Give It 2 Me

A recent letter from a reader named Brett Faber in Aurora, NB to Entertainment Weekly wondered why Madonna wasn't included in the annual "Entertainers of the Year" countdown: "Madonna had the year's highest-grossing tour -- $163 million and counting, with several shows to go. This is one of her best reviewed tours, and she is probably the biggest entertainer of our time, yet she didn't make your list? If the two hours she is on stage each night giving out the energe of a 20-year-old isn't entertainment at its best, I don't know what is."

There are two more pieces of evidence to make the case for Madonna this year that this reader didn't include. First, that not only was that highest-grossing tour a mesmerizing critical hit, but sold out its run nearly instantaneously at a price of well over $100 per ticket. Second, that Hard Candy, though selling a modest-for-Madonna 700,000 copies in America, has sold 3.5 million copies worldwide. That's pretty good, right?

I didn't even mention the less substantive bit of evidence: it's one of her best albums. I have to use the qualifier "one of" because there's a lot of competition. Thinking about it in light of all of Madonna's career, there's also a lot of competition in the past ten years.

Madonna is the type of artist that's always been referred to in constant retrospect. When Ray of Light was released ten years ago, it was greeted as a mature, sedate album by a sage and wise Madonna ready to enter her 40's as a sweet mother and wife ready to knit fashionable sweaters or something. Nevermind that "Ray of Light" the song was as pulsating and furious a dance number as Madonna had ever released, this was wise-calm-spiritual Madonna. By that token, Music in 2000 was a bit of an afterthought - we'd already said goodbye to Madonna the popstar, even if this album was #3 on the Album of the Year list at Rolling Stone and produced 3 Top 20 singles, as well as the last Madonna #1 with "Music." Then there was American Life, a commercial and critical flop raised to relevance only when Madonna kissed Britney Spears at the MTV Video Music Awards in 2004, apparently "passing the torch" from one generation of pop queen to the next.

Well, Britney went nuts and Madonna's still around.

Madonna is famous in a different way, I suppose, than she was 20 years ago, when papparazzi were accused of screwing up her marriage to Sean Penn, and she was embroiled in a contraversy regarding the imagery of her "Like A Prayer" video, as she danced in front of a field of burning crosses, causing her to be dropped from a costly Pepsi ad campaign. For one, papparazzi are accused of screwing up marriage to Guy Ritchie. For another, her face probably has less wrinkles now than it did 1989.

That was a time when Madonna's superstar status was indisputable. Like A Prayer, arguably the greatest pop record of the 1980's, had 3 #1 hits, a feat none of her records since has ever matched, and sold 10 million copies. That was perhaps a peak in her career, and since then, everything has been in retrospect - her Sex book/ Erotica period in 1993 was derided by many, even as the Erotica record sold 5 million copies and produced two #1 hits. Her 1995 release of Bedtime Stories was seen as a desperate pop attempt to remain relevant... even though it sold 3 million records, produced her longest-running #1 hit, "Take A Bow," and introduced in a major way Madonna's fondness for leather whips during her memorable "Human Nature" video, in which she reminds us that she's not sorry for anything.

Then it was really the period of Madonna's retrospective career - Ray of Light in 1998. But the funny thing is, Madonna has been just as relevant during the past ten years. More than that, however, Madonna has made, I think, her best work in the last 10 years. If she's been less of a cultural icon, it's hardly a "less of" worth considering - she went from being the single most recognizable, media-monopolizing superstar in the world to being... still one of the most recognizable, media-monopolizing superstars in the world. Judge it on coverage alone - her divorce with Richie earned the same New York front page attention as did Jennifer Aniston's from Brad Pitt.

If Madonna was praised as ushering in fashion and musical trends from boustiers to Gospel choruses, Madonna has remained just as influential the last ten years. I remember her "Ray of Light" long curly blonde 'do being described in 1999 by Kathy Griffin as "that hairstyle that everyone hated and now everyone has." I remember her Music cover derided for its bright-pink Urban cowboy look, only to see the cowboy look everywhere after her fantastic "Don't Tell Me" video in early 2001. For a woman in her 40's, even commanding two major fashion trends is a sign that things are still going well.

But how about that music? Take a look at this list of major Madonna singles since 1998: "Frozen," "Ray of Light," "Music," "Don't Tell Me," "What It Feels Like For a Girl," "American Life," "Hung Up," "4 Minutes," "Give it 2 Me." I can't think of an artist whose work in their 40's have produced as much consistently great pop music. By bombarding her pop with European techno back during Ray of Light and then dropping the introspective raison d'etre on her successive albums, Madonna again predicted the tide of musical trends. This year, I find no real difference amongst many of the biggest songs of the year - Madonna's "4 Minutes" as pop, Chris Brown's "Forever" or Rihanna's "Disturbia" as r/b, MGMT's "Time To Pretend" or Hot Chip's "Ready For The Floor" as indie rock. Madonna always believed in the power of music to bring the people together, frankly the rest of music figured out she was right.

I don't mean to suggest that Madonna is solely responsible for trends in pop music that have embraced techno, but I do think Madonna's career in the last ten years have benefited from the trends that she's been connected to, and that now, to hear a song like "Ray of Light" and "Hung Up," there is a dance-ready excitement that indie music also shares. That's the thing, really - excitement. Blasted with bass and drums to deafen and thrill anyone in a mile radius, her singles may have been seen as desperate or, at least, calculated attempts to keep songs in the top ten, but they've all worked - and, as the momentary spectre of "calculatedness" falls away, they've all deserved to be there. It's because far from an artist we view in our review mirror, Madonna is as relevant now as ever, and maybe even a better artist than she's ever been before.