Leonardo Da Vinci’s ‘Madonna’ stands for its intense appeal and an ability to distinguish itself from other art works of that period.Madonna the singer does the same centuries later. Her intensity, talent and blasphemy canonize her and an image so distinct is created you wanna return to it every now and then. Remember her early posters…sheek black n white, short hair very Marylin Monroe…her beauty spot darkened……vintage, classic…very Madonna.
Born Auguat 1958, Bay City, Michigan, U.S.A and labelled by Guinness World Record as the “World’s Most Successful Female musician”, Madonna paved her way from being an ordinary young girl to a diva.
At 18 this girl declared she wanted to rule the world. She indeed did, influencing generations not only with her music but with her appeal, making her presence, her style, her music a trademark. She created a cult, a living myth, the material girl who with her innocence cud turn to a virgin and yet preach eroticism. Flouting norms, transgressing boundaries and laying open her sexuality publicly, her qualms were dismissed, her race dissolved and her gender did not hinder her from being who she wanted to be.
According to Guinness book of records she is the top earning female singer, this diva never had it easy for her, as she says…"When I came to New York it was the first time I'd taken a plane first time I'd ever gotten a taxi-cab, the first time for everything. And I came here with $35 in my pocket. It was the bravest thing I'd ever done.” She worked as a waitress, portrayed as a nude model and later performed with dance companies.While performing as a dancer for the French disco artist Patrick Hernandez on his 1979 world tour, Madonna became involved with the musician Dan Gilroy, with whom she later formed her first rock band, the Breakfast Club. DJ and record producer Mark Kamins was impressed by her demo recordings and he brought them to the attention of Sire Records founder Seymour Stein. She was soon signed and produced her first single “Everybody”. As luck had it, the song went to become a hit on billboard (dance and hip hop chart). This was the start of a journey wherein over the next decade this girl wud go on to become one of the most coveted artist in the music industry.
This was followed by her debut album ‘Madonna’ which produced 3 hits… “Borderline”, “Lucky star” and “Holiday”. This album was succeeded by her most prominent collection of songs “Like a Virgin”, with hits like “Material Girl” and “Like a Virgin” which declared madonna a quintessential female artist.As her popularity promulgated not only her music but she herself became iconic as a ethereal figure creating her own style represented by jewellery bearing the cross, netted stockins,bleached hair lace tops, skirts over tights. The early 80’s were highly influenced by her sense of style.
*Madonna's 1986 album True Blue prompted Rolling Stone to declare, "singing better than ever, Madonna stakes her claim as the pop poet of lower-middle-class America." The album included True Blue reached #1 in various countries and sold over eleven million copies worldwide. It produced five successful singles, which all reached the top five on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart: these included “Live to Tell”, “Papa Don't Preach”, “Open Your Heart”etc . I989 saw the release of her album Like a Prayer” *The video premiered on MTVand featured many Catholic symbols, such as stigmata. The video depicted a black man who comes to the rescue of a white girl. Although the video's intent was to denounce racism, Madonna was criticized for her use of burning crosses and "making out" with Jesus.
Her rise to stardom was accompanied by various controversies which were caused due to a sense of overtly auto erotic approach\appeal to her music and videos. In November 1990, Madonna released her first greatest hits compilation album, The Immaculate Collection, which included two new songs: “Justify My Love” and “Rescue Me” apart from “Vogue”, a tribute to Hollywood satrs and fashion. "Rescue Me," became the highest-debuting single by a female artist in U.S. chart history, entering the charts at number 15. The music video for “Erotica”
and “Justify my Love” were pulled off air due to their explicit content.What her videos contain were not just sexual images but rather pornographic elements, sado masochistic acts and homosexual love scenes. One of the videos shows madonna walkin thru a hallway being followed by a man, as she stops and makes love to him, the next scene shows madonna making love to a woman as the man looks on, in the same video women dress up like men, drawing moustaches as madonna laughs on. Symbols of crucification appear as well, men are effiminate and gender roles subverted as women dress like men and men are chained and appear in feminine garbs. The video ends with a rather blatant statement “poor is the man who’s pleasures depend on others”. It was deemed too sexually explicit for MTV, and was subsequently banned from the station. Warner Bros Records released the video as a video single — the first of its kind — and it became the highest-selling video single of all time. The album went on to sell over 22 million copies worldwide.The controversial music video that accompanied the song only aired three times on MTV due to its highly charged sexual content.
