Cultural impact of Madonna

Madonna, seen here on her Rebel Heart Tour (2015). An international array of intellectuals have noted the continued Madonna's cultural influence and legacy in the 20th and 21st centuries.

American singer-songwriter Madonna (b. 1958) has had a social-cultural impact on the world through her recordings, attitude, clothing and lifestyle since her early career in the 1980s. Madonna has built a legacy that goes beyond music and has been studied by sociologists, historians and other social scientists. This contributed to the rise of the Madonna studies, an academic and critical response dedicated to her work and persona for which Madonna's semiotic and image was diversified in a wide-ranging of theories such those from feminism to queer studies among others. In addition to becoming an icon in these fields, Madonna is commonly typified as an archetype, precursor or the most visible example both inside and outside the music industry in numerous concepts and themes. Her critical reception, alongside her media coverage made her "one of the most well-documented figures of the modern age".

Called a "major 'historical figure'" by academic Camille Paglia, Madonna attained the status of a "cultural icon" as was noted by cultural theorists or sociologists like Stuart Sim and Suzanna Danuta Walters. Frenchman scholar Georges Claude Guilbert attributed her a greater cultural significance and proposed the singer as a postmodern myth. Madonna, which also gained a cult status amongst different audiences according to academic Sheila Jeffreys, has been called a Gesamtkunstwerk herself.

A subject of diverse listicles, Madonna achieved a high-profile of being referred with superlatives in virtually all areas her work was analyzed. Notably, scholars such as Frances Negrón-Muntaner, Robert M. Grant or Guilbert have seen and commented how the singer was conspicuously referred the "most famous woman" on the planet, while writer Matt Cain expressed she is "one of the most famous women ever to have lived". Both Madonna's references and impact are found —but not limited to— in the arts, literature, cinema, music and even science.

From a musical perspective, she is often called an influence by other artists and has been discussed with euphemism by multiple international authors as the "greatest" woman in music or arguably the most "influential" female artist in history. A large group of critics have retrospectively credited her presence, success and contributions with paving the way for female artists (as well she transcended gender) and changing the music scene for women in music —most notorious for dance and pop stages—with Billboard staff saying that "the history of pop music can essentially be divided into two eras: pre-Madonna and post-Madonna". In terms of record sales, Madonna is regarded as the best-selling woman in music history recognized by Guinness World Records.

She is also a polarizing figure. During her career, Madonna has attracted contradictory social-cultural attention from family organizations, feminist anti-porn, radical terrorists and religious groups worldwide with boycott, censorship and protests. Her critics and detractors attribute Madonna being a variety of things, such as being an important element in the normalization of prostitutions in the malestream culture. Author Shmuley Boteach blamed her to "destroy the female recording industry by erasing the line that separates music from pornography". In addition and mainly in the late 20th-century, she was negatively nicknamed a "modern Medusa" and some authors advised that she restored the image of the Whore of Babylon. Despite being a subject of contradictions, numerous academic studies have considered the way Madonna polarizes views and deemed her as a site of ambiguity and openness.

Cultural significance

Beyond the scope of music and popular culture sphere

An oil painting of Madonna. For authors like academic Camille Paglia, she has become in a historical figure.

The task of defining Madonna's social and cultural impact start by many authors tracing the boundaries she has crossed in both music and popular culture and became in a key aspect of who Madonna is to others. Overall, her career as a whole has been defined with attaining an "unusual" status which has also been integral to the formation in understanding her. Newsweek contributor, Eve Watling feels that "Madonna seems to have done so much in her life that it's hard to grasp that she's a real person". The Cut editor Rebecca Harrington paraphrasing said "Madonna's actual accomplishments are too much for the modern human to even contemplate". English music journalist, Paul Morley states what made her so ahead of her time, is that you can use her, colourise her, mix her, remix her, as part of your own narrative of meaning.

As a woman performer, her near-singularity position was explained by scholars Katie Milestone and Anneke Meyer from Manchester Metropolitan University in Gender and Popular Culture (2013) when they wrote "she has been heralded as a unique female figure because of the control that she exerts over her identity". For American professor Arthur Asa Berger, "it is Madonna's power to create herself as a unique and distinctive icon that is so interesting". Caryn Ganz's The New York Times mentioned that she has a "singular career" (in music, fashion, movies and beyond) that's crossed boundaries and obliterated the status quo. Louis Virtel from Billboard argues that "the task of defining Madonna's impact is brutal" and viewed her career that amounts to "living mythology". The same author, writing for Paper paraphrased that "she graduated from pop hero to mythological wonder". Singaporean magazine GameAxis Unwired explained that she pioneered a multifaceted career that "encompasses virtually every aspect of contemporary culture".

To American writer Christopher Zara, Madonna symbolizes "one of those rare artists who forced the world to conform to her". For a group of authors like writer Michael Levine and professor Thomas Ferraro, the singer has made a career of never doing the same thing twice. At this point, British journalist Bidisha said that the singer has "no interest in nostalgia". Matt Cain also shared similar thoughts praising her because she "never wanted to be seen as a nostalgia artist".

Into the scope of Madonna as a musician, Gene N. Landrum, author of Profiles of Female Genius: Thirteen Creative Women who Changed the World (1994) wrote that "Madonna has been able to impact her industry as much as any woman in history". At her profile in The 100 Most Influential Musicians of All Time (2009) by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., staff proclaimed she "achieve levels of power and control unprecedented for a woman in the entertainment industry". Authors of 100 Entertainers Who Changed America (2013) explained that "her music alone cannot tell the full story of Madonna's colossal success and influence".

In 1990, the arts-based BBC1 series Omnibus broadcast a profile on Madonna. Cultural critic Michael Ignatieff of BBC2's The Late Show criticized the broadcast, arguing that Madonna was not a serious artist and the program was "an amazing abdication of editorial integrity." However, numerous authors have commented the Madonna "has transcended the role of being a musical artist", including American essayist Chuck Klosterman. For Klosterman, "Madonna's status is no longer connected to music or sales". Janice Min of Billboard declared that "Madonna is one of a miniscule number of super-artists whose influence and career transcended music". In particular, American editor Annalee Newitz's thoughts like other authors were: "Madonna is not a musician. Certainly, she achieved fame within the music industry, but perhaps it might be more accurate to say that she began to be famous within the music industry". As her music played a second place for many, mainly intellectuals who were more interested in discussing what Madonna means, American music critic Steven Hyden summarized:

[...] from the beginning of her career, Madonna has been primarily defined not by her music but by her ambition and 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.

