Madonna in media

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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.

Critic Martha Bayles considered that "it is in the extramusical realm that Madonna really made her name".^[2] 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".^[3]

German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung explained in 2010, that analyzing Madonna was never only a domain of tabloid media.^[4] Critically, she has been analyzed from perspectives such as media studies and communication studies,^[5][6] while her rise to celebrity "spurred considerable scholarship", mainly in the 20th century.^[6] 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".^[7] Furthermore, scholars analysed her media discourses and representations.^[8] 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.^[9] British sociologist Ellis Cashmore commented she exploited the expansion of media opportunities,^[10] and Hispanic scholar José Igor Prieto-Arranz, considered her more a global multimedia phenomenon rather than a singer.^[11] Although author Tim Delaney also considered what "set the tone for public discourse and analysis" is her "outrageous behaviour".^[12]

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.^[14] Madonna has continue to spark conversations online since her early on, including debates on Internet when released American Life (2003),^[15] and during her Confessions Tour in 2006.^[16] In 2023, Michelle Orange from New York magazine stated that she innovated the "female mainstream avant-pop performance-artist superstar".^[17] 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".^[18]

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.^[19] 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.^[20] In 2015, Vulture's Lindsay Zoladz compared if the Internet is our modern religion, then Madonna is its Old Testament God.^[21]

The New York Times stated in 2023: She has been "ubiquitous but also astonishing, when you consider the usual fleeting arc of pop stardom".^[22] Contemporary considerations include Music Week's magazine commentary in 1992, saying "anything she does is news".^[23] Mark Bego similarly described how her every move was "considered front page news".^[24] He also described how "not since the days of Marilyn Monroe had a blonde American performer caused such a stir".^[25] As a constant headline creator, many of her moves were also labeled as "news-making events" back then.^[26] 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".^[27] In sum, she garnered "maximum exposure" through magazines, newspapers, and "any other medium possible".^[28] 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.^[29]

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".^[30] In Cashmore's words, "she got more saturation, media coverage than anyone, present and past".^[10] 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".^[31] 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".^[32]

On Internet exposure, Frances Wasserlein on Karlene Faith's Madonna, Bawdy & Soul (1997), commented her presence on the Net as billions of bytes devoted to her, on web sites "all over the world".^[33] 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".^[34]

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".^[35] Music critic Robert Christgau echoed: "Celebrity is her true art".^[36] Her "megastardom" also made her a "person-turned-idea", wrote author Bill Friskics-Warren.^[37] Writing for The Observer in 2004, Barbara Ellen said arguably, "Madonna has transcended pop stardom to become the first great reality show".^[38]

Speaking about her early fame, Christgau described it as so "far-reaching" that it is "difficult even to measure".^[36] 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.^[39] 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".^[40] 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.^[41]

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.^[43] Commentator Gil Troy said she was "the 1980's dominant female star",^[44] and similarly Arie Kaplan called her the most powerful female pop icon of the decade.^[45] She also emerged for others, including Hawkins, as a central female icon of the twentieth century.^[43] In MTV: The Making of a Revolution (1996), Madonna is called the "quintessential star of the 1980s and 1990s".^[46] Overall speaking, music critic Neil McCormick wrote for The Daily Telegraph in 2023:

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.^[47]

Furthermore, in 1995, American Photo magazine commented "more than anyone else, Madonna challenged the terms of celebrity for women".^[48] 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".^[49]

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.^[51] According to Mary Gabriel, she was prone to statements like "I'm going to be the most famous woman in the world".^[52] In 2020, Thomas Ferraro similarly referred "she seemed to have been intent on becoming the most famous woman in the world, and then did".^[53] 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".^[54]

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".^[55] 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".^[36] In 2008, economist Robert M. Grant referred to her as "the best known woman on the planet".^[56] 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.^[57][58][59] Furthermore, Matt Cain from The Daily Telegraph called her "one of the most famous women ever to have lived" in 2018.^[60] In Madonna (2001), Andrew Morton referred to her as "the most wanted woman in the world".^[61]

On her role as artist, in Madonnaland (2016), Alina Simone named her "the most famous female performer of all time".^[34] In Myth, Mind and the Screen (2001), John Izod considered her as "possibly the most famous female media star of her epoch".^[62]