April until August 1990, Madonna toured Japan, North America, and Europe on her Blond Ambition World Tour. *Featuring now familiar religious and sexual themes and symbolism, the tour drew controversy from Madonna’s rather erotic actions enacted on stage.Thus she is blew off all sexual and religious notions putting forth rather horrifying and subversive images which she as an artist had the rite to do.
Despite all the negative criticism madonna continued to give her talent back to the world not only as a singer but a producer and even a capable actor. Movies like “Evita” and “Desperately Seeking Susan” among others, saw madonna in versatile roles. In 1996, Madonna’s most critically successful film, Evita was released. *The film's became her twelfth platinum album and produced two hit singles, “ Don’t cry for me Argentina” - her nineteenth number one in the US, and “You Must Love Me”, the latter of which was written specifically for the film. “You Must Love Me” won an Academy Award and a Golden Globe for Best Original Song From a Motion Picture. Her last few albums include “Ray of Light”(1998) , “American Life” (2003) and Grammy-winning “Confessions On a Dance Floor” (2005) along with various other chart topping singles.
The last few years have seen her juggle her role as a writer of children’s books, a song producer and she lately went ahead with adoption creating quite a stir. She thus remains and will remain the epitomy of sheer individualism. Reviving herself time and again but always adornig a distinct personality and a significant role.
Born Auguat 1958, Bay City, Michigan, U.S.A and labelled by Guinness World Record as the “World’s Most Successful Female musician”, Madonna paved her way from being an ordinary young girl to a diva.
At 18 this girl declared she wanted to rule the world. She indeed did, influencing generations not only with her music but with her appeal, making her presence, her style, her music a trademark. She created a cult, a living myth, the material girl who with her innocence cud turn to a virgin and yet preach eroticism. Flouting norms, transgressing boundaries and laying open her sexuality publicly, her qualms were dismissed, her race dissolved and her gender did not hinder her from being who she wanted to be.
According to Guinness book of records she is the top earning female singer, this diva never had it easy for her, as she says…"When I came to New York it was the first time I'd taken a plane first time I'd ever gotten a taxi-cab, the first time for everything. And I came here with $35 in my pocket. It was the bravest thing I'd ever done.” She worked as a waitress, portrayed as a nude model and later performed with dance companies.While performing as a dancer for the French disco artist Patrick Hernandez on his 1979 world tour, Madonna became involved with the musician Dan Gilroy, with whom she later formed her first rock band, the Breakfast Club. DJ and record producer Mark Kamins was impressed by her demo recordings and he brought them to the attention of Sire Records founder Seymour Stein. She was soon signed and produced her first single “Everybody”. As luck had it, the song went to become a hit on billboard (dance and hip hop chart). This was the start of a journey wherein over the next decade this girl wud go on to become one of the most coveted artist in the music industry.
This was followed by her debut album ‘Madonna’ which produced 3 hits… “Borderline”, “Lucky star” and “Holiday”. This album was succeeded by her most prominent collection of songs “Like a Virgin”, with hits like “Material Girl” and “Like a Virgin” which declared madonna a quintessential female artist.As her popularity promulgated not only her music but she herself became iconic as a ethereal figure creating her own style represented by jewellery bearing the cross, netted stockins,bleached hair lace tops, skirts over tights. The early 80’s were highly influenced by her sense of style.
