FEATURE:
Some Boys Romance, Some Boys Slow Dance…
Madonna’s Material Girl
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I have a couple of reasons…
for focusing in on Madonna’s Material Girl. The song is her most-streamed song on Spotify. Its amazing popularity after all of these years is impressive! One might assume that Like a Prayer, Ray of Light or Vogue would be at the top. There is something about Material Girl that has resonated with the most people. Material Girl was the first Madonna song I heard and loved. I think it was the video that struck me. Seeing the Queen of Pop looking so glamorous in a video that sort of harked back to icons of Hollywood. Its lush and filmic visuals definitely captured my imagination. The song is also incredibly catchy and boasts one of Madonna’s finest choruses. As it is her sixty-third birthday on 16th August, I am putting out a few features about her. I might do an album or singles ranking list before then. I wanted to go deep with Material Girl, as its huge popularity comes as a bit of a surprise. Some would say Madonna hit her peak and was at her best on albums like 1998’s Ray of Light or 1989’s Like a Prayer. Material Girl is from her second studio album: the magnificent and underrated Like a Virgin from 1984. Released on 30th November, 1984, it was the second single from that album. Although Madonna co-wrote a few songs from Like a Virgin, she didn’t have a hand in any of the singles – such as Like a Virgin and Angel.
Material Girl was written by Peter Brown and Robert Rans. Madonna would work more prolifically with writers such as Stephen Bray and Patrick Leonard. Even though that creative partnership (with Madonna) yielded superb results from 1986’s True Blue, it is credit to Brown and Rans that they crafted this instant Pop classic. Nile Rodgers produced Like a Virgin. One can hear his expertise and golden touch through the album. Even though I really love Madonna’s eponymous 1983 debut, her follow-up seems more sophisticated, deeper and more varied. The production sounds is definitely a real shift - John ‘Jellybean’ Benitez, Mark Kamins and Reggie Lucas produced Madonna. I am backtracking, but Madonna solo-wrote five of the eight tracks on her debut. I think new writers helped expand her work and provide it with new angles. That said, I think she would hit a real stride and high on True Blue. Like a Virgin was her still finding her groove and voice. Material Girl, even though it is not her most accomplished sophisticated track, is one of her most fun and addictive. I can understand why it remains so adored. One can put the song on and feel better right away! The lyrics are ones that have been interpreted and pulled apart through the years. On the surface, it seems to be this rising Pop artist making wiser choices. Although there is some naivety and shallowness, this is the heroine looking for riches (whether it is literal or emotional): “Some boys kiss me/Some boys hug me/I think they're ok/If they don't give me proper credit/I just walk away/They can beg and they can plead/But they can't see the light (that's right)/'Cause the boy with the cold hard cash/Is always Mister Right”.
Some might see the lyrics as Madonna being obsessed with materialism and guys with money – pushing away anyone who was less well-off or grounded. Even though Madonna did not write the song, perhaps the label were trying to project in a particular way; this Pop princess who was going from rags to riches and destined for huge things no matter what. It is worth investigating the lyrics. Last year, this excellent blog re-approached the track. Is the track about Madonna seeking a rich guy – or is it her looking at society in a wider sense?
“Following the commercial success of her self-titled debut, Madonna, the artist kept the momentum going by pushing the limits of her public image. Flaunting skimpy fishnet stockings and brazenly donning the crucifix, Madonna was an icon that struck fear into the heart of parents whose children came to idolise the emerging Queen of Pop. Material Girl plays on this perception of her attention-seeking, rebellious, commodified idol image.
On the surface, the song means what it says; Madonna is a “material girl”. She isn’t just attracted to wealthy men, she manipulates them to her own materialistic gain. But Madonna isn’t bothered by this, she’s self-aware of the character that she’s playing. She understands that her worldview is detached from humanity. After all, boys with “cold hard cash” are always “Mister Right”.
But on that note, is it really a detached view of society? In the chorus, she points out that the world is in fact, materialistic; all she’s doing is conforming to the unspoken rules of society instead of denying it. She is – borrowing the commercial rhetoric of the song – a product of her society. This message seems to be directed at the skeptical listener who is quick to judge her as a cold materialistic woman in the second line of the chorus, “You know that we are living in a material world”. The song addresses an interesting double bind that plagues the modern world. One has to appear immaterialistic in a world that demands a hyperawareness of money.
But Madonna’s song is more complex than that, it seems to critique our hasty assumptions of her being materialistic. It feeds the idea of a shallow pop star whose only concern is fame and money, only to subvert our hasty assumptions of the pop star in a tongue-in-cheek way.
