The Gaga-Madonna Issue

Video: http://youtu.be/u3YmMqPEb_I


2:54 — MADONNA SINGS “EXPRESS YOURSELF”, “BORN THIS WAY” AND “SHE’S NOT ME” in her MDNA TOUR (Tel Aviv, Israel)


What she’s implying here is the already given impression that her 1989 hit “Express Yourself” (ooh, 2 decades later it’s finally stamped a classic!) and Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” do sound alike. You can’t really tell if it’s an act of gratitude, just a silly trip or mockery but I’d definitely buy the last, because singin’ two sonically identical songs back-to-back and then wrapping it up with “She’s Not Me” (Lyrics for the tour: “she’s not me” 5x) doesn’t represent anything more or less than a punch.


I don’t know why she had to bother really. Her whole fanbase has done the slagging too much, this just seems like a nod to the whole issue. “Express Yourself” comes off as a Madonna-serving anthem to the love-yourself-and-your-friends-and-your-God of “Born This Way”. She yelled numerous times “express yourseeeeelf!”. So now that she’s threatened/annoyed/whatever by a “reductive” fellow pop star who’s standing high and proud and following Madonna’s rants of self-expression for the conception of a therapeutic self-hugging song (call it melodramatic, but the Gaga saved me with her presence in pop alone), she tends to slag her off by mocking her.


Perhaps it’s just a matter of relevance. In 1993, when she was doing so much to be the most controversial, a financially-lesser but very talented singer named Sinead O’Connor raised more eyebrows with an SNL performance that included the tearing of an image of Pope John Paul II. Madonna, on the same show, did the same thing but with a different picture and attacked O’Connor’s action for being offensive to the Catholic Church. 


In response, Sinead told Spin magazine “Madonna is probably the hugest role model for women in America. There’s a woman who people look up to as being a woman who campaigns for women’s rights. A woman who in an abusive way towards me, said that I look like I had a run in with a lawnmower and that I was about as sexy as a Venetian blind.”


And for the kicker: “Now there’s the woman that America looks up to as being a campaigner for women, slagging off another woman, for not being sexy”. In Gaga’s case, for following Madonna. Hey hey.

RIHANNA'S FEMINIST CHALLENGE: The Madgestic RiRi

"I want to be the black Madonna."

It's obvious why. Not only does Rihanna have every potential to be as successful as Madonna (commercially, at least), she's taking part in an industry Madonna defined: that of female pop culture. A rainmaking single plus a tour on the run, Rihanna already covered a quarter of her idol's success after the release of her third album "Good Girl Gone Bad". The title of the album is a departure itself from the last two RiRi albums, especially the second one, "A Girl Like Me". It let her shift from image to another and focus more on the celebrity rather than the music - that's exactly how Ms. Ciccone liked it.


Her blond ambition was clear with "Take a Bow". From the criminal-to-good girl of "Unfaithful", she now claims the position of the cheated girlfriend. The quality of the song was mixed as it followed the trend set by Beyonce's "Irreplaceable", itself an empowerment anthem devoted to bash cheating boyfriends. But despite its musical limitations, "Take a Bow" makes up for style. It is heavily Madonna-influenced from the title alone (the song is not a cover), and the promotional video is notable for her shift in fashion sense.


As Douglas Kellner researched, fashion is a capitalist industry aimed at defining classes in terms of dress code. It aimed a separation classes ("rich" from "poor", men from women) that mostly oppressed and limited. It dictated while it provided. And through the years, the fashion industry was challenged by some who chose to wear something else.  Judging from Kellner's research and her Madonna connection, Rihanna takes the gender-bending role reminiscent of Madge's own "I'll Remember". In the video of the song, Madonna wore men's formal clothes and a short black wig. In short, she looked like a typical businessman. Cultural critics found the style of the video as feminist, continuing Madonna's early 90s provocation of sexual stereotypes.


With the "Take a Bow" video, Rihanna donned a pixie cut and a Michael Jackson jacket which made her look entirely different from her previous fashion statements."You're so ugly when you cry" she sings in the second verse, looking down at masculinity while inhibiting a macho female persona evident in the NeYo-esque gestures. It's obvious that once again, Rihanna exhibits empowerment within the video. Like Madonna's early 90s efforts, Rihanna challenged norms of style for women, though it wasn't pretty much of a stretch now as it was then. It's no surprise that this new image became one of her most popular. Around 2008 til 2009, the short black pixie cut became the new fashion phenomenon for teenage to twentysomething girls and gay men alike.


I must say Rihanna chose the right role model to follow. "Take a Bow" may not be as shocking as "Unfaithful", but it made Rihanna a trend-setter, at least within fashion. Based on what she did there, that's not a bad thing for a pseudo-feminist. - Gio Potes, March 2012

"VOGUE" 2012

Madonna

GIRL GONE WILD

M.D.N.A.

Madonna is finally acknowledging her own influence. The video for ‘Girl Gone Wild’ is a mash of different elements from her Imperial phase, given a fashion video (shall I cite Mugler as an influence?) style. Those elements at least did something new for Madonna, which means they were some new shit for women in music at the time. The video follows the vogue (no pun intended) of current pop video that is - ironically - also inspired by Madonna. But it’s fun and brings to the forefront of pop quite possibly another remarkable era for the “Queen of Pop”.

There’s no question about the style. It’s a lot better than the disastrous ‘Give Me All Your Luvin’. Like Lady Gaga’s (yes again, she must be mentioned!) video for ‘Alejandro’, the concept is simply centered around the female gaze. It’s more ‘Vogue’ than ‘Erotica’ with her as the Queen of Homosexuality all around, until she herself gets smitten by her subjects into a sexy sequel for ‘Truth or Dare’. The ‘Act of Contrition’ sample is quite tired, and is unfitting in a song about being ‘wild’. It doesn’t exactly mean being ‘bad’, right?

Remarkably she doesn’t look 53 at all, which is exactly the point - if the Imperial phase challenged feminism, this time Madge is challenging ageism. Not that I find the age disturbing, it’s just truly noteworthy how she remains so active after a handful of hits within - gasp! - three decades. And perhaps after being such a role model for young girls back in the ’80s, these girls are now her age and she reaches out to them through her own exercises encouraging how age doesn’t matter in corporate music. She looks as fun and as sexy as she was back in 1990. She continues to prove that she’s an unstoppable force. She managed to remain active in the industry holding her own power to whatever she wants to do with it. And that is simply amazing. Like what Robbie Williams said: Face it… she’s Madonna.

Yes, she might have moved forward with her fuck-you to ageism, but her fights for the LGBT remain in the 90s style as if she just flaunts her activism around as a part of the marketing package (something Lady Gaga gets accused of most of the time). Or yeah, maybe she’s just bored with all these fairies and decided to join them again for another round of ‘Who’s-Your-Queen?’ and the LGBT isn’t exactly her thing. Though I still hope that she would fight for the gays, since they’re the major reason why she’s up there.

Then after, maybe she can still own a place in pop culture’s throne(s).

Score: 4.5/5

Watch the video here: http://youtu.be/tYkwziTrv5o