Madonna reinforced, ushered in, or introduced various connotations in celebrity culture. Sociologist Ellis Cashmore says she "didn't single handedly star celebrity culture",^[63] but says she effected a change in style and the manner in which starts engaged with the media.^[64] He also gave the singer credits in usage of "scandal", something he describes that become "a holy grail for celebrities".^[65] In similar connotations, British art historian John A. Walker wrote in Art and Celebrity (2003) that her celebrity tactics "are now everywhere".^[66] Billboard staffers declared in 2018, she set "the template for what a pop star could and should be".^[67]

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".^[68] In 2019, The A.V. Club called her "modern pop's original icon".^[69] 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".^[70] Whelehan and Gwynne also considered her as an archetypal postfeminist pop icon.^[68] 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".^[71] The same year, Elysa Gardner from USA Today held that "no single artist" was more crucial in shaping our modern view of celebrities.^[72]

Furthermore, Erin Skarda wrote for Time magazine in 2012, that "she essentially redefined what it meant to be famous in America".^[73] Peter Robinson felt "Madonna pretty much invented contemporary pop fame so there is a little bit of her in the DNA of every modern pop thing".^[74] In 2023, Brandon Sanchez from The Cut acknowledges Madonna's role for helping "standardized the script for the reception of —and debates surrounding— pop stars".^[75]

Madonna's career was often measured and objected in terms of relevancy and popularity. Michele Yeo explained for Entertainment Tonight Canada in 2018, that "much ink and cyber space have been devoted to debating" her "relevancy".^[76] She was also often measured with an expiration date; in 2001, Chuck Myers from the Sun Sentinel considered that "long ago, many detractors wrote off Madonna's staying power".^[77]

As early as 1985, Madonna was labeled by that moment as "the hottest draw in show biz" by Time magazine.^[78] Years later, in Women Creating Lives (1994), Madonna's popularity was described to have crosses lines of "gender, race, class" and "even education".^[79]

Pop culture commentaries and analysis of her decline has been also addressed. A Denver Post correspondent commented in 2012, her permanence "at the center of things has come and gone".^[80] In the views of American authors and academics such as Lynn Spigel and Andrew Ferguson in the 1990s, her "real crime" was her own longevity.^[81] In 1996, British author Mark Watts describes "rise and (perceived) decline of Madonna has gone, so to say, hand-in-hand with that of postmodern theory — but none the less pervasively influential for that".^[82] Also in the 1990s, Jean-Luc Godard criticized she "isn't popular, she's popularized. That's very different".^[83] Argentine writer Rodrigo Fresán commented in 2008, that "Madonna now lives off the shock wave of a Big Bang" describing her as a "dead star" but very "intelligent".^[84] In 2018, Cashmore said "thereafter, her presence might have faded, but her influence remained".^[64] Deborah Jermyn from University of Roehampton commented in 2016, that her "frequency is generally steady until key moments in her career produce intense spikes of activity".^[85] On the other hand, Jermyn also explored the "growing" proliferation of "negative discourses surrounding her continued body project to remain" in the stage.^[85]

Rolling Stone staffers acknowledged in 2021 her "ability to say at the center of pop culture for longer than nearly anyone".^[86] In the 2010s, during a panel head by Spaniard critic Víctor Lenore, Madonna was understood as "the most influential female performer of popular culture" at that time.^[87] In 2015, Elysa Gardner from USA Today called her "our most durable pop star".^[72] Back in the 2000s, a Belfast Telegraph columnist Gail Walker editor commented "not even male icons have stayed at the front of popular culture the way she has",^[88] while business professor Oren Harari quoted a critic describing her as "the most durable pop symbol of her generation".^[89]

Madonna's responses: Madonna has responded various times, mainly to the criticisms of her permanency. Professor Robert Miklitsch, said she sardonically ask her critics in "Human Nature" about her longevity and controversies with the phrase: "Did I stay too long?".^[90] At the 2016 Billboard Women in Music, she told the audience: "I think the most controversial thing I have ever done is to stick around".^[91]

