{"id":648292,"date":"2026-05-05T00:49:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T00:49:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/648292\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T00:49:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T00:49:12","slug":"madonna-is-having-a-resurgence-thanks-to-gen-z","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/648292\/","title":{"rendered":"Madonna Is Having A Resurgence, Thanks To Gen Z"},"content":{"rendered":"

Madonna has done it again. On April 18, she released a house track, \u201c I Feel So Free<\/a>,\u201d giving the public its first taste of \u201cConfessions II,\u201d the sequel<\/a> to \u201cConfessions on the Dance Floor,\u201d her dance-pop album that dominated the charts in 2005. <\/p>\n

Last week, she dropped the new album\u2019s lead single, \u201cBring Your Love<\/a>,\u201d in collaboration with Sabrina Carpenter. \u201cConfessions II,\u201d planned for a summer release, promises to engage both Madonna\u2019s hardcore fanbase and cement her icon status with a rather unexpected audience: Gen Z. <\/p>\n

Madonna has been having a bit of a renaissance with the youth (myself included). Her recent appearance during Carpenter\u2019s Coachella set<\/a> caused a stir, and on TikTok, it\u2019s hard to scroll without hearing \u201cVogue<\/a>\u201d and \u201cLa Isla Bonita<\/a>.\u201d There seems to be no shortage of young content creators<\/a> commenting on her past discography, bonding over a newfound love of her music with older and newer fans. <\/p>\n

Some of this explains why, regardless of the fact that many of us weren\u2019t even born during her heyday, Gen Z is absolutely Madonna-pilled right now. <\/p>\n

To dig deeper into this phenomenon, we need to examine one of our biggest cultural crises right now: the disappearance of the quintessential popstar. <\/p>\n

Singer Lizzo made a TikTok<\/a> on this very subject, theorizing that singers can no longer create for the masses. The fragmentation of social media, whose algorithms are designed to keep us hooked through a constant feedback loop of our ultra-niche interests, means that the very idea of \u201cpopular culture\u201d is falling apart \u2014 or at least transforming into something unrecognizable.<\/p>\n

While you could once count on everyone turning on HBO to catch Soprano Sundays and know that the latest episode would be the talk of the town on Mondays, today, your co-worker might know absolutely nothing about \u201cWho TF Did I Marry<\/a>,\u201d the notorious 50-part TikTok saga. Pop culture just ain\u2019t popping anymore \u2014 at least not offline.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve observed that so many in my age demographic feel more connected to niche communities than mainstream culture, so it makes sense for us to champion one of the most timeless pop stars ever. I mean, Madonna was everywhere in the \u201990s. She is pop culture. And so, Gen Z is understandably drawn to the glow of a time when everyone bonded over a love or hatred of a single pop culture product and could find community in a generally understood pop culture phenomenon. <\/p>\n

Madonna\u2019s popularity was so important that academics even studied her to understand aspects of culture and society. Madonna studies<\/a> developed in the \u201980s and \u201990s among emerging academics, a critical ivory-tower-meets-pop-culture moment that paved the way for the future study of Tupac,<\/a> Taylor Swift<\/a> and Bad Bunny<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Thanks to Madonna studies, queer, feminist and academics of color gained more visibility, utilizing critical race theory and gender studies to offer a fresh analysis of the pop star and American culture. Intellectuals and cultural critics saw Madonna\u2019s penchant for controversy as a useful tool to understand social dynamics. \u201cMadonna\u2019s contradictions, as it turned out, were mirror images of contradictions in larger social structures, including a neoliberal economy\u2019s tendency to sell individual identity as a brand,\u201d Michael Dango writes in a 2024 article in the Los Angeles Review of Books<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Madonna embodies the idea of identity as performance, something members of Gen Z, steeped in the culture wars over LGBTQ+ identity, race and more, can appreciate. But Madonna is human, like anyone else, and she\u2019s made her mistakes \u2014 which are also worthy of examination.<\/p>\n

\"MadonnaMadonna performs on the 41st Annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles in 1999. <\/p>\n

Frank Micelotta Archive via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Cultural appropriation is one of her bigger issues. Cultural bombshells like \u201cVogue,\u201d which highlighted the ballroom culture<\/a> of New York, have led to debates that still haunt her legacy to this day, including the question of whether Madonna used LGBTQ+ culture for her own gain or was bravely showcasing a community that was demonized during the AIDS crisis.<\/p>\n

bell hooks once called Madonna a plantation mistress<\/a> in her critique of the documentary \u201cTruth or Dare: In Bed With Madonna,\u201d accusing the \u201cLike A Virgin\u201d singer of colonizing \u201cthe black experience for her opportunistic ends even as she attempts to mask her acts of racist aggression as admiration.\u201d <\/p>\n

And Madonna has indeed been culturally insensitive: Wearing Black cultural hairstyles in her infamous \u201cHuman Nature\u201d<\/a> music video and posting videos of her Black son dancing<\/a> to promote unity during the George Floyd protests of 2020 are just two instances of her problematic behavior. <\/p>\n

Madonna is on a learning curve, though \u2014 and that, I appreciate. For me, Madonna exposes the hypocrisies within American culture in a very satisfying manner. In Frankenstein-ing her image as pop star of the century \u2014 combining unexpected elements of style, music and performance \u2014 she exposes the inherent hypocrisies of the structures that keep the cisheterosexist status quo running like a well-oiled machine. <\/p>\n

Long story short, whether you love or hate Madonna, engaging with her as a cultural figure forces you to reckon with the fact that the most interesting part of the American experience is the unexpected intersecting of values.<\/p>\n

No matter how much America tries to package its ideal image into neat, white, straight little boxes, Madonna demonstrates that even the blondest, most blue-eyed pop star can not escape its contradictions regarding race, gender and identity. And this is a big part of why Gen Z loves her. <\/p>\n

Members of Gen Z can appreciate Madonna\u2019s radical honesty and authenticity, and see her as a \u201cPop Jesus,\u201d someone who\u2019s willing to be crucified in the media and by the general public as a sacrifice to create iconic pop moments that stand the test of time. <\/p>\n

Any engagement with Madonna is like a two-way mirror. One of her most famous utterances in \u201cVogue,\u201d \u201cWhat are you looking at?\u201d explains it all. I argue that what you look at and judge Madonna for says as much about her as it does about you, and culture at large.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy to see why she has captivated yet another generation. Very few pop stars inspire such layered cultural analyses in the critique of their celebrity. And the Queen of Pop knows no limit on her soft power.<\/p>\n