Authors also discussed her position in popular culture and how she transcended it. For instance, back in the 1990s, Robert Christgau sees Madonna as a pop cultural symbol but discusses the idea that she transcends popular culture. That idea was backed in the following decades (and perhaps before) by authors like Frenchman Georges-Claude Guilbert who says that long-time accepted as a pop icon, proposes the singer as a postmodern myth. Also, Russell Iliffe from PRS for Music wrote that "during her career, Madonna has transcended the term 'pop star' to become a global cultural icon". In 2015, an author from El Cultural wrote that she "surpasses the laws of physics, time, popular culture, and even metaphysics" as she become in a historical figure. Others authors like academic Camille Paglia concurred that she is a "historical figure".

General overview

She's a major historical figure and when she passes, the retrospectives will loom larger and larger in history.

—Academic Camille Paglia on Madonna (2017) in a feminist perspective.

A common observation, Romanian professor Doru Pop at Babeș-Bolyai University confirmed in his book The Age of Promiscuity (2018) that "the cultural impact of Madonna was extensively analyzed by many authors". In the late-2010s, musicologist Eduardo Viñuela of University of Oviedo in a conversation with Radio France Internationale (RFI) summarized that "analyzing Madonna" is to delve into the evolution of many of the most relevant aspects of society in recent decades. As British sociologist Ellis Cashmore said in 2018, that "we can feel the effect of the changes she triggered in our everyday life".

Professor John Izod of University of Stirling once said that she can be seen as a "hero of our times". On top of this, American professor Marjorie Garber said that "perhaps more than any other has read the temper of the times". Madonna was suggested by Ann Powers of The New York Times in 1998 as a "secular goddess, designated by her audience and pundits alike as the human face of social change". Around this time, some academics described her as "a barometer of culture that directs the attention to cultural shifts, struggles and changes". Argentine essayist and writer, Rodrigo Fresán described her in 2000, as "the mirror of our days". British author George Pendle writing for Bidoun explained that she defined a way of living in the 1980s and 1990s and this led to consistently described her as a "cultural icon". Many years after, her status as a cultural icon is acknowledged in all press accounts according to authors of Ageing, Popular Culture and Contemporary Feminism (2014). Prior years, in 2002, British academic researcher Brian McNair proposed that "Madonna more than made up for in iconic status and cultural influence".

Further suggestions was made by American journalist Ricardo Baca whose found and described that "to some, Madonna is a divine creation —an otherworldly gift to the masses in the form of an incessantly morphing entity". In his study on Madonna in the late-1980s, media scholar John Fiske concluded that "she is neither a text or a person, but a set of meaning in process". Similar views were shared in the next decades. For instance, biographer Andy Koopmans observer the singer became in "a cultural obsession". To professor Lisa Peñaloza, she is a "veritable cultural production industry".

Within the compendium The Madonna companion: two decades of commentary, American poet Jane Miller proposes that "Madonna functions as an archetype directly inside contemporary culture" and she compared its with the Black Virgin. In the description of American author Strawberry Saroyan, Madonna is a "storyteller" and a "cultural pioneer". She stated: "Madonna's ability to take her message beyond music and impact women's lives has been her legacy". Professors and authors of Encyclopedia of Women in Today's World, Volume 1 (2011), described:

Madonna's cultural influence has been profound and pervasive, as her multiple transformations and controversies have attracted the attention of numerous scholars working in a variety of fields, namely feminist and queer theory, cultural studies, film and media studies. Scholarly debates about Madonna encompass a broad of spectrum of topics ... Critical studies of Madonna reveal her—as symbol, image, and brand—

In further retrospect views, Eve Watling of Newsweek expressed that "her enormous cultural impact seems Herculean" and concludes she defined the zeitgeist. William Langley from The Daily Telegraph feels that "Madonna has changed the world's social history, has done more things as more different people than anyone else is ever likely to". A contributor from company Spin Media concluded that "Madonna has changed society through her fiery ambition and unwillingness to compromise". Marissa G. Muller from W remarked that "Madonna has left her mark on every facet of culture".

Global perspectives

Exemplified alongside Coca-Cola as one of the two most visible sings of globalization, the terms "Madonnization" and "the Madonna economy" emerged as similar concepts of Cocacolonization and McDonaldization but using Madonna as a paragon.

Numerous authors have provided a global importance of Madonna in using the concepts such as globalization and international political economy and at the same time, remarking her singular-position with creating new terms. Metaphorically, American media theorist Douglas Rushkoff said "Madonna brought down the Berlin Wall" when discussing singer's "symbolic role" in international politics. During the 1990s, some scholars have used the term "the Madonna economy" or "Madonna-economy" as was explained by journals like Revista centroamericana de Economía from National Autonomous University of Honduras to trace the articulation of globalization. This was further developed by Group of Lisbon, a consortium of 19 scholars from different disciplines, noting that "the Madonna economy" is "actually a process that is unifying (essentially by homogenization) the consumption of information and communication goods".

Norwegian adjunct professor Roland Kallenborn, lumped the term "the Madonna economy" with the Cocacolonization, McDonaldization and McWorld to describe concepts such as the Westernization, Western thinking and consumer mass culture among others. Madonna was featured as an example of paving the way in the global economy in International Communication and Globalization: A Critical Introduction (1997), of reader Ali Mohammadi from Nottingham Trent University.

In 1989, Santiago Erice from Micromanía commented that the "symbol Madonna", is "the most palpable proof that Western society advances and changes". A decade later, in 1999, British political scientist David Held said: "The most public symbols of globalization consist of Coca-Cola, Madonna and the news on CNN". Almost a decade later, in 2008, scholar Belén González Morales of the Autonomous University of Barcelona added that the "'infinite dissection of Madonna' is like a body of paradigmatic of the global age that emanating a tremendous amount of meanings".