Background: She debuted with many critics, including Robert Hilburn, Dave Marsh and Paul Grain (Billboard), labeled her a one-hit wonder, and predicted a rapid decline.^[93] In a short span, Madonna perpetuated an image of a career riskier as she described various times how her career ended because she went "too far".^[91] On this, editor Jed La Lumiere commented: "Over the years, Madonna has walked a fine line between having gone too far, and getting her point across. To me she is the quintessential icon of 'you don't know until you try'".^[94] She outsurvived critics and Billboard recalled after naming her "Artist of the Decade" in 1989, that she "has always stayed one step ahead our expectations".^[95]

Timeline: Before having a 10-year career, the media began to address her longevity in the early 1990s.^[30] In 1991 (8-year career), Jon Pareles called her "veteran" and her permanency was labeled as the "equivalent to five lifetimes in rock-star years" by a The Philadelphia Inquirer correspondent in 1992.^[96][97] The same year, Australian newspaper The Canberra Times attributed her ability reinvent her image as the "secret" of her "longevity".^[98] In 2022, Helen Brown from Financial Times explained the epoch by saying "average chart-life of a pop singer was two to six years, generally shorter for women that men".^[91] While there were performers with lengthy careers compared to Madonna, reviewers like media scholar David Tetzlaff brought the nostalgia value, including examples such as Elvis Presley, Liz Taylor and even the Rolling Stones while noting the continued "hype" she generated staying "contemporary".^[99] In 1995, critic Gina Arnold compared her with two leading contemporary artists, saying "her longevity alone proves which one of those three artists truly altered the face of popular culture".^[100] In 1999, Thales de Menezes from Brazilian newspaper Folha de S.Paulo considered her a "rare case" of lasting relationship with success.^[101] In the next decades, authors addressed similar discussions, including Jennifer Egan (2002) and LZ Granderson (2012).^[102][103]

Cultural impact: Various sectors praised her multi-decade success and longevity, including the business community. Some reviewers praised it as having little nostalgia and comeback values for various years. In Profiles of Female Genius (1994), author asserted: "Her success has made her the most visible show business personality of the era, and arguably of the century".^[31] By 2013, professor Roy Shuker defined that "the continued success of Madonna provides a fascinating case study" in popular music.^[105] Tony Sclafani from MSNBC considered, by 2008, that her successive hit records "opened people's minds as to how successful a female artist could be".^[106] Professor Thomas Harrison, similarly claimed she "had a profound impact" on what artists needed to do be successful in the 1980s and the decades afterward.^[107] Even more, Time magazine commented in 2010 that "every pop star" of the past two or three decades, "has Madonna to thank in some part for his or her success".^[108] Mary Cross similarly wrote in Madonna: A Biography (2007), "new pop icons [...] owe Madonna a debt of thanks for the template she forged".^[109] Cashmore especially praised the fact she both epitomized and helped usher in an age in which the epithets "shocking", "disgusting" or "filthy" didn't presage "the end of a career".^[64]

Referring to the 1980s, media historian James L. Baughman called her "nation's most popular female singer".^[110] In 2008, The Seattle Times regarded her as "the most popular female singer of her generation".^[111] In Media Culture (2003), Douglas Kellner similarly recognized her as "the most popular woman entertainer of her era" and perhaps "of all time".^[112]

Despite ephemeral condition and perceptions of success, Madonna was able to sustain, for decades, being recognized critically and culturally for her success and longevity. For instance, she was called "the most successful female solo pop performer ever" by Women's Review on 1986 or so before.^[28] The Guinness Book of World Records referred to her as the "most successful" female artist or female solo artist spanning both 20th and 21st centuries.^[113] In 2020, Journal of Business Research collaborators estimated her as "probably the most successful female music artist ever" in several terms.^[114] In 2015, gender scholar Laura Viñuela in a Madonna class at University of Oviedo felt she was "the only woman who has such a long and massively successful career" in music world up that point.^[115] British musicologist David Nicholls also suggested in late 1990s: "Madonna became the most successful woman in music history by skillfully evoking, inflecting, and exploiting the tensions implicit in a variety of stereotypes and images of women".^[116]

Madonna's ubiquity in newsstands (mainly for magazine covers) was commented on,^[117] leading a scholar to describe in the early 1990s that "this alone makes Madonna a phenomenon worthy of analysis".^[11] Bego said that magazines or calendars "sell out in record numbers when her name or likeness is on them".^[118] According to author of Madonna: Queen of The World (2002), Madonna regularly sold "huge amounts" of newspapers and magazines, and media often "wanting to duck into the pot of gold she creates".^[119]

