As you most likely well know, Madonna is back with her brand new album Hard Candy (Warner) which hit Amoeba Music shelves earlier this week. What is interesting about this new album from the "Queen of Pop" is that while the artist, who built a career on controversy -- usually via her music videos-- is at perhaps the very least controversial portion of her long extended, ever shape-shifting pop life, she somehow manages to still stir up controversy.
The controversy (or heated discussion) this time amongst the Madonna fans and haters is not about the music, but about age-- her age. Can a woman still be sexy and/or act sexy at almost 50? (Her birthday's in August.) That is the real question posed by the masses and the issue says more about our culture than about the pop singer who inspired the discussion.
Pop music doesn't have a history of being particularly kind to its aging stars, especially its female stars, and especially its aging female stars who choose to still act sexy. So the floodgates of debate or controversy over whether Madonna should still be making catchy contemporary pop music -- and, what's more, shaking her stuff while collaborating with the likes of the much younger Timbers -- Timbaland and Timberlake (Justin) -- have opened up.
Not too surprisingly, the best place to go to put a finger on the pulse of what the Madonna fans and haters are really thinking of Madge Version 008, you need go no further than YouTube -- a place where no one minces words, as proven by the swath of comments posted for the video to the new single "4 Minutes" featuring the aforementioned two Timbers. In the time since the video (see below) was posted three weeks ago, the opinions have poured in: divided into the diehard Madonna fans on one side and the Madonna haters on the other, with a substantial group of in-betweeners who are undecided or have mixed feelings in the middle ground.
All sides however seem to agree on one thing: what to argue about in terms of the new Madonna-- and that is the subject of age. The comments below are just a sampling of some of the YouTube commenters for "4 Minutes," a video whose theme or storyline was aptly described by YouTube member foreverllamas88 as such: "Madonna and Justin are superheros that only have 4 minutes to save the world and themselves from a force thats swallowing them and their lives (that black, prism-ey thing). And their superpowers are subtle because it's a metaphor that we are all superheroes in our own right but we don't always have the power to save the world as we wish we could."
"Madonna in this video just gave me some mad inspiration. I'm 29 and fear my 30's but looking at how hot she is and fit lets me know that the women can age very nicely. You HAVE to give Madonna credit. She has never had a failed album and she is stayin' up w/ times. I loved her last album Confessions on a Dance Floor b/c of its house beats which I'm also into. She's a goddess." - airvenus
"omg she's 50 trying to be sexy... eww" - kikicutie9734
"Hell, I say if she still can, then f***in' let her! More power to her, 'cause it's refreshing to see a pop-star over 40 still kickin' and making albums. . . that are as good as, if not better than, all the teenagers' and twenty-somethings' in the genre today. Say what you will about Madonna, right now she's lookin' a hell of a lot more together than Britney Spears. . . someone who's 27, while Madge is 49." - rednihilist5
"Excellent video, Madge you still have it. I am the same age and man you are still HOT!!! Keep the music coming!!!!" - zionschurch
"Is that JT's mom?" - renaim
"Don't Hate, Madonna is maintaining." - LER77
"madonna is like the most attractive person ever." - lulunarcotics
"If you had told me in 1983 that Madonna would still have a career in 2008 I would have laughed in your face. Personally I don't like her music but I have to respect her ability to reinvent herself and stay current. But yeah, LOTS of airbrushing in this video--she looks good for 49 but not that good."
- smurfnm156
"I don't get it... what the hell is 4 minutes? Madonna's butt is saggy - is she still gonna be wearing that kinda shit when she's 60 next year? GROSS." - skeetchd1
"How many 20yr olds do you know that look as good as Madonna? What's gross is people who are ageist. Because eventually YOU WILL BE 50 yrs old. How will YOU look? Most 50yr olds look like fat slobs...oh same goes for 20yr old." - muscleboundhomo
"Grab a boy? (Grab a girl?) C'mon. At her age, that could bring a charge of child molestation."