*Madonna's 1986 album True Blue prompted Rolling Stone to declare, "singing better than ever, Madonna stakes her claim as the pop poet of lower-middle-class America." The album included True Blue reached #1 in various countries and sold over eleven million copies worldwide. It produced five successful singles, which all reached the top five on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart: these included “Live to Tell”, “Papa Don't Preach”, “Open Your Heart”etc . I989 saw the release of her album Like a Prayer” *The video premiered on MTVand featured many Catholic symbols, such as stigmata. The video depicted a black man who comes to the rescue of a white girl. Although the video's intent was to denounce racism, Madonna was criticized for her use of burning crosses and "making out" with Jesus.
Her rise to stardom was accompanied by various controversies which were caused due to a sense of overtly auto erotic approach\appeal to her music and videos. In November 1990, Madonna released her first greatest hits compilation album, The Immaculate Collection, which included two new songs: “Justify My Love” and “Rescue Me” apart from “Vogue”, a tribute to Hollywood satrs and fashion. "Rescue Me," became the highest-debuting single by a female artist in U.S. chart history, entering the charts at number 15. The music video for “Erotica”
and “Justify my Love” were pulled off air due to their explicit content.What her videos contain were not just sexual images but rather pornographic elements, sado masochistic acts and homosexual love scenes. One of the videos shows madonna walkin thru a hallway being followed by a man, as she stops and makes love to him, the next scene shows madonna making love to a woman as the man looks on, in the same video women dress up like men, drawing moustaches as madonna laughs on. Symbols of crucification appear as well, men are effiminate and gender roles subverted as women dress like men and men are chained and appear in feminine garbs. The video ends with a rather blatant statement “poor is the man who’s pleasures depend on others”. It was deemed too sexually explicit for MTV, and was subsequently banned from the station. Warner Bros Records released the video as a video single — the first of its kind — and it became the highest-selling video single of all time. The album went on to sell over 22 million copies worldwide.The controversial music video that accompanied the song only aired three times on MTV due to its highly charged sexual content.
April until August 1990, Madonna toured Japan, North America, and Europe on her Blond Ambition World Tour. *Featuring now familiar religious and sexual themes and symbolism, the tour drew controversy from Madonna’s rather erotic actions enacted on stage.Thus she is blew off all sexual and religious notions putting forth rather horrifying and subversive images which she as an artist had the rite to do.
Despite all the negative criticism madonna continued to give her talent back to the world not only as a singer but a producer and even a capable actor. Movies like “Evita” and “Desperately Seeking Susan” among others, saw madonna in versatile roles. In 1996, Madonna’s most critically successful film, Evita was released. *The film's became her twelfth platinum album and produced two hit singles, “ Don’t cry for me Argentina” - her nineteenth number one in the US, and “You Must Love Me”, the latter of which was written specifically for the film. “You Must Love Me” won an Academy Award and a Golden Globe for Best Original Song From a Motion Picture. Her last few albums include “Ray of Light”(1998) , “American Life” (2003) and Grammy-winning “Confessions On a Dance Floor” (2005) along with various other chart topping singles.
The last few years have seen her juggle her role as a writer of children’s books, a song producer and she lately went ahead with adoption creating quite a stir. She thus remains and will remain the epitomy of sheer individualism. Reviving herself time and again but always adornig a distinct personality and a significant role.
3 comments:
mee superrr happppy toooo seee it...!!!
hugssssss......
ure duin all ma writingg wrk :p :P
lovee ya loadsss....
keeep the good wrkkk goinnn...
ill do the appreciation...u do the criticism.... la la ..!!
I love your work. A great deal of thought process which flows beautifully in the form of your writing.
cool write up.. just one correction though. "Despite all---- Movies like “Evita” , “Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind” and “Desperately Seeking Susan” among others, saw madonna in versatile roles"
Madonna was not in eternal sunshine! Neither on the production nor on music credits. :-)
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