As of 2020, Madonna had graced the covers of an estimated 4,700 magazines worldwide,^[120] ranging from fan to high fashion periodicals weighing six pounds.^[121] Cindy Crawford and Madonna were the most featured cover girls of the 1980s and 1990s.^[122] Commenting about the 1980s, media historian James L. Baughman referred: "It was hard to find a magazine rack in the late 1980s that did not have one or mores periodicals with her picture gracing the cover".^[110] In 1989, she was the most popular and best-selling pin-up girl in Singapore.^[123] In 1992 alone, Madonna was the most commercial cover girl in the U.S.^[124] More people picked up her cover in 1992 on Entertainment Weekly that any other of their issues that year.^[125]

Sales include her debut in American Vogue in 1989, which was seen by its director Anna Wintour as "something extraordinary, like forty percent".^[126] Her 1997 March's Vanity Fair cover titled "Madonna and Child" was featured among the best-selling covers of 1998 with editor Graydon Carter commenting that "Madonna always sells phenomenally well".^[127] Infobae noted how she has been featured in many of their international editions, selling its copies in matters of days.^[128]

Her cover issue for W in 2003, titled X-STaTIC PRo=Cess, became the magazine's best-selling edition.^[129] The same year, a celebrity calendar firm in the UK placed her third among the best-selling woman in their 25th anniversary.^[130] She was also ranked as the fifth all-time bestselling female celebrity calendar on Amazon UK in 2011.^[131] She donned special anniversaries cover for some magazines. To celebrate their 50th anniversary, she graced four Cosmopolitan issues.^[132] She graced a special cover highlighting the 150th anniversary of Harper's Bazaar,^[133] Commemorating their seventh anniversary, the staff of Spin highlighted two Madonna's covers in their own narrative of Genesis creation.^[134]

Landon Palmer, professor at the University of Alabama, comments that her impact on popular culture includes areas like the publishing realm.^[135] Madonna herself had been inspired by diverse poets and authors, developing an "intense interest in poetry," while many of her songs have roots in poetry and philosophy.^[136]

She achieved various industry records with her books. Her first book, Sex, became the best and fastest-selling coffee table book.^[137][138] It had the largest initial release of any illustrated book and remains as one of the most in-demand out-of-print publications of all time according to Rolling Stone in 2022.^[139][140] Two of her children books are among the largest publishing titles in history by its number of translations. Alone The English Roses had the largest simultaneous multi-language debut for a book, with a target of more than 100 countries and 30 languages.^[141] It became the fastest-selling picture book by a debutant children's author according to South China Morning Post.^[142]

Madonna was one of the contributors to spreading interest in Rumi's poetry according to publisher DK.^[143] Novelists including Paulo Coelho and Lynne Truss have expressed admiration for her.^[144][145] With her success in children literature, Ed Pilkington from The Guardian felt that she "lured a host of other celebrities and publishers into the [children's book] market".^[146]

Many authors have developed interest in the subject of Madonna.^[147] In the 1990s, biographer Adam Sexton expressed that "an author can't even write a book-length essay on the writer he's obsessed by without mentioning Madonna's name".^[148] "Cut Madonna, and ink comes out", once described a Time magazine contributor.^[149]

A number of authors and editors have had cited Madonna as an influence. Having been an influence for him, Matthew Rettenmund made his publishing career debut by writing about her in 1995.^[150] Italian writer Francesco Falconi cited her as an influence and dedicated his non-fictional debut to a Madonna's biography in 2011.^[151] Australian editor Marc Andrews, former contributor for Mediaweek was inspired by both Madonna and Kylie Minogue to transition from local to international coverage in early 2020s.^[152] Madonna and Me (2012) by Jessica Valenti and Laura Barcella, as noted critics Eric Weisbard and Steven Hyden, is a book about dozens of women writers tracing their relationship with Madonna over the years.^[153][154] Writers and journalists have dedicated articles discussing Madonna's influence on them, including Natalia Mardero and two 2018's articles from the Belfast Telegraph and HuffPost.^{[155][156][157]} A publication even referred to Mardero as Madonna's "goddaughter".^[157]

