By Cory Clay
Throughout music history, women have always been dominated by men. Many have overlooked their musical talents and achievements; but in the nineties, women have fought back. Never before have so many women dominated the charts, radio, and music videos. The women today are strong, powerful and not afraid to show off their sexuality just like the male rockers. Many wonder how women have suddenly come so far? Well, if you look at the giants of yesterday like Janis Joplin or Diana Ross, they are only part of the roots of female musical history. Janis was wild like one of the boys and Diana was glamorous and had sex appeal. But these women didn’t have enough power to actually compete against the male rockers in those days. Today the new female giant Mariah Carey has no problem outselling every musician and dominating every single chart possible. The problem with Mariah it seems, is that she has allowed her fame to get to her head. With her constant self righteousness, she has failed to recognize the achievements of the female musicians who pioneered before her. Mariah has repeatedly trashed and dissed the one woman who opened the doors for her and other diva’s such as Janet Jackson and Paula Abdul. This woman is Madonna
Many would argue to the contrary, but if you look at the female performers of today they all carry traits that Madonna pioneered. Madonna is slutty, trashy, bitchy and at the same time, she’s sweet, humorous, and most of all, powerful. She continually changes her style of music and her image, staying fresh and new every year. Critics have always trashed her; but as we head closer to the next century, people are beginning to notice the impact Madonna has made and how she changed society, pop culture, and music itself.
For more than a decade Madonna has held the status of a pop icon. When she exploded onto the music scene with “Like A Virgin” in 1984, few thought we’d be recalling her name even a year later. No one was predicting she’d sell over 90 million records, head her own record company (Maverick), and emerge as one of the most powerful figures in the entertainment industry. No one, that is, but Madonna. “What else was I supposed to do with this name”, she said in 1990, “Become a nun?”
She was born Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone and raised in Bay City, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit, in a middle class Italian family in 1958. Her parents were strict Catholics; and when she was six, her mother died of breast cancer. That loss, more than any other event, shaped who Madonna would become. “After destroying me emotionally, I sort of went the other way which was to say, ’Okay, I’m going to take care of myself and never rely on anyone, so I won’t be hurt that way again’. It made me incredibly independent,” she explained.
In 1976, at the age of seventeen, she moved to New York with $35 to her name. After years of studying dancing with the famous Pearl Lange of Alvin Ailey dance theater, she focused more on singing. Madonna auditioned as a back-up singer for Patrick Hernendez. a cheesy disco one hit wonder famous for his hit “Born To Be Alive”. His producers promised to make her a disco queen and flew her to Paris to record an album. Six months passed and the producers had not fulfilled their promise, so Madonna packed her bags and flew back to New York. She struggled in various bands for years and turned down a record deal from Gotham Records because they wanted her to sing rock music like Pat Benetar.
By 1982, Madonna had put together a demo of some dance songs she had recorded with a close friend. Warner Brothers liked what they heard and gave her a record deal to record one dance single. She released the disco song “Everybody” and it went #1 on the dance charts. The song never made the pop charts but it sold enough for the company to sign her to a full album deal. In the fall of 1983 she released her first album, Madonna, which scored her first hit “Holiday”.
Within the next thirteen years, Madonna became the biggest and most successful female singer in the history of pop music. She’s sold over 90 million albums, has had 28 top 10 hits (11 of them which went #1, the most for a female) and has broken records set by Elvis and the Beatles. But, the music wasn’t what made Madonna a superstar. It was Madonna herself and her ever changing image. She has the creativity to reinvent herself to fit each new album and project she markets. Her first image was the lacy punk look which millions of teenage girls tried to emulate. From there she was the “Material Girl”, where she turned into a Marilyn Monroe. In 1990 she was sporting her famous torpedo shaped cone bra during her Blonde Ambition tour. By 1992 it was all the way nude in her best-selling book “Sex”. Her new persona is Eva Peron in the upcoming picture “Evita” which is being filmed in Argentina.
