Don’t Go For Second Best
“Finally, Madonna gets peer cred as being an inductee, in her first year of eligibility to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
I am a HUGE Madonna fan and I love her music and iconoclastic performances of the same. However, just because Madonna is the most successful female artist of all time, doesn’t mean she makes rock music.
There is a huge dissent amongst music fans as to whether she’s valuable enough to place in the Hall of Fame. I consider this criticism unfounded, and mostly from middle-aged men who miss their rock bands of the 70s and can’t stand the fact that a middle aged women has done better then they have…or flat out misogynists.
Madonna has mostly written songs in punk formats. These formats have been produced into everything from disco, girl group fanfare, pop, light rock, house, R&B, electronica, euro dance, techno folk, then modernized disco (again) and come this Spring, hip-hop.
Her ability to elevate the avant garde and underground into commercial success is astronomical. I am so grateful about that cos it let’s me hear/learn about new things I may not have been exposed to.
Her attitude is so punk/rock-n-roll, however, her music is still commercial. I will never hold that against Madonna. In fact, I think her ability to bring that front to the forward, on the square is so rare and special, it is what makes her so worthy of being an inductee.
Madonna is fucking amazing. But to put her out there like some brilliant rock musician or lyricist, is a fraud. She ingeniously promotes what she’s learned/feels/heard in life so we all can have it.
In a really fucked up analogy, it’s like she’s the first author of the Bible for female artists.
She deserves to be in the R&R Hall of Fame because of her redefinition of the role of women in music and how much control they have creatively, business wise or image wise.
As Susan Sarandon put it, there are two catagories of women in music, those before Madonna and those that came after Madonna.
Take it for what it’s worth.”