Composition
"Material Girl" was one of the first Madonna songs to incorporate New Wave music and consists of synth arrangements, with a strong backbeat supporting it. A robotic male voice repeats the hook "Living in a material world". According to the sheet music published at Musicnotes.com by Alfred Publishing, the song is set in the time signature of common time, with a metronome of 120 beats per minute. It is set in the key of C major, with Madonna's voice spanning from the tonal nodes of C4 to C5. The song has a basic chord progression of F–G–Em–Am-F-G-C in the chorus, while the verses are based on the C mixolydian mode, giving a hip, swing-like mood. The bassline in the song with the post-disco origins is reminiscent of The Jacksons' "Can You Feel It", which appeared on their 1980 album Triumph. Furthermore, the strophes remind of the refrain from Melissa Manchester's hit "You Should Hear How She Talks About You" (1982).
The lyrics explain that what Madonna wants is money, good clothes, the perfect life and men who are able to supply those materialistic things. A cross-reference to the 1960 song "Shop Around" by The Miracles is also present. The lyrics also portray relationships in terms of capitalism as commodities, and romance becomes synonymous to trading stocks and shares. The title was a polysemy like the lyrics. It deduced Madonna as the desired and most respected woman.
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