Let’s look at some of the puns and wordplay of the song. The speaker demands that boys “give [her] proper credit”, a pun on financial credit and respect towards her identity. Credit in the financial sense fits in with the overall rhetoric of the song that plays with this idea of transactions and commerce. Another similar pun appears when she demands her suitors to “raise [her] interest”. Yet to demand that her suitors – and in a meta-lyrical way, her listeners – give her proper credit suggests that we’re creating a false materialistic image of her true character. She wants us to give her “proper credit” by going past her outer self and looking at her character from within.
We see this tongue-in-cheek message play out in the music video itself. The director thinks that the key to her heart is a gaudy gift – an assumption he makes from her commercial lifestyle and, perhaps, his distorted view of women. It is only when he truly understands her, giving her “proper credit”, and swaps his expensive gift for a hand-cut unruly bouquet of flowers that she accepts him.
Madonna confirms the satirical nature of Material Girl and Like a Virgin in a Rolling Stones interview:
I liked them both because they were ironic and provocative at the same time but also unlike me. I am not a materialistic person, and I certainly wasn’t a virgin
Material Girl shows how seemingly shallow pop songs can be taken seriously by couching its lyrics in ambiguity. Importantly, I don’t think we can’t really say for sure which way of reading the song is more correct. You have a persona that sees the world as it is, and instead of playing into the double bind, demands what she can get. Yet, we see a star that’s agonised by how people can’t seem to separate her true character from the materialistic persona she plays. It is this ambiguity, however, that makes me believe that this provocative, rebellious song deserves proper credit”.
Material Girl just missed out on a number one place in the U.S. and U.K. It reached two in America and three here. There is something bittersweet about the song. It definitely helped make her more of a household name and announced her as a Pop artist who was about to rule the world. The media attached the ‘material girl’ label to her for years. This is something that followed Madonna and put her in a pigeonhole. The spirituality we can hear on albums like Ray of Light might be Madonna trying to fully distance herself and show that she was more concerned with things beyond wealth and mere materialism. She has performed it live through the years. It was included in the final section of the Rebel Heart Tour (2015–16). I think, as early as 1985, Madonna was performing the song in a self-parodying way. A feeling that she was singing a track that was not indicative of her. Maybe the song’s video – with her as a Marilyn Monroe-type heroine courting the attention of various suitors – was more responsible for a negative image and perception compared to the lyrics. Even so, it is a hugely popular song and a really important moment of her career. The track has received different reactions from various critics. This Wikipedia article explains more:
“Following the song's release on November 30, 1984, as the second single from Like a Virgin, "Material Girl" received mixed reviews from music critics. Author Rikky Rooksby, in his book The Complete Guide to the Music of Madonna, compared the song with those of Cyndi Lauper because of Madonna's shrill voice in the song. He added that the song was a "pungent satire on the Reagan/Thatcher young-guns-go-for-it era. Which just goes to show that pop music and irony don't mix." Stephen Thomas Erlewine from AllMusic said that "Material Girl" was one of the songs that made Madonna an icon, the other being "Like a Virgin" from the same album, both remaining as a definitive statement.
He added that both tunes overshadow the rest of the record, "because they are a perfect match of theme and sound." Debby Miller from Rolling Stone, felt that the song portrayed Madonna as a more practical girl than previous female singers. Dave Karger from Entertainment Weekly, while reviewing the album in 1995, felt that the song came off a bit repetitious and immature when compared to the present context. Jim Farber from Entertainment Weekly felt that the song provided then critics a way to criticize Madonna's work. Sal Cinquemani of Slant Magazine commented that Madonna had "defined a generation with hits like 'Material Girl'." Alfred Soto from Stylus Magazine compared the song with "Everything She Wants" by Wham!. Michael Paoletta from Billboard commented that the song sustained a "fevered dance-rock momentum." Nancy Erlick from Billboard said that "singer and team conquer once more with their irresistible assembly of new and used pop hooks." In 2003, Madonna fans were asked to vote for their Top 20 Madonna singles of all time for a special issue of Q magazine dedicated to Madonna. "Material Girl" was allocated the 15th spot on the list”.
Ahead of Madonna’s birthday on 16th August, I am writing a few features exploring various aspects of her career. I wanted to spend time with Material Girl, as it was the first Madonna song I discovered. In spite of its huge popularity today, it is a song that Madonna has had a complex relationship with. If it did result in the press latching onto it and labelling her as wealth-chasing, the song is definitely one of the classics from her back catalogue. Madonna has come a long way since Like a Virgin in 1984. Her career has undergone all these transformations and reinventions. To me, one cannot overlook some of the early singles like Material Girl. It is a song that has a very special place…
IN many people’s hearts.