|
|
Getting the Midlife Madonna Groove Over the last decade, Madonna has earned my respect. Not because she abandoned that sugary bopping club beat of the 80s and replaced it with a maturing voice style that kept pace with her middle-aging self. And not because she got erotic and expressed herself. Rather, she earned my respect because she refused to regret her provocative days. It was a bold maturation proved so attractive to me that I finally got myself a Madonna album. Yes, that's right: I finally bought a Madonna album. Oh, I knew about her escapades -- her bisexual cavorting with Sandra Bernhardt, her much gasped-at and dropped-from-MTV-rotation Erotica video, the Sex book -- but none of those compelled me to buy into the Madonna product. What did, at long last? Three things: Madonna moved into her forties as a mother and with a certain boldness. I like the spectrum of sound and fury that comprises her musical maturation, illustrated in her GHV2 album. And her lack of apology over what she sees as her significant work of the last decade. That's a multi-faceted dynamic I can't ignore. When Madonna appeared recently on the Today show, interviewer and host Matt Lauer asked her about her past work, you could see the "Oh, God, here's come the 'justify the sexual content of your music' question" wash across her face. Madonna nipped the direction of Lauer's interview in the bud by claiming she considered Like a Virgin and Material Girl retrospectively offensive and left her audience to fill in the blank of "compared to the erotic stuff." Good for her. We need more mothers and wives who, while they may actively leave their provocative years behind, remain proud of the body of work they produced, both figuratively and literally, during that time. Much of Madonna's work was ground breaking, timed just ahead of the periodic re-examination of sexual mores that cycles through the American public every decade or so. It's as if she sensed what our next revelation was going to be during those years and then pushed us to face up to our own fears and fantasies. She sang of the wonders of a man's homosexual blossoming (Deeper and Deeper) while much America still sat in a full-phobic trembling; the power of outré SM fantasy, enacted in full girl-on-top glory (Erotica), and she continued that messages with straight girls packing dick (My Baby's Got a Secret) well before "bend over boyfriend" became a sex-positive empowerment statement. She issued her first Fuck You message (Human Nature) as she transitioned away from her sex blatant years and into the more diverse zone of trance (Bedtime Stories), stage musical (Evita), and just outright fun stuff (Beautiful Stranger, Ray of Light). I'm glad Madonna hasn't capitulated to the pressure to declare her musical sex work a Bad Decision. If you're shocked to see her so damned unrepentant, I ask why? It's not like she didn't give you fair warning. She said it several years ago, more than half a GHV2 album ago in two words: No apologies. And it looks like the woman is as good as her word. That's what ultimately got me to buy a Madonna album. She held to her No Apologies declaration. Of course, it helps that I'm finally on the same page as she is. I've lived my life with few apologies and even fewer regrets for my sexual practices and enthusiasms (and for the downside of various confusions as well). Someday, should I morph into a different direction to fulfill different needs and priorities, I'll want to look back on my erotic adventurism without apology. Hopefully, I'll do so with Human Nature playing in the background as Ole Granny me sits on the porch, rocking to be beat, and flicking off anyone who doesn't like it. If I'm lucky, that'll be my form of No Apologies. Sure beats baking cookies. |
Return to Home