"Madonna" and The Madonna: Or, the difference between selling and sacrifice | Carl E. Olson | August 22, 2006
"Madonna" and The Madonna: Or, the difference between selling and sacrifice | Carl E. Olson | August 22, 2006
http://www.ignatiusinsight.com/features2006/ceolson_madonna_aug06.asp
Lately I've been keeping an eye (but only one!) on the
recent news of pop star "Madonna" and the uproar she's created while
touring Europe, notably Germany and Italy. In case you have a life and haven't
been following it, here's
a summary, courtesy of Elizabeth Lev of ZENIT:
The occasion was pop singer Madonna Louise Ciccone's
only Italian concert. Like many barbarians of old, she showed no respect for
religious traditions. In fact, she exploited the history of sacrifice and
mocked the most sacred imagery of Christianity to provide hype for her show.
During her number "Live to Tell," she staged a
"crucifixion" of herself wearing a crown of thorns on a mirrored
cross. As background video, she mixed footage of Benedict XVI together with
Mussolini and Hitler.
Last week I promised Mark Brumley that I would write a
devastating and witty analysis of the entire matter. But I've found it hard to
do so for at least two reasons: I find "Madonna" to be incredibly
boring, and I'm loath (and I nearly loathe) to do the one thing that keeps her
alive: pay attention to her.
I'll leave it to readers to decide how devastating and
witty my comments here might be or not be, but will promise that they will be
meandering and only partially formed. That could be because of some flaw on my
part (in addition to many others that won't be broached here), but, again, I
think it comes back to the person of "Madonna." Simply put, although
I've heard many of her songs (especially the early ones) countless times and
have seen many of her videos (after all, I was in high school in the mid-80s,
when she first conquered the world), "Madonna" has always bored me.
Her music is dull. Her singing is nothing special. Her acting isn't much
better. Her greatest talent, simply put, is manipulation: of the media, the
fans, even the critics. She once said, "Manipulating people, that's what
I'm good at." And: "Power is a great aphrodisiac, and I'm a very
powerful person." Well, if you need say so, one has to wonder.
The funny thing is that we uptight, right-wing,
narrow-minded Christians are supposed to be offended by "Madonna"
climbing on and off crosses, having videos with burning crosses, having videos
filled with leather and sexual depravity shown or intimated, naming herself
after the Mother of God, baring her body in public and in magazines and in
books (in fact, an entire book, SEX, published in 1992). But I might be most offended by the fact that
"Madonna" has marginal musical talent and no voice and has sold
millions of records -- somewhere between 120 and 200 million, depending on who you
believe. That's truly offensive!
Of course, the advent of music television, videos, and
pyrotechnic stage shows in the 1980s meant that the rules changed to a
significant degree. Sure, there have always been "artists" who snuck
in a hit or two without having any right to sing, play, or otherwise be
involved with music. But becoming the best-selling female artist of all-time?
That's too much. Yes, Frank Sinatra hung with the mob, was often a jerk and had
scads of affairs, but he could really sing.
My theory is that M. Louise Ciccone realized early on that
she would have to compensate for her lack of talent by shocking, insulting,
prodding, annoying, rebelling, offending, and otherwise pestering people who
believe that traditional religion is good, sex is for marriage, and certain
body parts should remain covered in public. It probably helped that she went to
art school, which is usually filled with talentless hacks pretending to be
oozing with talent, and that she grew up in the '70s, which featured a form of
music -- punk -- "that garnered attention for displaying no musical value at
all. She apparently acknowledged her approach by allegedly saying: "I
wouldn't have turned out the way I was if I didn't have all those good old
fashioned values to rebel against." Even if "Madonna" didn't say
it, I doubt she would quibble with it.
She was ambitious and she wanted to rule the world of pop
music, so it was simply of matter of figuring out how to do it. The answer:
sell herself. As The Mojo Collection succinctly notes, "Madonna was one of the first pop stars to blatantly
make herself the product." Which meant giving the youth what they wanted:
the usual themes of rebellion and alienation ("Papa Don't Preach")
and slightly sleazy sexuality ("Like A Virgin"), combined with the
persona of a shape-shifting chanteuse meets strutting feminist ("I always
want more. That's me. I'm a b----.") who can use and abuse men (and
women, if you want to trust certain music journalists) as readily as the
members of KISS and Motley Crue tossed aside desperate groupies.
And then there is the all-important and perhaps defining
quality: abusing and bashing Catholicism. Lev, in her excellent August 17,
2006, piece for ZENIT, writes:
From her earliest appearances, Madonna has used
Christian imagery to shock the public and boost sales. Wearing a rosary around
her neck and flaunting the name of the Blessed Virgin, Madonna was clearly out
to get attention. Rebellion against her Catholic upbringing, and most obviously
her Father -- in every sense -- worked to put her on the map. She has used
Christian themes in almost every album, at times to her own detriment, as when
her "Like a Prayer" video lost her a lucrative contract with Pepsi
for its blasphemous content.