- splindastupendaz
"Why does she have to remove her clothes? If I were her kid I would tell her stop it, but then again... The music video is cool, but why does she have to show off her body always? If anyone has answer please tell me." - moonlesslife
"It's her style. She's basically doing what she wants to do because she doesn't bow down to society. Basically we think when a person is 40 they are "old" but Madonna doesn't care and proves to everyone she isn't afraid to be a rebel. To make it short, she just wants to do whatever she wants to do and doesn't care who gets in her way." - titammm
"Madonna said she had a hard time sharing 'diva time'....please, she ain't that special. She looks corny here, and like she doesn't know wtf she doing. I swear she thiinks she's young." - kamiraquel
"You saying older people can't sing and dance? Madonna Looks Like She Is At Least Late 30's She Is 49 -- That Means She Takes Care Of Herself And Stays In Good Shape! How Many People That Are Almost 50 That Look Like That??? - RollerCoasterMaster2
"Madonna smells like old people." - sketch3030
"I have no idea why people are bitching about her age. She's still making amazing music and is in better shape that most teenagers." - mymorbidmonkey
"THANK YOU!" - immortalMathias
Relevant Tags
Madonna (33), American Culture (94), Justin Timberlake (2), Timberland (1), Ageism (1)Recent Posts From Billyjam
Comments
shes fuckin retarted how did she get soo famous
50 is nothing but a number, why do you have stop being sexy at 50etc, i didnt know it was a rule, its pretty awesome that she gives inspiration too aging woman not to let go of yourself and not to let go of your groove..............peace
Madonna is a phenomenon! sociaty is so fuck up all we know is how to pull people down and bitch partly becuse our own lifes are shit and going no where dont, she as done more then you will ever do in yr lifes!
respect the fucking queen!
GIVE IT UP GRANDMOTHER....YOU LOOK LIKE YOU ARE ON DRUGS....YOU CAN BE YOUNG FOREVER...LOOSER
as a 41 year old gay man.. I know ageism... but I feel I look very good for my age.. better than most people.. Madonna looks amazing.. as most RICH people can afford to.. but give her credit folks... she is an ICON.. whether you like her music or not.. she developed the mold for what a pop superstar is today... all the rest are mere imitators and followers...
as a society the concept of "old age" keeps changing with improvements in diet, exercise, etc... all these young people who think they are "all that" are so funny! really folks.. do you think what you are wearing, playing, listening to.. is all that "new" .. hardly.....
Ageists are retarded (see above)
Clifford is totally right at certain point but you cannot generalize all american society, because not all of them are like that.
Nevertheless, many people of that society suck in many senses.
Michael Jackson is the king of pop, the most successful and biggest selling male artist of all time in all the world.
Madonna is the queen of pop, the most successful and biggest selling female artist of all time in all the world.
And what you do to them ? (NOT ALL AMERICANS) You tried to bring them down, you tried to make them disappear while the rest of the continets think they are ICONS and totally respect them. You must be the first ones to do that, because they had taken very high the name and the title of your country, believe it or not.
They made much more money and much more success than most of you and your entire family, is that a reason for that to hate ?? NOPE, that shouldn’t make you feel that you are inferior than them as persons for god sake !!!
And don’t tell me that you don’t feel like that as a hater because if you were not feeling like that, you wouldn’t be hating and saying such crap things. I know that american people are very competitive and want to be the best in everything, BUT, at the same time they are very jealous and they can’t stand the idea that someone who is more successful than them is having glories and victories, so they start saying lies about them, you criticize them for their ages or their personal lives or their way to be.
When in reality, you are NOBODY to judge other persons because you are not perfect!!! and you must have already enough problems and lots of faults and deffects as a person. Don’t come with the excuse of “But I’m not like she, an old woman doing this…….and this…” come on ? But you have serious problems that she might not have, cuz anyway she is much more successful than many young girls nowadays, so you see is not part of the age and she is not like that always neither in personal life, she is just like that in the show business.
So please americans (not all of you, I know that many of you are very great people) for the ones who are still trashy and still hating, think about that.
Sometimes I think that me as a 16 year old boy knows more than many of you :S
Regards from Mexico!!
If there was no such thing as airbrushing, there would never have been this video. Fitti is fitti, no matter what you do to it. The song sucks. This just illustrates the desperate lack of inspiration that exists right now in popular music-that they have resurrect relicts.