Similar to "the Madonna economy", other observers used the term "Madonnization". Forbes described in 2003, that it referred to a "homogeneous global culture of the 'least common denominator'" using both McDonaldization and the "Madonnization" in performing arts. In Guilbert's view "there seems to be some sort of equation between the McDonaldization of American and its "Madonnanization", which can both be celebrated by postmodern critics". The American Anthropological Association once expressed: "McDonalds, Madonna and electronic highways are familiar and seductive symbols of this highly mobile and slippery era".

The singer has been also named a hyperglobalist example. Used also as a paradigm of post-zionism, historian Efraim Karsh notes Gideon Samet's point of view: "Madonna and Big Macs the most peripheral of examples of ... 'normalness' which means, amongst other things, the end of the terrible fear of everything that is foreign and strange". In ambivalent views, sources like The Princeton Review have commented that "her music heralds the end of Western civilization", while for others she had made a significant contribution on that.

Madonna's music has also been used as an example of americanization (or by implication, of globalization) in countries such as China or Cuba. According to an article from Billboard, Madonna and Michael Jackson were likely to be the first acts from the Western world to have a release published in China. Also, various of her tours were suggested by local media outlets to help in introduce multimillion international concerts culture or change their live music in countries such as Brazil, Montenegro or Mexico and stadiums like Balaídos of Spain. While Russian journalist Oleg Kashin said that Madonna has fans in North Korea, some journalists like Mark Bowden have reported Kim Jong-un is fan of her music. Numerous references of Madonna have been also documented in North Korea, including her cover of "American Pie" in the Grand People's Study House, and Evita is thought to be the only American film screened in North Korea.

In United States

A wax figure of Madonna in Mexico depicted with the flag of the United States and a provocative style.

Madonna has been called an "American icon". Both her early impact and legacy in the culture of United States have been noted either by Americans or international authors. Compared to others USA-symbols like Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, Barbie or Coca-Cola, academics in American Icons (2006) held that Madonna image "is immediately recognizable around the world and instantly communicates many of the values of U.S. culture". On a broader scale, a gender consultant and musicologist in a course dedicated to the singer at the University of Oviedo in 2015, proposes that her history and evolution is "comparable" and can be "useful to analyze the historical development of the United States".

In Fresán's view she is one of the "classic symbols of Made in USA". Another external perception came from French academic Guilbert whose expressed in Madonna as a Postmodern Myth (2002) that "today, America knows more about Madonna than about any passage of the Bible". Academics Johan Galtung and Daisaku Ikeda giving a perspective of the United States history commented: "US business and the hyper-successful US plebeian culture, outranking Christianity with its Penta-M: Mickey Mouse, Madonna, Michael (Jackson), McDonald's".

Associate professor Beretta E. Smith-Shomade of Emory University felt that only Madonna rivaled the space Oprah Winfrey occupied in the late twentieth century and in the psyche of national culture. In 20th century American society, she was referenced by her sexual feminist political movement. Ann Powers summarized that "intellectuals described her as embodying sex, capitalism and celebrity itself". Retrospectively, Sara Marcus described with the height of her career, "the singer brought the changes to American culture". Marcus felt "her revelatory spreading of sexual liberation to Middle America, changed this country for the better. And that's not old news; we're still living it" and also ends saying that Madonna "remade American culture".

As a self-made case, U.S. cultural historian and author Jim Cullen wrote that "few figures in American life have managed to exert as much control over their destinies as she has, and the fact that she has done so as a woman is all the more remarkable". Cullen also expressed "that Madonna has done this is indisputable". To professor Thomas Ferraro, "no one was more important to the culture as whole than Madonna" as he further expanded it: "Miracle worker and wonder woman, she was the faith healer of Ronald Reagan's divide and—conquer American, for its youth especially". Professor Robert Miklitsch, said that she was "the perfect symbol for Reagan-era America".

Scholar Frances Negrón-Muntaner examined that on a "global scale" Madonna embodied the freedom, in/morality, and material "excess" of (white) America. Historian professor Glen Jeansonne gives his point saying that she "freed Americans from their inhibitions and made them feel good about having fun". For Scottish author Andrew O'Hagan "Madonna is like a heroic opponent of cultural and political authoritarianism of the American "establishment".

Madonna as an icon

Icon of Madonna, taken in 1990 at the AIDS Project Los Angeles. Is created by Alan Light.

Marcel Danesi, a professor of semiotics and linguistic anthropology at the University of Toronto cited in Language, Society, and New Media: Sociolinguistics that the word "icon" is a "term of religious origin and used for the first time in celebrity culture to describe the American pop singer Madonna". Following description asserts that the word "is now used in reference to any widely known celebrity, male or female". Some dictionaries around the world such as Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary and the Diccionario panhispánico de dudas included her name to illustrate the new meaning of that word. Turkish research assistant Pinar Aslan of Bursa Technical University explored how the word "icon" become more popular in culture than in art history. She provided an example saying "today, the word 'icon' would make many people think about Madonna, the singer" (instead Mary, mother of God).

From the popular press view, Naomi Fry copy chief of T: The New York Times Style Magazine called her the "most iconic of icons". For Erica Russell from MTV, Madonna has both defined and redefined what it means to be an icon. Rolling Stone staff commented that "she is a living icon not just for her contrivances" but she "as idea, example, archetype exits simultaneously with the real woman". Also, Madonna has been called an "icon" in many fields where she received a great treatment of analysis such as feminist, sexual or queer studies because critical studies on the singer reveal her "as symbol, image, and brand".

Feminism

Madonna expressing her support to the Russian feminist group, Pussy Riot during The MDNA Tour.

British professor Stephen Hunt, wrote in New Religions and Spiritualities (2017): "Reams have been written about the meaning of Madonna for women and for feminism". Mary Cross also observed this saying that she has inspired reams of feminist commentary as well some feminists have taken Madonna severely to task. Canadian commentator Mark Steyn reminds that "she has her feminist significance pondered by college courses" and named her a "metaphor for the industry". Even, Madonna remains a center of debate and contestation in the postfeminist era.

