Madonna on TikTok: she’s recycling ‘the shock value of her heyday’

Madonna would like to remind us all that she invented sex. Or at least did the heavy lifting to allow for the so-called “pornification of pop”. She seems to think it all began with Sex, the coffee table book of softcore porn/art photography she released 30 years ago this past weekend.

“There were photos of Men kissing men, Woman kissing Woman, and Me kissing everyone,” Madonna wrote about the book in an Instagram story over the weekend, adding: “Now, Cardi B can sing about her WAP. Kim Kardashian can grace the cover of any magazine with her naked ass and Miley Cyrus can come in like a wrecking ball. You’re welcome bitches ……. ????”

Madge’s viral nostalgia was perhaps the tamest thing she posted this weekend – in the past 48 hours, she’s also shared sex toy spon-con and a video in which she’s lying on a fitness bench stroking her crotch. But her throwback post drew a “disappointed” response from Cardi B. “I literally [paid] this woman homage so many times cause I grew up listening to her,” the rapper wrote in a now-deleted tweet. “She can make her point without putting clown emojis and getting slick out the mouth.”

Others who followed the saga online accused Madonna of over-emphasizing her own influence on pop music while ignoring the contributions of Black women like Grace Jones, Janet Jackson, and Donna Summer, who all played with their sexuality in performances. (But should we expect thoughtful, inclusive commentary from a woman who in 2014 doubled down on calling her white son the n-word, explaining that she was merely reappropriating the slur as a “term of endearment”?)

Then, as fast as you can say “Pop Crave has reported that …”, the apparent beef was resolved. Cardi tweeted that she and Madonna had made up over a phone call. Madonna wrote that she would “always love” Cardi and went back to what she’s been doing best – or at least, most often – in recent weeks: posting to TikTok with the enthusiasm of a teenager on school break.

Madonna, 64, was an early adopter of TikTok, joining the platform in 2018. She’s posted steadily since, but her antics have hit an attention-seeking apex in recent weeks. As W put it, Madonna has entered her “TikTok era” – strutting through a mirrored bathroom in silver platforms, dancing in bondage gear, staring at the camera from behind gigantic baby-pink sunglasses and drawing a rainbow-manicured finger up to her pouting lips.

Last week, Madonna used TikTok to (maybe) come out. Wearing a white corset and sweatpants, she held up a pair of fuschia panties. A caption read, “If I miss, I’m gay!” Madonna then tossed the undies, which missed their intended target, a wastebasket. The camera cut back to Madonna, who flashed an “aw, shucks” shrug – the gay icon appears to have told us something.

Many would argue that she already told us the same something at the 2003 VMAs, where she kissed Britney Spears onstage in a move that kept members of the Parents Television Council up for weeks on end. Or in the queer orgy she staged for her 1990 Justify My Love music video, which was banned from MTV. (More recently, Madonna was spotted making out with the 26-year-old Dominican rapper Tokischa at various New York locales this summer: a Pride party, a New York fashion week show, and on TikTok, of course.)

So the queen of reinvention has also done a bit of recycling on TikTok: we’ve seen a lot of this before. “Madonna’s use of TikTok manufactures the kind of buzz she derived from the shock value of her music’s subject matter and her subsequent encounters with critics during her heyday,” said Katie Kapurch, associate professor of English at Texas State University and co-editor of the academic journal AMP: American Music Perspectives. “Now, instead of defending her art, she’s defending the history of her art – it’s all very meta-textual.”

To Kapurch, Madonna’s videos exemplify the “credit-taking trend” that’s popular among artists more aligned with Boomers and Gen X, but doesn’t play well on TikTok. “When you earnestly take credit for your work, the effect can be cringe-y,” she said. “It’s better to be ironic. Look at Dionne Warwick, for example, and her brilliant use of Twitter. She enters into trending topics, but Warwick’s wit and timing encourage others to take up her mantle and make the case for why her music matters.”

But Madonna doesn’t need any help in the self-promotion department. And while she may be right that she earned her place as an elder of pop culture feminism, she often overshadows that truth by being, well, Madonna.