Download `, MADONNA - JUSTIFY OUR LOVE?

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The Didjeridu in World Music
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DISCOG RAPHY
Periect Beat v2 n1 July 1994
Alan Dargin
Bloodwood, Natural Symphoni es, 1991
Rolf Harris
Rolf Rules OK! Phonogra m, 1993
Jamiroqua i
Emergency on Planet Earth, Sony 1993
Stephen Kent
Songs From the Burnt Earth: Didgeridoo Solos
( alf 2548 Folsom Street. San Francisco , CA 9411 0)
1992
Lights in a Fat City
Somewhere THESE 3, 1988
David Hudson/S teve
Roach/Sa rah Hopkins
Sound of the Earth, Fortuna Records, 1990
Reconciliation
Two Stories in One, Natural Symphoni es, 1993
Trance Mission
Trance Mission, Mushroom , 1994
Aerosmith
Don't Get Mad, Get Even , track off Pump, BMG,
1989
MADONNA - JUSTIFY OUR LOVE?
Schwichtenberg, C. (ed)(l993 ) The Madonna Connection: Representational
Politics, Subcultural Identities, and Cultural Theory, Sydney: Allen & Unwin.
Frank, L. and Smith, P. (eds)(l99 3) Madonnarama: Essays on Sex and Popular Culture, Pittsburgh: Cleis Press.
TIFFANY HUTTON
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In the introduction to The Madonna Connection, Schwichtenberg says that for her writing
about Madonna produced connections "that
dissolved the boundaries between public and
private, academic and popular, theory and
practice" (2). These words foretell the strong
influence of postmodemism on many of the
articles that make up this anthology. After all,
the Material Girl is often touted as the
postmodem (feminist?) heroine, and The Madonna Connectiondaims to be "the first book
to address the complexities of race, gender
and sexuality in popular culture by using the
influence of a cultural heroine to advance
cultural theory"(319). It may be the first case
of a cross-section of writings about Madonna
being compiled into an anthology, but the
perspectives themselves are not startlingly
new. The anthology is divided into four sections, the focus of each being: race and audiences, sexuality, feminism and the star-commodity. There are interesting points made in
all of these areas, as I will go on to discuss, but
to say that it will "indicate new directions for
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cultural studies" (3) is a little ambitious, but
maybe that's part of Madonna' s effect on
people. She is certainly a seductive locus.
The first section, focusing on race and audiences, is largely disappointing. It begins with
a straightforward and uninspired study of
Madonna-haters and the ways in which the
hated Madonna is constructed as 'low-Other'.
It demonstrates how she is perceived as the
lowest form of culture - pop (formulaic, artificial, feminine) as opposed to serious, authentic, masculine rock: she is irresponsible a corrupter of young minds (and bodies): she
is the lowest form of the feminine (succubus
and whore)and, finally, she is theantithe sisof
feminism. The writers agree with Fiske that
Madonna' s enjoyment of her sexuality is her
most serious transgression and go on to say
that her autoeroticism "suggests that when
she tires of her playthings, she may not really
need men at all" (26). Sex is, after all, what
Madonna would like us to think that she does
best, with or without a selection of partners of
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both sexes. The question of whether this
actually constitutes a transgression deserves
considerably more attention than it receives
in this article.
racist myths surrounding black men/white
women. How this video challenges these
assumptions remains unclear to me, even
with the idea of spirituality and religion thrown
in - Scott argues that rather than being about
the "fusion between sexual ecstasy and religious fervor", "the lyrics are nothing more than
an acknowledgment of the power of God arriving at midnight" (68). Perhaps it is cynical
of me to interpret this as deliberate naivete,
but the entire piece seems to me an example of
extreme (in this case, positive) bias, which is
ultimately counter-productive to Scott's argument.
'Madonna T/Races' is a more interesting
piece which explores the nexus of race and
readings of Madonna's music videos, and
engages in discussion about differential
reading practices and whether or not they
(necessarily) function as sites of resistance. It
is clear from the results of the study (as well
as, one would imagine, commonsense) that
race and ethnicity are far more complex than
just a white or non-white binary opposition,
and the range of readings found in the study
The second section promises a little more,
show that the ''traces of different cultural
beginning with Cindy Patton's analysis of
experiences, however, are not necessarily
Vogue (the video/performance) and its relaoppositional or even resistant to the dominant
tionship to voguing as a critique of race,
white/European-American readings" {51).
