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Dialogues@RU is published
annually
by the
Writing Program at
Rutgers, The State
University of New Jersey
Volume Two
Spring 2003
Madonna: Rebel
With a Cause? - Page 2
by Duyen Pham
Commentary: Neha Bagchi
Response: Duyen Pham
To ground his assertions, Fiske maintains that "[c]rucial to the art of making do is the selection of what to use. Roughly 80 percent of the products of mass culture are rejected by the people, [and] eight out of ten Hollywood films fail to make a profit at the box office" (326). While it is true that consumers of mass culture are able to choose what they like and reject what they dislike, they are drawing their tastes and preferences from a limited range of cultural possibilities. It is inevitable that the public rejects some elements of mass culture; this is of little concern to the producers of pop music in the long run because while the masses reject one aspect of mass culture, they must therefore choose another part of mass culture to transform into popular culture. Those doing the choosing feel that they have the freedom to decide what they want from culture, yet they select their preferences from a short list provided to them by profit-maximizing producers of mass culture, whose concern lies not in which artist the public chooses, but that the public chooses an artist from the particular list they offer. The mass production of pop music provides the atmosphere in which this goal can be accomplished.
While John Fiske focuses the power of culture making centrally upon individual consumers, Dick Hebdige, cultural theorist and professor at CalArts, more accurately posits the power relations between the elite and the populace-the producers of pop music and its consumers-as a struggle to maintain hegemony. Clearly, producers of pop music are not merely static vehicles through which the audience derives material for constructing popular culture. Hebdige asserts that producers of mass culture achieve and maintain dominance by constantly shifting and expanding their viewpoints to align with the views of the people, so that the people fail to recognize that they are being controlled. To explain this process of hegemony, Hebdige states, "The term hegemony refers to a situation in which a provisional alliance of certain social groups exert 'total social authority' over other groups, not simply by coercion but by 'winning and shaping consent so that the power of the dominant classes appear both legitimate and natural'" (15-16). Pop music is simply another method employed-most of the time subconsciously-by the social elite to control the bourgeoisie. The main focus of record executives is to maximize profits, but society is so historically entrenched in the codes of male dominance that the songs and artists that make the most profit are usually the ones that conform to its standards. Hegemony is therefore achieved and maintained as the pop songs that tend to enjoy top status on music charts comply with ancient male standards. These ideals have pervaded society for so long that the codes themselves exert hegemony over all layers of society, including record executives who, by producing the music, exert hegemony over the masses-a process which seems natural. For instance, Britney Spears, a pop sensation who is often touted as a younger version of Madonna, coquettishly croons to a male spectator "I'm a slave 4 U/I cannot hold it, I cannot control it," thus reasserting the ideology of males maintaining the upper hand in relationships. Contrast this to Madonna's perhaps most controversial hit, "Justify My Love." Both songs express the singer's desire for another, yet with stark differences in presentation. The video for "Justify My Love" was so raunchy and controversial that it was at first only aired on MTV after midnight, then banned entirely. It takes place in a French hotel room and features Madonna in various sexual situations running the gamut from sadomasochism and homoeroticism to multiracial group sex and androgynous lovers. Similar to "I'm a Slave 4 U," there is a scene in which Madonna assumes a submissive position, with her then-lover Tony Ward as top to her bottom, a crucifix dangling from his neck; however, the positions quickly reverse as Madonna sings "I'm open and ready/For you to justify my love," giving the appearance that she is in control of her sexual encounters because she urges her lover(s) to "justify" and prove to her that her love is a worthwhile commitment. This is more characteristic of an egalitarian relationship rather than Madonna being a "slave" to her lovers, or vice versa. Other differences between Madonna and her so-called contemporaries include their reception by various members of the public. Whereas both men and women admire, are indifferent, or dislike Britney Spears, whether for her looks or for her music, Madonna's persona and music receive reactions with distinguishable boundaries among different groups of the population. Although it is unlikely that any men would deny Madonna's physical beauty, instead of emphasizing this fact as is done with stars like Britney Spears, some males express ambivalence and discomfort toward the Queen of Pop's sexuality and music. Madonna holds the widest appeal to marginal members of society, whether the group is homosexuals, transsexuals, or, in an androcentric society, women. These vast discrepancies between the reception of Madonna and that of her presupposed counterparts insinuate that differences exist in how the public interprets and uses their music, as well as the views and intentions of the artists. They suggest that certain elements of Madonna's music and persona are interpreted by marginal groups as being refreshingly different-as strikes against the norms of a male-dominated society.
While hegemony exerts a considerable influence in shaping popular culture and the way the masses feel towards certain issues, the masses are not totally powerless against the social standards of the male-dominant society that seeks to extinguish them. Peter Stallybrass and Allon White proffer transgression and the carnivalesque as terms that question and defy such authority. Transgression is broadly defined as the defiance and contradiction of social norms, and is achieved through the carnivalesque, where carnival laughter, "the 'coarse' and familiar speech of the marketplace provided a complex repertoire of speech patterns excluded from official discourse which could be used for parody, subversive humor, and inversion" (Stallybrass and White 8). Therefore, while the social elite does indeed affect how society thinks and feels in terms of music, the masses have a means of resisting this dominance through transgression.
Since she is a pop artist and pop music is seen as a trivial form of aestheticism, Madonna's music is parallel to the carnivalesque, belonging to the lower social strata in the musical caste system. Stallybrass and White remind us that "[w]hat is socially peripheral is so frequently symbolically central" (5). Rather than being insignificant, Madonna's music caters to those who will be most influenced by her music and use it in their own quests for identity. Madonna is socially relevant to pop music and the understanding of how popular culture functions in that she refuses to submit to the norms of male superiority. She uses pop music-ironically, the very weapon the elite male culture uses to dominate lower social strata-to transgress those standards. Madonna most successfully transgresses the cultural codes set by a male-dominant society through gender bending: pushing the boundaries of gender and sexuality in such a way that she deconstructs and then reconstructs gender roles according to her own beliefs. For many women (as well as male feminists), Madonna represents a new breed of feminism, one in which women are free to be in charge of their own sexuality rather than submitting to the norms instilled by a patriarchal society. This new feminism also frees open-minded men of the often suffocating, aggressive, and hyper-masculine roles that most males are expected to assume.
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