Oh I see you ladies. You can’t fool the fools. I know that when Madonna wasn’t shaving her armpits you both where in the ether, but seriously, the argument “who did it first”, well that’s just drool.

Madonna did it all. She wore the pointed metal bra, she dyed her hair a thousand shades, she did the sex thing, did the lace thing, did the dance thing, the jesus thing, the baby thing, the ambitious thing, the girl on girl thing, COME ON…I can keep going all day here! She did it all and she re-invented herself over and over. She was one of the first mainstream performers who got our attention by continuing to change, shock, push the envelope. She’s not dead you know? And neither are all the people who exist in the world who were bored with it the first time.

Christina released her new video for a song called “Not Myself Tonight”. She’s getting a lot of heat because, well, its bad. I should say you “aren’t yourself”…you are some amalgam of Lady Gaga and Madonna. You are clearly paying homage to the big M, but so what? I would be more shocked and amazed if you invented a fantastic world I haven’t seen a million times. Why not embrace something else, like insect sex, or a little love story with a male “real doll”. Give me geek culture. Transform into a nation of transvestites. Create the entire video in food. I don’t know….SOMETHING ELSE!

I know Xtina was around before the Gaga and the theory of course is that Lady Gaga came along and bit her style. But can she even claim that, when she was biting Madonna’s style all along. And Madonna….well she started off going down her own road for sure (no one was doing that lace 80′s thing before her) but she ended up biting off every powerful female image that existed up until her, from Marilyn Monroe, to Eva Peron. This isn’t performance art – its performance (the “art” would imply some ingenuity and innovation). I don’t begrudge any performer theatrics, costumes, and the works. But the debate has to stop about who came first.

And listen, I’m not even some kind of Madonna advocate. The woman is only a moderately ok singer, and I’m totally good with that. You have to give her props for staying in the forefront of popular culture for 3 decades. That is definitely a gift. Christina, well she CAN sing. She totally has the pipes and the talent to blow almost any diva off the stage. However with that being said, I’ve never felt like her look was particularly, singularly, her own. (Honey, you don’t need to try so damn hard if you actually have the goods). And Lady Gaga – well she has something else that Madonna and Christina don’t have right now – she has the moment. Somehow she has managed to encapsulate the here and now quite accurately. She has the shtick. She needs the costumes, the glitter, the kermit the frog dresses because that’s the “truth” behind her music. She’s telling you straight up that she’s the fame monster, that she’s here as a reflection and reality of the entitled. She’s kind of the Andy Warhol of the moment.

If a song has a good beat, and the hook is catchy, I’m gonna dance. I don’t really care what the performer was wearing or how the video looked. There are a million reasons to pick an icon and then justify that icons choices. They all  have the money behind them to buy the choicest tracks from the hottest producers. At the end of the day its about the music. Not to pick a favorite, but seriously…just dance!

Words by Barbie Brady