gender and sexuality (Voguing itselfoccupies
Multiple readings are possible, but the
an extremely interesting 'space' in the interdominant position remains unchallenged, and
section of race, gender and sexuality, having
for this reason the authors are, understandbeen created by black and Latin bomosexual
ably, hesistant to "join the party" celebrating
men). Developing the notion that dance
such multiple readings {a Ia Fiske) and
functions as a cultural memory, Patton argues
encourage a more complex approach to such
that voguing "constituted a kind of difference
audience analysis.
and belonging" (85) for these men, a subversion of the signifiers of gender. What of
Thus it is a little odd that the following
Vogue itself? It is, like everything Madonna
chapter, Ronald B. Scott's piece on race and
does, full of ambiguities and ambivalence:
religion in the Like A Prayer video, reads the
"the moves of voguing deconstruct gender
clip with almost blinding faith {no pun inand race, but Vogue makes it difficult to recall
tended) as one that "promotes the idea of
why such a deconstruction might be desirequality and encourages the viewer to make
able" (98) - the dance is, in Patton's words
the right choices" (57). He argues that it
"dequeened". But despite the fact that Vogue
representspositiveaspoctsof Afro-American
is more comfortable with voguing as chic gay
culture {eg the importance of the church) and
male dance culture, she maintains that "the
also tries (stridently, and I would say unsuccritique of race and genderstillleaks through"
cessfully) to counter any reading of the rela(98).
tionship between Madonna and the black
saint as a sexual one - "Even if the black
Lisa Henderson's Justify Our Love is an archaracter is lying atop Madonna's character
ticulate depiction of the inherent ambiguities
and kissing her, there is no evidence anywhere
in the reading of Madonna's 'sexual politics',
in the video that anything more than a kiss is
specifically her use of homoeroticism in the
involved" (68) and, even better, "The (dress)
Justify My Love video. Although Henderson
straps simply slip down because of her
is largely positive about Madonna's forays
physical movements" (68); whilst at the same
into (images oO gay sex, and her appeal to gay
time acknowledging that a dominant reading
audiences, she admits the double edged nature
would likely make assumptions based on the
of it - "But amid the reverie, the skepticism
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endures"( 122). She also makes the important
point that we all (gay and straight alike) tend
to have unrealistic, idealistic expectations of
Madonna and what she can and should do for
us, a point which is taken up further in
Madonnara ma (see below).
The feminism question begins not in the third
section, but with Schwichtenberg's piece on
postmodem feminism, which is expanded
upon and challenged (but only once really) in
the following chapters. She presents a summaryofthefamiliarpostmodemisrn!ferninism
debate, before going on to argue that
Baudrillard's concept of simulation can be
used to "challenge the stable notion of gender
as the edifice of sexual difference" and that
therefore postmodemism is not a liability for
feminism but rather offers the potential for a
radical sexual politics above and beyond the
limiting tenets of modernism. Her analysis of
the video for Justify My Love is rather scanty
and ignores other possible readings - for example, Madonna's playful exit from the hotel
room at the end of the 'scene' can be seen as
a distancing from the 'deviance' of gay/bi sex,
thereby reinforcing the centrality ofheterosex
- if this is 'political', it is only in the sense of
what Mandziuk's later chapter describes as
postmodemism's conflation between private
sexual play and social intervention. Mandziuk
argues forcibly against the concept and practice of a postmodern feminism. She acknowledges, even describes, the shortcomings of
(pre-postmodem!) feminism, its potential for
essentialism, and admits to the seductiveness
of the "liberating promise of postmodernism"
(177), but issues a rather dire warning that "in
casting its lot with postmodernism, feminism
is, indeed, sleeping with the enemy" ( 170).
Reading Madonna as a postmodern feminist
heroine, Mandziuk argues "requires replacing the speech of intervention with the
discourse of style"( 183)and relegates women
from public space and returns them to the
bedroom.
Mandziuk's chapter follows (and, as above,
counters) E. Ann Kaplan's 'Madonna Politics'
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in which the author discusses and eventually
discards the audience research strand of cultural studies which positions Madonna (or the
Madonna Pbenomenon[MP], as she calls it)
as subversive because of the meanings that
her audience can derive from her- eg teenage
girls who find an independent, sexually autonomous role model in her. The fundamental
problem with this is the assumption of 'real'
individual selves, which maintains gender
binarisms intact - Kaplan argues along much
the same lines as Schwichtenberg's earlier
chapter, i.e. that Madonna's work is more
subversive in the sense that it challenges/
subverts the sign system of gender- this is the
politics of the signifier at work, which Kaplan
believes to have the potential to "make inroads
on precisely such oppressive identities" ( 163).