Overall, Madonna's position in feminism history has been appreciated by a variety of authors. J. Randy Taraborrelli noticed it commenting that she "has such a strong responsibility to feminism, having been a beacon for it for most of her life". For Taraborrelli, she is one of the most fascinating women on the planet. In 100 Entertainers Who Changed America, authors wrote that "cultural, and political representations of females are perhaps Madonna's most long-lasting legacy".

Madonna's unique feminist status was pondered by a wide group of intellectuals. For instance, professor Sut Jhally said that the singer "is as an almost sacred feminist icon". In 2012, activist and writer Jennifer Baumgardner expressed that Madonna "gave birth to 'femme-inism'". In 1990, academic Camille Paglia called Madonna a "true feminist" and labeled her as "the future of feminism". Retrospectively, Paglia asserted in 2017 that "it happened". As Paglia, Jean Baudrillard's analysis of Madonna provided a picture of the female messiah, and by implication the future of gender relations.

Spanish cultural critic Víctor Lenore convened a researchers panel discussion her as a feminist icon in 2012. One of the comments, included that "she democratized the idea of women as protagonists and as agents of their own action", while some ambiguous ones stated that she contributed to women's empowerment of a few Western women, straight and gay middle class, but that empowerment is not feminism, because it is individualistic. For others, she has been a step backward for womankind. In this particular view, feminist Australian commentator Melinda Tankard Reist said "Madonna has turned her back on the cause of women" and also advised that the singer has been described as "threat to the status quo".

Richard Appignanesi and Chris Garratt wrote in Introducing Postmodernism: A Graphic Guide (2014) that for some "Madonna is the cyber-model of the New Woman". Within this perception, performance artist Karen Finley once said that "all women should be as Madonna as possible". By contrast, Ruth Conniff laments in Politics in a Post-Feminist Age that "we need a better role model than Madonna. We need a sense that we can do something more productive for society".

Despite the ambiguity and divided perceptions, British professor Sarah Churchwell acknowledges that "not everyone agrees that she is feminist or empowering (not least because not everyone agrees what it means to be feminist or empowering)" and states that Madonna is "never troped in terms of failure". Similar to Churchwell, Mary Cross reminds "feminism itself is divided, not only about Madonna but about what feminism represents". She also stated that "playing with the outlaw personae of prostitute and dominatrix, Madonna has made a major contribution to the history of women". A global perspective was provided when The Guardian included Madonna in its "Top 100 women" list in 2011, with editor Homa Khaleeli declaring "no matter the decade or the fashion, she has always been frank about her toughness and ambition". Khaleeli further expressed that Madonna "inspires not because she gives other women a helping hand, but because she breaks the boundaries of what's considered acceptable for women".

Feminism in music

Madonna at 2017 Women's March.

British sociologist David Gauntlett studied how Madonna boosted the feminism in music, explaining that "feminist message were not often a key to success in the mainstream pop charts" before Madonna, although there were exceptions but without a specific "feminist agenda" like her. Gauntlett furthers notes that "Madonna was the first person to remix her own populist version of feminism and make it part of a pop music success story". A similar argument was suggested by British critic Stuart Maconie when states thay some would say she "brought feminism to the forefront of pop". Scholars Berrin Yanıkkaya and Angelique Nairn wrote that Madonna "set the trend for promoting a highly sexualized form of feminity, that was challenging, and transformed popular culture". Art historian, Kyra Belán also confirmed that she has opened the doors for other women artists as she established a new frontier for female sexuality through a variety of popular vehicles and technologies. As Madonna used different representations in her work (such as irony, parody or sexuality), professor Hunt states that "today this ambiguity is a common theme in feminist analyses of women's music".

Scholars Yanıkkaya and Nairn further add about Madonna's impact in feminism on music that her "music has now become synonymous with the performative nature of female pop music artists and their link with popular feminism". Gauntlett also provided examples and comparisons, like the importance of the Spice Girls during the 1990s within the Girl power slogan but concludes it was Madonna the "real pioneer". Gauntlett further notes the impact of Destiny's Child during the 2000s about an independent woman with emphasis on how Madonna paved that way with her self empowerment. Australian magazine The Music found that "Madonna's corporeal feminism impacted on female rappers". Critic Sally Banes also suggested Madonna as a precursor of the Riot grrrl movement.

Sex symbol

In the eyes of multiple observers, Madonna's sexuality has been a point of change for the role of women in music. As she played a major role of underwear as outerwear fad, Madonna's MTV VMA 1984 performance marked the first time an artist's underwear was seen on stage.

Madonna has been referred to as a sexual icon, and sex symbol. Some references such as American Masters suggested that Madonna's continued to be a sexual icon as "she's gotten older". While Courtney E. Smith in the book Record Collecting for Girls (2011) documented that most people associate Madonna with sex, British sociologist David Gauntlett reminds that Madonna's sexual assertiveness "has been one of the most distinctive elements of her life and work". During part of her career, Madonna's libidinal energy and sexuality become the major attraction for the media. Also, for writer Barbara "BJ" Gallagher Hateley, "Madonna is the quintessential Protean Woman".

American essayist Chuck Klosterman wrote in his book Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs (2003) that "whenever I hear intellectuals talk about sexual icons of the present day, the name mentioned most is Madonna". Physicist Stephen Hawking once joked: "I have sold more books on physics than Madonna has on sex".

Professor Deborah Bell wrote that "much has been written about Madonna and sexual identity". Canadian professor Karlene Faith also commented that she "has inscribed her sexual identities on the psyches of millions of children, adolescents, and adults in dozens of nations, on half a dozen continents". In this process, Marcel Danesi explained that Madonna was always in charge of her sexuality and quoted her: "No man can ever dictate to me what to be. Only I can do so". This Madonna's usage of her own sexual identity since the start of her career, was specially highlighted by many for being part of a musical scene generally dominated by male. Around this time, professor Santiago Fouz-Hernandez and author of Madonna's Drowned Worlds (2004) explained that she "emerged as a role model for women in many different cultures, symbolizing professional and personal independence in a male-dominated society, as well as sexual liberation".

