Madonna's new video directed by Jonas Åkerlund is a controversial gun control message that shocks shooting survivors.

The Queen of controversy stirs things up again, with her eight-minute long video for the song "God Control". While Madame X, the dark-haired Madonna, types away furiously on her typewriter under the watchful eye of her heroines Simone de Beauvoir, Frida Kahlo, and Angela Davis, the blonde-haired Madonna is someone from an earlier era. Perhaps it's even Madonna herself from her New York days, dancing in a club reminiscent of the famous studio 54. (Though for trivia points, the club they enter is actually The Globe in L.A.)

The shock is when the video depicts a shooting at a nightclub, complete with gun sounds taking over the music. It ends with a call for gun control. 

Now, Madonna may have lived in Europe for the better part of a decade, but she seems to not have lived in Europe. My reaction to the bloodied people on the dance floor wasn't to immediately think of the Pulse nightclub shooting, but the Bataclan massacre, and to a certain extent the shooting at Sturecompagniet - a club that the Swedish director Åkerlund would have probably have been to at least once. My point is, while the motive may have been the same in the Bataclan and Pulse attacks, it was only two handguns that were legally purchased in the case of the Pulse nightclub shooting. Sweden and France are not exactly known for lax gun laws and we certainly do not have a second amendment like the United States. So, in that sense, this video seems a little myopic, only looking at the US, and disregarding how this might look to viewers from anywhere else on the planet where mass shootings have happened in dance venues. Never mind the fact that using death like this in a music video, complete with crying mourners singing hymns at funerals and linking it to school shootings looks beyond macabre. A perfectly made up blond Madonna splayed on a dance floor with all too realistic blood dripping over her face is uncomfortable, even if it looks like young Weird Al himself was the shooter.

Patience Carter, who survived the Pulse Nightclub mass shooting, spoke out in protest in a TMZ interview and on her personal social media accounts.

"As a survivor of gun violence, it was really hard to watch. For someone like me, who actually saw these images, who actually lived these images, to see them again dramatized for views (and) dramatized for YouTube, I feel like it was really insensitive."

Carter implored Madonna to apologize to any other survivors of gun violence who may have been triggered by the video:

"It was grossly accurate to what I actually witnessed that night, and if I wasn't as strong as I was, and I didn't have as much (growth), I wouldn't have been able to make it through the rest of the day."

On Twitter, Carter asked fellow survivors not to watch the video, in order to avoid "the extra pain of witnessing people being slaughtered."

"I couldn’t even watch after the first 45 secs @Madonna," she tweeted. "There are so many creative avenues that could’ve been taken to bring awareness to gun control. The Victims of these mass shootings should always be taken into consideration. I applaud the attempt, but I am truly disturbed."

Oh snap, looks like Åkerlund, a director with a truck full of creative awards, was just called out for being uncreative.

Madonna is no stranger to courting current controversies in graphic ways, she upset people with "American Life" sixteen years ago, as it was released at the height of the Iraq war and she was dancing in a uniform. The video ended with soldiers dying on a catwalk in gruesome ways. Expressing what people are talking about the most in music is what she does, even if some may see it as cynical exploitation of tragedy.

But like the fashion and dance trends she's followed and refined, calling for gun control in the United States isn't an original idea, it's just "hot" right now. Perhaps the United States will get similar gun restrictions as Sweden and France already had when Stureplan murders and Bataclan mass shooting took place, what will you blame then when the next shooting happens? Madonna offers no solution, just a really slick refrain "wake up" that I'm sure will infest the dance floors this summer.

Other social conscious points spotted in the video: the poster that reads “Straight White Men Rule Everything Around Me” behind blond Madonna as she gets ready, and the odd bit where she sings that she doesn't smoke dope. But Madame X, smokes. Hmmm. Could it be her social consciousness is literally just for show?

Director: Jonas Åkerlund

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Tom Siebert's picture

It's been great watching Madonna turn into a laughingstock over the past couple years, flailing around haplessly as she tries to stay "relevant." It's awesome how she seems completely un-self-aware that nobody gives a shit what this skanked out whore does or says anymore.

Maybe a couple other skanked out whores trying to pass themselves off feminists still like her. Dunno.

Anyway, I remember her shitty 2008 album "Hard Candy."

https://www.quora.com/How-and-when-did-hard-candy-become-slang-for-child-pornography

Sport's picture

All this video did for me was prove how hilariously out of touch she is now. She should have retired at the height of her game. She's trying so hard to stay relevant that it's actually awkward now.

-Anton-'s picture

The worst about this music video as all the ambient noise taking over the song. The gunshot, the laughter, the weird rape scene dialogue. Make a movie or a music video, both doesn't work.

Not on my watch's picture

In light of recent shootings in Ohio and Texas this video is just tasteless because it literally glorifies the shooting event, even if that is not what Madonna intended.

Jamie L's picture

MADONNA is an always will be WAY AHEAD of the game. This video just made me realize how important and relevant Madonna continues to be. This video gave me goosebumps. Damn.

E for Exit's picture

Question: Does Madonna employ personal security guards to protect her? If so, are they armed? Answer: In 1995 she did. One shot and killed an intruder on her property. Guess he didn't deserve her love or dignity to be merely detained.
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-05-30-me-7456-story.html

Uncle Sammy's picture

This, from the woman who said "I have thought an awful lot about blowing up the White House."

Explosives good, guns bad? Okay.

Brandon T.'s picture

Madonna is so tuned in, with two mass shootings in one damned day, this video has never been more relevant than right now. Holy shit.

Joel Pharma's picture

Why doesn't Madonna talk about drugs? Every mass shooting, there is a record of the shooter being prescribed psychotropic drugs. Of course the New Outlets will never pursue this path, because they are underwritten by Pharma Companies.

Clark Gable's picture

Madonna, let's go baby, let's go for gun control. America went after the tobacco companies for creating a climate that made it culturally acceptable and cool to smoke and chew tobacco. Your Hollywood has created a culture that promotes violence through movies and television and this gratuitously violent music video. Let 's take away all guns, starting with Hollywood guns - including your guns! Let's extract reparations from movie studios, producers, actors, investors, and musicians that depict the use of guns in any violent way, actual or suggestive. Royalties going to the movie and television people must be expropriated, thus providing more reparations for the victims of gun violence and their families. Royalty confiscation must be punitive - take away the fortunes and retirement and investment funds of the Hollywood elites. Same treatment for video game manufacturers. Let's do the whole job. Now. Glad you are on board. Love you darling.

Fred the dead's picture

What a load of shit. Big production, big stars, bright lights, guns blazing, people screaming in time with the dumbass disco beat - geared to your fears. All right out of Hollywood making tons of money.

Millerz's picture

This video could be more interesting and more true to life if Madonna was naked and used a walker to get around, with gun toting bodyguards at her side, while she plays the hypocrisy game.

Lucia99's picture

Once again, Madonna is brilliant! She so ahead of her time! It's no wonder that she is the reigning Queen of Pop and has been relevant for decades! She also looks great too!

AeonFlux's picture

Hang on a second, so miss degeneracy, fuck god, sex is god, forget the future, get rid of religion its only holding you back Madonna is lamenting the fact that we lost "God control" and now is telling us that we need to have a "new democracy" to fix this problem. No amount of 'democracy' is going to reinstate morality and respect that this woman dedicated her entire career to promoting the destruction of.