There’s no easy way to say this, so I’ll just come right out with it. As Madonna’s 50th birthday approaches on Aug. 16, it’s looking like her influence on pop music has outshone that of the Beatles.
Let me qualify the above statement before all the peace-and-love baby boomers start hating. It’s Madonna’s impact on the course of pop music that bests the Fab Four, not her sociological importance, songwriting skills or recording innovations. Influence means an artist has an effect on the future direction of music. While the Beatles influenced scads of artists in their time, after their breakup, their sound became yesterday’s news. Artists that tried to copy them (Badfinger, the Raspberries, Squeeze) seemed quaint or quirky.
But a quarter century after Madonna emerged, artists still use her ideas and seem modern and edgy doing so. Beyond the obvious Madonna wannabe 1980s singers, Madonna’s influence is felt in artists from Gwen Stefani to Britney Spears to boy bands, who found in the 1990s there was an audience beyond the old rock crowd.
Madonna, like Elvis, recast the focus of popular music. By emphasizing modern R&B grooves where most singers used rock beats, she was the catalyst that changed music from being rock-centric to being dance and R&B-oriented. (Disco, which influenced Madonna, might have done the same thing had it not died because of rock resentment.) It’s worth noting that before Madonna, most music mega-stars were guy rockers; after her, almost all would be female singers.
Sticky & Sweet Tour Program
Madonna Confessions by Guy Oseary
Madonna 2009
Give It 2 Me
Give It 2 Me
Hard Candy
Hard Candy
4 Minutes
4 Minutes
I love Madonna!
She looks so great for her age! I hope I’m just as lucky.
On Now website there’s a gallery of her celebrating her 50 years!
http://www.nowmagazine.co.uk/gallery/gallery-specials/7562/1/0/see-photos-madonna-at-50/1/