Business of Madonna
American singer-songwriter and businesswoman Madonna received significant coverage by business journalism, becoming the first solo entrepreneur woman to grace a Forbes cover (1990).
Culturally, Madonna's figure impacted tourism of some places, including Belize's San Pedro Town thanks to "La Isla Bonita", and during the 2000s in Israel which lead her being praised due to Second Intifada crisis.
During the height of her career, media scholar Douglas Kellner considered "one cannot fully grasp the Madonna phenomenon without analyzing her marketing and publicity strategies".
[14] According to professor Robert Miklitsch from Ohio University in From Hegel to Madonna: Towards a General Economy of Commodity Fetishism (1998), she is "largely a story about publicity and marketing".
[24] Despite positive commentaries, Madonna debuted in an era when most entertainers avoided labels of "manager" or "businesswoman",[25] marked by a cultural perception at that time of art and commerce.
[21] In her early career, Madonna also earned a reputation of being a "calculating businesswoman",[30] which led The Canberra Times to describe it as a "crucial difference" between her and other American industry fellows.
[35] He cited Paul Grein from Billboard who also considered the singer a "very smart and very shrewd artist", whose generates a lot of publicity, interpreting it as her "key to staying on top".
[47] Marketing expert Roger Blackwell explained "she becomes the conduit", introduction and acceptance of a wide range of trends in areas from fashion to expression, dance, lifestyle and more.
[60] In HumanCentric (2020), analyst Mike Saunders largely explored its impact, calling the deal a "milestone" that clearly helped change the way of many aspects in the concert industry, a sector that would later become a leading source of music revenues.
[62] Madonna's forays within the wireless world would also impacted the medium, including during the release of American Life in 2003, as claims Rick Mathieson in Branding Unbound (2005).
[67] Two decades prior, The Daily Telegraph commented in 1998: "Madonna is arguably the most successful businesswoman in the entertainment industry (her only rival for the title being Sherry Lansing, chairman of Paramount)".
[11] A contributor from Slate magazine in 1999, listed as the "Madonnas" of the age of stock market, and celebration of the entrepreneur to individuals from Bill Gates to Steve Ballmer.
[95] Writing for business magazine Campaign in 2018, AARP's Patricia Lippe Davis considered her case notable within a visible target on the market, women over 60.
[109] Thomas Ferraro granted her an "important" cultural role as a whole, at least for young public in the 1980s, defending his point by saying she was a "miracle worker, and wonder woman", the "faith healer" of Reagan's divide and-conquer America.
[113] After having influenced yuppie culture with a monetary hedonism, Ann Powers for The New York Times in 1998 noted her turning into spirituality, saying were been "scrutinized as signs of a new style of growing up".
Madonna critic bell hooks, as pointed out scholars from Nordic Association for American Studies commented it was a "monetary and a global media ambition".
[24] On this, American business writer Tom Peters praised her international numbers, commenting in 1993, she runs a "positive trade balance" leading him to describe it as part of a "new soft economy".
[140] American business writer Robert J. Samuelson, explored for The New York Times in 1991, the interchangeable growing aspects of a global economy, and titled his article "Madonna and the New Economic Order".
[147] Similarly, in Issues in Cultural Tourism Studies (2015), Melanie Smith said after the release of Evita with Madonna, it "boosted the profile of Argentina in recent years".
Her presence was praised amid the Second Intifada crisis,[151][152][153] producing Israeli tourism's major media coup when she declared Israel a safe destination.
[171] Alone in 1986, WEA International reported an increase of 27% in revenues, then their largest recorded sum in 15 years and with Madonna having a leading role followed by Phil Collins.
[172] Described by scholar Fred Goodman back then as "one of their biggest and most consistent-selling artists",[173] Michael Ovitz called Madonna as Warner Music's "hit machine".
[182] Financial-targeted Spaniard newspaper El Confidencial, explores how the coconut water before Madonna, was only sold in ethnic food stores and other small locals.
[183] Madonna also helped popularize a variety of other products, including Cosmopolitan cocktail, which was later frequently mentioned on the television program Sex and the City.
[237] On the other hand, Madonna's advertising posters for Rebel Heart was considered a controversial album cover for Hong Kong’s public transportation which caused to have included a warning label.
[243] Her advertisement sparked an "extensive" coverage in a variety of "diverse arenas", including stock market circles, the show-business industry and tabloids according to James Robert Parish and Michael R.
[244] While some critics regarded it as a blockbuster sponsorship,[245][246] J. Randy Taraborrelli labeled her deal as one of the "biggest controversies in the history of corporate advertising's" related to pop music.
[257] In 1997, author Douglas Baldwin explained with Madonna's case, that some other people in fields like medicine receive very few rewards in relation to their contribution to society, and entertainers such as Madonna, earn much more than they contribute to it, although brought examples of public figures like philosopher Ayn Rand favoring free will of people entitled to spend "whatever they wish", which lead him to include examples of "expensive" tickets.
[258] In 1993, Nirvana's vocalist Kurt Cobain nod how musical acts like Madonna charged a notable gap for ticket prices, compared to their case.
[261] On pair with criticisms, Brown also noted in 2004: "Almost every commentator on the Madonna phenomenon, from fellow entertainer to cloistered academician, acknowledges her promotional genius".
