MADONNA & ANDY WARHOL

However, I've never wanted to meet Madonna. Madonna the spectacle, yes. Madonna, the cultural provocateur, yes. Madonna, the producer, not creator, yes. Madonna, the person, no. It's almost as if she is incapable of being anything other than Madonna The Myth, something she has created. I love it. Who would want to meet Madonna when the myth has a more fantastic life of its own? You could blame the myth on the cab driver who dropped her off where the action was hot. In '77 NYC (the year of Punk, Disco and Madonna) there was an art revolution going on: Television, Blondie, Arthur Russell, Larry Levine's Paradise Garage, the Ramones, disco, punk rock, club culture and, of course, the godfather of New York City, Andy Warhol. Warhol has held sway over her entire career. Madonna, like Warhol, is the ultimate observer of, rather than participant in, modern culture. She took Warhol's template of ambition and success being an art form and regenerated it into a pop career presented not only as art, but a mirror on society, reflecting our tastes and aspirations; whether it be the yuppie life of Material Girl to the pre-00 new age observations of Ray of Light. Her reinventions are a reflection of us, not her, as she has always lacked a 'grand purpose' or 'natural conclusion' of most rock'n'roll stories.

The Guardian
Oct 28 2008