Associate professor Diane Pecknold in American Icons (2006) also notes she helped popularize words and phrases in the English lexicon, including the term wannabe, and Desesperately Seeking [...] considering media headlines.^[36] People staffers said she "coined" the term for "Get rid of it".^[158]

Her presence on TV, also achieved record ratings, including then the highest-rated for The Arsenio Hall Show in 1990,^[159] and then highest HBO's most-watched nonsports event with the broadcast of the Blond Ambition World Tour Live.^[160] Madonna's halftime show of 2012, became the most-watched in the event's history by that point, and remains one of the 10 most-watched as of 2023.^[161]

Madonna was an important figure for VH1; she was called one of VH1's all-time top artists who personified the VH1 audience.^[162] In 1995, she participated along with Sting and Sheryl Crow in channel's most important consumer advertising campaign since the network's launch in 1985. The network of 50 million households by that time, described her presence in the campaign "lends undeniable star power to the spots" and also "imbues the network with the kind of credibility".^[162]

Madonna's impact on MTV was significant, on par with Michael Jackson. Arie Kaplan claims that "she was the first artist to really use MTV to establish her popularity".^[45] The rise of MTV and Madonna were described as nearly "synonymous",^[164] and more than one author considered it as a "symbiosis", including professor Ian Inglis.^[165] Both had contributed substantially to each other's success,^[166] with Mark Bego saying "Madonna helped make MTV as much as [MTV] helped make her".^[166] A Rolling Stone editor commented as Madonna morphed into "the world's most famous woman, so, too, did MTV evolve into a sleek superpower".^[167]

In 2019, Rolling Stone staffers including Bilge Ebiri and Maura Johnston considered "no artist conquered the medium" like her, with her videos defining the MTV era and changing "pop culture forever".^[168] "Quite simply there was no one else like her", stated Carrie Havranek in Women Icons of Popular Music (2009).^[164] Associate professor Diane Pecknold, called her the "MTV ideal".^[36] Although biographer Chris Dicker stated she transceded her "MTV persona",^[169] while other journalist stated she is "the first pop star of the MTV era to remain prolific at 60".^[30]

According to The New York Times in 2018, Madonna gave the network more media headlines than any other artist.^[170] Publications including The New York Times and MTV itself, have agreed how Madonna set the tone for the MTV Video Music Awards followed by decades.^[170][163] Inglis in a lengthy exploration, concludes that the more important legacy of "Like a Virgin" is the "legitimacy it lent to MTV at a time when MTV was trying to convince the world of the worthiness of music video".^[165] However, writing for National Review in 2015, David French was less impressed in how the channel have appealed Madonna's 1984 formula when pop music is supposed to be about the "now", saying "since then, it's been all Madonna, all the time".^[171]

Madonna's main impact on cinema was with Truth or Dare (1991); Guy Lodge from The Guardian named the movie her "most significant contribution to cinema".^[173] Joe Coscarelli from The New York Times said it "presaged the celeb-reality complex";^[174] it shows the "real" Madonna and the "celebrity". That perception of a major star was something unusual at that point as celebrities of Madonna's magnitude were often prized for their "distant mystique" not their "familiarity".^[173] The film is often referred as a precursor of the reality television,^[175] released one year before MTV's premiere of Real World that also is cited as a chief impact on the format.^[20]

Madonna has been taken as inspiration for others in the industry. In the case of Mexican actress Salma Hayek, she told Hispanic press that took inspiration from her for the role Tale of Tales.^[176] Katy Perry did the same for her documentary concert film Katy Perry: Part of Me.^[177] Madonna even inspired photorealism in Avatar (2009).^[178]

Her rise to fame and celebrity status also garnered her criticism. In 1992, Mexican newspaper El Siglo de Torreón called Madonna the best example of a self-advertising and overexposed star in media, while citing Mariah Carey as saying that appearing everywhere often damages the image of any artist.^[179] Media theorist Douglas Rushkoff explained that "Madonna's career has been more dependent on media backlash than it has on positive excitement or artistic achievement in the traditional sense".^[180] In the 1990s, an author described her "raunchy" reputation as having brought her fame and fortune while also calling her "Hollywood's most controversial star".^[181]

