Madonna (entertainer) : biography

According to Forbes and other publications, "Madonna is a cultural icon, and undoubtedly one of the most successful entertainers of all time." In the book series Madonna Style from Omnibus Press, author Carol Clerk wrote that "during her career, Madonna has transcended the term ‘pop star’ to become a global cultural icon." Rodrigo Fresán commented: "Saying that Madonna just is a pop star is as inappropriate as saying that Coca-Cola is just a soda. Madonna is one of the classic symbols of ‘Made in USA’." Journalist and politician Sergio Fajardo felt that Madonna "is a very powerful symbol". Professor Belén González Morales of the Autonomous University of Barcelona commented that "’the infinite dissection’ of Madonna is like a body paradigmatic of the global age that emanating a tremendous amount of meanings… Madonna has been become an cultural artifact and the object of desire and a queer icon. In 1990, Jon Pareles said: "Don’t think of Madonna as one more singer clawing her way up the pop charts. Think of her, instead, as a continuous multi-media art project dedicated to examining notions of glamour and success, and the limits of mainstream sexuality." William Langley from The Daily Telegraph felt that "Madonna has changed the world’s social history, has done more things as more different people than anyone else is ever likely to." As Pareles and Langley, music blogger Alan McGee from The Guardian felt that Madonna is post-modern art, the likes of which we will never see again. He further asserted that Madonna and Michael Jackson invented the terms Queen and King of Pop. Professor John R. May in his book The New Image of Religious Film (1997) concluded that Madonna is a contemporary "gesamtkunstwerk". Strawberry Saroyan stated: "You can separate Madonna’s music, her image, her media antics, but why would you? To me, she’s a storyteller, a cultural pioneer, and the important thing is her message — via music, videos, antics, whatever. And all of those things have been brilliantly of a piece. Madonna’s ability to take her message beyond music and impact women’s lives has been her legacy." Caryn Ganz from Rolling Stone wrote that "Madonna is the most media-savvy American pop star since Bob Dylan and, until she toned down her press-baiting behavior in the nineties, she was the most consistently controversial one since Elvis Presley." Stephen Thomas Erlewine felt that "one of Madonna’s greatest achievements is how she has manipulated the media and the public with her music, her videos, her publicity, and her sexuality." He added that "Madonna was the first female pop star to have complete control of her music and image." Becky Johnston from Interview magazine commented: "[F]ew public figures are such wizards at manipulating the press and cultivating publicity as Madonna is. She has always been a great tease with journalists, brash and outspoken when the occasion demanded it, recalcitrant and taciturn when it came time to pull back and slow down the striptease."

Throughout her career, Madonna has repeatedly reinvented herself through a series of visual and musical personae. According to professors Peter L. Rudnytsky and Andrew M. Gordon in Psychoanalyses: Feminisms "many critics laud her continual reinvention of self. They agrees that "this is one of Madonna’s cultural meanings". Fouz-Hernández agrees that this re-invention is one of her key cultural achievements. Madonna reinvented herself by working with upcoming talented producers and previously unknown artists, while remaining at the center of media attention. According to Freya Jarman-Ivens, "In doing so Madonna has provided an example of how to maintain one’s career in the entertainment industry." Such reinvention was noted by scholars as the main tool in surviving the musical industry, for a female artist. Bradley Jacobs from Us Weekly said: "What new idea has Cher come up with? Michael Jackson started out at the same time, and they’re like apples and oranges. Overall, Madonna has always succeeded by staying ahead of curve." Luchina Fisher from ABC News commented: "One thing you can say about Madonna: She’s unpredictable…. has had more incarnations than the Dalai Lama." Robin Crow felt that there’s no one of in recent history who has mastered the art of reinvention like Madonna. The New York Times critic Kelefa Sanneh commented: "When you imagine Madonna, you don’t see a single image but a time-lapse photograph, with one persona melting and warping into the next. It’s an open-ended process, and when she’s at her brilliant best, it’s easy to believe that she could keep reinventing herself forever." Cultural critic Annalee Newitz felt that Madonna has given to American culture, and culture throughout the world, is not a collection of songs; rather, it is a collection of images. Grady T. Turner, curator of Museum of Sex commented: "’I learned, like most people, not to rule anything out when it comes to her reinventions of herself".