In other ways, historian Andrea Stuart in Showgirls (1996) noticed that a tabloid called in their headline Madonna a "man-eater" and how she used sex to climb to the top. Along with this, Madonna earned a reputation as a "man-izer" (female equivalent to womanizer) during a part of her career. As usual, Madonna's sexual dominant attitudes was viewed by other multiple contemporary observers, like biographers Wendy Leigh and Stephen Karten who documented that she "dominated and manipulated any man within her reach" while for scholars Shari Benstock and Suzanne Ferriss "boys are toys for her". Psychiatrist and author Jule Eisenbud concludes that Madonna's refusal to accept that power and femininity "is equivalent to masculinity" and "has allowed her to maintain her status as a sex symbol". As Camille Barbone, a former manager for Madonna, has said, "there's a strong maleness in Madonna. She seduces men the way men seduce women". In Feminist Postcolonial Theory: A Reader (2003), authors Reina Lewis and Sara Mills summarized that "white critics have generally appreciated Madonna in terms of her clever subversion of male dominance".

Academics and authors continued revisiting her sexuality in the following decades. In Girl Heroes: The New Force in Popular Culture (2002), Dr. Susan Hopkins viewed a Madonna at age 43 saying that she "is ageing before the world" but she keeps presenting herself as a kind of "sexual revolutionary". Freya Jarman, a music scholar at the University of Liverpool told the press in 2018 that Madonna "was now demonstrating a new kind of relevance" and emphasized that "as an aging, female popular musician who is still so much in the public eye, she is absolutely relevant".

Lasting influence

Authors have also made reassessments in regards both her impact and legacy from the perspective of sexual connotations. American editor Janice Min confirmed that "Madonna owned her sexuality" and further explained that "she made people cringe but also think differently about female performers". Min also viewed "her role as a provocateur changed boundaries for ensuing generations". Culture columnist Robin Meltzer for New Statesman assured that the singer "irrevocably changed the media image of female sexuality".

Authors of Controversial Images: Media Representations on the Edge (2012) commented that "the unprecedented visibility of sexuality, which Madonna embraced in video and on stage, has also contributed to the creation of the pop music diva—a powerful female music performer who explores sexuality openly and purposefully". Amy Raphael, in Grrrls (1999) commented the role Madonna has have in terms of sexuality:

Taking the concept further than any other female artist before her, Madonna sold herself almost exclusively in terms of her sexuality. Madonna has made a major contribution to the history of women today. [She] has forced everyone from the record industry to the record-buying public to reconsider the role of female pop artists.

Jewish rabbi Shmuley Boteach, in contrast, problematizes her foundational contributions expressing: "Before Madonna, it was possible for women more famous for their voices than their cleavage[,] to emerge as music superstars" ends saying that in "the post-Madonna universe" many artists "now feel the pressure to expose their bodies on national television to sell albums". For senior lecturer, Rupert Till "Madonna is perhaps the most extreme example of how sexuality that is considered taboo or outside of what is acceptable to the mainstream in pubhe, is deeply enmeshed within the fabric of popular music culture and cults".

Fashion

Madonna during the Blond Ambition World Tour. Her conical corset designed by Jean Paul Gaultier is one of her most emulated outfits. To Tim Blanks Madonna in her Gaultier cone bra "is one of the most unforgettable images of the entire decade (the 1990s)".

Writing for The Journal of Popular Culture in 2014, associate professor Jose F. Blanco confirmed that academics and fashion critics have commented Madonna's influence in fashion. Blanco further add his view on Madonna in this terrain saying that she uses clothes as a "cultural signifier to communicate her persona du jour" as well "she is the creator of numerous personae". She saw clothes as a tool of rebellion from early on. In Oh Fashion (1994), professors Shari Benstock and Suzanne Ferriss commented that "fashion and identity for Madonna are inseparable from her aesthetic practices" including several "cultural interventions" from her cultivation of her image such as her music videos, films, TV appearances or concerts. Sabrina Barr of The Independent noticed comments from academic Douglas Kellner on Madonna's fashion and identity usage with her clothes concluding "that way in which the singer used her style to represent her identity was a fresh concept when she first came into the music scene".

British cultural historian, Stephen Gundle states that the collaboration of Madonna with fashion designers "inspired a whole series of developments in popular music and entertainment". Within that background, Gundle also adds that "new synergies occurred between different sectors". A similar point was shared by Jacob Bernstein from The New York Times when he examined that Madonna made the hiring of stylists a standard operating procedure. Author gave an explanation saying that while celebrities worked with fashion designers (couturiers), the concept of a stylist didn't really exist before Madonna. After that, new generation of singers and actresses got stylists of their own and they're now ranked annually by The Hollywood Reporter. In summary, Madonna helped cement the link between pop costumes and couture.

American journalist Ricardo Baca noted that at one point of her career, she was the most-imitated woman in the world. She defined part of the 1980s with a trend later named "Madonna wannabe". Her influence in the fashion scene was appreciated by author and teacher Diane Asitimbay whose declared that "Madonna changed fashion forever when she brought bras out [and] wore them publicly". Alongside with this, Madonna performance at the inaugural ceremony of the MTV Video Music Awards marked the first time "an artist's underwear was seen on stage". Asistimbay further suggested that Madonna and Michael Jordan "did more for the fashion industry in the United States than many of our fashion models put together".

American costume designer Arianne Phillips described since Madonna "fashion has never been the same". Overall, British author and historian Michael Pye felt that the singer "not only makes fashion, she is fashion". As Anna Wintour, editor-in-chief of fashion magazine Vogue also declared: She "makes fashion happen" adding that "Madonna has been one of the most potent style setters of our time". She was recognized by Time as one of the top 100 icons of all time in fashion, style and design in 2012.

General music influence

See also: Album era

Madonna most common scales in her songs.

Her contributions on music has been appreciated by multiple critics, which have also been known to induce controversy. Madonna's music influence has been largely applauded. In summary and according to associate dean Jacqueline Edmondson, her continued importance radicates that "her legacy is important to understanding issues surrounding gender and the music industry in the twenty-first century".

