The Material Girl: Madonna’s Marilyn Moment

“Material Girl” was the second single from Madonna’s ridiculously successful 1984 album “Like a Virgin,” peaking at #2 in 1985. By borrowing some powerful imagery from another iconic blonde for the music video, Madonna earned a nickname that stuck. Madonna’s Marilyn moment endures. We discuss the making of the song and video and chat about materialism, influencer culture, Marie Kondo, and even Karl Marx and Cartesian dualism. (Gulp.) Join us as we make our first foray into the catalog of the best-selling female artist of all time, the Queen of Pop herself, Madonna Louise Ciccone.

“Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” was written by Anita Loos, and published the same year as Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby”:

The moral of the Material Girl video is that the “Material Girl” bit is an act Madge is putting on for work. She’s really just a simple girl who wants daisies and a ride in a jalopy with David Carradine. 

Director Mary Lambert helmed Madonna’s Material Girl video, as well as many of the Queen of Pop’s early vids including Borderline, Like a Virgin, La Isla Bonita, and Like a Prayer. She also directed videos for 80’s stars like Janet Jackson, Whitney Houston, Tom Tom Club and the Go-Gos. Amazingly the video did *not* win best female video of the year at the VMAs, losing to Tina Turner’s What’s Love Got To Do With It. Mary Lambert comes from an accomplished family; her sister Blanche Lincoln is the former senator from Arkansas, the first woman to chair the Senate’s Agriculture Committee. Mary Lambert is still an active director, leading TV and movie projects through last year. 

Did you enjoy Madonna’s Marilyn Moment? For more on Madonna, check out our episode on “A Very Special Christmas,” an album to which she contributed the perennial holiday favorite, “Santa Baby.”