Case Study: Madonna

CaseStudy: Madonna from Lucy Gosling on Vimeo.

My case study is going to be looking at the artist Madonna and whether or not it is past her time to be in the music business.

This is Madonna ...

Information from Wikipedia I have found this out.

Madonna is an American singer, songwriter, actress,director, dancer and entrepreneur. She has sold more than 300 million records worldwide and is recognized as the best-selling female recording artist of all time by Guinness World Records. She is considered to be one of the Most Powerful Women of the Past Century” and is seen to be an influential figure in contemporary music. She is known for continuously reinventing both her music and image.

Critics have praised her diverse musical productions which have also been known to induce controversy. But some have thought that it is time for the singer to slow down.

Madonna is 54 years old. Show picture... I personally don’tthink she looks 54 at all!

We can see that throughout the years Madonna has grown from a young performer to an
artist.

 

Looking back at her classic songs, such as Vogue which was made in 1990– we see that Madonna is very much in her element. We see only a tiny amount of sexuality and we find her topic of the song is, well, pretty normal. It is all about beauty and is based upon the popular fashion magazine vogue. In which only the most beautiful and fashionable celebrities would be seen on the cover.

But a just a year before Vogue, she created Like A Prayer in1989. A song based upon a story of love and religion. The song was a huge success and was chose to represent Pepsi in the companies’ latest advert. The advert was a success but when the music video was finally released on the music channel MTV. MTV deemed it controversial and critics felt that the burning crosses connect to the KKK. Many reporters found the link between religion and sex was inappropriate.

Religious groups worldwide protested against the video and forced Pepsi to cancel the advertising campaign.Protests from a small Catholic organisation in the country prompted Italian state television network RAI and Madonna's Italian record company WEA to not air the video there. The Pope involved himself in the matter and banned any appearance of Madonna in Italy.

Although this all went on, many thought "Madonna is agood girl in the video. She saves someone. What is the big deal behind it?" and disagreed with the hatred. It is easy to see that even though Like A Prayer has so much disagreement, it did not effect her single Vogue being released just a year after.

A few years after we see the release of Hung Up in 2005. In this video we are starting to see more sexual connotations through the way that Madonna moves. When the video was released Madonna was 46 years old. In the video she is thrusting and lap dancing men that seem a lot younger than that, is that right?

In 2012 we see the release of girl gone wild, this shows lyrics such as...

“its so erotic”, “i feel like sinning”, “turn me on” and...

“I shouldn't act this way
I know, I know, I know
Good girls don't misbehave
But i'm a bad girl, anyway
Forgive me”

Should Madonna being “acting this way” atthe age of 54. I can’t say that it is something that I would condone, but I feel that Madonna has made a statement and I don’t see her disappearing anytime soon. I reckon we shall still see her on stage thrusting with her walking stick and grey hair!