From a popular view, Madonna's voice talent has been famously denied. Another group of commentators, however, have praised Madonna's vocals and versatily in many ways. In this latter group, scholars Andy Bennett and Steve Waksman, in The SAGE Handbook of Popular Music (2014) agreed that "for pop singers in the style of Madonna, brilliant singing ability is not of utmost important" indeed, "the ordinariness of Madonna's vocal talent is key to her appeal". Both Bennett and Waksman, compared its to African-American artists of souls or R&B genres, "whose considerable vocal skill is a crucial aspect of their success". They also extended the idea that by contrast, the fact that listeners can sing along to Madonna with ease, can hear themselves reflected in her voice, and can, perhaps, image themselves in her place, are all significant to her role as a pop star.

In 1986, Dr. Karl Podhoretz of the University of Dallas called her a "revolutionary voice who has altered the very meaning of sound in our time". Three decades later, in 2018, Rolling Stone described the singer as "the most important female voice in the history of modern music". Dutch linguist Theo van Leeuwen cited her as perhaps "the first singer who used quite different voices for different songs".

Musical status

Regardless her music played a second place for many, numerous observers have praised Madonna's musical influence and versatility despite becoming a musician was never been her initial intentions.

Madonna attained an unusual status as a music performer and female singer. She is credited to popularize and being "the first" in numerous concepts within music industry. At first instance, and understanding these attributions, Madonna is commonly credited as the "first female" to have complete control of her music and image by a wide group of observers such as Roger Blackwell and Stephen Thomas Erlewine. In context, Ana Laglere, an editor of Batanga Media explained that before Madonna, record labels determined every step of artists but she introduced her style and conceptually directed every part of her career. Associate professor Carol Benson and Allen Metz commented that the singer entered the music business with definite ideas about her image, but "it was her track record that enabled her to increase her level of creative control over her music". Francesca Cavallo and Elena Favilli have also explained that in those days, "it was very rare for female artists to be the masters of their own destiny: they would let their male managers, producers, and agents make most of their decisions for them. Not Madonna". Mary Cross pointed out that "she is not the product of some music industry idea, but her own woman".

From a general picture, a vast group of international critics and media outlets have said that her presence is defined for "changing" or "revolutionize" contemporary music history for women's (or even beyond gender), mainly dance and pop scene. Reviews beyond of gender perspective, includes Greek adjunct lecturer, Constantine Chatzipapatheodoridis whose said that "Madonna's cultural impact helped shape the contemporary music stage, in terms of sound and image, performance, sex and fandom", as well reinvention. Another consideration came from author Marshawn Evans, whose wrote in her book S.K.I.R.T.S in the Boardroom (2013) that Madonna "has also revolutionized how music is performed, delivered to the masses, purchased, packaged, downloaded, and even simulcast across a variety of cutting-edge platforms". In 1984, Billboard commented that the simultaneous releases of LP, cassette and CD was pioneered with Madonna.

Like Evans and Chatzipapatheodoridis, others group of authors viewed how Madonna paved the way for pop releases. Thomas R. Harrison, an associate professor of music business and recording at Jacksonville University said that the singer changed the way pop artists were marketed. Another supporter of this view was Erica Russell from MTV whose states that Madonna helped shape the way pop artists release music adding that "reignite interest in the art of the concept album within mainstream pop" after the decline of the rock-oriented concept album in the 1980s. In another suggestion, Marissa Muller from W felt that she "normalized the idea that pop stars could and should write their own songs".

It is not uncommon to read in the most prestigious media that she is the most influential woman in contemporary music.

—Announcer Juanma Ortega on Madonna (2020).

Focusing the attention to women's music history and pop stage, her figure was summarized by authors of Ageing, Popular Culture and Contemporary Feminism (2014), arguing that she "is widely considered to have defined the discursive space for examining female popular music". Another foundational example was included in Encyclopedia of American Social History (1993), as the authors agreed: "No singer better illustrates the new images of women in contemporary rock and pop than Madonna".

Further commentaries, in these two scenarios of women's music and popular music, include Deutsche Welle staff, as they credited the singer as "the first woman to dominate the male world of pop". British sociologist David Gauntlett, for example, cited a commentary from an author: "Madonna, whether you like her or not, started a revolution amongst women in music". Joe Levy, Blender editor-in-chief makes a similar argument in discussing this, saying: She "opened the door for what women could achieve and were permitted to do". Overall, in the perception of actress and activist, Susan Sarandon: "The history of women in popular music can, pretty much, be divided into before and after Madonna". Billboard staff also recognized that "the history of pop music can essentially be divided into two eras: pre-Madonna and post-Madonna".

She has been also discussed with euphemism by various international authors and media outlets as the "greatest" female artist or arguably the most "influential" woman in music history. Ben Kelly writing for The Independent gave his thoughts on this saying that she has "ensured her legacy as the greatest female artist of all time". Music outlets such as MTV or BET have deemed her as the most influential figure or woman in American music history as well. Spanish cultural critic, Víctor Lenore named her as "the greatest female myth" in the history of popular music.

Videos and performances

Typically, Madonna is credited to creating the modern concert tours as a theatrical spectacle in which the female music artist is placed centre stage.

Cultural and historically, her music videos concentrated much of her scrutiny in music terms, and she became "the most analyzed" figure from the rest of female music video performers. Madonna is also cited by others as "the first female artist to exploit fully the potential of the music video", a statement included in her profile at Encyclopædia Britannica written by Lucy O'Brien. The major role Madonna has played in the history of music videos, was commented by professor Norman Fairclough, whom suggested that "the evolution of the music video could indeed bestudied through Madonna". Film critic Armond White credited that she popularized the music video.

The written about Madonna's performances are also large. Numerous authors have credited to Madonna with creating the modern concert tour extravaganza as a theatrical spectacle in which the female music artist is placed centre stage, including scholars Berrin Yanıkkaya and Angelique Nairn. In another consideration, Jacob Bernstein of The New York Times cited previous examples like Donna Summer or Michael Jackson, but Madonna's 1990 Blond Ambition World Tour "was bigger, bolder and more imaginative" for which she set the tone and the bar of modern megatours.