Madonna was often positioned as a media manipulator, earning both highly positive comments and criticisms. Bego referred she was the self-created "product of shameless media manipulation".^[118] Music critic J. D. Considine considered her "more media manipulator than musician".^[182] American journalist Josh Tyrangiel said that she reached her peak with the advent of her album Like a Prayer.^[183] In 1992, Mark Brown correspondent from Telegraph Herald called Madonna the "reigning queen". In response to being called a "media manipulator", Madonna was quoted as saying in 1991:

In the business world and in the world of politics, it's considered an asset. But in the entertainment industry, it's easier for people to deal with me by undermining my talents by saying that I'm not a good actress, not a good singer, not a good musician — or anything like that [...] They take everything else away from me, but give me that.^[184]

The label was not always accompanied by negative connotations. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame stated in 2008, that "no one in the pop realm has manipulated the media with such a savvy sense of self-promotion".^[39] For music critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine, public and media manipulation became "one of her greatest achievements".^[185][186] Authors in The Best Value Beauty Book Ever! (2007) described her as "perhaps the most media-savvy female performer ever".^[187] Although decades later, with the advent of social media, her then-well-received "media manipulator" image turned "inauthentic" for others.^[188]

In Keeping the Promise: Essays on Leadership, Democracy, and Education (2007), scholars called her a "complex character in media culture".^[190] For years, Madonna earned a reputation as a "tough interviewee".^[191] While she continued to attract media interest into the 21st century, she was known as an elusive figure. In Howard Stern Comes Again (2019), radio personality Howard Stern cites Gary Dell'Abate explaining that took "about thirty years" to have an interview with the singer (March 2015), accommodating their schedule to coincide with her, and saying "that's the only time I've ever done that [...] That's how important it was to have Madonna on".^[192] Madonna: The Rolling Stone Files (1997), chronicles Madonna's relationship with Rolling Stone magazine until that period, as described by them inside the book: "From the beginning, Rolling Stone was as fascinated by Madonna as were its readers".^[193]

Madonna has also become "one of the most famous tabloid fixtures in the world", possibly second to Princess Diana at some stage, wrote author Erin Carlson.^[194]

Biographer Carol Gnojewski describes how Madonna's popularity also contributed to her first marriage undoing with Sean Penn. She describes how the media had already begun to consider her "public property".^[195] Penn and Madonna's case related to paparazzi was included in "Top 10 Celebrity/Paparazzi Showdowns" by Time magazine, with the staff saying: "Madonna was part of what might be the paparazzi-celebrity showdown that started it all".^[196] In December 2008, media informed Madonna sued The Mail on Sunday for an alleged sum of £5 million in damages of breaching her privacy and copyright in publishing 11 pictures of her wedding with Guy Ritchie in 2000, followed news their marriage had broken down. According to The Guardian then, if her claim was accepted would be the biggest ever payout in a privacy case in the UK.^[197] In October 2009, People magazine informed Madonna won the court, and Associated Newspapers paid an undisclosed amount. The proceeds were announced to be donated to Madonna's charity, Raising Malawi.^[198]

In 1985, Penthouse and Playboy magazines published a number of nude photos of Madonna without her permission. They had their Madonna issues on newsstands weeks earlier than usual and increased their print run to 15 and 10 percent, respectively.^[118][199] Madonna's issues in Penthouse and Playboy were distributed at 5 million copies each.^{[199][200][201]} Later, Madonna had also suffered censure due to her provocative tones. Her appearance in 1994 at the Late Show with David Letterman became the most censored episode in American network television talk-show history.^[202] Madonna was censured in Texarkana HITS 105 Radio, due a provocative speech at 2017 Women's March against Donald Trump. Its general manager, Terry Thomas, explained in a statement that "banning all Madonna songs at HITS 105 is not a matter of politics, it's a matter of patriotism", after they perceived she shown un-American sentiments.^[203]

Various authors discussed Madonna's figure with sobriquets related to her media-reaching success. She was named a "media icon" in Exploring Media Culture (1996).^[28] The authors of Sound-Bite Saboteurs (2010), referred to Madonna as an "icon of our media culture".^[204] In 1987, American critic Kristine McKenna called her the "Goddess of Mass Communications".^[205] Bego similarly explored how Madonna surpassed the moniker of "star" and ascended to the role of "Media Goddess".^[24] According to James Robert Parish and Michael R. Pitts in Hollywood Songsters: Garland to O'Connor (2003), Madonna became the latest "Queen of the Media".^[26] Madonna was also called the "Queen of MTV".^[206] CNN staff commented in 1998, MTV could stand for "Madonna Television".^[207]