Okay, I'll admit it: this is one thing about
"Madonna" that interests me. I think her misuse
and abuse of Catholic imagery, while obviously purposeful and manipulative,
indicates that she continues to try to somehow come to grips with the pull and
mystery of Catholicism, the religion of her youth. (Another pop artist, among
several, who seems unable to rid himself of the religion of his youth is Sting,
whose reflections on the topic are a bit more mature and nuanced than are those
proffered by "Madonna.") This is further enhanced by the fact that
her mother died when "Madonna" was just five years old. An
entry in
Wikepedia states:
Given Madonna's rebellion against Catholic-based
ideals of womanhood, some have found it ironic that she shares the same name as
the ultimate symbol of the Catholic ideal of womanhood. Early in her career,
many assumed that "Madonna" was a stage name that the singer had
chosen for shock value. As a teenager, Madonna rebelled against what she
considered an oppressive upbringing but later admitted that Catholicism had
remained a central influence. She has said that her first "idols"
were nuns, and that she found them "sexy" and wanted to be a nun
because they were "really pure and serene".
And, later, this:
In her music career, Madonna's Catholic background
and relationship with her parents has been most strongly reflected in her Like
a Prayer album. In "Like a Prayer," Madonna moved away from the dance pop of
her previous albums and toward more personal and reflective lyrics, featured
songs directly related to her parents and her Catholic upbringing. The video
for the title track contained overt Catholic symbolism, such as the stigmata.
"Promise To Try" told of her sadness at the faded memory of her
mother and her struggle to recall her. "Oh, Father" told of a strict
and distant father, who elicited fear in the singer as a child and defiance as
she grew older. The video for Oh Father depicts Madonna in a confessional and
her father kneeling and praying before a picture of his dead wife. The album
ends with the track "Act of Contrition", which contains verses from
the Catholic prayer of the same name.
The article states, in summary, the obvious but sometimes
glossed over fact, "Much of her career has been founded on a rebellion
against the Roman Catholic Church." Indeed. It's safe to say, I think,
that "Madonna" owes a great deal to the Catholic Church, including
much of her career and not a few record sales. Yet, even at the age of 47, she
continues to attempt the dark but rapidly tiring art of manipulation and shock,
leading
one newspaper to wearily but knowingly opine that "she could nail
herself to her mirrored cross using stakes carved out of endangered elephant
tusks, and there would still be someone doing something on the Internet that
made it all that look tame." Time is passing "Madonna" by and
soon the unmemorable voice will be -- maybe -- a memory. Such is the life of a
pop star.
Comparing "Madonna" to The Madonna might seem to
be offensive in its own way. But it does present questions worth pondering:
What is more offensive today, virginity and holiness, or sensuality and
immodesty? What is more countercultural: prayer and contemplation, or
self-promotion and self-absorption? What is more needed today: sacrifice and
authentic love, or satiation and fervid lust?
The Mother of God lived a life
that was truly radical, outrageous, and bigger than life. And she did it
quietly, prayerfully, and in a way the world mocks as small and pathetic.
"All generations will call me blessed", she said, spoken with the
awed recognition that God is so great He will stoop to the lowest place and
seek the wondering acceptance of a young Jewish girl. Her fiat shook the world, but without the support of dancers,
smoke, mirrors, and multiple costume changes. And it continues to reshape the
hearts and mind of men and women the world over.
If the Rosary were a CD, how many copies would have been sold
over the many centuries? If the Magnificat was a single, how many times has it
been sung and heard over the past two thousand years? In her hit song, "Like a
Virgin," "Madonna" lilts: "Gonna give you all my love,
boy/My fear is fading fast/Been saving it all for you/cause only love can
last." In her great song of praise, the Virgin Mother proclaims, "My
soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has
regarded the low estate of his handmaiden..."
The anti-Madonna sings of "love" and offers the mirage of herself. The true Madonna sings of
God and offers the gift of her Son. That's what I call music to my ears, my
heart, and my soul.
Related IgnatiusInsight.com Articles:
• Immaculate
Mary, Matchless in Grace | John Saward
• The Medieval
Mary | The Introduction to Mary in the Middle Ages | by Luigi Gambero
• Misgivings
About Mary | Dr. James Hitchcock
• Mary in Feminist
Theology: Mother of God or Domesticated Goddess? | Fr. Manfred Hauke
• Assumed Into Mother's
Arms | Carl E. Olson
• The Disciple
Contemplates the Mother | Erasmo Leiva-Merikakis
• Mary in Feminist Theology:
Mother of God or Domesticated Goddess? | Fr. Manfred Hauke
• Assumed Into Mother's Arms | Carl E. Olson
Carl E. Olson is the editor of IgnatiusInsight.com.
He is the co-author of The
Da Vinci Hoax: Exposing the Errors in The Da Vinci Code and author
of Will
Catholics Be "Left Behind"? He has written for numerous
Cathlic periodicals and is a regular contributor to National Catholic
Register and Our Sunday Visitor newspapers.
He resides in a top secret location in the Northwest somewhere between Portland,
Oregon and Sacramento, California with his wife, Heather, and two children.
Visit his personal web site at www.carl-olson.com.
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the Insight Scoop Blog and read the latest posts and comments
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