Out With the Old, In With the Slightly Less Old

When Madonna's tour came to Chicago recently, she stirred up controversey because of a part in her show when she climbs up a crucifix, adorns herself with a crown of bloody thorns and sings with images of starving African children on large screens behind her. Apparently, she's trying to bring awareness to the plight of these unfortunate children. But even if Anderson Cooper and Angelina Jolie - two of the prettiest, most popular people around right now - can't use those images to make their two-hour interview less boring, then maybe something isn't working.



Let's face it - this generation has grown up with seeing those same images since childhood, even during commercial breaks for Sesame Street. We've seen Sally Struthers blubber over their lack of nutrition while she herself, well...let's just say her distended belly was not from a lack of food. Quite frankly, if we've become calloused to these redundant images, then showing them over and over again, with an occassional 1-800 number thrown up on the screen for a few seconds, is sadly not going to change that. What about specific information on where our donations would go to? How donations have helped in the past? How about some connection that could actually engage me and link my experience to theirs? I know that sounds insensitive but really, a change needs to be made to snap us out of the hazy, infommerical fog.

There's two other problems with Madonna's strange choice (during which she sings "Live to Tell," no less). First, she has to be using what must be the gayest-looking crucifix ever. It's like a giant disco ball stretched into a T. That might kind of undermine her message.

Second, how played out is the celebrity crucifixion? Kanye West just did the same thing a few months ago with his Rolling Stone cover. Of course, at least Madonna had some supposedly altruistic motivations. Kanye was just feeling sorry for himself for being so...persecuted...or something. But nonetheless...blah blah blah. The crucifixion image has already been used in numerous music videos. Yes, it does get people talking (this post is case in point of that, obviously), but it's too easy. It's become so commonplace as to be rendered almost meaningless (emphasis on "almost," as the close-up of Kanye's bloodied, be-thorned head was somewhat jarring).

But maybe that's not the problem. Maybe Madonna is just too old and too irrelevant to make us care anymore. I mean, her last consistently good CD was 1998's Ray of Light (although "Don't Tell Me" from 2000's Music was one of her best singles in the last ten years). Maybe, at 47, no matter how toned and flexible she is in person, she's just past her prime and her music is therefore incapable of getting people to rally behind her latest cause of the day/month/year/tour/whatever. I mean, what does it say about her current songs that she had to use one of her oldest hits for any kind of serious, meaningful message?

Maybe, like Prego suggests in this week's Roundtable, rock stars have to hang up the leather pants and corset/unitards and relinquish their thrones to the younger, louder generation that can truly rebel against the older, established mainstream. I'm not totally convinced, but I do know that Paul McCartney's Super Bowl halftime show last year put me to sleep, so what do I know? Grab your martini and crown of thorns and head over to Rustbelt Rambling to continue the conversation...

(Thanks to fourfour and Madonnalicious.com for the pics.)