Was Madonna The Original Linkbaiter ?
I was hurtling down the highway a couple of days ago, listening to my Sirius radio on the Big ’80’s channel and when Madonna came on to sing Like A Prayer.
Suddenly it hit me that she was the original linkbaiter and that video was the first linkbait.
I remember the buzz around it when it first aired.
Sexually suggestive movements … in a church.
Burning crosses.
Suggestions of inter-racial relations.
Yada-yada. Blah blah.
Churches upset. Mothers upset. Teachers upset. Her accountant was upset … with all the extra money he had to try to not pay taxes on.
She started linkbaiting way before blogs were around … in their current form.
Actually, she started linkbaiting before most of today’s bloggers were born, or at least out of school.
She made it into an artform … literally.
Was she the original linkbaiter … or just the best of our generation ?
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9 Responses to “Was Madonna The Original Linkbaiter ?”
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If you look at celebrities all are linkbaiters, because they crave for attention, that’s why they appear in magazines, newspapers, and blogs.
Another great example - Paris Hilton, and the list can continue.
Oh come one… what about PT Barnum, Oscar Wilde, Voltaire, Socrates, just to name a few
People have been saying and writing shocking and provocative things to get attention since Ogg the Caveman learned how to grunt out a warning about the approaching T Rex.
YTo BC,
PT’s a Cruiser, Oscar’s a hot dog, Votaire’s a thang you use to test for ‘lectricity and Socrates invented the Ask Campaign in the last few years, so Madonna’s still the original.
You may have me with Ogg though, I’ll have to check my sources and get back to you
Thanks for droppimg by and bustin’ my bauble, er … diamond in the rough.
Quote from Oscar Wilde:
“There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.”
Thanks Oscar !
So how come there is no wikipedia entry for linkbaiter? Seems like some of this historical discussion of linkbaiting would fit right in
What’s wikipedia ?
There’s nothing original about Madonna.
Celebrities before her did and said shocking things (some intentional, some not) and got attention for it.
Marilyn Monroe’s publicity stunt for “The Seven Year Itch” being one example. She was filmed on location in New York, with her skirt blowing up in the air. It drew a large crowd and many photographers.
However, the film company didn’t use the footage of her from that occasion; they never intended to. It was a publicity gimmick.
Monroe’s dress strap broke during interviews for the movie “The Prince and the Showgirl,” which caused a minor uproar.
When it became public that Marilyn Monroe was the nude model in the ‘red velvet’ calendar photo, she got major press off that.
Monroe’s marriages to DiMaggio and Miller were front-page news.
If I’m not mistaken, Michael Jackson did marketing tricks before Madonna did, such as start rumors that he was going to buy the Elephant Man’s corpse and that kind of thing.
I think Madonna is just the worst offender, though, being that she relied on manufactured controversy far too heavily, far too much. She doesn’t have any talent, so she had to get attention some other way.
Thanks for the comments BN.
I disagree with you saying she has no talent and that she’s never done anything original.
I agree with the rest of you comments, though.
Thanks for stopping by and for taking time to comment.