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lliira I've been reading gossip columns lately (what can I say, I'm bored), and often when they mention Madonna, they say she's admirable for working her way out of Detroit.
Okay, first of all, Detroit itself isn't the horrible scary slum hole that it's portrayed as in mass media. It's a mess, and it has its own unique problems, but it's a modern city in America, with all that entails.
Second: Madonna is not from Detroit. She went to school with my mom's family in Rochester, which is a 45 minute drive from Detroit. Madonna was good friends with one of my uncles. My mom's dad was a tenured professor. These days, Rochester is a wealthy (and mostly white) suburb. Back then, it wasn't quite as wealthy, but it was even more white, and it was solidly middle class. The schools were good middle class schools, the town was very safe, and kids ran around its meadows until dark.
I find the Madonna song "This Used to Be My Playground" her most effective, because I know the places she's talking about, and I know that song is coming from despair that she truly feels. Those places used to be my mom's and aunts' and uncles' playgrounds as well. Now they are parking lots, and McMansions stacked on top of each other, and broad roads that carry congested traffic to and from Detroit.
I admire Madonna and I like most of her music. I admire her for what she is, for her own story of ambition and fearlessness and hard work. She doesn't need to pretend she's anything but what she is, and I wish people who wrote about her would stop with the bs.
Okay, first of all, Detroit itself isn't the horrible scary slum hole that it's portrayed as in mass media. It's a mess, and it has its own unique problems, but it's a modern city in America, with all that entails.
Second: Madonna is not from Detroit. She went to school with my mom's family in Rochester, which is a 45 minute drive from Detroit. Madonna was good friends with one of my uncles. My mom's dad was a tenured professor. These days, Rochester is a wealthy (and mostly white) suburb. Back then, it wasn't quite as wealthy, but it was even more white, and it was solidly middle class. The schools were good middle class schools, the town was very safe, and kids ran around its meadows until dark.
I find the Madonna song "This Used to Be My Playground" her most effective, because I know the places she's talking about, and I know that song is coming from despair that she truly feels. Those places used to be my mom's and aunts' and uncles' playgrounds as well. Now they are parking lots, and McMansions stacked on top of each other, and broad roads that carry congested traffic to and from Detroit.
I admire Madonna and I like most of her music. I admire her for what she is, for her own story of ambition and fearlessness and hard work. She doesn't need to pretend she's anything but what she is, and I wish people who wrote about her would stop with the bs.
