In fact, it's those distractions that Madonna seems determined to skewer. While explosions occur and bombs drop on a screen in the background, models half-dressed in military garb walk down a runway, followed by what appears to be a young Arab boy draped in ammunition, and several covered Muslim women. Madonna carves "Protect Me" onto one of the stalls of a public restroom, indulges in some "Rhythm Nation"-style dance moves in a hallway, and then, tossing a half-full latté over her shoulder, raps about the pursuit of happiness via Pilates classes, personal trainers, metaphysical enlightenment and, yes, strong coffee.

At first glance, of course, this offering appears hopelessly cheesy and literal. What can Madonna be thinking, rapping about caffeine and yoga while bombs drop on the screen behind her? But then, her ability to fearlessly capture cultural shifts has always depended on an embrace of clunky, on-the-nose lyrics that often seem unwieldy at first. Papa, don't preach, I'm in trouble deep? Come on, Vogue, let your body move to the music? It's true that, from a distance, her passions look fabricated, particularly when viewed through a skeptical urban lens: We've known about these things for years -- gay culture, Marilyn Monroe, fetishism, cowboy attire. But Madonna has made a living by appropriating and exploiting cultural elements she collected along the way. If they didn't belong to her at first, she quickly made them her own.

And while she has often been praised for her ability to spot and embrace the images and ideas that have run their course on the fringe but that still have the ability to shock the mainstream, as a trend-spotter, Madonna is merely in step with a much larger herd that transforms those images and ideas into consumable goods. What sets her apart is how artfully she combines seemingly incongruous snapshots, concepts and sounds into a whole that feels intensely personal yet still reflects the culture at large. The indulgences of modern life, presented in contrast with what's happening overseas, have the power to make us uncomfortable and uneasy, and somehow Madonna's latest video evokes the same feelings. While her weapons may seem blunt at first glance, over time, her absurdly over-the-top, clumsily broad approach seems to capture some essential frequency of the times. And, in a strange reversal on most pop art, her creations seem to miraculously evolve into something subtler and more powerful upon repetition.

Despite the ominous predictions in the New York Times on March 31 that Madonna "may be looking at the final stages of a long career," "American Life" is destined to attract the kind of attention and emotional responses that guarantee her career is far from over. While critics might be tempted to follow the Times' lead, proclaiming that Madonna has lost her touch or that she's overstepped the boundaries of what Americans find acceptable, her work isn't nearly as shocking as the overreaction on the Drudge Report and elsewhere might suggest.

What's truly remarkable about our times is not these "controversial" works and the predictable debate about whether or not they're created just to grab the public's attention, but how few artists are willing to reflect the ugliness of the current political and cultural climate. While Neil Young, John Lennon and Country Joe McDonald took on the war abroad and in the streets during the Vietnam era, and U2 bellowed melodramatically about Bloody Sunday, our Jennys from the Block boast about "rockin' this business" and being grown-up enough to date Ben Affleck.

As Madonna's latest offering suggests, it's such shallow diversions -- her own and ours -- that got us into this mess in the first place. As Marshall McLuhan wrote, "Too much of anything, however sweet, will always bring the opposite of whatever you thought you were getting." Madonna may not be the most articulate spokeswoman for the times, but she has managed to capture the anxiety of American life at a time when affluence, escapism and dread are interchangeable elements of our daily experience. "American Life" is another example of her uncanny ability to personalize and amplify the contradictions and paradoxes of modern life.

Culturally, we can only benefit from pop artists who dare to hold a mirror to our times. No matter how warped that mirror might seem to some, Madonna's latest reflection is no more shocking than a random spin through the channels, from CNN to the Home Shopping Network to the WB and back to Fox News. It's a particularly bitter irony that the disaffected, reality-averse culture she savages so well in "American Life" seems to have persuaded her to shelve the video indefinitely.

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