E. Deidre Pribram's analysis of the film
Truth or Dare (screened in Australia and
Europe as In Bed With MadonTUJ) takes up the
question of the 'real' defined subject, arguing
that it is the question itself which is no longer
appropriate. She suggests that the breakdown
of the subject-ob ject categories in a
postmodern universe does not necessarily
eliminate a feminist position - women have
always been relegated to object, but (once
again we return to Baudrillard) "the simulated
object that seduces takes precedent over the
previously defined subject that believed itself
in the sovereign position of power in the
equation" (208). She concludes that "If Madonna is a model of seduction, ... the simulated
object's primacy, then her striking ability to
seduce with some measure of control over the
dissemination of her irnage(s) may be a point
of departure in the articulation of postrnodern
feminism" (208). In which direction?
Melanie Morton makes use of both musicological and filmic analysis of the video of
Express Yourself to argue her case that
"Madonna's strategies engage in an ideological critique of the standard fare ofliberal
humanist truisms" (214) by refusing the
standard heirarchies of domination and subordination and leaving us with a "radical
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ambiguity"(223). According to Morton the
Susan Bordo takes up the issue of power and
power relations established in Fritz Lang's
control in her piece, focusing on the
film Metropolis are not simply reversed but
effacements of postmodern plasticity, its desubjugation is subverted. Although she
nial of material and social realities, particupresents fairly convincing analyses of the
larly in the realm of the body. This reduces all
video, I found it hard to infer exactly this
body transformations to 'the same', simply
meaning out of its ambiguities or conclude
something that 'women do'. But as Bordo
that we<:an negotiate (negotiate what?) "if we
argues, there are fundamental differences in
express ourselves, ... , and do not posit our
the ways in which women are required to
power in domination over others"{233). In
normalise themselves, particularly in relation
what other ways can power express itself?
to racially defined images of beauty. We all
Both Morton's and Pribham' s analyses appear
watched Madonna's transformation from
to rest on the powerof sexuality and seduction:
fleshy sexpot to muscular diva - and it was
this is perhaps inevitable, given Madonna's
taken as anotherexample ofthe Blonde One's
interest in it, but they veer dangerously close
control over her own image. But her selfto a {Paglia-like) elevation of women's
normalisation to fit the dominant contemposexuality as their only route to power. This
rary ideal sure! y re-affirms the female body as
sexuality still operates within a patriarchal
object: Bordo sees the Open Your Hean
paradigm, which remains essentially
video, despite various claims of androgynous
unthreatened by Madonna's 'bad girl' tactics,
ambiguity, etc., as predominantly a showcase
as David Tetzlaffargues in 'Metatextual Girl'.
for Madonna's 'new body'. The liberating
Positing an historical shift from patriarchy to
promise of postmodem plasticity appears to
capitalism as the dominant discourse for midbe nothing more than a new mask for old
dle-class women, he describes how Madonna
oppressions.
{apparently) epitomises power- after all, her
highly successful self-commodification is
Finally, Greg Seigworth's The Distance
often quoted as one of her most admirable
Between Me and You begins with the premise
achievements. But he argues that this is a
that it is by mapping the stars {along similar
power which has its prices: the cynical use of
lines to Jameson's cognitive mapping) that
the sexual female body as a unit of economic
we might be able to "narrow the distance, - ,
exchange ('well hell, I might as well make
that separates us one from the other"(296).
some money/have some power, since things
But having discussed the creation of the star,
aren't going to change') being one. Madonself-creation and creation of the starstruck,
na's position is neatly balanced between culthe way in which Madonna is not only a star,
ture and the economy (if there can be a 'bebut is about the very act (process of productween') - her cultural rebelliousness doesn't
tion of) being a star, he has to concede "that
threatentheeconomy,andhermerelyeconomic
I'm not exactly sure how one might successcomplicity with the powers that be means she
fully complete a cognitive map". He remains
can still represent a rebellious image for a
firm in his beliefhowever, that we need "to ref
subordinate audience to identify with. And
connect ideological maps with theexperiental
finally, Madonna's power represents an
maps of everyday Iife"(312) - is Madonna
unrealisable dream to this audience - one that
part of the answer?
is not achievable by the masses, one that does
not actually empower them in any way. "MaMadonnarama: Essays on Sex and Popular
donna can be idolized but not really emulated.