Madonna’s image may have made her a superstar but it was the controversy that made her a legend. Throughout her career, controversy has always played a major role. She has used her beauty and body to get what she wants: more and more fame. Madonna has mixed sex, religion, homosexuality and bi-sexuality in her work; starting from her early days of wearing rosaries in her “Like A Virgin” era, the controversy of teenage pregnancy in “Papa Don’t Preach”, to the burning crosses in her “Like A Prayer” video. Then there was her sexually explicit concert performances, the 1990 MTV banning of the “Justify My Love” video due to her lesbian kiss scene, and the controversial concert documentary Truth Or Dare. Finally there was her 1992 best-selling book of all time Sex, and 1993’s erotic film Body Of Evidence. Madonna’s most recent uproar is in Argentina for the filming of Evita.
Since her earliest days critics have had trouble seeing beyond the distraction. Somewhere behind all the controversy, Madonna’s bigger than life persona, her fashion statements, her sexually explicit performances, and her outspokenness, the music was getting lost. No sooner had her career begun, a cynical music industry started predicting a swift end to her career. “I’ve always had to deal with this sense of people trying to predict that I would soon fail and I’ve been dealing with that my entire career. It affects me because it makes me realize how miserable most human beings are and how instead of celebrating that someone could come from nothing and do something with their life, they have to try and tear you down because ultimately people don’t like to be reminded of how little they’ve accomplished in their life.”
In the present though, Madonna has toned down her provocative image and shocking persona. As she has gotten older, she seems to have matured emotionally and artistically. With her new record Something To Remember, Madonna gives listeners a look back at her enduring career and adds a glimpse of what may be in store for her musical future. Something To Remember is a collection of thirteen ballads, ten previously released songs and three new tracks. “I feel my ballads are my best work. Since my music is more dance oriented, many of my best songs, which are my ballads, were never released. This is a romance album. It’s great for lovers. An album you can cuddle to or do you know what”. Billboard magazine calls “You’ll See”, the album’s first single, “A stunning effort.” Madonna’s new, softer image may also be caused by the baby she’s expecting in September. She and her boyfriend Carlos Leon are excited to have this child and this event will change the person who Madonna is and which direction her career will turn.
Right now Madonna is in Argentina filming Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical Evita co-starring Antonio Banderas. The film is the story of Eva Peron who was the wife of Argentina’s president in the 1940’s. Eva was looked upon as a saint in Argentina and many are outraged that Madonna is playing the part, some going as far as sending her death threats. This movie project had floated around Hollywood for nearly ten years and Madonna was always one in mind for the role. Such top actresses as Meryl Streep and Michelle Pfieffer were up for the part, but Madonna, who is passionately devoted to playing the character, landed the role after all. “This movie was meant to be mine”, she boldly said. Critics seem to agree that she has not found an effective film role since Desperately Seeking Susan (1985), and many have written that if Evita fails Madonna can say good-bye to Hollywood. “It’s very important that the movie does well. If it doesn’t, I know I’ll go on and find other things to do”.
If she is anything, Madonna is a survivor. Few performers who arrived in the ‘80s have carried a faithful following into the ‘90s; but with street smarts and strong business instincts, she has weathered the highs and lows of an unforgiving industry. For nearly fifteen years, Madonna’s been a pioneer, opening doors for female artists, who until she came along, were given little room to test the boundaries of mainstream pop. Madonna is a legend and she is destined to be remembered as the biggest female pop star of the 20th century. In death she plans on having the last laugh. “Well when I’m dead they’ll finally kiss my a!!. Isn’t that how it works? When Marilyn Monroe was alive, they were so vicious and cruel to her. They ripped her to shreds, they wouldn’t give it up to her in any way, shape, or form. When she died, everyone’s like, ‘Oh she’s this comedic genius’. I mean excuse me. They do that to everybody. They did it to Vincent Van Gogh. History just repeats itself over and over again that way.”