Madonna has made it no secret she borrows from the musical trends and sounds going on around her. For her debut album, she borrowed a lot of R&B musical trends (listen to "Think of Me", and "Holiday" for perfect examples of how pop and R&B were melded together to form those tracks) which she probably heard blasting from all the boom-boxes on her street. Madonna was living in the heart of the East Village (New York) at the time, where punk, R&B, the early roots of hip-hop/rap, and dance music were all coming together. Like a sponge, she took these sounds, and with the writers and producers she worked with, she helped make them come together for her debut album. Although she isn't credited with any production work on her first album, several songs which have R&B type influences list her as the writer: "Think of Me" and "I Know It" are two prime examples.

Because many listeners thought Madonna was black when they first heard her, there was no question regarding her legitimacy to be incorporating the R&B sounds of the era into her pop/mainstream music. She was given freedom to do so because she was assumed to be black. But, when viewers got to see what she looked like via MTV, and discovered her to be a white girl from Detroit, the rules changed. Despite Madonna being raised in the birthplace of Motown, and listening to Motown records as a kid, her freedom to have R&B influenced pop songs was taken away from her. More than likely, this was sensed by both Sire (her record company at the time), and Madonna herself, and for her second album ("Like a Virgin"), the production work took on a more standard pop sound.

When Madonna tried to revisit the incorporation of R&B into her pop songs with her 1994 album Bedtime Stories, she was once again criticized for it. Surprisingly enough, it wasn't music critics who did so (the album was well received by most major music publications), but it was the public that criticized her for it. Despite the fact that Babyface and Dallas Austin had been making huge hits for several artists on the Billboard Hot 100 charts for several years, Madonna working with them was seen by the public as "selling out". Why? Well, my guess is because Madonna is white, and she is supposed to be making white music, which basically means she can't be making R&B records. Bedtime Stories was a respectable success, but it would take another four years before Madonna achieved the type of success expected of her studio albums.

Even today, with Madonna's confirmed collaborations with Justin Timberlake (who was the epitome of pop at first, but has now become a synthesis of R&B and pop), Timbaland, and Pharell Williams on her new upcoming album---she has received a lot of criticism among her main fan-base. Some say, "she is a white artist...she isn't supposed to be making black music". But, my guess is that if she even had 1% of black blood in her, Madonna wouldn't be so condemned for trying to incorporate R&B/hip-hop music into her pop sound. That 1% would somehow, someway, give her enough freedom as a white artist to be working with producers like Timbaland.

Just look at Nelly Furtado, whose makeup is a combination of different races (which includes some black blood), but is mainly regarded as a white artist. Her first two albums were a combination of pop, folk, and R&B. They were successful albums, while being regarded as pop records. When she released her latest album (Loose), which was very much a fusion of R&B/hip-hop and pop (a huge departure from her first two albums), it was embraced by the public. This time, though, her music wasn't regarded as pop, but as R&B. Madonna, of course, doesn't get the same freedom because there is no chance in hell she has any black blood in her...well, at least to the best of our knowledge.

When the public thought Madonna was black, she was allowed to make black music. But, when the public found out she was white, she was no longer allowed to make black music. If Madonna had been black, she would've been praised at this point for being a musical genius, and Fox News wouldn't be dismissing her as the creation of talented producers. Instead, she'd be heralded as the savior of pop culture, since Michael Jackson's star fell off the music scene several years ago. Instead, Madonna continues to be dismissed for her musical talents, and is ridiculed when she tries to adapt her sound to the R&B influences going on within the music scene.

Sometimes I think to myself... no wonder Madonna becomes so exhausted with the public at times. Were she a different race, or as some have argued, a different sex completely, she'd have more respect than she'd know what to do with. Ahh well... fuck Fox News, they're delusional, racist, homophobic idiots anyway. They wouldn't know musical talent if it were coming out of their asses.