Cultural impact of Madonna

Madonna (born 1958) is an American singer whose socio-cultural impact has been noted by popular press and scholars from different fields, throughout the late-twentieth and early twenty-one centuries, and attested outside of the music sphere to an international scale.

Named by Time magazine as one of the most powerful women of the 20th century,^[2] Madonna was included among remarkable American figures by publications and cultural institutions, including the Smithsonian Institution, National Geographic Society, Encyclopædia Britannica and Discovery Channel. Her impact has been compared to that of other entertainers such as Michael Jackson, the Beatles, Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley. Madonna has also been described by different publications as one of the most-well-written about figures in popular culture. In between immediate and retrospectives, euphemistic or straightforward discussions around Madonna further centered her as arguably the long-time foremost influential female musician from popular music.

Her success led to other female singers being called to her namesake, and the way she was received by media, public, and academia was also credited to help the way future generations of female singers were scrutinized and succeed in a multi-metric environment, further breaking gender and multicultural barriers. Madonna's influence on other entertainers was also articulated. Her music impact as a whole led Billboard staffers to describe that "the history of pop music can essentially be divided into two eras: pre-Madonna and post-Madonna". In the process, she amassed various world records, especially for a female artist, being recognized as the best-selling music female artist by the Guinness World Records and other industry publications, also receiving various nicknames by the press, ranged from "Madge" to "Queen of Pop" and "Queen of Music" industry. She was also called a pop and cultural icon by academicians, including her critics.

A complex figure, Madonna's evolving persona and work also attracted socio-cultural criticisms from a varied of perspectives and approaches, which made her someone difficult to categorize as noted by social critics like Stuart Sim. She became a polarizing and challenged figure, whom perpetuated an image of controversialist and provocateur, a reputation to which she acknowledges, although she responded is generally marked to provoke thoughts and conversations. As her career advanced, Madonna's credibility fluctuated. She has faced a substantial societal antireactions ranging from censorship to boycotts and death threats from organizations and radicalized groups, including the Islamic State (ISIS). The transcultural and globalized reach of Madonna from ambiguous and negative perspectives were further conceptualized within terms such as "Madonna-economy" or the "Madonnanization", drawing comparisons with that of the McDonaldization or Cocacolonization, while she was called a hyperglobalized example. Some criticisms towards Madonna also came from generalized criticisms of various aspects, including criticisms on popular culture. Despite correspondence between critics, it was also documented that some critical analyses considered the way Madonna polarized views, early marked prominently by the fact she was an "unavoidable" figure.