Culture is a very different book. The pieces in
Her power exists only in the hyperreality of
it focus almost exclusively on the discussion
the postmodern media spectacle, which is
surrounding Sex, Madonna's metal-bound,
available to regular folks only as something to
Mylar-wrapped coffee table book of sexual
sit and watch, something to buy"(262).
phantasies. It is a far more personal collection
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of essays than The Madonna Connection, and
it is this very subjectivity of perspectives that
makes it such interesting, sometimes annoying, occasionally confronting reading. Some
of it, particularly for those of us more accustomed to reading standard academic texts, is
perhaps a little too personal, self-conscious,
casual, explicit, even self-indulgent. Nevertheless, the two least 'academic' pieces in
Madonnarama , Cathay Che's 'Wannabe'
and thomas allen harris's 'phallus momma
sell my pussy make a dollar' are important
and significant, because they are the subjective imaginings/accounts of a (self-defined)
Asian female sex-radical and a black afrekete
queen, not carefully constructed academic
critiques of how Madonna can be read by
minority audienoes. 'Wannabe' is fictional( ish),
amusing and ironic, but also expresses a sense
of being somehow duped or disappointed by
Madonna,arecurringthemeinMadonnarama.
Although the editors introduce it by saying
"even proponents of Sex would have to admit
that, once you've passed over the book's
perfunctory waves in the direction of 'sexeducation' or AIDS-awareness, there's little
between these spiral-bound pages that even
hints at what you might call political desire"
(13), it doesn't stop Madonna's 'advocates'
expecting her to exploit her position for political (sex -radical) ends. But as Andrew Ross
points out in 'This Bridge Called my Pussy',
the "most skilled interpreters of the rules
{conventions of musical culture], like
Madonna herself, will always disappoint us
since we always expect too much of them"
(63).
What is particularly interesting about
Madonnarama is the multiplicity and
oppositional nature of readings/negotiations
of Madonna and her body of work (pun
intended), corning from writers of apparently
similar 'backgrounds' (race, gender, sexual
orientation). It is well-constructed in the
sense that each chapter forces a reassessment,
even a re-reading, of what one has just read.
For bell hooks, the initial sense of promise and
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possibility that Madonna offered later became (another example) "feelings of betrayal
and loss" (67) engendered by her apparent
move away from transgression. Whether or
not one agrees that the Boy Toy was ever
genuinely (can we use that word any more?)
transgressive,it'stemptingtoagreewithhooks
that Madonna's 'sex kitten' photos in Vanity
Fair represent some kind of abandonment of
a challenging use of female sexuality, a
regression into standard patriarchal pornographic images. Echoing what Mandziuk
says in The Madonna Connection, hooks argues that in Sex, Madonna "assumes the role
of high priestess of a cultural hedonism that
seeks to substitute unlimited production and
pursuit of sexual pleasure for a radical,
liberating political practice, one that would
freeourrnindsandourbodies"(69). Shereads
the homosex as functioning as nothing more
than "an extension of heterosexual pleasure"
(72 ), not as a desire or practice in its own right.
Susie Bright on the other hand applauds
Madonna and credits her with possessing "the
outspoken feminist idealism and compassionate philanthropy that made liberal heroines out of Susan Sarandon, Whoopi Goldberg,
and Jane Fonda" (86) (before the marriage to
Ted Turner and the breast implants, one assumes) and acgues that the only reason Madonna is not a favourite with the politically
correct is that she is an in-your-face sex maniac. There is no doubt a little truth in this, but
I remain unconvinced that this should make
Madonna my heroine. I tend to agree with
Simon Frith, whose analysis of Erotica ends
with the statement that he ends up as usual
"admiring a Madonna album but not being
touched by it; as usual the fascination is not
what Madonna reveals but how she's been
dressed up"(92).
Douglas Crimp and Michael Warner's
'conversation' about Madonna and Sex is one
of the most readable chapters in the book although casual in form. often flippant and
amusing, it is an extremely succinct summary
of the issues, problems, contradictions that
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Sex brings up(and fails to address?)- why it's
not 'queer enough', why it's boring, and (my
favourite) why it is the true sequel to Gone
With the Wind. John Champagne is a lot more
serious (and a lot more graphic, one assumes
partly in reaction to the fact that Sex is ')ust
not foul enough" [116]) but also deals with
the numerous contradictory critical responses
aroused by Sex. Interestingly, unlike hooks,
Champagne saw the Vanity Fair spread as
parodies of 1950sPlayboy layouts, exhibiting
a 'campsensib ility'thatbod edwellforSe x,but
he was ultimately disappointed. 'Camp' reappears (frequently) in Carol A. Queen's
championing ofSex -perhaps we are all being
prudes in that the thing we talk least about is
the sex, but then again, maybe the point is that
it isn't really sex, in which case how can we
applaud Madonna for "making us talk about
sex" (150)?
