a b von Lowtzow, Caroline (May 17, 2010). "Aus der Ursuppe des Trash". Süddeutsche Zeitung (in German). pp. 1–2. Archived from the original on July 26, 2020. Retrieved March 31, 2021. Cite error: The named reference "Zeitung" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  18. ^ Lenig 2010, pp. 144–146
  19. ^ a b Brown 2014, p. 130
  20. ^ Walker 2003, pp. 65–89
  21. ^ Wark 1999, p. 80
  22. ^ a b Russell, Erica (April 24, 2019). "Why Madonna's Legacy of Reinvention is More Relevant Than Ever". MTV. Archived from the original on October 22, 2019. Retrieved July 14, 2023.
  23. ^ Morgan 2015, p. online
  24. ^ Soh Chin Ong (May 28, 1990). "Madonna's breathless". The Straits Times. p. 4. Retrieved July 14, 2023.
  25. ^ Gordon & Rudnytsky 2000, p. 224
  26. ^ Mills 1994, p. 71
  27. ^ "Madonna's lost it – here's what she needs to do to get it back". The New Zealand Herald. June 27, 2015. Archived from the original on March 25, 2022. Retrieved July 14, 2023.
  28. ^ Ebert 1993, p. 173
  29. ^ Hopkins 2002, p. 52
  30. ^ Bellafante, Ginia (November 23, 2006). "A Tribute to Madonna's Current and Former Selves". The New York Times. Retrieved July 14, 2023.
  31. ^ Aletti, Vince (March–April 2000). "Q&A Madonna: the real views of a modern muse". American Photo. Vol. 11, no. 2. p. 44. Retrieved November 21, 2022.{{cite magazine}}: CS1 maint: date format (link)
  32. ^ a b Schwichtenberg 2019, p. online
  33. ^ Benstock & Ferriss 1994, p. 162
  34. ^ Pascal 2005, p. 13
  35. ^ McGregor, Jock (2008). "Madonna: Icon of Postmodernity" (PDF). L'Abri. pp. 1–8. Archived from the original (PDF) on December 7, 2010. Retrieved July 14, 2023.
  36. ^ Bein, Kat (December 13, 2019). "Six Times Madonna Made Someone Angry This Millennium". Miami New Times. Retrieved August 18, 2023.
  37. ^ Oleksy & Rydzewska 2004, p. 136
  38. ^ Longhurst 2007, p. 115
  39. ^ Burr 2012, pp. 289–290
  40. ^ DeMarco, Laura (August 30, 2013). "30 years of Madonna: How the Queen of Pop used controversy, MTV and a talent for reinvention to craft one of the most successful careers in music history". The Plain Dealer. Retrieved August 18, 2023.
  41. ^ a b Weiner, Jennifer (February 8, 2023). "Madonna's New Face Is a Brilliant Provocation". The New York Times. Archived from the original on March 12, 2023. Retrieved July 14, 2023.
  42. ^ Karaminas & Geczy 2013, p. 38
  43. ^ Milestone & Meyer 2013, p. online
  44. ^ "60 Times Madonna Changed Our Culture". The New York Times. August 16, 2018. Archived from the original on July 22, 2020. Retrieved July 14, 2023.
  45. ^ Fouz-Hernández & Jarman-Ivens 2004, p. 171
  46. ^ Holden, Stephen (March 19, 1990). "Madonna Re-Creates Herself - Again". The New York Times. Retrieved July 16, 2023.
  47. ^ Raines 2010, p. xi
  48. ^ Smith, Raven (September 16, 2020). "On Madonna's New Biopic and the Shifting New York Paradigm". Vogue. Retrieved July 16, 2023.
  49. ^ Cain, Matt (July 27, 2018). "Eight ways Madonna changed the world, from exploring female sexuality to inventing reality TV". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on July 27, 2018. Retrieved April 3, 2021.
  50. ^ Zee & Giacobbe 2015, p. 223
  51. ^ Vena, Jocelyn (October 20, 2011). "Is Rihanna 'Really' The New Madonna?". MTV. Retrieved July 14, 2023.
  52. ^ Cane, Clay (August 12, 2010). "Lil' Kim Interview". BET. Retrieved July 14, 2023.
  53. ^ Murphy, Chris (July 27, 2023). "40 Years of Madonna". Vanity Fair. Retrieved August 21, 2023.
  54. ^ Cite error: The named reference Shuker was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  55. ^ Hall & Hall 2006, pp. 445–449
  56. ^ Cray, Graham (July–August 1991). "Post-modernist Madonna". Third Way. Vol. 14, no. 6. pp. 7–10. Retrieved July 12, 2022.
  57. ^ Wikse 2006, p. 9
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