Madonna invented modern rock shows, according to John Oates: “I wish I would have paid more attention”
For all of rock’s greatness, it’s largely guilty of two things.
The first, is its general unwillingness to move with the times. Even now, in 2025, conventional rock fans shudder at the slightest sign of difference or innovation, and so it’s sleptwalk into a label of being the most antiquated genre of all. Which is probably why its second shortcoming, veiled practices of misogyny, has felt comfortable enough to thrive.
In the safe, traditional confines of rock, toxic tropes of masculine dominance harvested itself to a point where it had ownership over the genre. Men were considered rock gods, while female icons were demoted to supporting players. Which is why, when most fans are asked to label the flagbearers of innovation in the genre, the fingers are almost always pointed at men. McCartney, Osbourne, Gallagher. You name it.
But rightly, John Oates reminded us all of one musician, who traditionalists would be irritated to label a rockstar, as the true lynchpin of innovation. Someone who has broken the mould in the face of criticism and systemic oppression. That someone, was named Madonna.
“So I’m sitting next to Madonna, and let’s put it this way, she’s a very outspoken gal” he says, as he begins an anecdote that ends with a stunning realisation.
He continues, “And the subject came up about music videos. Now, of course, from her point of view, what she did, the music videos that she made, were part and parcel of what she was putting out to the public. The video and the music were kind of together. Whereas Daryl and I just looked at music videos as another way of promoting ourselves. And in retrospect, I wish I would have paid more attention.”
Adding, “She goes, ‘music videos are the future!’ You know what, she was right. And she really got on me about it. And I remember sitting in the first row of the MTV Awards, or it was the Grammys? I can’t remember, when she did ‘Like A Virgin’ in the wedding dress and started rolling around the stage, if you look at the old videos. And I was going like, not, honestly, not realizing that the visuals that she was putting out at that time, especially for her, were really powerful because they put her on the map. They created this mystique and this, this whole universe. You can say what you want to say about Madonna, but without Madonna, there would be no modern rock concerts. Because the modern artists are all doing exactly what Madonna did way back when.”
It’s not just rock either. Madonna’s fingerprints can be found all over the modern landscape of music. From her embrace of multimedia, to sexualised liberation in her performance, she took the art of performing to a new level in the 1980s, and it’s been one we haven’t come down from since.
Along the way, she received outrageously personal criticism from the likes of Joni Mitchell and Elton John, but never did she waver as she knew that in the end, she would get the retrospective credit she deserved.
