The Radio Blacklist that Destroyed Madonna's US Singles Career

[27monster27 11,137]

A Quick Preface:

As we trek down memory lane in the 20 year anniversary of Madonna's American Life, it's important that some awareness is spread regarding why Madonna's US singles success appears to have declined rather steeply after the previous album Music. The main reason behind this is that we do need to discuss an injustice that has routinely happened in pop music that is left under-discussed. In order to understand how this happened in Madonna's case specifically, we need some historical background.

Clear Channel, 9/11, and the Iraq War:

On September 11th, 2001 the world (and specifically US culture) changed forever as a result of terrorist attacks against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. US politics therefore entered a very "pro-US" time. Clear Channel (now iHeartMedia) was at the forefront of this due in part to the right-wing leanings. Effectively, a list of 164 songs deemed to be inappropriate in the aftermath of 9/11 was created. This list includes entries from bands like AC/DC, Rage Against the Machine, and The Beatles.

https://www.kerrang.com/here-are-the-164-songs-that-were-banned-from-american-radio-after-9-11

Eventually, 9/11 would push the country into the direction of war. Republican President Bush was the one in charge of this war, so naturally a lot of right leaning support was gathered for such a conflict. At the same time, a lot of protest against the war slowly continued to rise as the horrors of war began to permeate in the media. Protests didn't come without a response from the right. Eventually, once the war began a slew of songs deemed to be anti-war received very little radio play.

https://www.nevadaappeal.com/news/2003/apr/11/anti-war-music-gets-little-airplay-on-commercial-r/

Perhaps most infamous is The Dixie Chicks (now The Chicks). Not only did they get banned from radio of their right-wing country base, but they also disappeared off of Clear Channel's radio stations at the same time. With this context we can now divulge into Madonna's situation.

Madonna's US Career Takes an Unexpected Turn:

In 1998 Madonna finally brought her career momentum back with Ray of Light after backlash to Madonna's career in 1992-1993 over Erotica, the SEX book, etc. Then in 2000 she proved with Music that she was fully capable of being successful alongside the new generation of artists despite her age. Madonna, however, had begun to take issue with the growing prejudice of tabloid culture and began working on another album during her "Drowned World Tour". As the political climate also changed Madonna began to take shots at this on her album as well. Thus "American Life" was born.

When the lead single was released teasers had begun to air for a very shocking music video from Madonna. However, the original music video was pulled at the last minute and was replaced with a much more simplistic video. While to date many (even Madonna) had stated that it was due to the climate of the time, a lot of people argue that it was in response to what happened to The Dixie Chicks.

Regardless, Madonna's song debuted at #90 off of digital sales alone, the first song to chart under such a circumstance. Oddly, radio was not at all a part of American Life's chart life. After the songs physical release it jumped to its peak of #37, a very low peak for a Madonna lead single at the time in the US. It should be known that the song did received a mixed to negative reception from critics and the GP, so perhaps that reaction caused the issue. "Hollywood" was released as the second single, and the more radio-friendly vibe of the song ensured that "American Life" would just be a chart anomaly. Yet the opposite happened. "Hollywood" became Madonna's first single since "Burning Up" to completely fail to chart on the Hot 100. In fact, the song failed to chart on the Bubbling Under chart as well. The GAP commercial and the 2003 VMA performance both failed to give "Hollywood" commercial success even in spite of how much they were discussed in the media (especially the VMA performance). Similar bizarre happenings continued for this album era as "Nothing Fails" charted at number one on the Single Sales chart but completely failed to make it on the Hot 100, and this is even in spite of a radio remix and the song having no controversial meaning compared to previous singles. Love Profusion unfortunately failed to make any impact as well in spite of the song being radio friendly.

