I think it is specifically a reference to the Madonna song, "material girl." Generally, "material" can be used as an adjective, often in a religious context, to mean the opposite of "spiritual." Material things mean things like money and luxuries. A clergyman might complain that we "are living in a material world." In the lyrics of the song, the singer says "the boy with the cold hard cash/Is always Mister Right, 'cause we are living in a material world, and I am a material girl." She is only interested in money, and justifies it by saying that is the way things are today.