The Age Chameleon: Social and Biological Effects on Madonna’s Ageing Voice

Abstract

This paper studies the dynamic interplay between social, chronological, and biological types of age, particularly how their complex imbrications differentially impinge upon the linguistic expectations of age and ageing women. In order to do so, we conduct a real-time quantitative analysis of interviews with the American singer and songwriter Madonna. Our acoustic analyses of Madonna’s fundamental frequency, F1 and F2 indicate that Madonna presents as difficult to classify in terms of her age profile. We suggest that both f₀ and vowel quality variation are used to index age non-specificity, or agelessness. The analyses also provide a window into how the biological and social aspects of age and ageing are negotiated across a female’s life span.