Kirsten Marthe Lentz approaches the everenticingque stionofMad onna's 'authenticity'
or otherwise - the "frustration with the inability to know her, to identify her - sexually or
otherwise"( l66). Of course this is one of the
secrets of her success - because we can't
definitely identify her as gay or bi, she can
appropriate gay imagery (and sell it) without
any real taint. .. Lentz discusses the issue of
Madonna's (use of images of) bisexuality in
some depth, but concludes "I do not thinkthat
an unconditional celebration of Madonna's
work is a good political choice"(l67 ). Pat
Califa, discussing the S/M element ofSex, also
says "I feel deeply ambivalent about somebody who has not paid her dues using my
community as a series of bizarre backdrops
for a photo shoot"(l77) , but nevertheless argues from an anti-antiporn position that the S/
M community "will still find itself in the
awkward position of defending Sex''(l84).
Perhaps the most telling testament to Madonna's charisma and star power is that none
of the writers in the two volumes (other than
Simon Frith) devote more than a passing
mention to the fact that Madonna has a voice,
sings and (co) writes much of her material;
and that her voice, delivery and music have
developed and altered over her career. Far
from being the 'primary text' (in Alan Moore's
phrase) music is, in these books, largely the
'missing text'. Given that the very raison
d'etre of these books is that Madonna should
be taken seriously as an object of analysis it
seems odd that her music is relegated to the
sidelines. American Cultural Studies might
be learning to look, but it still seems deafto the
sounds of popular culture.
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Lewis, G.H. (ed) (1993)
All that Glitters - Country Music in
America, Bowling Green State Univer-
sity Popular Press.
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As a number of contributions to this volume
observe, the popularity of country music has
steadily increased over the past two decades.
Although the writers make this assertion in
connection only with the music's growing
American audience, the same is equally true
in many other parts of the globe. In Britain,
for instance, both Nanci Griffith and k.d.lang
followed in the footsteps of rock star Eric
Clapton by playing London's prestige classical music venue, the Royal Albert Hall, on
their last UK tours. And both Griffith and
Lang, together with other S(H;alled 'new
country' singer-song writers such as Lyle
Lovett, enjoy fairly regular airplay on radio
stations and programs that are not exclusively
devoted to country music.
Yet, as George Lewis himself argues in his
introduction, country music has on the whole
failed to attract substantial interest within
popular music studies. This anthology of wideranging articles, essays and conference papers
written by historians, sociologists, musicologists, folklorists, anthropologists, ethnographers, communication specialists and journalists is, then, both timely and to be welcomed. Although the very diversity of perspectives brings its own problems, All Thar
Glitters not only makes a valuable contribution to a burgeoning academic discipline, but
as the book's cover notes assert (absolutely
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correctly), "these diverse views of country
begin to suggest what a fascinating and multifaceted phenomeno n this music is".
ID] v2 n 1 July 1994
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The book's principal focus is on what Lewis
terms 'modem' country music in America that is, country music as it developed from the
1950s onwards - and this is explored through
seven sections which address performers who
have been major influences on modem
country, regional forms and influences, hookytonk culture; aspects of the country music
industry, the emotions and values espoused
by country music, the socio-political issues
raised by and within the music, and the advent
of a 'new country' sound via a new generation
of performers. Each section is prefaced by an
introduction which usefully concludes with a
play list.
Given the range of disciplines from which the
writers are drawn, the approaches, styles and
methodologies employed in the articles vary
enormously (from the anecdotal to the interpretatio n of statistical data) and unsurprisingly, I feel - any reader will find
some pieces more immediately interesting
than others. One of the more illuminating
contributions for this reader, for instance, is
Joli Jensen's essay on Patsy Cline which
examines a whole range of factors which
shaped the singer's career and public image,
and the way Cline initially resisted performing the,more popular material which contributed substantially to her success and has since
helped redefine her as 'classic' country.
Equally excellent is Lewis's own chapter on
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