Other critics explained that Madonna divided her performances into thematic categories and it was unusual for concerts during her time and from a creative level.

Popularization of music things

Music critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine said that she had a "huge role in popularizing dance music". In another illustrative example, she has credit for the introduction of electronic music to the stage of popular music. British sociologist David Gauntlett said that she introduced European electronic music into the mainstream of American pop culture. Various authors, including Lucy O'Brien give credit to Madonna in innovating rave culture (mainly in the 1990s). According to the company The Vinyl Factory, her single "Vogue" popularized the usage of Korg M1.

Queer and gay

Main article: Madonna as a gay icon

A drag Madonna impersonator at the High Heel Drag Queen Race, c. 2007.

Associate professor Judith A. Peraino proposes that "no one has worked harder to be a gay icon than Madonna, and she has done so by using every possible taboo sexual in her videos, performances, and interviews". Scholars Carmine Sarracino and Kevin Scott in The Porning of America (2008), wrote that the singer "gained particular popularity with gay audiences, signaling the creation of a career-long fan base that would lead to her being hailed as the biggest gay icon of all time". Her impact was also remarked by numerous LGBT publications and organizations with The Advocate naming Madonna "the greatest gay icon". Out magazine pondered that she "positioned herself to be a gay icon before it was cool to be one". President and CEO of GLAAD, Sarah Kate Ellis stated in 2019 that Madonna "always has and always will be the LGBTQ community's greatest ally". She has played a major role for bring gay culture into the mainstream.

Madonna is also referred to as a queer icon and icon of queerness. Theologian Robert Goss expressed: "For me, Madonna has been not only a queer icon but also a Christ icon who has dissolved the boundaries between queer culture and queer faith communities". Musicologist Sheila Whiteley wrote in her book Sexing the Groove: Popular Music and Gender (2013) that "Madonna came closer to any other contemporary celebrity in being an above-ground queer icon". For Constantine Chatzipapatheodoridis, she has been contributed in the socio-artistic evolution of queer culture worldwide.

Literature about Madonna

See also: Bibliography of works on Madonna and Madonna studies

Brazilian singer Rodrigo Sá, holding a magazine in which Madonna cover appears for Q magazine.

Madonna has been heralded as the most talked about subject within female singers or celebrities either in terms of popular culture, music industry or academia. For instance, Andreas Häger from Åbo Akademi University cited that "hardly any other popular artist has received as much attention from the scientific community as Madonna". Professor Imelda Whelehan of University of Western Australia provides a perspective that ran like this: "Is easy the most overdetermined figure. The most studied, critically acclaimed, derided and analysed of the performers". Douglas Kellner proclaimed her as "the most discussed female singer in popular music". On a broader scale, Madonna was described as "one of the most fascinating, uninhibited and well-documented figures of the modern age" in her profile at Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Authors have try to measure the literature on Madonna metaphorically. As media scholar David Tetzlaff equated reading it all to "mapping the vastness of the cosmos". Indeed, Tetzlaff called her a "metatextual girl". Rolling Stone also mentioned there is an "extraordinary amount of words written about her". According to American writer Alina Simone and author of Madonnaland (2016), encountered there is no dearth of material about Madonna, but an "overwhelming excess". Guilbert compared that "it has become hard to open a book that has to do with U.S. popular culture without encountering some mention of Madonna".

Relationship with critics and the press

Madonna performing "Human Nature", known as an answer song to her critics who had panned her provocative image.

Madonna's relationship with the critics is a "well-established" and "crucial aspect" of her career. In many ways, this treatment played a major role beyond Madonna's own figure. In 1985 for instance, Australian newspaper The Canberra Times quickly attributed to Madonna in "nearly reversed the typical pattern of rock idol analysis". Almost 30-years later, Madonna's widespread influence on female artists and the impact she have had in their literature was noted by a contributor from Vice whom said: "Reviews of her work have served as a roadmap for scrutinizing women at each stage in their music career".

The academic views on Madonna are also far reaching. At first instance, Caroline von Lowtzow from Süddeutsche Zeitung reminds that interpreting Madonna has never been only a domain of tabloid media. Dutch media scholar Jaap Kooijman commented that before the Madonna studies, "most scholarly attention was paid to genres and artists that were not considered 'pop'", but she brought 'pop' to the foreground. Historically, authors in The Madonna Connection (1993) remarked at this period that academics were typically the last to know about popular phenomena (or they willfully ignore them), but their reaction to Madonna has proved to be an exception to the rule.

From one foundational motivation as the figure she attained among reviewers, Billboard staff commented in 1989, that "Madonna has always stayed one step ahead our expectations: in music, in fashion, in outright audaciousness". In fact, American academic and journalist J. Hoberman, has concurred saying: "She even directs her critics, the millions of sociologists, psychologists, and students of semiotics who have made her the world's biggest pop start". In the following description, numerous authors have commented their continuing interest in the figure of Madonna. As Taraborelli, said about keep writing about her in his updated version of Madonna: An Intimate Biography in 2018: "I have never stopped writing about Madonna since that day I first met her thirty-five years ago". Years prior, in 2008, Argentine writer Rodrigo Fresán expressed a similar feeling: "And the years go by and life changes but something remains constant: one continues to write about Madonna".

In this cross-reference relation of Madonna-critics, Sheila Jeffreys said that postmodern theorists of cultural studies elevated Madonna to cult status. Other group of authors focused in the mixed response she has had, as American psychologist and educator Francine Shapiro explained that many critics and fans "love to hate" her. In the words of Audra Gaugler from Lehigh University "there exists a large band of critics that at first praised her, but then became disillusioned with her as she became more and more controversial".

