I'm a lifelong non-fan of Madonna who is old enough to remember her debut (I actually liked "Borderline" and still do. I remember thinking it was a black singer until I finally saw her album cover).
She was never for me. I was into rock music, and still mostly am. Most of her music, the occasional single aside, always sounded plastic and overwrought to me. I had no issues with her subtexts of female empowerment (although I still have doubts as to whether or not acting like a sexpot really "empowers" women) or gay empowerment (ditto), and I did have to admit that she was a master manipulator of media. She, or more accurately perhaps, her producers, also had a knack for bringing the latest club music into the mainstream a year before most people had ever heard it, which kept her musically relevant. Her best singles still sound good today, and her worst ones never did sound all that great.
But I had my doubts how long this relevancy would last. As it turns out, it lasted 20 years, which is pretty good when compared to most rock musicians, but it is still finite. The end came back in 2003, with her American Life album, which positioned her as some kind of Che Guevara-type, pointing to the lie of the American dream, mostly because at the age of 44, she was suddenly feeling very unfulfilled on a personal level. She had achieved everything she had ever wanted, and still was unhappy. From this, she extrapolated that all Americans must be unhappy. The album deservedly tanked, and the singles from it flopped. Among other things, it had one of the most lulzy white-girl raps ever ("I drink a double latte; it goes right through my body"...) and nobody was buying the Che pose. It didn't help that at the same time, she was making the absolute worst films of her life. (Swept Away, et. al.)
That was a long time ago. After 20 years of relevancy, she has had 21 years of diminishing returns. Her public pronouncements grew sillier and more out of touch, her music started falling behind the times, and she was no longer a sexpot.
She had a choice at that point. She could have taken another stab at improving her music, maybe coming up with a style to suit her through middle age. Or, she could keep on trying to be Madonna in a world that had dozens of Madonnas, all younger, hipper, and more relevant. She chose the latter path, which meant that she was almost guaranteeing that she'd become self-parody and even a parody of self-parody. And she has.
Pointing out that she looks ridiculous in that clip, with her face bloated with botox and her once-ripped body looking rather chubby (might be the padding of that aluminum suit), isn't really ageism. It isn't her age that people find funny, it is her lack of dignity. Madonna has never wanted to grow up, but she is no match for Time the Conqueror.
Mick Jagger's relevancy ran out after about 20 years too, coincidentally almost at the precise moment Madonna released her debut. He also can't bear the thought of growing old, and has made a fool of himself plenty of times over the years. The difference is that Jagger, Robert Plant, Paul and Ringo, and any other geriatric rock star you can name were associated more with music than with culture-defining dance and spectacle. So, they always have that to fall back on, and if Madonna had also just fallen back on her music, we might not be talking about her now. Of course, Madonna hates it when people aren't talking about her, which is part of her problem.
But that said, people have made fun of the Rolling Stones' ages for decades. People frequently say McCartney needs to quit touring, because his voice is a pathetic shambles of what it once was. Plant recognized the changes that aging brings, and changed his music to suit his aging voice, essentially becoming a very different performer from his younger self. While I love those guys, I don't have much use for their latter day music. I get more musical thrills from young, hungry musicians with something new to say than I do the complacent music of billionaires long past their prime.
To many people (not everyone, I realize, but many) Madonna is a lolcow. That's why she has a thread here. Mick Jagger isn't one. And as much as Madonna wants to whine that it is misogyny and ageism that has people laughing at her, I just don't buy it. People laugh at undignified people, whether it is Madonna looking bloated in her aluminum suit or some YouTube lolcow being retarded online. Early in her career, she decided that her sex appeal was her ticket to stardom. The problem with sex appeal is that unlike good music, it is not timeless.
