Agent Provocateur: Madonna’s Super Hard Candy Pop

By Matt Mazur

On her newest CD, Hard Candy, the legend sounds stronger and more confident -- pushed into the new directions by her posse of guest producers and musicians. [29 April 2008]

Madonna: Hard Candy

By Thomas Hauner

That Madonna has chosen to follow suit with the musically incestuous and homogeneous standards that are overwhelming pop is as platitudinous as it was inevitable. [10 June 2008]

Madonna: The Confessions Tour

By Christian John Wikane

The oversaturation of recent Madonna product is ultimately what precludes The Confessions Tour from being wholly satisfying to anyone but the die-hard Madonna fan. [14 February 2007]

Madonna: Greatest Hits Volume 2

By Charlotte Robinson

As it stands, it’s the best summary of Madonna’s second decade as a performer we’re going to get—at least until a massive box set appears.

Madonna Live: Drowned World 2001

By Todd R. Ramlow

The difference between Em's lyrical violence against women and Madonna's battered video self-portraits is that in Em's songs, violence against women is always nasty, ugly, and despicable (contrary to those who would claim he 'glorifies' it), unlike the video-screen Madonna of 'Drowned World', who is bloodied and bruised but nevertheless glamorous. [27 August 2001]

Madonna: Music

By Cynthia Fuchs

And indeed, for Madonna, music, like most everything else, is always going to do something. [19 September 2000]

Mixed Media: Madonna - Like a Virgin (video collection)

Sound Affects: Queering Madonna & stardom: As contradictory as Uncle Tom, except in reverse

Madonna was as contradictory as Uncle Tom, except in reverse. She claimed to challenge the institution and dominance of the church while worshiping at the mantle of capitalism and white supremacy in ways that only reinforced the nexus of gender, race and class oppression and mutual exploitation. [9 April 2009]

Sound Affects: Janet, Madonna & George’s Unpopular Coming Out

Blues, jazz, funk and hip-hop have always masked white transgression, aiding generation upon generation to distinguish themselves from the conservative norms of whiteness bequeathed them; here was our generation’s Elvis, mocking and masking anything authentically black, trading love of the craft for sheer fame. And here on the black and white pages of Sex, she was showing us her beautifully dark skin friends, bragging about how much of a bad girl she was. [20 March 2009]