Aspect of Madonna's career
American entertainer Madonna debuted in media in the early 1980s. Once called a media icon, popular and critical explorations of her media figure spanned decades, and included areas such as media studies and communication studies. Madonna's celebrity encompassed a wide range of success, fame, and popularity. Reviews often transcended Madonna's own career as many authors noted an impact on others and in celebrity culture, even decades after her debut. Her early media dominance was through various formats and platforms. The media referred to her in various ways, including "Queen of MTV" or as the "Queen of Media".
"Rolling Stone" Spain called her the "first master of viral pop". Despite ephemeral condition and the fact perceptions vary, various authors including Simon Frith, Frances Negrón-Muntaner and Jancee Dunn named or discussed how Madonna was referred to as the most famous women on the planet, with Richard Koch saying it was for "decades". Madonna appeared in various celebrity lists, including media coverage, Internet presence and power rankings.
However, Madonna's rise to fame and media exposure also garnered her criticisms. She was ambiguously celebrated or criticized as a "media manipulator". Madonna also faced censures, and was valued as only a product of media. Others have noted solid media criticisms of Madonna, and how she has time-to-time became a tabloid media fixture.
Critical background.
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[...] Madonna had reached such staggering celebrity that scholarly and popular assessments of the meaning of her work for the future of feminism, for the sexual values of the young [...] indeed for virtually any issue one might imagine, had become a growth industry.
—Angela G. Dorenkamp (1995)
Critic Martha Bayles considered that "it is in the extramusical realm that Madonna really made her name". Thomas Harrison, a music professor at University of Central Florida compared Cyndi Lauper's rise to public eye by saying: "A singer and songwriter first and pop culture icon second; with Madonna, it was largely the opposite".
German newspaper "Süddeutsche Zeitung" explained in 2010, that analyzing Madonna was never only a domain of tabloid media. Critically, she has been analyzed from perspectives such as media studies and communication studies, while her rise to celebrity "spurred considerable scholarship", mainly in the 20th century. Speaking of the intellectual response, Annalee Newitz condensed it in 1993: "Fields from theology to queer studies have written literally volumes on what Madonna's stardom means for gender relations, for American culture, and for the future". Furthermore, scholars analysed her media discourses and representations. On this, professor Ann Cvetkovich considered analysis of figures like Madonna as important not only because she reveals the "global reach of media culture", but because she exemplifies various issues. British sociologist Ellis Cashmore commented she exploited the expansion of media opportunities, and Hispanic scholar José Igor Prieto-Arranz, considered her more a global multimedia phenomenon rather than a singer. Although author Tim Delaney also considered what "set the tone for public discourse and analysis" is her "outrageous behaviour".
Media ubiquity.
Background.
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[With her media appearances] The singer "would be more culturally significant than most of the people who have changed the course of history or thought"
—Spanish philosopher Ana Marta González on Madonna's media coverage perspective (2009)
Authors of "Media Studies: The Essential Resource" (2004), called "cultural forms" and "media events" the reception, including "media talk" when a new Madonna album came out. Madonna has continue to spark conversations online since her early on, including debates on Internet when released "American Life" (2003), and during her Confessions Tour in 2006. In 2023, Michelle Orange from "New York" magazine stated that she innovated the "female mainstream avant-pop performance-artist superstar". Peter Robinson describes for "The Guardian": "Media training is a part of any sensible new popstar's pre-launch fitness regime, but Madonna didn't need it. She wrote the bloody book on it".
"Rolling Stone" Spain considered Madonna as the "master" of viral pop, further explaining that she impacted multiple media formats, a triumph they compared to that of the Beatles. In 2018, Marissa G. Muller similarly discussed for "W" how Madonna helped create the idea of "monocultural —now known as viral—" proto-viral moments back in the 20th century, and even in modern Internet, citing her MTV Video Music Awards in 2003. In 2015, "Vulture"'s Lindsay Zoladz compared if the Internet is our modern religion, then Madonna is its Old Testament God.
Traditional media and Internet age.
"The New York Times" stated in 2023: She has been "ubiquitous but also astonishing, when you consider the usual fleeting arc of pop stardom". Contemporary considerations include "Music Week"'s magazine commentary in 1992, saying "anything she does is news". Mark Bego similarly described how her every move was "considered front page news". He also described how "not since the days of Marilyn Monroe had a blonde American performer caused such a stir". As a constant headline creator, many of her moves were also labeled as "news-making events" back then. Authors of "Madonnarama" (1993), wrote that she has come to occupy that "large public media attention" that she functions rather like what environmentalists call a "megafauna". In sum, she garnered "maximum exposure" through magazines, newspapers, and "any other medium possible". After reviewing the end of the 20th century with Madonna, academic William G. Doty described in "Mythography" (2000), that "nor can any late-twentieth-century theory satisfactorily explain the momentary appeal" of Madonna.
Before the massively use of Internet, Matthew Jacobs from "HuffPost" considered that only Michael Jackson rivaled with her media coverage, labeling it a "feat" without of today "ever-rapid news cycle". In Cashmore's words, "she got more saturation, media coverage than anyone, present and past". In "Profiles of Female Genius" (1994), author said: "The press has in turn made Madonna the most visible, photographed, and debated female in modern times". Similar to Jacobs, Laura Craik from "The Daily Telegraph" said "before information was a quick Google away, Madonna was a rare and precious conduit, a woman who seemed plugged into the white-hot centre of the universe, yet all the while appearing to be her own current".
