May
24, 2003
Excerpts:
. . .
For the first time since Holiday became a hit back in 1983,
Madonna, 44, is seeing her ability to generate interest wane, and
wane quickly. After just three weeks, her new CD, American Life,
has slipped from No. 1 to No. 15 on the national charts, an amazingly
poor showing for any big-name artist. . .
The first
single, the CD's title track, generated almost no interest on radio.
It's the least potent single of her entire career, and a second, Hollywood,
has been rush-released.
This
comes on top of her disastrous return to the big screen last year
in Swept Away, directed by her husband, Guy Ritchie. . .
...The
movie [Swept Away], and now her new CD, shows undeniably
that there is simply no buzz around Madonna anymore. The world yawned
when she withdrew what was supposed to be a controversial video for
American Life.
And hardly
anyone noticed when, in Paris a couple weeks ago, she thanked the
French for opposing the war in Iraq: There were no major announcements
criticizing those remarks, no outraged comments from conservatives,
no radio stations crushing her CDs under tractors.
. . .
. The influential New Music Express said much the same thing
in a lukewarm review of the CD: Critic Johnny Davis opined that her
stabs at self-deprecation and self-analysis "just come across
as gauche."
"What's
the point of Madonna these days?" he asks, before going on to
say that she's "simply done everything there is to do. . . surely
that's enough now."
And this
is the crux of the problem -- or, at least, one of them. Whereas once
she sang about hot-button topics like sex and abortion, these days
she's rapping (yes, rapping) about her Pilates class and drinking
a latte. The mystery, it seems, is gone.
Young
people are listening to younger acts like Eminem and Avril Lavigne,
but Madonna's fall in popularity can't be blamed only on her advancing
years.
In fact,
says Medler, the fiftysomething Cher's comeback and '80s phenom Kylie
Minogue's recently heightened profile in America have stolen a lot
of Madonna's thunder.
"Madonna
always pushes the buttons and goes beyond -- she makes people uncomfortable.
She isn't likable in the same way Cher is," he says.
"Madonna
doesn't seem to know who she is out there," says Danny Owen,
a Las Colinas-based musician who's been in the business for 25 years.
"She's become much ado about nothing -- and if she's not careful,
she'll end up being Mae West."