Interested in her social impact, Tetzlaff decided to study the relationship between the press and Madonna. Barbara O'Dair compiled and related her relationship with Rolling Stone magazine in a book called Madonna, the Rolling stone files (1997) and said that she always has been an "enigma". In Profiles of Female Genius (1994), author Gene N. Landrum said: "The press has in turn made Madonna the most visible, photographed, and debated female in modern times". For professor Suzanna Danuta Walters "accompanying Madonna's own elaboration of superstardom has been a sustained effort —by the mass media and academics alike— to continually produce and reproduce this cultural icon".

British sociologist Ellis Cashmore, states that the singer exploited the expansion of media opportunities, inciting journalists with one scandal after another, so that she became almost impossible to ignore. Journalist were constantly on-guard. He also commented: "Madonna wanted —and got— more saturation media coverage than anyone, present and past". In another consideration, Cashmore proposed that more than anyone else, Madonna effected a change in style and the manner in which stars engaged with the media.

Terminology

Academics or pundits who specializes in Madonna (or her own academic branch: Madonna studies) have been called different ways. Authors from Henry Allen to Guilbert, used the name of "Madonnologists". Others observers such as Anne Hull or Robert Christgau referred to the intellectuals working on Madonna as "Madonna scholars". Same or different authors used several neologisms to describe commentaries about the singer. For instance, Christgau used the phrase "Madonnathink".

Academics like Camille Paglia has been called a "Madonna enthusiast". Others were presented as "Madonna experts" in the popular press, like the case of Matthew Rettenmund in a Billboard article from 2015. Another group of her pundits were called "Madonna historians", like Taraborelli did in his book Madonna: An Intimate Biography with Bruce Baron.

Furthermore, Mark D. Hulsether cited in Religion and Popular Culture in America by Bruce Forbes, divided her critics and audiences into Madonna-hater (MH) and Madonna-lover (ML). In the same way, some of her critics were called madonophobic and madonophilic; both a portmanteau of Madonna and phobia and paraphilia, respectively.

Magazines and others outlets

Madonna on the cover of Music Connection, issued March 1985.

According to Matthew Rettenmund, "Madonna has made the act of being on the cover of a magazine into an art form" taken her covers seriously. Historically, the very first time the singer's face appeared on a magazine cover was shot by Peter Cunningham and that portrait was used on Dance Music Report in 1982. Her first dedicated cover shoot was with photographer Curtis Knapp for Island, the following year in 1983. Her first national U.S. cover story was for Rolling Stone cover in 1984. An article from The Charlotte Observer issued on July 1978, covering the American Dance Festival's first year at Duke University in Durham, might be the first notice from the press that Madonna received in her life.

As of 2020, she has graced more than 4,700 magazine covers worldwide. She achieved milestones in many of them, as the most time appeared or being the first-time cover of something. In this line, she appeared more times on Rolling Stone cover than any other female artist, a total of 23 times as of 2018. Madonna was the face on the inaugural cover of Spin, issued in 1985. Under Anna Wintour's control, Madonna became the first celebrity (or non-model) to be pictured on the cover of Vogue. That was considered controversial at the time according to Wintour. Madonna became the first woman entrepreneur to appear on a Forbes cover according to themselves.

According to Mark Bego, magazines or calendars "sell out in record numbers when her name or likeness is on them". For instance, her special edition of the X-STaTIC PRo=Cess for W magazine with Steven Klein was the best-selling edition ever. In 1985, Penthouse and Playboy magazines published a number of nude photos of Madonna, taken when she moonlighted as an art model in 1978. Both publishers run was up 15 and 10 percent respectively above of their normal its print run at that time, as well both hyped their Madonna issues and had them on newsstands weeks earlier than usual according to Advertising Age.

As this become in a topic developed by others, diverse outlets and authors have created listicles about her best-magazines covers. Is the case of her pundit, Matthew Rettenmund, who published a dedicated article for Logo TV in 2018. The same author released later a book called MLVC60: Madonna's Most Amazing Magazine Covers: A Visual Record covering over 1,000 of her magazine covers.

Race politics, cultural appropriation and multiculturalism

A world map showing countries (highlighted in green) where Madonna has put her feet with her concerts, as of 2016.

Another consideration focused in understading Madonna's impact have been both her relationship or "appropriation" with diverse subcultures and group's imaginary adding a value in her contributions and work. Some of these scholars focused their attention with a specific group or race; like bell hooks did with the black culture. In summary, the Madonna studies also provided a challenge views on racial perspectives. Professor George J. Leonard, one of the contributors of The Italian American Heritage (1998) called her "the last ethnic and the first postethnic diva".

Madonna indeed, deliberately cemented her popularity on ambiguity, thus appealing to not one but many social groups and subcultures. As Matt Cain remarked that she "has always produced work that has brought marginalised groups to the fore", for instance, gay, Latino or black culture. Author Shelleen Greene described "Madonna's racial tourism" and pointed out that for the millennial pop divas, anyone can have "blonde ambition" regardless of race.

To Douglas Kellner, Madonna "helped bring marginal groups and concerns into the cultural mainstream". An author said that "by making culture generally available, Madonna becomes the culture of all social classes". Canadian professor Karlene Faith gave her point of view saying that Madonna's peculiarity is that "she has cruised so freely through so many cultural terrains" and she "has been a 'cult figure' within self-propelling subcultures just as she became a major".

A concern derived from Madonna's ambivalent impact and position within these themes, is the academic interrogation that she has focused on her appropriations, subversions and transformations but her motivations in addressing cultural politics are uncertain to many. At some point of her career, some have argued, for example that Madonna's insistence on solidarity with marginal groups and on moving between worlds was "duplicitous". British professor Yvonne Tasker articulates her ambivalence, calling her an "interesting figure to the extent that her appropriation does at times work to question assumptions". Taking her as a paragon, assistant professors Jennifer Esposito and Erica B. Edwards have commented that "pop stars today contend with this legacy and as a result take elements adding 'freshness' to their persona without dealing with the histories and realities the cultural imprints are born of".

In addition, diverse examples have been documented in textbooks and other outlets her impact and footprints in some countries' culture, like La Nación, South China Morning Post and El País did with her history in Argentina, Hong Kong and Spain, respectively in terms of visits and collateral-relationship.<ref name="HongKongG">{{cite news|url=https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/music/article/1913616/h