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POP LIFE
Madonna re-expresses herself
BY DONALD MAHONEY

Truth, they say, is the first casualty of war. Further down the list, at least in terms of the war on Iraq, are innocent civilians, priceless historical artifacts, and at the very bottom, frivolous pop music.

The Dixie Chicks were bulldozed (see " Don't Mess with Dumb-Ass, " This Just In, March 21). Edwin Starr — author of the 1970 hit " War, " in which he asks, " War, what is it good for? " — suffered a massive heart attack. And, most shocking of all, Madonna, who holds the patent for " shock and awe, " whose every bat of an eyelash invites scandal, rescinded her personal anti-war statement, the video for " American Life, " once the bombs began dropping on Baghdad.

It’s a murky story. Just one week into Operation Iraqi Freedom and right before its scheduled debut, Madonna decided to pull the video for the first single from her new album, American Life, from US television. The video, which her hype machine generously describes as " a penetrating examination of our national psyche, " was deemed too penetrating by Mrs. Guy Ritchie, especially during its closing moments, when she tosses a grenade into the lap of a President Bush look-alike. Pulling the vaunted " for the troops " card, Madonna premiered a retooled version on VH1 last Wednesday, replacing exploding missiles and gloom with flags of the world and concluding the song with Old Glory behind her.

Talk about the fog of war. It’s conceivable the whole stunt is a preconceived play for publicity, especially given Madonna’s moribund place on the pop landscape and a music industry on chronic life support. As her faux-British accent attests, any publicity is good publicity, and no celebrity has made a career out of staying relevant like Madonna. Besides, MTV.com has been streaming " American Life " all week, and the returns were tepid at best. Producer (and Frenchman) Mirwais Ahmadzai left the critics drooling with his work on Music, Madonna’s last release, but the same beats sound rather staid three years later.

Still, this is Madonna we’re talking about. While it’s easy to throw stones at her generally vapid critique of the downside of celebrity and wealth (she raps sardonically, " I drive my Mini Cooper/And I’m feeling super-dooper " ) on " American Life " or at the video’s banal imagery (the singer and her cabal storm a fashion show in an SUV, spilling lattes), Madonna has never liked subtlety; like any provocateur, she preens and poses. True to form, " American Life " is explicitly anti-war, a point intentionally veiled by the remake. The idea of Madonna filming a video overtly critical of America during last winter’s drum-beating, only to get cold feet at the last minute for fear of " offending anyone who might misinterpret [its] meaning " is preposterous. Although she clung to her anti-war position during the press storm that ensued, it seems that for the first-time in her career, Madonna no longer calls her own shots.

And she’s not alone. Starting with the Dixie Chicks/Clear Channel fiasco, pop has been a sordid battlefield for pro- and anti-war forces. Through it all, wink-wink, nudge-nudge corporate censorship has taken hold, free of messy witch-hunts and outright bans, but just as effective. It’s already long forgotten, but in the wake of September 11, Clear Channel issued a list of 200 pop songs with questionable content to its stations. Covered were songs referencing fire, airplanes, skyscrapers, and, yes, September. Suddenly, even a whisper of danger or uncertainty constitutes a threat.

Distant as it seems, it was only four years ago that Eminem crossed over with his " My Name Is " video, donning a gray Clinton wig and lampooning the Lewinsky mess. How times have changed. Self-serving Oscar rants aside, the entertainment mainstream seems to find our current president and his administration curiously beyond reproach. (One notable exception: Eminem’s slam on Dick and Lynne Cheney in " Without Me. " If popular hip-hop weren’t so apolitical and delusional, it could be a lethal source of dissent.) It could be argued that we had a pop star for a president in Bill Clinton, but in place of the giddy complacency that accompanied his era — a mood best captured by the saccharine, suggestive pop of Britney Spears or the Backstreet Boys — a general dread has begun to encroach on American consciousness. Barnes & Noble continues to stock Noam Chomsky and the gigaplexes keep screening Bowling for Columbine, but pop has largely failed to provide perspective, beyond a few prickings of conscience, during the war.

Of course, Madonna’s " American Life " was no Guernica, and Clear Channel probably did us all a favor by muting the Dixie Chicks, but therein lies the point. As our government officials speak of the many blessings America exports, touting " liberty " and " democracy, " the rest of the world sees corporate logos and hears catchy, overplayed pop. Controlling pop means controlling the content of our idle fantasies, but the ability to engage in such fantasies is one of our most palpable freedoms. Or, as an MBA might put it, Madonna learned a basic business lesson: unlike sex, dissent doesn’t sell.

Issue Date: April 25 - May 1, 2003
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