On Internet exposure, Frances Wasserlein on Karlene Faith's "Madonna, Bawdy &amp; Soul" (1997), commented her presence on the Net as billions of bytes devoted to her, on web sites "all over the world". Alina Simone described in "Madonnaland" (2016) her presence on Internet as "crushing" further saying "trying to ingest it all, let alone wreath it in words, feels like trying to give the population of Indonesia a hug—a task further complicated by the fact that both are simultaneously growing".
Fame.
Critical and sizing discussions.
Madonna's celebrity status was praised for some early authors over her other roles. Author Mark Bego said she turned it "a role unto itself". Music critic Robert Christgau echoed: "Celebrity is her true art". Her "megastardom" also made her a "person-turned-idea", wrote author Bill Friskics-Warren. Writing for "The Observer" in 2004, Barbara Ellen said arguably, "Madonna has transcended pop stardom to become the first great reality show".
Speaking about her early fame, Christgau described it as so "far-reaching" that it is "difficult even to measure". Decades after her heyday, according to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008, she is one of the most "recognizable names in the world" beyond music. In 2013, Liverpool John Moores University Lecturer, Dr Ron Moy, described her a "global pop star" whose notoriety have rendered her "one of the most recognisable human beings on the planet". In "Madonna as Postmodern Myth" (2002), French scholar Georges-Claude Guilbert explored how some "celebrities seeking publicity do not hesitate to use Madonna's name" as well.
Female condition.
Madonna reached a high level of fame as a female artist in her generation. University of Leeds' Stan Hawkins considered she was "the first female solo artist to gain superstar status" in the 1980s. Commentator Gil Troy said she was "the 1980's dominant female star", and similarly Arie Kaplan called her the most powerful female pop icon of the decade. She also emerged for others, including Hawkins, as a central female icon of the twentieth century. In "MTV: The Making of a Revolution" (1996), Madonna is called the "quintessential star of the 1980s and 1990s". Overall speaking, music critic Neil McCormick wrote for "The Daily Telegraph" in 2023:
 ;templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" / ;There was no one like Madonna before Madonna. She was really the first female global superstar and had to fight for every inch of space she occupied. There had, of course, been huge female stars before (Barbra Streisand, Dolly Parton, Tina Turner and Diana Ross to name a few) but Madonna's success has been on a whole other scale, stamping her forceful character on music, dance, fashion, video, film and all the connective cultural tissue in between.
Furthermore, in 1995, "American Photo" magazine commented "more than anyone else, Madonna challenged the terms of celebrity for women". In "The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Rock History" (2006), MaryAnn Janosik acknowledges Madonna's rise as a self-made star, saying she helped demonstrate to a large audience that "power is accessible to all, including women".
"Most famous woman".
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It is not enough to have one, two or three personal transformations if you want to become and remain for decades perhaps the most famous woman in the world.
—Richard Koch (2020)
On pair with a very few media female icons, Madonna was particularly both discussed or referred to as arguably "The Most Famous Women" in the world by multiple international publications and authors, spanning the 20th and 21st centuries. According to Mary Gabriel, she was prone to statements like "I'm going to be the most famous woman in the world". In 2020, Thomas Ferraro similarly referred "she seemed to have been intent on becoming the most famous woman in the world, and then did". American journalist Vanessa Grigoriadis commented for "The New York Times" in 2019: "The conventional wisdom is that Madonna became more famous than everyone else because she was dying to became famous".
Guilbert asserts in "Madonna as Postmodern Myth" (2002): "In the American, British, Australian, and French press [...], it is generally taken for granted that Madonna is the most famous female in the world". In "American Icons" (2006), associated professor Diane Pecknold echoed the "claim to distinction as 'the world's most famous women' seems to require no defense". In 2008, economist Robert M. Grant referred to her as "the best known woman on the planet". Other authors including Simon Frith (1993), Frances Negrón-Muntaner (2004) and Jancee Dunn (2012) also discussed or referred to Madonnas as arguably the most famous women. Furthermore, Matt Cain from "The Daily Telegraph" called her "one of the most famous women ever to have lived" in 2018. In "Madonna" (2001), Andrew Morton referred to her as "the most wanted woman in the world".
On her role as artist, in "Madonnaland" (2016), Alina Simone named her "the most famous female performer of all time". In "Myth, Mind and the Screen" (2001), John Izod considered her as "possibly the most famous female media star of her epoch".
Impact on celebrity culture.
Madonna reinforced, ushered in, or introduced various connotations in celebrity culture. Sociologist Ellis Cashmore says she "didn't single handedly star celebrity culture", but says she effected a change in style and the manner in which starts engaged with the media. He also gave the singer credits in usage of "scandal", something he describes that become "a holy grail for celebrities". In similar connotations, British art historian John A. Walker wrote in "Art and Celebrity" (2003) that her celebrity tactics "are now everywhere". "Billboard" staffers declared in 2018, she set "the template for what a pop star could and should be".
Australian scholars Imelda Whelehan and Joel Gwynne, wrote in "Ageing, Popular Culture and Contemporary Feminism" (2014), that her expertise in attracting and maintaining the attention of the world's media "helped to redefine the nature of celebrity". In 2019, "The A.V. Club" called her "modern pop's original icon". Decades prior, considering entertainers with most impact in the last 50 years by 1999, "Entertainment Weekly" staffers called her as the "epitome of the modern entertainer". Whelehan and Gwynne also considered her as an archetypal postfeminist pop icon. In 2015, T. Cole Rachel from "Pitchfork Media" also agreed and stated "she devised the archetype of pop stardom as we know and understand it today". The same year, Elysa Gardner from "USA Today" held that "no single artist" was more crucial in shaping our modern view of celebrities.
Furthermore, Erin Skarda wrote for "Time" magazine in 2012,