Madonna Remains the Queen of the Music Video Debut Gimmick

As it’s been said many times, part of Madonna’s ability to keep staying at the forefront of pop music (despite what her numerous detractors say) is her willingness to embrace new mediums with which to disseminate herself (no sexual innuendo pun intended). Although it’s been a few years since Madonna played ball in the au courant gimmick game (apart from joining TikTok and participating in its so-called trends), she’s never ceased being “ready to pounce” on an opportunity. And this year, that opportunity presented itself in the form of Fortnite. Specifically, its latest iteration, Fortnite Festival. In fact, probably not since 2015 has she done something so overtly tailored to “the youths” with her latest music video debut for “Popular,” a song that The Weeknd already released a Madonna-free video for in 2023. 

And yet, since the song has managed to remain at the top of the charts for this long (another major career accomplishment for Madonna, with overt help from The Weeknd and Playboi Carti), the trio behind it apparently felt it was time to step up and provide a visual, even if a still extremely no frills one. As for the last time Madonna did something so “youth-targeted,” in 2015, that was the year the medium of choice seemed to be Snapchat. Which is why Madonna opted to premiere the video for “Living for Love,” the lead single from Rebel Heart, on that app instead of sticking with the once go-to option (especially for her) of premiering it on MTV. 

In addition to MTV, in the past, Madonna relied on more conventional mediums of gimmickry for unleashing her videos onto the world. Namely, the advertising medium. This is part of why she previewed “Like A Prayer” via a Pepsi commercial in 1989 and “Hung Up” via a Motorola commercial in 2005. In between, there were other unique ways of peddling a video, including that time, in 1990, when she managed to get the Jean-Baptiste Mondino-helmed video for “Justify My Love” banned from MTV. The controversy surrounding the “too saucy” visuals not only led to a big-deal interview on Nightline about the whole thing, but also releasing the video as a VHS single, the first time anything like that had ever needed to happen in order for a music video to be seen. But even before the VHS hit the shelves, Madonna found a way around MTV to premiere the “salacious” content. Both on the Jukebox Network and, less than a week later, on Nightline. The latter broadcast TV show, er, justified being able to air it because of the “news value of the video, the late air time and the focus of the discussion.” One that Madonna was sure to make all about the hypocrisy of the proverbial censors being wary of sex (especially when it displayed homosexuality and “bi-curious tendencies”), yet completely open to any and all kinds of gratuitous violence. Particularly toward women. 

The release of the content on VHS went on to become the best-selling video single of all time. So Madonna’s unique form of debuting her single onscreen, once again, worked in her favor…even if it wasn’t initially her first choice to deviate from the MTV premiere norm. Four years later, with Bedtime Stories’ “Take A Bow,” the fanfare surrounding its debut on November 22nd was buttressed after the fact rather than before it, with MTV airing an hour-long (or forty-two minutes, without commercials) special called No Bull! about the making of the video in Ronda, Spain. Soon after, VH1 aired a series of ads for its “revamped” channel that featured Madonna’s video (and Madonna herself) in one of them. Yet another display of synergistic prowess. To boot, Madonna sanctioned the use of her hit single in the season one finale of Friends, “The One Where Rachel Finds Out.” Always finding a way for her new music to seep into the collective consciousness. 

Over the years, Madonna would continue to rely on MTV for building anticipation for her new videos, including “Frozen,” which also found her talking to Kurt Loder once again on the set of the Chris Cunningham-directed video in the Mojave Desert for an episode of Ultrasound. Another four years later, to honor the release of “Die Another Day,” she filmed an episode of Making the Video for MTV. Something she would do again in 2003 for “Hollywood” and her feature on Britney Spears’ “Me Against the Music.” 

Another highlight of Madonna making her music video launches an “event” came in the form of 2019’s “Medellín” featuring Maluma. The lead-up to the premiere was made into an “international party” by doing a thirty-minute interview with Madonna amongst a live audience at MTV Studios in London (that was the year she was feeling more European because she lived in Lisbon). With the wonder of satellites, the broadcast aired simultaneously across the globe (how very Live Aid) in cities that included São Paulo, Milan and New York. 

Which brings us to the present-day unique way Madonna has yet again chosen to disseminate one of her music videos: through the popular-with-Gen Z Fortnite. This, in turn, echoing her maneuver with Snapchat’s Discover Channel back in 2015 with “Living For Love.” As was the case then, it could be argued that the “simplicity” of “Popular” is a result of considering the medium it was going to be debuted on. The less “complicated” visuals for mentally checked-out youths, the better. In the era of “Living for Love,” Madonna was “desperate” to tap into millennials’ awareness, with Snapchat being a preferred app circa 2015-2016 (cue the numerous dog face filters). Alas, in 2016, a damning article from The Independent about millennials viewing her as “toxic” came out, touting how “academic research” found that she was viewed as “inauthentic” by the generation that prefers the likes of Britney Spears and Taylor Swift. But perhaps inauthenticity is in again with Gen Z (mostly thanks to said generation’s odd sense of worship over the Kardashian-Jenner fucks). And yet, Madonna’s strain of “inauthenticity,” as it relates to her plastic surgery aesthetic, hasn’t seemed to vibe with the overly critical many. Least of all Gen Z. However, maybe with The Weeknd co-piloting this video, which focuses mainly on him prancing around the lavish halls and grounds of Hatfield House in Hertfordshire, England. Something that doesn’t seem all that relatable to any generation, only to a more affluent class. 

Nonetheless, “Popular” is ultimately all about the aspirational. How a girl (like Madonna herself) would do anything to become beloved, revered, idolized. Since the days of her NYC obscurity, Madonna has certainly managed that, still never letting herself (or us) forget that New York is where she came from (after leaving the suburbs of Detroit). Indeed, the mood of nostalgia Madonna evokes on this track is hardly resonant with Gen Z and its general lack of experience/sense of history. Especially regarding Madonna. To help give a “let’s harken back” aura to everything, Madonna even dons a getup that’s extremely reminiscent of her True Blue era, complete with a “Papa Don’t Preach” video-inspired bustier, a black leather jacket and fingerless gloves. 

While doing her own prance around a very expensive-looking Manhattan penthouse (one she never would have been able to imagine living in during her days of East Village/LES slumming), the floor-to-ceiling windows lend the interior a decidedly fishbowl aesthetic while M appropriately sings, “I know that you see me, time’s gone by/Spent my whole life runnin’ from your flashin’ lights.” This sentiment, too, echoing what she says in 1998’s “Drowned World/Substitute For Love” and the video’s content featuring a slew of flashing camera lights stalking her. Other nods to Madonna personae of the past include wielding a cane (like she did in The Girlie Show and her 2003 performance at the VMAs) and writhing around sexually like a virgin (about to be deflowered) on a bed. Or, in this instance, a couch. At the same time, Madonna can’t help but interweave her usual religious overtones by making a sign of the cross as she sings, “Pray herself to keep.”

And for the most part, she has kept herself. That same rebel heart spirit from the days of clawing her way to the top paired with the ingenuity and adaptive nature that has allowed her music to appear on the type of mediums that pop stars her age would balk at. Perhaps that’s why there aren’t really any pop stars her age. Though, thanks to Madonna paving this lonely road, there will probably be plenty more in the future, including the likes of Ariana Grande and Taylor Swift.