Meanwhile, here is how American Life singles performed internationally (Blue is the Hot 100, Red is the international charts):

Time passed and Madonna came back in 2005 with Confessions on a Dancefloor. The critically acclaimed album had everything everyone wanted, including a return to form for Madonna. Maybe American Life was just some anomaly in her career, and this album would put her back on top in the US. "Hung Up" debuted at #20 initially, and peaked at #7 following its physical sales released. While this is a commercial success, it is a far cry from the over 40 countries in which the song peaked at #1. It should be noted that even with hype the song failed to enter the top ten of the Mainstream Top 40 and Adult Top 40. The critically acclaimed "Sorry" faired even worse with a peak of #58, and "Get Together" repeated the trend started with American Life with the song failing to chart on the Hot 100 all together. It is at this moment that suspicion's over Madonna's career in the US had reached a boiling point.

Suspicion Over Madonna and US Radio:

Eventually fans had enough, and a message was directed towards Clear Channel CEO Mark P. Mays demanding an end to an alleged boycott.

https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/us-radio-hangs-up-on-madonna-57759/

Most claims argued that Madonna was doing a more European influenced dance and disco record as opposed to a Hip-Hop/R&B record that would have been more popular at the time. Yet, there were some clear arguments against this. This was the same time in which Cascada's "Everytime we Touch" was shocking critics for being a Europop song that achieved top ten success in the US. This was also the same time that Rihanna's "SOS" with its own throwback sample managed to become her first number one hit.

International performance yet again raises suspicions. For example, in the UK Confessions singles peaked as follows: #1, #1, #7, and #9. This is significantly better than the US. Both Italy and Spain produced a combined six number ones, and Canada also gave Hung Up the number one spot (the remaining singles did not get a physical release in Canada).

The Facts:

Let's face it, Madonna was blacklisted by Clear Channel for her political opinions. Obviously American Life would have had a more moderate chart performance regardless because of its sound, but the complete fall off the charts is more indicative of Clear Channel's political views. By the time of Confessions on a Dancefloor she had lost a lot of career momentum because of the blacklist, and then her comments about Bush at the "Confessions Tour" only worsened the issue.

Internationally she was still doing very well as is evidenced by the United World Top 50 (@11:50):

(Note American Life spending four consecutive weeks at the top, and Hung Up and Sorry charting at the top back to back.)

Clear Channel has a lot to answer for regarding this. We are supposed to be a free speech democracy yet this company has hurt so many different people over various petty reasons.

Madonna Wasn't the Only One:

Madonna was not the only female popular artist to receive a blacklist of this magnitude during the 2000's. Janet Jackson infamously received one that ruined her career after her 2004 Super Bowl that effected both Damita Jo and 20 Y.O. Britney Spears also faced one in the 2000's over her "Dream Within A Dream Tour" sponsorship. Instead of going with Clear Channel for the sponsorship, her management went with Pepsi. As iconic as this collab was, all of her singles from "I'm A Slave 4 U" to "Me Against the Music" were blacklisted. Fortunately the blacklist was lifted just in time for "Toxic" to become a major hit, but this only after her management appeased Clear Channel. Both of these examples show Clear Channels sexism and money-hungry nature. My theory on why Janet's was the only one that was publicly known is because she had multiple calls for it after the Super Bowl. Both Britney and Madonna were well-liked during there's and if Clear Channel revealed what they were doing then they would have received severe backlash.

This is also not including the countless bands/artists mentioned earlier.

Boycott VS Blacklist:

Both words are very similar, so here is an explanation of both:

https://wikidiff.com/blacklist/boycott

I do not deny that both had happened, but it is clear that a blacklist was in order.

[Guillaume Hamon 5,985]

27 minutes ago, 27monster27 said:

but this only after her management appeased Clear Channel.

Do you know how they did it please?

[crazygato 427]

That's because American Life (song) is crap, regardless of the political message ! Like how did her team think that was a good idea? The public was still giving her a chance since "Die Another Day " was a hit for her and from the same album. She blew it with AL. 

[27monster27 11,137]

1 hour ago, Guillaume Hamon said:

Do you know how they did it please?

They gave Clear Channel what they wanted, which was allowing them to be the tour sponsor for her Onyx Hotel tour.