The Truth Behind Madonna & Molly
It all started on Sunday, February 5, 2012 with quite possibly the most outrageous, and completely disturbing half time show to date. That’s right, worse than Prince’s penis-guitar back in 2007. The urge then to speak out was greatest—but I took some advice from Richard III, and counted to twenty; the urge passed.
It might shock you Elite readers, but my conscious got the better of me. But now it has been some months since, and it is necessary that some comments be made concerning Madonna and her tedious presence in the media as of late. This article will finally call out Madonna, “MDNA,” and her recent “Molly” puns.
No one here is trying to be the loud mouth, the drunk Philly-fan puking on the fireman’s daughter, a terrible late-night with George Lopez (ouch).
Madonna’s career provides a precedence of success that is hard to parallel. From “Like A Virgin[‘s]” iconic VMA performance, to shattering record sales as the first modern-pop star of ours and our parents generation, Madonna certainly deserves credit where credit is due. 1 point: Madonna.
But all history is just history in the present. Why is this relevant? Because her recent public contributions do everything but shed positive light on the culture of youth, the music industry she employees herself in, and her career in general. Let us go back to the Super Bowl show of February past.
Rave reviews circled uncontrollably within minutes of the shows performance on Twitter, and within a day stemming from National News outlets. But was it really all that good, because it was good? No. It was mostly good because it came from a mother in her 40’s.
That’s like critics claiming Sarah Palin won her Vice-Presidential debate just because she kept her mouth shut and did not say Russia was the 54th state. The performance was old and tired. It was a set of lip-singing, stage dramatics, oiled up Abercrombie models carrying her in on a throne, and blasé techno remixes. She’s just old. And this is entirely evident.
Her recent record just claimed the title of largest record sales drop ever—pulling in no. 8 on the Billboard 200 list at 48,000 sales in week 2, from no. 1 at 359,000 just last week. Is it not obvious? Her fan base is small, and those who were planning on buying the album bought it, leaving the rest of the album’s sales to casual spenders and disinterested Grandmas’ buying miscellaneous birthday gifts. It is not a shock; the album is nothing special at all. And this brings us to the meat of the article.
Madonna first and foremost is a businesswomen: her unprecedented $120 million dollar deal with Live Nation only goes to show her worth as a performer. And how does one break the Warhol trap of 15 minutes of fame? Stay relevant. Make news. Any publicity is good publicity, right? But at what cost does it degrade the culture she inhabits? At what point does it become too much?
MDNA is all too cheap. And I don’t mean sale price at Circuit City. What is MDNA in reference to? MDMA, also known as 3,4-methylenedioxy-N-methylamphetamine, is the well-known drug ecstasy. Why did Madonna call out “Molly” at Ultra? For you rock-dwellers it is because Molly is a euphemism to the purer available version of ecstasy.
What do I see? I see a woman trying desperately to stay relevant. She may be the one of the bad-est, hottest asses to walk to planet since Marilyn Monroe, but all things pass, and her attempts to garner record sales through encroaching on the youth culture is sad.
We all know its true. But youth can pull it off. Listen, “Genie In A Bottle” was not about the lyrics, “Oops I Did It Again” was not about the beat: they were about hot ass, barely legal blondes stripping to the point of FCC explosion in suggestiveness. Maybe I’m being too cynical. Maybe Britney and Christina get the pass because they still pop a boner in a few million Levi Jeans throughout the world. But is there not a connection here?
Their actions spoke to the culture at large. They were young, pushed the boundaries, and the boundaries gave because the world was accepting a new generation. Madonna is pushing back. She’s swimming upstream, and it’s a tough losing battle when Generation-Y has some 80 million occupants, and you’re already twenty years behind. So her attempts, although notable, are just too superficial and disingenuous.
Listen Madonna, Elite respects you, but as you and I both know your Mom coming out to the club was never cool. Stick to telling stories of the glory days, because they wouldn’t be glorious if they were as good as now.
Elite.
