Madonna cancels US release of anti-war video

Obviously forgetting the fact she once promoted Pepsi during the companys less than stellar reputation in the mid 1980s. But, hey, she's Madonna.

Fuck her.

Compromise is not a dirty word.

Also, pulling the premiere of the video generates more publicity for both the song and her views on the war with the added bonus of making people REALLY curious about what the video is actually like. I wouldn't be surprised if she'd planned to yank the video in the US from the get-go as a propaganda/marketing technique.

"artistic integrity" is a pretty way of saying "I'm a self-absorbed asshole".

Actually, that seems sorta likely given her history and given how her own website has this news in SHOCKA all caps.

Is the purpose of protest to convince people you are right or to alienate them, Shakey? If circumstances change such that something you've done has gone from being persuasive to alienating, why does deciding not to do it have any bearing on your principles or your integrity? Furthermore, if you are using your for-profit business to make your point, how is it going against your principles or integrity to look for a way to do it that allows your business to make a profit?

Probably, if you dig deep enough, they underlying moral here is: don't even think about fucking with Clear Channel.

It's to afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted. Or so some bumper sticker tells me.

"If circumstances change such that something you've done has gone from being persuasive to alienating,"

Now see, I just don't understand how you (or anyone really) could possibly think that in the lead-up to the war, the image in the video was somehow persuasive - and now that the war (all of two weeks old) is on, it's somehow become alienating. Things have not changed much - public perception has not changed much, all that's happened is that threats of mass death are now being followed through.

"why does deciding not to do it have any bearing on your principles or your integrity?"

Because it makes you look like you aren't willing to weather criticism, or accept the consequences of your actions (no matter how stupid they may have been at the time). It also makes you look like an opportunist.

"Furthermore, if you are using your for-profit business to make your point, how is it going against your principles or integrity to look for a way to do it that allows your business to make a profit?"

I haven't seen any indications that she's doing this. What "better way" that she wasn't aware of, oh, 2 months ago, is she currently pursuing?

I think the purpose should be to start a dialogue, to make people consider a side they maybe hadn't before, maybe even make them (however uncomfortably) confront something that might even be objectionable--and in turn force others to sharpen their opposition to that--and for this reason I think Madonna's really copped out on this one, and it seems especially annoying given all the pre-publicity this thing has received. I understand the sensitivity issues, but this is a war--one that has garnered a ton of opposition world wide--so why does the dialogue (esp. in a song/video, wherein it's clear that this is one person's slant) have to be soft-pedalled or shut out altogether? I think outrageous acts, even when they're mired in self-promotion and bullshit (like Michael Moore's speech may or may not have been), are kinda welcome and even necessary right now, and it's a drag that Madonna has basically sided with every other pop star (cf. the Grammy's) and decided to basically keep her mouth shut. (I actually don't buy that she was strong-armed by Clear Channel...she's much too ahead of the game for that, no?)

I wish she'd released the video and publicly stated her own confusion or possibly misgivings about doing so.

sorry but this single suXoRs beyond how things can conceivably suXoR

I mean, it's one thing if someone suddenly develops moral qualms about something. But most of this is just people being scared. And they're being scared by jackass blowhards who don't know anything about anything, and who will turn tail at the first bared fang.

Sorry, I'm just grumpy. My country's being run by idiots. I guess a pop star with guts (or even the marketing savvy to remember the 50-plus percent of the nation that ain't happy with the state of affairs) is too much to hope for. Sigh.

Not to bring Michael Moore at the Oscars again, but he really had nothing to lose by speaking out. Hollywood and its machinations don't fund his movies, it's Canadian Salter Street and often the BBC.

You'd think that Madonna would have similar (figurative) weight to throw around, but Moore made Bowling For Columbine, and Madonna made Swept Away. She more than almost anyone should know how quickly the public will turn on someone. Remember how bored we all were with her before Ray of Light?

I just hate seeing people so scared all the time. Even Madonna.

(By the way, I think the song is great--finally heard it--and the decription I read of the video makes it sound funny. The grenade she tosses is used by Bush to light a cigar!)

"Due to the volatile state of the world and out of sensitivity and respect to the armed forces, who I support and pray for, I do not want to risk offending anyone who might misinterpret the meaning of this video..."

Read the second part of that quote and tell me again who the speaker is??

My guess is it was made in the context of anti-war-dom being hip (remember, way back in February?). Not that she was just trying to be hip, but that was certainly the vibe then. And maybe she really thought there wouldn't be a war on when it came out. Or maybe she didn't realize what it would be like if there were a war on. Either way, it's asinine not to release an anti-war video because you don't want it to conflict with an actual real war.

As for the earlier discussion about polls and "the people" and so forth, I have no idea what "the people" think, and neither do the pollsters. Ask questions different ways, you get different answers. My guess is that a lot of people think two or three or four different things, many of them contradictory, and secretly hope no one asks them to explain their views in detail.

That being said who the hell cares? Justify My Love? Drowned World? It's hardly the first time her videos haven't been shown. She's not trying to raise a dialog, this was probably her intention all along.

http://home.iae.nl/users/maes/cave/pix/fans/tax8211.jpg

I don't know why people care about this so much. Her video isn't going to change minds whether it appears on MTV rotation or in excerpts on The Today Show.

For argument's sake...
It's philosophically squishy to be "anti-war" when there is no war going on, and less "anti-war" when there is a war on. I guess maybe if she came out and said, "Well, I've been watching Fox News and reading the Weekly Standard and I've decided war's really not so bad after all," that would be one thing. But to say that you're "anti-war" but you just don't want to upset anyone...it's a war! Being upset is part of the deal. It's like she wanted to be provocative, but only as long as there was nothing real at stake (which was true of most of her earlier provocations -- even pissing off the Pope was a pretty abstract outrage).

Which doesn't mean anything much about her except that her convictions on this particular subject seem weak. And that's fine. I like Madonna, and I don't really expect strong moral/political stands from her. At the same time, I don't like seeing people fold so easily in the face of the manufactured outrage of the Murdoch/talk radio machine. People who don't stand up to bullies make it that much harder for the bullies' next target.

don't you think it's a little pointless to say "this is completely inappropriate and insensitive" when she says, "I've decided this is inappropriate and insensitive."?

Christ, would there even be an Internet?

I agree w/ this. She could have pulled the Sex book before its release, and if she had Erotica might have been a bigger success. The fact that she didn't was a testament to the greatness of Madonna as a public figure, which is not the relevance, intelligence or meaningfulness of her public statements but rather the thrillingly uncomfortable knowledge that she might not stop at respectable society's line in the sand. Everytime Madonna observes the line in the sand (like now) after threatening not to, she damages a part of her mystique irrecovably. It's not a case of intention so much as perception.

http://www.salon.com/ent/feature/2003/04/03/video/index.html

WHERE IS PATRICK LEONARD????????????

The rap is ridiculous!

(i mean, that's kind of a guess, but that's exactl who i DID think of when i first saw it)

Right now she's still young enough to do more "picture of a beauty queen ON THE COVAH OF A MAGAZINE" type o things, she can still get in funky poses that give the appearance of semi-perky tits like in that W magazine cover. So wtf is all this "I'm not a Christian or a Jew" stuff....Madge, that's almost as bad as "I"m not a Girl, Still Not a Woman" !!!!!

You're still young Madge...CALL PATRICK LEONARD, HE CAN GIVE YOU ONE MORE CHANCE!!

Vic: Let Patrick go, those days are gone and Madge has had a 303 implanted in her ass. ACCEPT.

*rimshot*

Which songs were Jellybean-influenced?