Retrospectively, Peter Robinson from The Guardian highlighted her as the "Original Queen of Pop Media".^[18] In 2013, professor Mathew Donahue from Bowling Green State University referred to her as "Queen of All Media".^[208]

Immediately and retrospectively, various authors highly estimated her celebrity status. In The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Rock History (2006), MaryAnn Janosik denoted limitations of encapsulate her in a single decade, by saying "calling Madonna the biggest female star of the mid-late 1980s would be as limiting a profile as identifying Michael Jackson as African American or Bruce Springsteen as a New Jersey Catholic".^[209] In the 2000s, she was called "arguably the biggest female pop star in American history" by Christopher John Farley and "America's greatest female pop star ever" by Utrecht University professor Anne-Marie Korte.^[16] By 2003, Merle Ginsberg described her as "perhaps the biggest star who ever lived".^[210] Similarly, Louis Virtel for Uproxx in 2014 called her as the "greatest celebrity of all time".^[211] In 2023, Billboard referred to her as "the biggest pop diva the world has ever seen".^[212] In Profiles of Female Genius (1994), author wrote that only her inability to conquer movies has kept her from being acknowledged as the greatest female entertainment phenomenon ever.^[31]

Madonna scored various MTV records. According to El Telégrafo, "La Isla Bonita" became the most requested video in the channel's history for a record-breaking 20 consecutive weeks.^[213] According to John W. Whitehead, Madonna was the artist with "most videos released" in the network.^[214] Similarly, editors of Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture (2005) said that "MTV plays her music videos more than any other artist's".^[215] She also had most videos released on Disk MTV by MTV Brasil.^[216]

She set the record of the largest live webcast after attracting more than 11 million users during a concert at London's Brixton Academy in 2000, surpassing Paul McCartney's 3 million users.^[217] According to some media reports, her kiss with Britney Spears at the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards became then the most searched image in the history of Internet.^[218] After her performance at the Super Bowl XLVI halftime show in 2012, Madonna set the record as the most-tweeted subject on Twitter.^[219] With the release of MDNA (2012) she set the largest day of pre-orders for an album in iTunes.^[220] In 2019, Madonna became the first female artist to have videos from four different decades with over 100 million views on YouTube.^[221]

Madonna has appeared in various power rankings and media coverage lists. For instance, she was included among the 101 Most Powerful People in Entertainment by Entertainment Weekly in 1990 and 1991,^[222][223] and was voted the Best Entertainer of the Year and Most Overexposed Actor/Actress in a 1992 US poll.^[224] From 1998 until 2016, Madonna made appearances in various Forbes Celebrity 100, which ranks several metrics such as earnings, media coverage, social media following and magazine covers.

In 2003, Alvin Hall ranked Madonna for BBC as the "most powerful celebrity".^[225] Madonna also ended as the most played artist of the 2000s in the United Kingdom according to Phonographic Performance Limited (PPL), and the most-talked about celebrity according to Kantar Group.^[226][227] In 2021, PPL ranked her second, as the most played women in the 21st century in UK.^[228] In 2022, Liberty Games ranked her as "the most popular musician" in history based on an analysis of over 6,500 songs from the top 100 Billboard charts.^[229]

Madonna also appeared in various lists of Internet culture. According to Orlando Sentinel, Cornell University ranked Madonna in 2014 as the "most influential woman in history" based on a study of Wikipedia algorithms.^[231] In 2017, Madonna topped ThoughtCo's list of "Top 100 Women in History", calling Madonna "the number one woman of history searched for year after year on the Net".^[232] In 2014, Madonna was ranked third —highest-ranked woman— by Time magazine editor Chris Wilson at "The 100 Most Obsessed-Over People on the Web", only behind George W. Bush and Barack Obama.^[233] Similarly, Madonna was ranked third at COED's 2010 list of the "50 Most Popular Women on the Web" based on Google Search results.^[234]

• Madonna vs. the press: It's a draw (Baltimore Sun 1991, J. D. Considine)
• Want To Have A Long Career? Be Like Madonna (Forbes, 2017)